Senators to hear plan for ditches from plantation era

Improving plantation-era ditches that connect dams around Anahola, Kauai, will be the subject of an informational briefing Jan. 14 before the state Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The $2.5 million in improvements are part of Gov. David Ige’s supplemental budget request, the Garden Island reports.

If approved by the Legislature, the capital improvement project will enable agricultural production on Hawaiian homelands, a Department of Hawaiian Home Lands spokeswoman said. The improved irrigation system would make as much as 106.2 million gallons available to DHHL’s agricultural homesteads.

It will also address long-standing infrastructure concerns. The reservoirs and irrigation systems at Anahola “represent a liability to the DHHL, with the maybe potential for another (Ka Loko) type disaster,” the department wrote in its June 2010 regional plan for Anahola, referring to the 2006 dam break near Kilauea that killed seven people.

Currently, 46 agriculture lessees oversee property on the department’s Anahola lands. But there are roughly 2,100 applicants waiting to secure agricultural leases of their own on Kauai, including some who have been waiting for decades.

50-meter pool in Kihei closed until June 30

The 50-meter pool at the Kihei Aquatic Center on Maui will close today for structural repairs and renovations. The pool is expected to reopen June 30.

The training pool and locker rooms at the facility will remain open through most of the repairs.

Global Specialty Contractors Inc. will be performing the work. For more information, contact Karla Peters at 270-7981.

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Star-Advertiser staff