Mayor nominates 2 for budget positions
Mayor Kirk Caldwell has announced his nomination of Nelson H. Koyanagi Jr. as budget director and Gary Kurokawa to be deputy director.
They have served as the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services’ acting director and acting deputy director, respectively, since January when Caldwell took office.
"Nelson and Gary proved their talent and ability as they prepared my budget this year," the mayor said in a statement Saturday. "They have an incredible wealth of institutional knowledge about how the city budget works. They have dedicated much of their careers to making the city function and saving taxpayer money."
Koyanagi was hired in 2003 as chief accountant to manage the Accounting and Fiscal Services Division. His duties have included financial accounting and reporting, centralized payroll, accounts payable and fiscal services for city departments and agencies.
He was deputy budget director from 2010 to 2012.
He began his career as a certified public accountant in the audit department of a national public accounting firm, and managed a local commercial printing company.
Kurokawa, a 25-year city budget employee, is a licensed certified general appraiser and has served the past 15 years as the city’s Real Property Assessment Division administrator.
Police catch prison escapee
Hawaii County police recaptured Sunday a 21-year-old woman who escaped from the Hale Nani Correctional Facility in Hilo on Saturday morning.
A tip from the public led police to the Wainaku area, where they located and arrested Shaylyn Araw at about 4 p.m. Sunday.
Araw, incarcerated for multiple burglary and theft charges, made her escape by scaling a 15-foot razor-wire fence, police said.
Injured hiker flown to safety
A 64-year-old Canadian woman was airlifted from Waihee Ridge Trail on Saturday afternoon after she slipped and injured her ankle while hiking.
Maui County rescue crews responded around 2:45 p.m. to a report that a woman hiking with a group of friends was unable to walk because of an ankle injury. They found the woman, a part-time Kihei resident, on the marked trail about a mile above the trail head.
Paramedics treated the woman at a landing zone near the trail head. Friends later transported her to Maui Memorial Hospital.
Road into park closed for work
The entry road to MacKenzie State Park in Pahoa will be closed to vehicles today through Friday for repairs and improvements.
But people will be able to walk in, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports.
The roadway repairs are part of improvements at the park that began early this year. The project is expected to be completed by June or sooner as conditions allow.
