THURSDAY, JULY 12, 2018 WESTHAWAIITODAY.COM 75¢
NELHA commercial center moving along
MATSUYAMA COMMERCIAL CENTER CONSTRUCTION
A pahoehoe flow fed by overflows from the fissure 8 lava channel was active along Nohea Street in the Leilani
Estates subdivision Wednesday morning. COURTESY PHOTO/U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
HILO — Breakouts from
fissure 8 in Kilauea volcano’s
lower East Rift Zone destroyed
three homes Wednesday in
Leilani Estates, according to
Hawaii County Civil Defense.
Two of those homes were on
Luana Street and the other was
on Nohea Street.
Meanwhile, an overflow of
the lava channel sent molten
rock along the edge of the
flow field toward Kua O Ka La
Public Charter School. As of 9
a.m. Wednesday, it had reached
the school’s eastern boundary,
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according to Hawaiian Volcano
Observatory spokeswoman
Janet Babb.
The school, which is on summer
break, moved classes from
its campus on Highway 137 to
Hilo since being threatened by
lava from the current eruption,
which started May 3.
Steven Brantley, HVO’s deputy
scientist-in-charge, said the
overflow was caused by a piece
of the hardened lava channel
breaking away and then clogging
the river of molten rock.
That also caused an overflow
on the north side of the channel
that stalled before reaching
KAILUA-KONA — Matsuyama
Commercial Center moved another step
closer to fruition this week.
The proposed commercial complex on
1.36 acres on the makai side of Queen
Kaahumanu Highway between Ellison
Onizuka Kona International Airport and
Kailua-Kona received a finding of no
significant impact allowing the project to
move forward.
“We look forward to working with the
agency and developing something for the
community,” Burke Matsuyama, of Mats4
LLC, said Monday. The final EA was
included in the July 8 edition of the Office
of Environmental Quality Control’s twicea
month Environmental Notice.
The next step is executing a 30-year
lease agreement with the Natural Energy
Laboratory of Hawaii Authority, which
was contingent upon the EA’s completion.
Thereafter, permits will have to
be acquired and construction, which
is expected to take about a year, can
commence.
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INSIDE
BLAST OFF
Casablanca Jazz
Quartet’s ‘Moon
Jazz’ a tribute to
the space race
PAGE 6A
▼
HELPING
HAND
Pro athletes
from Hawaii join
efforts to support
communities
affected by
volcano
SPORTS, 1B
▼
HI 87 LO 76 WEATHER, PAGE 5A
VOL. 50, NO. 193 20 PAGES
EXPECTED TO TAKE ABOUT A YEAR
BY CHELSEA JENSEN
WEST HAWAII TODAY
cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com
The new Matsuyama Commercial Center, if all goes as planned, could open
SEE MATSUYAMA PAGE 4A sometime in 2020. COURTESY RENDERING/SPECIAL TO WEST HAWAII TODAY
KILAUEA ERUPTION
HILO — Hawaii County is looking beyond
public lands for a potential land swap with Puna
residents who lost their homes to lava.
Roy Takemoto, an executive assistant to Mayor
Harry Kim, said an idea being explored is to
partner with a private land owner by providing
infrastructure for a development in exchange for
land being set aside for evacuees.
Crash Tuesday
kills scientist,
injures musician
WRECK CLOSED DANIEL K.
INOUYE HIGHWAY FOR HOURS
BY JOHN BURNETT
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
HILO — A two-vehicle head-on collision
late Tuesday afternoon on Daniel
K. Inouye Highway, also known as
Saddle Road, has killed a highly regarded
scientist and critically injured a wellknown
local musician.
The man who
died was identified
as 71-year-old Roger
Vargas of Waimea, a
research entomologist
at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s Pacific
Basin Agricultural
Research Basin in Hilo.
The same log identified
the injured
man as 51-year-old
Ricky Alaniz of Hilo,
a singer-guitarist and
member of the band
Mokuleo. He’s also the
patriarch of a musical
family whose son, Star,
is the lead singer and guitarist in The
Steppas, a popular reggae band.
Officers responding to a 4:18 p.m.
call determined that a westbound
2010 Mazda sedan driven by Vargas
crossed the center line of the highway
between mile markers 25 and 26 and
collided head-on with a eastbound
2018 Nissan pickup truck driven by
Alaniz.
Vargas was taken by ambulance to
the Hilo Medical Center, where he
was pronounced dead at 5:48 p.m.
A written Hawaii Fire Department
statement said Alaniz was in critical
condition when taken by Pohakuloa
Training Area helicopter to Hilo
Medical Center. Police described his
condition as “stable.”
Both drivers were trapped within
their vehicles, and emergency responders
extricated them with the Jaws of
Life.
Vargas
Alaniz
SEE FATAL PAGE 4A
MORE LEILANI HOMES FALL TO LAVA
BY JOHN BURNETT
AND TOM CALLIS
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
SEE LAVA PAGE 3A
EVACUEE HOUSING:
COUNTY LOOKS TO
W.H. SHIPMAN
BY TOM CALLIS
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
SEE EVACUEES PAGE 4A
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