Question: During the last year we have been receiving our mail delivery around 5 p.m. As it got closer to the Christmas season, we have been getting our mail around 6 p.m. when it is dark and I can understand that situation. However, I wanted to find out what the normal time is we can expect our mail so I called the 1-800 number in the phone book and they put me on hold for over 20 minutes. I tried twice and finally got the direct number for the Pearl City Post Office. I was informed that in about a month or so the routes will be looked at and realigned.

I asked for the reason why the opposite side of my street gets mail delivery about 1:30 p.m. and we get it at 6 p.m. The answer was that is the route. I am concerned about the rise again in the postage, but was also told that was for fuel and not for staffing. I found out that there is a lot of overtime. If there is a huge amount of overtime, shouldn’t more employees be hired to relieve the employees?

Answer: The Postal Service has been in a financial crisis for years, reporting annual losses of billions of dollars. It has been looking to cut expenses by reducing the number of facilities and employee hours, not increasing staffing.

But it was the usual holiday surge of mail and packages that delayed deliveries, not staffing shortages, said Duke Gonzales, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Hawaii.

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the Honolulu mail processing facility was processing and sending out more than 3.6 million pieces of mail a day, he said, adding that the delivery offices were "fully staffed."

"Now that the mad rush of the holiday mailing season is past, customers can expect mail delivery to occur at whatever time they were receiving mail prior to Thanksgiving," he said.

As for delivery times, Gonzales explained that mail delivery for any one address depends on the structure of the delivery route for that address.

"It could well be that an address on one side of a road receives its mail hours before an address on the other side, due to the design of that route," he said.

Question: After watching an episode of "Hawaii Five-0" last month and reading in the Star-Advertiser about the way the series’ producers reconstructed part of the Honouliuli Internment Camp, friends and I wondered why the production company didn’t just leave the constructions in place. Isn’t there some thought of preserving that internment camp as a historical site, developing it for visitors to learn more about that period of history?

Answer: The Honouliuli Internment Camp, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012, currently is being considered for inclusion in the national parks system.

The 160-acre site is owned by Monsanto Hawaii, which wants to donate it to the National Park Service.

Most of the buildings were destroyed after the camp was closed in 1945, although there are remnants.

The National Park Service is expected to release a draft report on the possibility of including the Honouliuli site in its system this spring for public input.

It hopes to have a final report by the end of the year.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, who visited Hawaii in September, said, "Honouliuli is a great example of what happened here in Hawaii and across so much of our country when it relates to Japanese internment."

However, she cautioned it was too early to say whether Honouliuli would be included in the parks system, because of budget cuts. (See is.gd/83DqpY.)

Meanwhile, the camp featured in the television series was not built on the grounds of the old Honouliuli camp. It was re-created in Helemano, on land owned by Dole Food Co.

The set was used for one day, then dismantled.

MAHALO

To the kind person who found my chiller bag in a grocery cart at Kahala Mall and took it back to Whole Foods, and to the thoughtful staff at Whole Foods who put my fish back in the freezer and left a note in my bag so I could collect my unthawed fish. — Very Grateful Susan from Kahala

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Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd.,
Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.