Question: A contractor, along with the Board of Water Supply, is installing a new waterline as well as new fire hydrants along 3rd Avenue. Who is responsible or who can we ask to see what it will take to put in concrete-filled pipes as barriers to protect a new fire hydrant that is being put in on the corner of 3rd and Harding avenues in Kaimuki? A run-over broken fire hydrant is an accident waiting to happen. A lot of vehicles as well as many delivery trucks that are turning from Harding Avenue onto 3rd Avenue will knock it over unless protected.
Answer: Concrete bollards, the short protective posts you described as concrete-filled pipes, will be installed at that location once the rest of the work on the project is completed, said Kathleen M. Pahinui, information officer for the Honolulu Board of Water Supply.
“Per our Capital Projects Division, we have confirmed that the contractor will be installing concrete bollards at the location specified, due to the high volume of cars and delivery trucks making that turn at this intersection,” she said. “We greatly appreciate the community member’s interest and concern in protecting our fire hydrants.”
Q: Regarding the story about Sandwich Isle Communications (Honolulu Star-Advertiser Sept. 10, 808ne.ws/2cSJk9F): When is he getting out of prison?
A: The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ inmate locator lists Albert S.N. Hee’s scheduled release date as Oct. 16, 2019, or roughly three years from now.
He is held at the Federal Medical Center in Rochester, Minn., one of six medical referral centers within the Federal Bureau of Prisons capable of caring for offenders with complex needs. Hee was sent there because he has food allergies and other ailments.
Hee was convicted in July 2015 of federal tax evasion for using his company to pay more than $2 million in personal expenses. He was sentenced in January to 46 months in prison, but did not begin serving the sentence until June. A judge twice postponed his surrender because of Hee’s health worries.
Sandwich Isle Communications is a subsidiary of Waimana Enterprises Inc., both of which Hee founded. As Saturday’s story reported, Sandwich Isles holds the exclusive license to provide telecommunications services on Hawaiian homelands. The Federal Communications Commission last year suspended millions of dollars in subsidies to the company pending an audit.
Auwe
Auwe to the vandals who sprayed-painted huge letters on the rock wall on the H-1 eastbound before the 16th Avenue overpass. That blue paint will be hard to clean off. The rock wall along that stretch of highway is an attractive alternative to plain concrete, and someone has defaced it. The vandal or vandals who did this are not artists. They are criminals. Public landscapes are not theirs for the taking. — A reader
Mahalo
A big mahalo to a young man who rescued two senior citizens at Bellows Beach on Sept. 10. I had taken my husband for an afternoon drive. He enjoys driving by Bellows Beach, so I decided to drive down one of the sandy roads toward the end of public access. When I tried to turn around, I got into deep sand and was seriously stuck. There were people there who wanted to help but did not have a towing strap. Then a young man drove up in a big truck and asked if we needed help. He did not have a strap with him either, but told us he would go get one and would be back. As he left, he even called out to us, “I’ll be back,” as reassurance. He did return and in minutes had us out of the hole I had dug. He lives near Bellows and had gone home to get the strap. He would not accept anything but our gratitude. I, unfortunately, did not ask his name, but he will be remembered as my good Samaritan from Waimanalo. — Grateful senior
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.
