Makakilo park a gift from builder, city says

A new city park opened Friday in Makakilo.

Kahiwelo Neighborhood Park was built as a gift to the city by D.R. Horton Hawai‘i, according to a city release.

Located on 3 acres within Horton’s Kahiwelo at Makakilo community, Kahiwelo Park offers a multipurpose field, basketball court and a play structure for children of all ages. It also features a comfort station and parking.

"Our parks are our front lawns, a place for the community to gather, to reflect, and to celebrate," Mayor Kirk Caldwell said in a statement. "I would like to thank D.R. Horton Hawaii for providing a beautiful place where ‘ohana will make memories for years to come. I’m also asking the community to look out for this park and take ownership. Please help us keep it clean, and let your neighbors know that you take pride in the park."

3 KIUC members re-elected to board

Three members have been re-elected to the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative’s board of directors. They are Dennis Esaki, Karen Baldwin and Patrick Gegen, who will serve three-year terms.

Baldwin and Gegen are incumbents elected in 2012. Esaki is a former chairman and a founding board member of the cooperative.

KIUC mailed 25,309 ballots and received 5,572 between Feb. 19 and March 14, a turnout of 22 percent. While there were three available slots to fill, not all members chose to exercise all three votes on their ballot.

The election was conducted by Merriman River Group, a California-based election management firm.

The official results: Esaki, 3,602 votes; Baldwin, 2,582; Gegen, 1,849; Jan Kimura, 1,707; Harold J. Dias Jr., 1,619; Stewart "Stu" V. Burley, 1,306; Dennis James Rowley, 1,209; and William D. Peterson, 1,098.

The winners will be inaugurated on March 24 at 11 a.m. in the main conference room at the KIUC office. The board will meet at 12:30 p.m.

1,000 forest acres now being protected

A 1,000-acre parcel of South Kona upland forest has been placed under protection from development.

The land, in the Kaawaloa Forest between 2,300 and 4,300 feet in elevation, is rare native wet forest with a diversity of indigenous plants, trees and birds, West Hawaii Today reports.

The land is part of Hokukano Ranch.

The Pace family, the owners, agreed to a $3.2 million conservation easement with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. The easement is funded by the U.S. Forest Service.

The land — zoned for 20-acre agricultural lots — joins more than 9,000 adjacent acres at Kealakekua Heritage Ranch that were placed in similar conservation status in 2011.