Question: What is happening with the old Honolulu Advertiser building? When they first announced plans to build condominium buildings at 801 South St., they said Hawaiian Dredging was going to buy the front part of the property and turn it into corporate headquarters. Is that still going to happen?

Answer: "That’s still in progress," said Bill Wilson, president of Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. Inc.

At this point he said that’s about all he could say about the company’s plan to purchase the part of the old News Building, fronting Kapiolani Boulevard, which once housed the newsrooms of both The Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

The developer, Downtown Capital LLC, has demolished the rest of the 85-year-old building with plans to build two condominium towers and a parking garage on the site.

One tower is already up.

However, Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto issued a preliminary injunction last month to halt construction of the second tower, saying an archaeological inventory survey should have been done first.

For now, construction is in limbo.

Mahalo

>> To whoever painted the graffiti-magnet fence bordering Crestview, along Kamehameha Highway, a pleasant green color in early April. It looked beautiful. Predictably, before Easter Sunday, the taggers already left their ugly marks. On April 22-23 crews were already out to remove the graffiti, restoring a nice-looking neighborhood upgrade that balanced well with the greenery surrounding it. Hopefully, whoever selected the paint used a graffiti-resistant product! A big mahalo to the crew who quickly went back out to undo the ugly art. To the tagger "artists," karma is a bear. — John Link, Waikele

>> To the department that painted the wall along Kamehameha Highway at Lumiaina Street in Waipahu. We see that it is now covered with a type of paint that makes it possible to remove graffiti. In the past it was simply painted over with various colors. Now we see that graffiti is removed quickly, leaving the wall one solid color of dark green. Excellent work! — Guy Taylor

>> To the gentleman in the red pickup truck who cleaned up brand-new graffiti in five spots along the newly painted wall on Kamehameha Highway fronting the Crestview subdivision recently. It was not his job, but we in the community of Waikele are grateful for his selfless care for the aina. — Nona N.

Credit should go to the state Department of Transportation’s Highways Division for painting the wall.

The division installed a new anti-graffiti paint treatment on roadside walls along the northbound lanes of Kamehameha Highway in Waipio, a DOT spokesman said.

The clear-coat treatment is applied to painted surfaces and provides a water-repellent shell to which aerosol paints, permanent markers and inks have difficulty bonding, he explained.

Instead of the usual method of painting over graffiti, crews are now able to clean graffiti off the existing paint. This will minimize the patchwork appearance that often occurs when graffiti is covered up with different types of paint, the spokesman said.

However, because the treatment costs more, he said its effectiveness will be evaluated before it is applied at other locations.

Meanwhile, the good Samaritan in the red pickup truck sounds like a concerned citizen performing a solo cleanup.

While the DOT works with community groups for organized cleanups and "strongly" appreciates the public’s help in cleaning up graffiti on state roadways, it asks that people first contact the Highways Division before doing anything.

Call the Oahu District office at 831-6714 to make arrangements.

The Highways Division will assist in coordinating the best times for cleanup at different locations for the safety of volunteers and to provide paint supplies and equipment, the DOT spokesman said.

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.