Council members sniff at raise

City Council members are saying "thanks, but no thanks" to a Salary Commission recommendation to raise their pay.

The commission recommended 4 percent raises for Council members, which would have amounted to a hike to $60,936 for the Council chairman and $54,552 for the other eight Council members.

The raises would be rejected under Resolution 13-88, which received preliminary approval from the Council Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee on Tuesday. The resolution does not block recommended raises for department heads, city attorneys and others not covered by union contracts, most of which are 4 percent.

In rejecting raises for themselves, Council members said they could not accept raises at a time when many Oahu families are suffering financial hardships, and pointed out that federal sequestration could further worsen the economic outlook. The resolution will be up for a final vote of the Council on June 5.

Council members last year rejected 3 percent increases for themselves.

Surf coming up on south shores

Town surfers can expect a series of south swells starting today. But the National Weather Service warns the 6- to 10-foot waves could be dangerous because of strong rip currents and breaking surf on shore that could wash beachgoers into the ocean.

A high-surf advisory is posted for 6 a.m. today through 6 a.m. Saturday for south-facing shores of all islands. Forecasters say the advisory could be extended as swells may continue to bring waves to south shores through early next week.

Blackout hits Molokai; MECO unsure of cause

Molokai residents and businesses were without electricity for two to three hours Wednesday morning.

Maui Electric Co. was investigating but did not immediately know what triggered the islandwide outage.

The blackout began about 9:30 a.m. and affected about 3,200 customers across the island, MECO said.

The utility was able to restore power to parts of Kaunakakai at 11:38 a.m.

Hoolehua, including the airport, was back on line five minutes later and customers on the island’s west end had full service at 11:51 a.m.

Power in the Kualapuu area returned at 12:03 p.m., while the remaining customers in Kaunakakai had power restored at 12:18 p.m, the utility said. The whole island was back on line as of 12:37 p.m.

County to cut water service to install bypass

The Kauai Department of Water will shut off water supplies for customers in the Kapaa-Waipouli area from 10 p.m. today until 6 a.m. Friday.

This will allow contractor Goodfellow Bros. to connect a temporary bypass waterline to the system.

Customers along Kuhio Highway from Keaka Road to Inia Street will have no water as well as those along Kipuni Way, Panihi, Akoa and Akia roads.

A detailed map of the affected area is at www.kauaiwater.org.

For more information, call 245-5461. For emergencies after business hours, call police dispatch at 241-1711.