FREE TRUST
Reserve Your Seat Now
Oct. 23 • 5:30 PM
Protect your children and assets.
Sunday, October 21, 2018 $1.75
Ag survey reports nearly $28M in damages caused by eruption
By MICHAEL BRESTOVANSKY
O’HARA
EUGENE NG, M.D. HARVEY YANG, O.D.
Welcome New Patients at 1178A Kinoole Street Next to Bay Clinic
General Eye Care • Glaucoma • Diabetes
Keiki Eye Exams • Glasses and Contact Lenses
, (808) 969-1419
SEMINAR
77 MOHOULI ST.
(808) 935-6011
“Our Will is Done!”
Andrew Iwashita
Trust Estate Attorney
Index
Big Isle History C3
Classified C7
Commentary A8
Crossword C6
Issue No. 294
26 Pages in
3 Sections
Today’s
weather
Page A10
Dear Abby C6
Horoscope C6
Nation A3
Obituaries A2
Spending Well C4
Sports B1
Surf report A10
Travel C1
Tropical
Gardening C3
Volcano Watch C2
World A10
Internet
Visit us on the Web at:
www.hawaiitribune-herald.com
Bulldozing
begins on
Highway 137
Temporary road to be used by
landowners, area residents first
The start of construction of a temporary
road over a portion of Highway 137 covered
by this year’s lava flows was welcome news
to Leilani Estates resident Michael Brant.
After withstanding the monthslong
Kilauea eruption, which
destroyed more than 700 homes
and upended communities in lower
Puna, he said he was looking
forward to seeing road access
restored to Isaac Hale Beach
Park, which remains isolated.
“This will really usher in a
better transition for people to get back to
being more calm and peaceful with themselves
and their neighbors,” he said.
But when the general public will
be able to use the graded route over
the lava rock remains to be seen.
Janet Snyder, a spokeswoman for Mayor
Harry Kim, said in a voicemail Saturday the
road will be meant for “emergency use by residents
and landowners only, at least initially.”
She said she can’t say yet when the road,
which could take weeks to complete, would
be open to the general public. A barricade
remains in place on the highway next to the
entrance to MacKenzie State Recreation Area.
Bulldozing by Sanborn General Contracting
began Friday on a portion of a hardened lava
flow field that first covered Highway 137
between MacKenzie and Isaac Hale Beach
Park in late May. Heat continues to radiate
out from the ground in some locations.
No decisions have been made about reopening
Issac Hale, though residents have been
hiking there to see the new black sand beach.
Snyder said the temporary road will
eventually go to the park “but that’s way
HOLLYN JOHNSON/Tribune-Herald
Independent papaya grower Justin Manuel leans against a Komatsu dozer that he is using to clear new
land to grow papayas Thursday in Nanawale Estates.
Looking ahead
Salary Commission finds setting salaries a tricky business
Among their ranks are a
physician, a retired stockbroker,
two engineers and
a tax manager. Four of the
eight are former government
employees and one works
for a consulting firm doing
business with the county.
The volunteer members
of the county Salary
Commission wield a lot of
power, having the final word
on salaries for top county
officials from the mayor
to the County Council
to all department heads
and deputies. That’s millions
of taxpayer dollars.
The Salary Commission
is charged by the county
charter to “establish the salaries
of all county elected
officials and appointed directors
and deputy directors of
departments and executive
agencies so that their total
salaries and benefits have
a reasonable relationship
to the compensation in the
public and private sectors.”
The commissioners serve
five-year staggered terms
and are appointed by the
mayor and confirmed by the
County Council. All current
members — two appointed
by former Mayor Billy Kenoi
and the remainder by Mayor
Harry Kim — were approved
unanimously by the council.
A ninth seat, representing
County Council District 9,
has not yet been filled.
The Salary Commission
has been in the news a lot
lately, after approving double
digit pay hikes that raised
eyebrows as well as salaries.
Commissioners justified
the raises, some as high as
30 percent and more, by
noting that some positions
hadn’t seen raises in almost
10 years, while others went
without increases for five.
“If you don’t have a
competitive salary, you’re
not going to attract the
talent you need for these
positions,” Commission
Chairman Hugh Ono, a
Kenoi appointee, said Friday.
The county charter
was changed some years
back to create the Salary
Commission, replacing the
former practice of having
salaries recommended by
the mayor and approved
by the council. The goal
was to take the politics
out of the process.
But the latest round of
raises took many in the
Less than 50 Big Island
farmers reported nearly $28
million in total agricultural
damages in a survey of farmers
affected by the Kilauea eruption
published last week.
Beginning in August, the
University of Hawaii’s College of
Tropical Agriculture and Human
Resources conducted a survey of
farmers affected by the Kilauea
eruption. The 46 respondents
reported that they had collectively
lost approximately $27.9
million in destroyed property.
Of the total damages reported,
nearly two thirds — $17 million
— were specifically damage
to crops, while destroyed land,
buildings and inventory accounted
for $4.1 million, $3.3 million and
$3 million in losses, respectively.
A statement by the Hawaii
Floriculture and Nursery
Association, which requested the
University conduct the survey,
advised that the data from the
survey is not “all-inclusive” but
provides a snapshot of how devastating
the eruption was for the
island’s agricultural industries.
The survey found that $13.3
million of the reported damages
were from the floriculture
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
See FARMERS Page A6
By TOM CALLIS
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
See ROAD Page A6
By NANCY COOK LAUER
West Hawaii Today
MEMBERS
• For a detailed look at
individual members of the Salary
Commission, see Page A7.
‘No matter what
you do, someone
isn’t going to like it’
See SALARIES Page A7
Scoring
bugaboo bites
Vuls again
SPORTS, B1
/www.hawaiitribune-herald.com