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Question: Someone has decorated the Thomas Square park fence with what looks like American Sign Language “hands” or icons. It starts at Beretania Street and stretches to King Street. You can tell that they are spelling out words as there are spaces between the groups of “hands.” I would be interested to know what they spell out. An obscenity or just another attack on a politician?
Answer: Neither. The inspirational message by Hawaiian artist Solomon Enos translates to “This square of land is a story about an admiral who made right from wrong with compassion. Moral: Righteousness cultivates pricelessness,” said Andrew Pereira, a city spokesman.
The park, which is closed and surrounded by wooden construction fences while undergoing maintenance, is named for Richard Darton Thomas, a British admiral who restored the kingdom of Hawaii on July 31, 1843, after five months of British occupation.
You can read about the period at 808ne.ws/2mv5LsB.
The message begins at the corner of South Beretania Street and Ward Avenue and is repeated twice; it will remain on view until park maintenance wraps up in July, ahead of the annual La Hoihoi Ea (Restoration Day) commemoration. The message was written in “the finger-spelled Rochester Method of American Sign Language to symbolize the act of giving voice to the voiceless,” according to the city.
Work at the park includes replanting the lawn, removing the mock orange hedge and four unhealthy trees, pruning Indian banyan trees and putting in a new irrigation system.
Q: If I want to register a car on which the registration has expired, do I have to pay the total registration fee for every year the car was not registered or only the penalty fee for late registration? If it’s only the penalty fee, is that for one year or for every year since the car was last registered?
A: You’d have to pay the registration fee plus the late fee for every year since the car was last registered, said Sheri Kajiwara, director of the city’s Department of Customer Services.
Kokua Line has received queries from people who said that for financial reasons (poverty) they had stopped driving and let their registration lapse, or were driving with expired tags and hadn’t been caught.
They want to register their vehicles but said they can’t manage the back fees and wondered whether the city ever waives them. As one caller put it, “I can no longer afford the outrageous price one must pay to be a law-abiding citizen.”
Kajiwara said state law requires annual vehicle registration payments and that “the city does not have the ability to waive or forgive” back fees.
“If a resident fails to pay their registration, it does accrue annually and, understandably, can become a hefty sum over time,” she said.
The annual registration fee for a small passenger car costs more than $200 on Oahu, plus a $16 penalty for each year the registration payment is late.
To suspend ongoing fees, people who aren’t using their cars should place the vehicle in storage (off public streets) and turn in their license plates. “The city holds the plates for you, and they can be retrieved later,” at which point the vehicle registration may be reactivated, Kajiwara said.
She emphasized that unpaid fees are attached to the vehicle. So “when purchasing a vehicle, it is advisable to ensure that all back taxes and fees have been paid, or you inherit them with the vehicle,” she said.
You can find information about registering vehicles on Oahu at 808ne.ws/2mWPwRL, a Customer Services web page that includes a link to the Motor Vehicle Fee Inquiry (www12.honolulu.gov/mvrfeeinq), where you can calculate fees due for a specific vehicle.
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.
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