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Real Property Solutions for Kona Buyers and SellersSM
PAGE 1D
APRIL 3, 2015
FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2015
WESTHAWAIITODAY.COM
75¢
New
principal
for Waimea
Middle
School
The roof of the former Keauhou Beach Hotel, where an old cell phone tower was located,
is seen on Tuesday. PHOTOS BY LAURA SHIMABUKU/WEST HAWAII TODAY
A temporary cell tower is
erected directly across
the street from the former
Keauhou Beach Hotel.
Country Club Villas and nearby developments, Collins has
a one-bar signal when he’s
lucky, can’t make calls indoors,
misses and drops calls. Before
the loss of the tower, it was
common to have three or four
bars.
“Cell service is so taken for
granted, a lot of people have
gotten rid of their landlines,”
Collins said. “It’s an annoyance to me, but it could be
life-threatening to others. The
thing of it is, you have older
people here and it’s a lifeline
for them.”
By contrast, AT&T seems
to function adequately in the
area, several residents said.
“Major change in service the
last few weeks,” said Country
Club Villas resident Cliff
Ahrens. “You can even be in
BY BRET YAGER
byager@westhawaiitoday.com
When Steve Collins was on
his cell phone Tuesday talking
to a reporter about cell coverage in Keauhou, the call was
dropped twice.
That’s just how it’s been for
Verizon customers in makai
areas of Keauhou over the
past few weeks, following the
decommissioning of a tower
on the Keauhou Beach Hotel.
Kamehameha Schools officials
are planning on demolishing
the building, and Verizon has
placed a mobile tower across
the street.
But that weaker, temporary
signal has only left surrounding residents frustrated.
Like other residents of the
the parking lot and miss calls.”
Ahrens suggested the placement of the temporary tower-on-wheels may be wrong,
that it should be higher
mauka. The former tower was
on the roof of the hotel, but
Kamehameha Schools officials
plan a $11.5 million demolition from the top down to
make way for a visitor center
and education facility on the
property, which contains significant cultural and historical
sites and artifacts.
At Keauhou Punahele, resident Steve Zulawinski recently
noticed he couldn’t get data
inside his condo. Poolside, his
voicemail notification will kick
in but the phone doesn’t ring.
“I’ve been tempted to call
Verizon and see what’s going
on,” he said.
highest in Hawaii
County at 29 percent,
followed by Maui
with 25 percent and
Kauai with 19 percent.
Growth will be lowest
in Honolulu County,
which has a projected
growth rate of 8 percent by 2025.
The study found
SEE HOUSING PAGE 4A
SEE PRINCIPAL PAGE 4A
Collins said the cellular
giant has known for years
that the hotel site would
become unavailable and
should have planned better.
But Heidi Flato, a Verizon
spokeswoman, said the company has been working to
relocate the cell site for some
time.
“Unfortunately,
network coverage and capacity
enabled by our cell on wheels
are limited due to the location and antenna height,” said
Flato from California in an
email. “We apologize for the
inconvenience our customers
may experience. We continue
to monitor the performance
of our COW and are working
to improve service until we
secure a location for the new
cell site.”
TMT protesters More housing needed as
growth accelerates
arrested
BY TOM CALLIS
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
Shouts of “ku kiai
mauna” — the guardians
of the mountain — reverberated off ancient cinder
cones and dome-shaped
telescopes Thursday at
Mauna Kea’s summit
as police led 12 arrested
protesters away from the
Thirty Meter Telescope
construction site.
They were among
about 30 arrested on
the mountain by Hawaii
County Police and state
Department of Land and
Natural Resources officers as opponents of the
$1.4 billion project staged
another dramatic protest
on a mountain they say is
sacred ground.
Between 75 and 100
protesters, who referred to
INDEX
themselves as protectors,
participated in the second
roadblock this week on
the Mauna Kea Access
Road. The roadblock was
intended to prevent construction workers from
reaching the site at 13,150
feet above sea level.
The TMT opponents,
who arrived outside the
Mauna Kea visitor center at the 9,000-foot level
before sunrise, held the
workers back for the first
few hours as they staged
multiple roadblocks up
the steep, winding summit road.
The crews eventually
reached the construction
area and began their work
at about noon, but not
before the protesters held
another stand at the site,
WEST HAWAII TODAY
ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com
SEE PROTEST PAGE 5A
Annie’s Mailbox . . . . . . .5B
HI
BY NANCY COOK LAUER
Hawaii County will
need 19,610 new housing units over the next
10 years, as it leads
the state in the rate
of household growth
over the decade.
That’s according
to a study released
Thursday by the
state Department of
Business, Economic
Development
and
Tourism. The study
predicted a demand
on Oahu of 25,847
units, for Maui of
13,949 units and for
Kauai of 5,287 units
between now and
2025.
Housing demand is
calculated based on
the number of new
86 LO 73
Classified . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1D
A new home is under construction in Kona
on Thursday. LAURA SHIMABUKU/WEST HAWAII TODAY
households formed
as families get older,
coupled with the
number of vacant
housing units in the
state and the rate of
change – how many
additional housing
units will be needed
to support a healthy
market turnover.
Household growth
is forecast to be the
Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6B
byager@westhawaiitoday.com
A vice principal with a penchant for outrigger canoe paddling has taken the steersman
position at Waimea Middle
School.
Amy Kendziorski spent two
years as vice principal at Waimea,
and before that was a teacher
at Waianae High School, where
her love of paddling began. Now
a regular at the Kawaihae Canoe
Club, the 25-year veteran of the
public school system took over
the top post at the public conversion charter school during
spring break. She plans to bring
the paddler’s ethic of teamwork
to the job of overseeing 300
students.
Kendziorski
said
on
Thursday she
will work to
keep Waimea
on course with
the accreditation the school
last
Kendziorski received
year, boost student achievement, build the
school’s financial resources and
further parent and community relationships during her
appointment as interim principal to last through the next
school year.
Former Principal Matt Horne
left the helm with plans to move
with his family off island. He
had been at the post for three
years.
Kendziorski has a master’s
degree in educational leadership from San Diego State
University. During 13 years
in Colorado’s Durango School
District, she was in charge of
special and alternative education, health, safety and discipline for a 4,500-student district with 11 schools and a juvenile detention school.
The interim principal said
she is committed to bringing
all students equal opportunity
to achieve instead of segregating them into different environments based on language or
ability. She spent five years as
principal at Durango’s Escalante
Middle School, where she spearheaded federally mandated
“inclusion” practices designed
to ensure that all students were
learning in equal, integrated
environments.
“All children deserve high
quality education,” she said. “We
Can you hear me now? Not really
WEST HAWAII TODAY
BY BRET YAGER
WEST HAWAII TODAY
Nation & World . . . . . . . . .3A
Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8A
Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1B
VOL. 47, NO. 93 42 PAGES
WEATHER, PAGE 11A
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