QUESTION: Wasn’t the boat ramp for the public in Ko Olina supposed to have been built by the end of 2013? I also heard that the Phoenician boat ramp at Kalaeloa is not free — there is a fee for using it. Is this true?
ANSWER: The original deadline for a new public boat launch ramp to be built at the Ko Olina Resort & Marina was February 2013.
Because city, state and federal permits were required, the process has dragged on past the deadline set by the state Land Use Commission.
The end now looks to be in sight, although it will be next year.
Ko Olina Development LLC obtained the last required permit, for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, in January.
"We are in the process of awarding the contract and submitting supplemental information required from the contractor," Sweetie Nelson, spokeswoman for Ko Olina, told us last week. "Once the contract is awarded, we are looking at a projected construction period of approximately nine months."
She said the construction timeline will be determined once the contract is awarded, but "we do anticipate the contractor to be on site within a month."
Ko Olina was required to build a boat ramp for public use as part of the approval it received to develop its West Oahu resort.
When conflict arose between public ramp users and the resort and its residents over hours of use and fees, the ramp, built in 2000, was dismantled in 2005.
As an alternative, Ko Olina arranged for public use of a boat ramp owned by The Phoenician, a boat/ yacht repair company in Kalaeloa Harbor.
However, from the beginning, fishermen and boaters complained that the ramp was not acceptable, saying it was unsafe and inconvenient and that recreational boaters did not have priority for its use.
There is a fee for the public to launch from that ramp: $25 for one-time use or $131 a year, according to an employee of The Phoenician.
In 2008 the Land Use Commission ordered Ko Olina to rebuild a ramp in its marina. In 2009 it set the deadline: 43 months, beginning July 2009.
We last did an update on the rebuilding of the ramp in 2012 — is.gd/baztl1 — reporting that Ko Olina was "on track" to open as required in about February 2013, according to regular updates provided to the Land Use Commission.
However, in January 2013, Honolulu Star-Advertiser business reporter Andrew Gomes reported that a longer-than-expected permit process, initially involving the Army Corps of Engineers, would mean the deadline would not be met.
Ko Olina has had to provide quarterly reports to the Land Use Commission on the status of the ramp.
All quarterly reports can be found on the LUC website: is.gd/hNctJL.
QUESTION: A couple of months ago you answered a question about home mailbox use. Could you please repeat the postal regulations? I asked campaign workers not to hang stuff on my mailbox, but they said it is legal as long as it isn’t inside the box.
ANSWER: It is against postal regulations and a federal offense not just to place nonmail in mailboxes, but also to attach or hang anything from a mail receptacle.
As the U.S. Postal Service advised previously (is.gd/FXDLD3), complaints can be filed with the post office. Phone numbers can be found at usps.whitepages.com/post_office, or call 800-275-8777.
AN APOLOGY
To a man with white hair and glasses waiting to cross University Avenue at Varsity Circle on a Friday night last month. I usually notice if people are waiting to cross and wait until they have crossed before I turn right onto University Avenue. However, that evening I did not notice you before making the turn. It did seem extra dark that evening. Or maybe you just happened to be standing in my blind spot. Whatever the reason, I want to apologize. I should have been more careful. — Gomen Nasai
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.
