Four Hawaii County Council members returned from last week’s National Association of Counties conference brimming with ideas for new county initiatives and optimism for another infusion of federal money.

A 20-year-old plan to upgrade the Kealakehe wastewater treatment plant to produce and sell R-1, the highest grade of recycled water, risks sliding down the priority scale as the county tries to shore up other projects to avoid federal fines.

Hawaii Island’s exuberant real estate market and a new tax on transient rentals could be enough to keep county finances out of the red despite increased spending, as administrative money crunchers work on the first stab at an annual budget by March 1.

When is a delay a denial?

North Kona Councilman Holeka Inaba kicked off Hawaiian Language Month on Tuesday by chairing an entire committee meeting in Hawaiian, using an interpreter.

Acting Human Resources Director Waylen Leopoldino was awarded the permanent position on Friday, eight months after he assumed the acting role when the former director retired.

Charging tourists to visit county beach parks and the zoo is being considered as a potential way to help pay for facilities, Mayor Mitch Roth said.

Supportive testimony by a wide swath of individuals from resort operators to labor unions and tourism promoters to front-line workers who sleep in their cars because of a lack of housing wasn’t enough to win approval Tuesday from a County Council panel on a plan to convert half of a Waikoloa Beach Resort golf course to timeshare units.

Most of an extra tax property owners already pay on their multimillion-dollar residential homes would be earmarked for homeless projects, under a bill advanced Wednesday by the County Council Finance Committee.

A coalition of Oahu and Big Island residents has formed a nonprofit corporation and hired an attorney to challenge the new legislative district maps created by the state Reapportionment Commission.

The last half of 2021 was generally a sluggish period for local campaign fundraising, with the exception of two candidates seeking new offices.

More than 40,000 open building permits, some dating back 40 years, will be declared null and void if permit holders don’t act soon, as the county continues its transition to an online permit system.

With the prospect of more federal money becoming available for infrastructure funding, the county Water Board recently approved $75,000 to hire a consultant to go after some of it.

The state Reapportionment Commission stayed the course Friday and finalized House and Senate election maps for the next decade, shaking off resident complaints from Hawaii Island and Oahu, citizen-produced alternative maps and even the threat of lawsuits in its 8-1 decision.

Hawaii is the safest state in the nation to weather the coronavirus, according to a study released Thursday by the online credit reporting company WalletHub.

Hilo Councilman Aaron Chung wants to earmark part of a luxury tax on second homes to be used to help those who don’t have a home at all.

The County Council last week rejected its second nominee to the Leeward Planning Commission in six months, saying the candidate, Shane Vincent of Waimea, would bring too much of a developer perspective to the board.

North Kona and South Kohala are home to about 80% of short-term vacation rentals on the island and 87% of complaints about STVRs registered countywide with the Planning Department.