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Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Consultants outline plan
Funding for ambitious proposal to fi x county transit system still needs to be worked out
Index
By NANCY COOK LAUER
West Hawaii Today
More reliable buses,
more routes and better coordination
are coming to the
county transit system, if
recommendations of a master
plan discussed Monday
evening are implemented.
More than 25 people, several
in wheelchairs, attended
the meeting at Aupuni
Center in Hilo, the last of
six public meetings on the
Internet
RAPID OHIA DEATH
Plant pathogens are first
to receive Hawaiian names
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Issue No. 107
18 Pages in
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www.hawaiitribune-herald.com
latest draft of the plan. The
project so far has been a year
and a half in the making.
The ambitious 10-year
plan incorporates suggestions
from the public through prior
meetings and comments, and
makes the Hele-On bus system
more user friendly and convenient.
But funding the project
has yet to be worked out.
“You can’t get something
for nothing,” said Cheryl
Soon, a consultant with
Honolulu-based consulting
firm SSFM International. “You
can’t have the expansion of
the plan without money.”
The current system costs
$14.3 million annually to
operate. Consultants recommend
that be increased to
$15.3 million in the fiscal
year that starts July 1, then
$16 million in 2019-20, $19.5
million in 2020-21 and $19.9
million in 2021-22. Federal
grants and fares defray a
Two new
fungi ID’d
By TOM CALLIS
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Scientists have identified and
named the two plant pathogens
responsible for rapid ohia death.
The plant disease was first
observed in Puna in 2010 and has
since been found in 135,000 acres
of native forests on Hawaii Island.
By analyzing samples,
researchers found
that the pathogenic fungi
responsible for the disease,
tentatively identified
as Ceratocystis
fimbriata, are actually
new strains never seen
before. These only attack ohia and
were either imported or evolved by
interacting with other fungi strains.
FRIDAY
While they both have a preference
for ohia, neither are closely
related — one had DNA similar to
Ceratocystis in Asia, while the other
has roots in Latin America, according
to a news release from the state
Department of Land and Natural
Resources and University of Hawaii
The new strains were named
Ceratocystis huliohia, meaning to
change the natural state of ohia, and
Certocystis lukuohia, the destroyer
of ohia. The agencies said this is
the first time Hawaiian names have
been given to plant pathogens.
Scientists consulted with Kekuhi
Keali‘kanaka‘oleohaililani of the Edith
Kanaka‘ole Foundation on naming them.
See FUNGI Page A5
Courtesy of HAWAIIAN VOLCANO OBSERVATORY
Kilauea’s summit lava lake as of Sunday.
By TOM CALLIS
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Kilauea’s summit lava
lake is the highest it’s been
in more than a year.
The lake inside
Overlook crater,
which sits inside
Halema‘uma‘u
Crater, continually
rises and falls
in concert with
magma pressure
below. As of Monday morning,
this cycle had pushed it to just
33 feet below the Overlook rim,
making it visible from a safe
distance at Jaggar Museum.
Hawaiian Volcano
Observatory spokeswoman
Janet Babb said it was last
that high on Jan. 4, 2017.
The lava has been rising
since Friday but
it’s not known
how long that
trend, which can
quickly reverse,
will continue.
“Overall,
it’s been on the
high side” recently, Babb said,
referring to the lake level.
‘On the
high side’
Kilauea’s summit lava lake
rises; small temblors
rumble under volcano
BABB SHIRO
See LAVA LAKE Page A5
Passengers
disembark
from a Hele-
On bus Feb.
10, 2017, at a
bus stop on
Kamehameha
Avenue in
Hilo.
HOLLYN
JOHNSON/
Tribune-Herald
file photo
See TRANSIT Page A4
Check out these tasty chicken creations
IN GRINDS,
PAGE A9
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