Question: Do all city parks close at the same time now?
Answer: No. Closure hours vary from park to park, according to the website for Honolulu’s Department of Parks and Recreation. The most common closure hours are 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., but there are dozens of city parks (or park parking lots) that close earlier than that and only five that close later, according to the list posted at bit.ly/ParkClosureHours.
Last week the department extended the closure hours for Kuhio Beach Park in Waikiki to midnight to 5 a.m., aligning that area’s closure hours with adjacent Kapiolani Park. Previously, Kuhio Beach Park had been closed from 2 to 5 a.m. daily.
Q: My friend said there are two sessions on how to make your money last and that they are on Saturdays, but do you have to belong to AARP?
A: No, free AARP Hawai‘i webinars scheduled for 10 a.m. June 10 and 17 are open to the public. You can register at https://events.aarp.org/HImoney. When you register, don’t opt out of event-related email; if you do, you won’t receive the Zoom link needed to join each webinar — the links will be emailed to registrants prior to the webinars, according to the AARP website.
The June 10 webinar, “Make Your Money Last,” will review investing and saving strategies to help ensure that personal resources last a lifetime. The June 17 webinar, “Understanding IRAs,” will explain Individual Retirement Accounts, Roth IRAs, minimum distributions and rollovers. A certified financial planner will answer questions.
“No products will be sold and no individual financial advice will be given. The workshops are educational and designed to help you make your own financial decisions,” according to a news release from AARP Hawai‘i.
Nearly 20% of Hawaii’s population is 65 or older, the seventh-highest percentage in the country, according to the 2020 U.S. census.
Koko Crater stairs
The Koko Crater trail, popularly known as the Koko Head stairs, will be closed Wednesday and again on June 16, 26 and 29 because a helicopter will be transporting construction material to the summit, Honolulu’s Department of Parks and Recreation said Monday in a news release. A new viewing platform is being built at the summit. The stairs will be open except on days when the helicopter is in use, but the summit itself — a construction site — will be off-limits for the duration of the project, which is expected to last all summer, the news release said.
The deteriorating viewing platform at the top of the roughly 1,050-step ascent will be demolished, and a new one will be built atop the existing concrete foundation. The new viewing platform “will provide approximately 71 square feet of flat viewing area, surrounded by railing and accessible by an additional stairwell,” the news release said.
Q: Is it still possible to transfer a vehicle title by mail on a person-to-person sale? The person I bought the car from is already on the mainland, and all I have is the bill of sale.
A: Yes, although the city warns that’s not the preferred method to avoid fraudulent sales.
“It is highly recommended that the buyer and seller go together in person to transfer the vehicle title and registration (buyer) and submit notice of transfer (seller),” according to Honolulu’s Department of Customer Services’ website. Given that you’ve already paid for the car, find step-by-step instructions for motor vehicle ownership transfer by mail at https://808ne.ws/43mQjQZ.
Mahalo
Many thanks to the young woman who retrieved the HOLO card I had unknowingly dropped while exiting the bus and caught up with me to return it. I was startled and then grateful. — Senior rider
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.
