Kokua Line: Will they reschedule recycling days that fall on Christmas?

Question: Will they reschedule green-waste pickups that happen to fall on Christmas this year? After all this rain my green cart will be overflowing.

Answer: No. Christmas Day and New Year’s Day are the only two days Honolulu County’s collection crews take off. Workers will not be collecting garbage, recyclables, green waste or bulky items on those holidays, which this year fall on Saturdays.

For neighborhoods on the three-cart collection system, recycling days that fall on these holidays won’t be made up. Residents should hold their mixed recyclables (blue cart) and green waste (green cart) until the next scheduled collection date, the Department of Environmental Services said.

However, residents whose garbage pickup (gray cart) is scheduled for Saturdays should place their gray cart at the curb as usual and leave it there until it is emptied, usually a day or so after each holiday.

Residents on twice-a-week manual collection routes should hold their bins until the next scheduled pickup date, the department says.

Q: Many, many years ago, there was a beautiful line of poinsettias along Pali Highway. I told my granddaughters they would have loved it for Instagram! Can you find out what happened to that? We used to go see it every year around Christmas.

A: Kokua Line readers inquire nearly every Christmas about colorful poinsettia hedges the Honolulu Board of Water Supply and later the Department of Parks and Recreation cultivated decades ago on the Ewa side of the Pali Highway near Waokanaka Street.

Last year, Kathleen M. Elliott-Pahinui, spokeswoman for the Honolulu Board of Water Supply, tracked down a 1986 employee newsletter that explained what happened to the bright red and green floral array. We didn’t get a chance to publish the information then. The newsletter said:

“The largest problem to occur with the Nuuanu poinsettias during the 1950s and 1960s was the transition from incandescent to mercury-vapor street lamps. Since poinsettias need a certain amount of darkness to blossom, the intense mercury lights retarded the flowering process for the 1953 season. This negative photoperiodic response was corrected by the placement of metal shades on the street lamps.

“The poinsettias became the responsibility of the Department of Parks and Recreation in the last months of 1974. The poinsettias have not been blooming consistently and the Parks Department claims that severe phytophtora, a fungus which has infested the soil, attacked and ruined the poinsettias.”

They apparently were removed that year (1986) or soon after.

Mahalo

Mahalo to the young lady from Schofield Barracks who rescued my dog at the Mililani McDonald’s drive-thru. I was picking my son up from work and I take our dog, Hana Girl, with us for her double cheeseburger (no onion). You see, Hana Girl has a tumor and it is inoperable. So we decided that we would make her a bucket list and on this bucket list she gets to eat anything, including her latest favorite, double cheeseburgers. I wish to thank the young lady from Schofield Barracks because on this particular night Hana Girl jumped out of my truck and started running toward the drive-thru window with leash and collar still attached. I was panic- stricken because … she just kept running toward the oncoming lights in the drive-thru area. I ran after her and could not find her. Then I heard a car door shut and around the corner came a silver car with Hana Girl in the front seat. I quickly ran to the car and opened the passenger door. Hana Girl was in the seat and did not want to get out. I truly am so thankful for this young lady, who opened her car door and rescued my Hana Girl. I was so excited I forgot to get her name. Needless to say Hana Girl got her double cheeseburger, along with lots of hugs and kisses. — Mahalo, the Smith ohana

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.