State responsible for care at part of Makiki Cemetery

Question: Who is responsible for maintaining Makiki Cemetery at Pensacola Street and Wilder Avenue? Why is it not even minimally cared for? I recently visited two family graves. It has always been a difficult walk through long and narrow aisles between rows of graves on a hillside. However, the current state of overgrown weeds and grass makes access to the headstones and water faucets even more precarious. Foliage is even growing over the base of headstones. The few available trash cans in the parking area are always overflowing and it appears someone may be dumping bulky items there. A couple of days later, I saw someone with a weed wacker who said he is hired to maintain the grounds “only for the Japanese graves.”

Answer: Although the state Department of Accounting and General Services is responsible for grounds maintenance at Makiki Cemetery, there are sections where, by agreement with the state, other parties “have taken it upon themselves to be responsible for grounds care,” said spokesman R.J. Yahiku.

(Not everyone agrees with that assessment; more on that later.)

The department could not “regularly service the cemeteries as frequently as we would like to” after budget cuts led to a loss of nine positions in the grounds maintenance staff, Yahiku said.

However, the department anticipates resuming routine servicing of Makiki Cemetery the first week of December, if not sooner, he said.

In addition to Makiki Cemetery, the department maintains three other cemeteries on Oahu: Puu Kamalii in Alewa Heights Puea Cemetery at 1440 School St. and Aiea Cemetery, across from Aloha Stadium.

There are 13 grounds workers responsible not only for the four cemeteries, but all state facilities on Oahu, Yahiku said. 

“DAGS is strongly committed to the restoration of positions in the grounds maintenance program” and plans to ask for funds to restore the positions during the next legislative session, he said.

In the interim, approval was given to use overtime funds to pay the crews.

That said, the photo you sent of an unkempt area was in the Japanese section of the cemetery, Yahiku said.

JAPANESE GRAVES

The Japanese Buddhist graves are maintained by the Japanese Cemetery Association, while the Association of Hawaii Japanese Christian Churches (which succeeded the Hawaii Council of Japanese Christian Churches) oversees the Christian graves.

“We have been able to hire one person to do the weed-wacking and try to keep down the growth,” said Clifford Hosoi of Hosoi Garden Mortuary, president of the Japanese Cemetery Association. (For more on the association, see is.gd/d2khMg.)

However, it’s a more difficult task for the Japanese Christian churches because of “a problem with raising money to maintain the cemetery,” said the Rev. Yoshitaka Fujinami, Kalihi Union Church pastor and association vice president.

The issue dating to the 1970s is that there is no official document showing that “the state asked us to take care of the cemetery,” he said. The churches asked that responsibility be “returned to the state, but the state didn’t want to take care of it.”

That issue remains “up in the air,” Fujinami said. However, “for our compassion for the families, we continue to maintain the cemetery until all the funds run out.”

He’s not sure when that may happen, although it may be within five years.

“It’s hard to estimate,” he said.

For now, someone is able to tend to the cemetery about once a month.

MAHALO

Belatedly, to the honest and kind couple who turned in my handbag intact to I Love Country Cafe at Windward Mall and to the restaurant for keeping it safe for me. The sheer panic that engulfed me when I realized it was missing thankfully turned into gratefulness, joy and relief. Words cannot express how sincerely grateful I am. May the Lord bless you! — Forever Grateful

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