Ground was broken Saturday on a new laboratory to help rare native plants reproduce.

The new $2.5 million facility will expand efforts at the Lyon Arboretum in Manoa to store and restore many of Hawaii’s endangered plants.

When completed next year, the new Micropropagation Laboratory, at 4,081 square feet, will double the growing space, improve the lab facilities and provide greater public access to the Hawaiian Rare Plant Program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

UH-Manoa Chancellor Robert Bley-Vroman, in a statement, called the new lab “one of the most important bridges that we build from the University of Hawaii to the community.”

Hawaii has 416 federally endangered and threatened plants and about 300 in significant decline.

Pagotto named interim chancellor of KCC

The University of Hawaii Board of Regents has named Louise Pagotto as interim chancellor of Kapiolani Community College.

She replaced Leon Richards, who retired earlier this year.

Pagotto will remain in the position until a national search for a successor is completed, UH said in a news release.

She has served as vice chancellor for academic affairs for 16 years.

Pagotto joined the college in August 1989 as a teacher of English composition and linguistics. She also has been assistant dean for vocational and distance education, chairwoman of the Language Arts Department, and assistant dean for arts and sciences and the Center for Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Technology.

Woman must repay welfare

WAILUKU >> A Molokai woman has been ordered to repay $13,814 in welfare benefits that she collected while not reporting changes in her income.

Desarae Kahoiwai, 28, was also ordered to perform 400 hours of community service as part of four years of probation, the Maui News reported Thursday. Maui Circuit Judge Richard Bissen imposed the sentence Thursday.

“You figured out a way to get more money than you deserved,” Bissen said. “You know who you’re taking it from? Your neighbors on Molokai. Those are the people that need this assistance. You were making good money.”

Kahoiwai pleaded no contest to theft and welfare fraud for collecting welfare overpayments from January to September 2013 and March 2014 to February 2015, according to court records. She asked for a chance to keep the conviction off her record, but the judge denied the request.

“I take full responsibility,” she said. “I have learned a great lesson about myself, that negligence has a great consequence.”

Defense attorney Gina Gormley says Kahoiwai was a full-time student, working one job and looking for another.

“She’s also caring for her two children,” Gormley said.