Wednesday, June 4, 1969 | Volume II, Issue XXII
ON THE COVER
“Channel Work Begins”
Standalone photo
Now that two berthing areas of Honokohau Small Boat Harbor are excavated, Steward-Pacific has begun construction of the entrance channel. Phase one of the project will be completed early this fall at a contract construction cost of nearly $2 million, which includes completion of the entrance channel and wave absorber.
“Honaunau Parents Fight Schedule”
No byline
As it stands now, Honaunau School is the sole remaining school in the Kona District that will follow the old coffee schedule next year. That is, unless some members of the school’s PTA are able to convince the state Department of Education to change its mind.
This week, Herbert Rapoza, of Honaunau, also vice president of the Honaunau PTA, is spearheading a drive aimed at getting enough names on paper to show the department that the majority of parents would prefer joining the other Kona schools on the regular September to June schedule.
If they are not successful, Honaunau will begin classes on Dec. 1 on next year, or three full months after the other schools in the district.
“Kona Housing Group Eyes Bishop Leases”
By Jim Langdon
The tremors felt here last week continue into this week. They are the tremors of social discontent, and they may well serve as a warning signal of things to come if prompt action is not taken.
The issue? Housing, of course.
But the erstwhile Kona problem has taken an important turn in urgency, due to the scheduled expiration of some 500 Bishop Estate leases. Some 200 Keei area leases expire next year and the remainder to follow within the next eight years.
No long-term leases are being renewed, according to Norman Carlson, Bishop Estate representative for the Big Island.
While the first 200 leases to expire may be renewed on a year-to-year basis for a short while, the fact remains that in the next eight years, some 500 families will be forced to leave their present homes. The vast majority of these families fall into the low-income bracket, which means that under current available housing standards, there would be no place for them to go.
They would, in short, be out on the streets.
Attention was focused on the plight of the lease-holders at a meting held last week in Kealakekua. Present at the meeting were 50 low-income families, Mayor Shunichi Kimura, Corporation Counsel Wendell Kimura and representatives of the county planning and research and development departments.
OTHER NOTABLE HEADLINES
“Mauna Kea Beach Hotel Praised By Magazines”
No byline
West Hawaii’s world-famous Mauna Kea Beach Hotel is once again in the national spotlight. The hotel is featured this month in two nationally circulated magazines.
Holiday magazine focuses its editorial gaze on the Big Island’s hotel in the May issue, which has just arrived in the islands. The hotel’s new Ceylonese-design specialty restaurant, The Batik Room, has received a 1969 Superlative Achievement Award for interior design from INSTITUTIONS magazine, a restaurant trade publication.
The 256-room hotel was labeled the world’s top resort hotel by Esquire magazine in 1967.
V Weekly deals:
At Sure Save Super Markets: 21-volume illustrated World Encyclopedia, $40.29.
At K. Taniguchi Super Markets (KTA Super Stores): Diamond Head canned soda, 10 cans for $0.89 and Diamond Shoyu, 1 gallon for $1.69.
N Featured films:
At Aloha Theatre: “100 Rifles,” “Hook, Line and Sinker,” and “Bullitt.”
At Kona Theatre: “West Side Story” and “Any Gun Can Play.” For adults only, “Hot Skin On Cold Cash,” “Love Factory,” and “Prudence and the Pill.”