Question: We are landscaping our front yard with small white rock and wanted to know if it is OK to landscape the part between the sidewalk and street. There is only grass there. Are there any laws about that?

Answer: Even though it’s public property, adjacent property owners are responsible for maintaining it.

Generally, you are supposed to keep that area, considered an unimproved sidewalk area, unobstructed for use by the utility companies or pedestrians.

As we’ve reported previously, property owners might try to prevent people from parking in that area, but they cannot do so with plants, trees, rocks, stakes, poles, concrete blocks, construction cones or any other obstruction.

However, the city sometimes does approve planting or placement of an object in that area, but you’d have to first apply for a Sidewalk Surface Encroachment Variance. The application requires a $100 nonrefundable fee.

See dev.honoluludpp.org/Portals/0/pdfs/engineering/sevpro.pdf or call 768-8217 for more information.

Question: How many vehicles are registered on the island of Oahu? How much is assessed for beautification for each vehicle, and how much is collected for beautification?

Answer: The latest figures, from fiscal year 2012, show there were 828,363 vehicles registered on Oahu, 713,329 of them taxable (active-duty military members are allowed to have one vehicle exempt from motor vehicle weight taxes).

The highway beautification fee is $7 per vehicle. However, although rental car companies initially pay the full $7 per vehicle in their fleets, they can apply for a refund of $6 per vehicle.

In 2012, refunds for about 5,000 rental cars were made, said Customer Services Director Sheri Kajiwara.

For fiscal year 2012 the city collected $4,326,578 in beautification fees, she said, with the money split between the abandoned/derelict vehicles program, which includes the costs of contracting a towing company to remove and dispose of those vehicles, and "beautification and other related activities of highways" under the city’s jurisdiction.

She provided this breakdown for fiscal year 2012: $1,549,185 spent by her department for the removal of abandoned/derelict vehicles; $319,189 spent by the Department of Facility

Maintenance on highway-related tree-trimming, graffiti removal within roadway rights of way; and $569,222 spent by the Department of Parks and Recreation on median landscape maintenance and for plants along public roadways, parks and malls.

The rest of the fund went toward fringe benefits and central administrative costs for staff.

Recycling Events

Two "Going Green" recycling events, billed as "one-stop drop-off convenience extravaganzas," are scheduled for consecutive Saturdays in October.

In addition to a host of other items, including computers and TVs, old tennis balls now are being accepted to be refurbished by ACI (Always Caring Individuals) Hawaii for reuse at tennis tournaments.

However, the events will NOT accept cardboard, paper, plastics or bulky items.

Items can be dropped off from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 12 at Waipahu High School and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 19 at Kaimuki High School.

At the Kaimuki event only, you can bring a maximum of three boxes of documents to be shredded. The first box is free; the second and third boxes are $10 each.

For more information, call Rene Mansho at 291-6151 or email renemansho@hawaii.rr.com. Go to is.gd/ aYPyIT for future events.

Mahalo

To the person who found my wife’s handbag in a shopping cart at Longs Drug Store in Kaimuki last month and took it into the store. We didn’t notice until quite a bit later that it was missing and were in a bit of a panic until we contacted the store. Everything was intact. You are a shining example of how people should be.

— S. Tsukamoto

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. Not every question can be answered.