Rail and FTA unite political rivals, for now

After a Monday meeting with rail partners at the Federal Transit Administration, Mayor Kirk Caldwell and key City Council members reported reaffirming their pledge to make good on funding obligations. But there was no mention of how to address a $44 million puka that the FTA views as a possible funding gap. Honolulu Hale views it as an on-paper-only problem. Whether a real problem or not, the mayor and Council leadership are at odds on how to plug it.

Here’s hoping that the city’s big-picture unity prompts the FTA to sign off soon on the $744 million balance that it has slated for the half-constructed, cash-strapped project.

A bad day for golf course employees, vendors

Last summer, Olomana Golf Links operators had hoped that the worst was behind them. With the launch of a Marine Corps dredging project, they were expecting relief from flooding problems tied, in part, to the military’s maintenance of Waimanalo Stream. And at that time, the golf course had lost revenue — and had to spend extra on cleanup linked to flooding and rain storms — but managed to avoid laying off any of its 35 employees.

Unfortunately, hope to hold steady was dashed on Friday when the 18-hole course, established in the 1960s, apparently couldn’t continue to pay vendors and employees, who were notified that the course would close indefinitely.