Question: I notice that the contractor doing repaving work in the Kailua residential area has been resurfacing entry roads owned by private homes. These are not government roadways, but private roads serving only six to eight homes. Who is paying for work on those roadways? Are our tax dollars being used?
Answer: Tax dollars are being used to repave private roadways.
But there’s nothing underhanded or illegal about it. It’s allowed by law, under certain conditions, said Chris Takashige, director of the city Department of Design and Construction.
During Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s repaving program, city inspectors, consultants under contract to the city and the city’s contractors make recommendations based upon this ordinance — Section 14-32.2 of the Revised Ordinances of Honolulu, he said.
“Subject to the availability of appropriations,” the ordinance allows the city to maintain portions of private, nondedicated and nonsurrendered streets and roads through remedial patching, resurfacing or paving if they meet all required criteria.
Among all the requirements that have to be met, Takashige said, are:
>> The street or road is open to, serves and benefits the general public.
>> The street or road is not signed, marked, delineated, fenced, barricaded or otherwise designed, constructed or operated to exclude access by the general public.
In other words, there can’t be signs saying the road is private or that parking is restricted unless the restriction is applicable to everyone.
>> The street or road directly serves six or more parcels and at least six of the parcels are owned by separate individuals or entities.
>> Maintenance by the city will be practicable and safe.
>> Maintenance of the street or road surface is necessary to protect the safety of motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians or is otherwise in the public interest.
>> The street or road does not suffer any design defects that make it hazardous to the general public.
Even if all the criteria are met, it will still be up to the city Department of Facility Maintenance to decide whether to repave the road, Takashige said.
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WHO ARE THEY?
Stafford-Ames Morse, a former Oahu resident, is trying to identify the people in a photo of the staff of the old Waiale‘e Training School for Boys, believed to have been taken in the early 1940s.
Crawford’s Convalescent Home, just north of Velzyland on the North Shore, now sits on the site of the old school. Morse and his brother, Gordon, a former Honolulu Advertiser reporter/photographer, are working on a history of the area, once known as Waiale‘e. The Morses’ family lived on the grounds of the school from 1939 to 1947.
If you can help identify the people, email Morse at MorseSA@hotmail.com. See is.gd/raHBBj for more information about Morse and about the training school. —— June Watanabe
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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.
