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American Cancer Society
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Garage Sale will be at Aloha Kia on June 27th.
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Annie’s Mailbox . 5B Classified. 1C Comics. 6B Nation & World. 3A Opinion . 6A Sports . 1B
INDEX
VOL. 47, NO. 149
36 PAGES
READY FOR HONU?
SPORTS, 1B
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HALE KONA KAI OCEANFRONT?
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Golf vs. trash
Kohala Councilwoman
Margaret Wille wants to
slice into Hilo Municipal
Golf Course funds to
hire three new transfer
station attendants to
help promote recycling
programs.
In a budget amend-
ment to be considered
Monday, Wille is ask-
ing that golfers and the
community do more to
augment the greens fees
at the county’s only pub-
licly funded golf course
instead of relying on tax-
payer bailouts. It’s more
important, she said, to
use the money to address
the county’s burgeoning
solid waste problem by
adding more recycling
programs.
Wille proposes to
take $179,565 from the
$462,856 greens fee
budget. The balance
will take the golf course
through the first six
months of the fiscal year,
and the community can
pitch in to make up the
difference, she said.
“That gives them the
time they need to fig-
ure out how to partner
with the community, to
increase greens fees or
through fundraising or
membership
drives,”
Wille said.
The money would
pay for three solid waste
facility attendant posi-
tions that are currently
vacant and unfunded, as
well as the fringe bene-
fits for each position. The
three positions are in
Hilo, Kohala and Kona.
Wille wants to increase
recycling as part of the
county’s zero waste ini-
tiative, reducing garbage
so no new landfills or
BY NANCY COOK LAUER
WEST HAWAII TODAY
First named storm
forms in Eastern Pacific
Tropical StormAndres,
the first named storm of
the 2015 Eastern Pacific
hurricane season, formed
early Thursday off the
coast of Mexico.
The tropical cyclone,
located
about
800
miles south-southwest
of Manzanillo, Mexico,
quickly
strengthened
throughout the day
Thursday and was pack-
ing 60 mph sustained
winds as of Thursday
afternoon as it churned
BY CHELSEA JENSEN
WEST HAWAII TODAY
SEE
COUNCIL
PAGE 4A
SEE
STORM
PAGE 4A
No lifeguards for Kua Bay
A dangerous and
crowded North Kona
beach will have to wait
at least another year for
lifeguards.
A push for funding to
install ocean safety offi-
cers at Kua Bay fell short
this past session. Despite
efforts by lawmakers and
beach users to gain ocean
safety officers to over-
see an area known for
dangerous currents and
sudden shore breaks, the
necessary money was
never put in the state
budget.
Legislation sponsored
by Kohala Rep. Cindy
Evans would have funded
lifeguards’ salaries and
equipment for two years,
following recent drown-
ings and near drown-
ings and reports of good
Samaritans stepping up
to manage beach safety
on their own during days
of high, dangerous swell.
With
beautiful
sands, high ratings
on TripAdvisor and an
improved access road,
the state beach park has
become a magnet for
both locals and tour-
ists. Frequent users of
the beach say the area
PUSH FOR
FUNDING FALLS
SHORT AT
LEGISLATURE
SEE
KUA BAY
PAGE 4A
Community college sued over student fees
A new class-action law-
suit claims that Hawaii
Community
College
fraudulently
collected
“hundreds of thousands
of dollars” in student fees
over the last decade.
The complaint was
lodged May 21 in Hilo
Circuit Court by lawyers
representing three stu-
dents who formerly served
as student government
officials.
Just over a year ago,
complaints made by
the plaintiffs — former
student government trea-
surer David Canning,
former Student Activities
Board treasurer Marieta
Carino, and former stu-
dent government pres-
ident
Eric
Aranug
— spurred then-state
Sen. President Donna
Mercado Kim to call upon
the University of Hawaii
Board of Regents to inves-
tigate the collection and
use of student funds at the
college.
The complaints from
the students and Kim
centered around the
fact that students at the
University of Hawaii
at Hilo and Hawaii
Community College had
long shared a number of
services, including a radio
station, recreation facili-
ties, a campus center and
subscriptions to the Ke
Kalahea student news
magazine. But the stu-
dents claimed that HCC’s
students did not receive
the same access to those
services as UH-Hilo’s stu-
dents did.
According to the newly
filed suit, for years HCC
collected $67 a semes-
ter for student services,
including $19 for the stu-
dent news publication,
$18 for student activities,
$18 for student govern-
ment, $7 for campus
center fees, and $5 for
recreation.
Between 2007 and
2014, 47,671 students
were enrolled at the
school, each of whom was
charged the $67 fee, total-
ing nearly $3.2 million in
charges, the suit alleges.
Peter
Hsieh,
a
Honolulu-based attor-
ney for the plaintiffs,
explained Thursday that
total does not necessari-
ly represent the amount
BY COLIN M. STEWART
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
SEE
HCC
PAGE 4A
BY BRET YAGER
WEST HAWAII TODAY
Visitors to Kua Bay enjoy a sunny day, but high surf and currents can
make the bay dangerous to the unwary.
WEST HAWAII TODAY FILE PHOTO
WILLE: USE GOLF COURSE
FUND TO STAFF SUB-PAR
TRANSFER STATIONS
NOAA’s GOES-West satellite captured an
infrared image of the developing depression on
Thursday at 2 a.m. HST.
NASA/NOAA GOES PROJECT
