The state reopened Kua Bay in Kekaha Kai State Park on Sunday after a shark attack.
The Division of State Parks, part of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, reopened the Maniniowali section of Kua Bay at 12:25 p.m. after receiving an all-clear, the department said by email.
On Saturday a shark knocked a stand-up paddler off his board and bit him in the right arm and leg. Hawaii News Now reported he lost his leg to the 12-foot tiger shark. The man, 25, was with his father about 100 to 150 yards off the south end of Kukio Beach when the attack happened at about 9:30 a.m., according to acting Battalion Chief Michael Grace of the Hawaii County Fire Department. Good Samaritans applied tourniquets at the beach. The victim was flown to North Hawaii Community Hospital and later transferred to The Queen’s Medical Center.
The father made it safely to shore, Grace said.
Budget for police in dire straits, chief says
The Hawaii County Police Department has been operating for years on a “status quo” budget that doesn’t allow it to fill critical vacancies, Police Chief Paul Ferreira told the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
The budget calls for 450 uniformed officers, but at the end of 2017 the department was 34 officers short, Ferreira said.
The preliminary fiscal year 2018-19 budget proposal of $515.7 million submitted March 1 to the County Council by Mayor Harry Kim doesn’t provide additional uniformed personnel, he said.
“We’ve been operating for years with a status quo budget,” he said. “People can promise us, ‘Oh, we’re going to give you 60 more officers,’ but somebody’s gotta pay for it. Our staffing hasn’t increased.”
The current recruit class has 20 candidates, he added.
“In this day and age, one of the challenges we’re facing is, especially this year, as the economy gets better, nobody wants to be a police officer,” he said. “They’d rather be in construction or other jobs that pay just as much and don’t have the challenges that being an officer does.”
