Kamehameha to lease state land for center

The Hawaiian Homes Commission has approved a lease of 40 acres of state land to Kamehameha Schools to build a learning center on Oahu’s Leeward Coast.

The state and Kamehameha Schools announced the approval Thursday for a state-of-the-art learning center in the Maili area. The center will be integrated with a Native Hawaiian residential community developed by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

Under the terms of the 65-year lease, Kamehameha Schools will pay about $74,000 a year in lease rent.

Ko Olina resort developer Jeff Stone had agreed to donate several hundred acres to DHHL and Kamehameha Schools to build a similar project in Makaha Valley, but that deal fell through.

Maui fire blocks one lane of road

A small brush fire Saturday afternoon on Maui singed a 25-by-50-foot patch of brush near Ceramic Tile Plus on Kahului Beach Road, county officials said.

There were no injuries or monetary damage, a county spokesman said.

Maui firefighters responding to the 2:01 p.m. call put out the fire in 35 minutes.

Police briefly closed the right-hand turn lane from Kahului Beach Road onto Kaahumanu Avenue, the county said.

Teen pregnancy rate declines

Pregnancy rates among teenage girls on Hawaii island have dropped dramatically in the past five years, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports.

In 2005, 3.5 percent of girls ages 15 to 17 became pregnant, said Dr. Don Hayes, an epidemiologist with the state Department of Health. By 2010, the most recent year for which the data are available, the rate dropped to 2.5 percent.

Nationwide, teen pregnancy rates are at their lowest level in more than 30 years, so the Big Island numbers are not surprising.

"We’ve been very pleased with the declines we’ve seen at the state and county level," Hayes said. "There are a lot of different theories about why it happens. But we can’t know for sure."

Hayes said the results contradict some expert opinions that the rates rise when the economy is suffering.

"We’re seeing the opposite," he said.

Federal money has helped.

"From about ’95 on, federal administrations started putting in more effort in teen pregnancy prevention grants to the state, and we believe that has helped tremendously," said Noella Kong, the state’s adolescent health coordinator.