Question: Why are family members prevented from watching an urn placed in the columbarium during their loved one’s memorial service at Punchbowl? My dad had a beautiful memorial tribute in April, but after the service the Punchbowl funeral director told us that he would go alone to the columbarium to inurn dad’s remains. We would have to wait in the memorial service area, but he would come back after he was done and then we could visit the sealed site at the columbarium.
Answer: Because of your question, families now will be given an opportunity to view an inurnment.
“On behalf of all of us at Punchbowl, I’d first like to apologize” to you for bringing this up, said Nadine Siak, spokeswoman for the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl. “I’m sorry that we did not meet the family’s expectation when their father was interred here.”
Because of “time constraints placed on a cemetery representative at the end of a committal services,” it is “standard practice at VA (Veterans Administration) national cemeteries to have families visit the niche after the inurnment is completed,” she said. “We always strive to accommodate a family’s desires, however, and that would include any request to watch the inurnment.”
Siak explained that next of kin are asked to come to the cemetery 30 minutes before a scheduled committal service to meet the cemetery representative, sign paperwork and learn what will take place during the ceremony.
“We will now take this opportunity to have the cemetery representative ask family members if they wish to observe the inurnment,” she said. “If they do, then the cemetery will make arrangements to accommodate the family immediately following the service at the committal shelter.”
SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS LAWSUIT
The state attorney general’s office is disputing the assertion by attorney Paul Alston, whose law firm represents substitute teachers in a class-action lawsuit seeking back pay, that payments could go out as early as mid-December. (See Monday’s Kokua Line, is.gd/jaONmc.)
Instead, it said the earliest the state anticipates payments to be made is March 5.
In a news release Monday in response to Alston’s statements, the AG’s office said issuing paychecks to about 9,000 teachers (1,000 more than the figure Alston gave) would be “a massive undertaking that will require a reasonable amount of time to implement and accomplish.”
The office said, “Implementing the terms of the settlement agreement in this complex class-action litigation requires a great deal of preparation on the part of the state and cooperation between the parties.”
That preparation would include notifying all of the plaintiffs by direct mail and through notices in two successive issues of the Star-Advertiser. Once final approval of the settlement is given, the state can begin calculating taxes and benefits, preparing tax forms and processing and issuing the paychecks, the office said.
The news release continued, “In September, plaintiffs’ counsel was informed that the state anticipates that the earliest date on which payments can be made will be the March 5, 2014 pay date.”
However, Alston countered that “the reality is that the settlement agreement requires (the state) to issue the payments in a reasonable time.”
“No competent, rational person would think that taking four months or longer to get the payments out is reasonable,” he said. Taking until March to get the payments out is “both inconsistent with the settlement agreement and with any concept of good faith under the agreement.”
A hearing is scheduled before Circuit Judge Karl Sakamoto on Nov. 15, at which time final approval of the settlement on daily wages is expected and a timetable for payments given.
For more information on the class-action suit, go to www.hawaiiclassaction.com/private/faq.asp.
Substitute teachers employed by the state Department of Education from 1996 to July 2004 would qualify as members of the class. Alston said about two dozen people “opted out” of the settlement.
MAHALO
To a young Marine. I had filled up at the Marine Corps gas station at Manana and left the base when, as I began turning at the traffic light, there was a rapping on my VW Bug. Then looking in my rearview mirror, I saw a young Marine sprinting back to his car. After making the turn, it occurred to me that I had forgotten to secure the gas cap, so I pulled into the Longs parking lot to remedy the problem. May that young man have a thousand blessings! — Grateful Marine’s Wife
———
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.
