Neighborhood News
Wainaku-Kaiwiki Community Association (WKCA)
July 11, 2008
New Board of Directors Elected for 2008-2009
On June 25, 2008 Wainaku-Kaiwiki Community Association (WKCA) hosted it’s 1st meeting of the year.
Twenty (20) neighbors attended this meeting at Kaiwiki Park. Tom Brookman, WKCA President, opened the meeting and elections commenced. Since there was only one candidate for each office, the
members asked the Secretary to cast a unanimous ballot for the slate of candidates. Your nine (9) new association Board of Directors and Newsletter Editor are:
President Cindy Inoue
Vice President Michael Kingston
Secretary Gina Martinez
Treasurer Bill Lowe
5 Board Members
Tom Brookman
Marcia Cooley
George Horike
Gene Inoue
Richard Stillman
Newsletter Editor: Dan Lindsay
Congratulations on your new appointments!
Upper Kaiwiki Road gets a Face Lift After being on the County Highway (Roads) Department’s project “todo” list for more than a decade, upper Kaiwiki Road residents have newly laid asphalt and divider lines!
Thanks goes to several Board members who were vigilant in
communicating with the County all these years…and a big
Thank You
goes to Council Member Dominic Yagong for meeting with us and ensuring this job was completed. Council Member Yagong and Stanley Nakasone, Director of the County Highway Division and his crew made our dream for safe, improved roadways a reality! They are also looking at alternate exiting routes for upper and lower Kaiwiki Road in case of future emergencies. We don’t want what happened to us on Feb. 1, 2008 to happen again. If you recall, on
that day we had heavy rains and a large tree fell blocking Kaiwiki Road and toppled over power lines stopping many residents from leaving the hill for +10 hours. We’ll keep you posted on their progress.
Next Meeting
Mark your calendar to
attend our next meeting
July 19, 2008, Saturday
1:00 p.m.
Kaiwiki Park
Save Kaiwiki Chapel
Did you know that Wainaku
–
Kaiwiki has its own historical Portuguese oven? It’s located just
below Wainaku Gym in the dense overgrowth area that is now covered with tropical foliage.
This two-compartment stone oven was built more than 100 years ago by long-time resident Ernest Pacheco’s grandfather. It was the focal point of our community when baking Portuguese bread, and sharing meals with family and friends was a way of life around the sugar plantation.
Time has been hard on this old beauty with the constant Hilo rains and natural erosion. The top of the oven caved in and a tree stump calls one of its oven rooms “home”. We’d like to see what can be done to save part of the oven and erect a commerative sign paying tribute to the way of life that once existed and to the many caring,
hard-working residents who made this the strong community it is today. We’re in discussion with Ernest Pacheco and others exploring ideas to save the oven from the perils of natural.
An effort is underway to save this 100 year old plantation chapel
located at 2250-A (upper) Kaiwiki Road.
It was built as a branch chapel to Portuguese Christian Church (now known as downtown Hilo’s Central Christian Church) serving the plantation labor camp families in the region. Last known as
The Church in Hilo, monthly services were offered every 3rd Sunday of the month. Mildred (Pavao) and William Yamamoto devotedly serve as the volunteer grounds care-takers donating their time to maintain the cemetery, lawn and garden. The chapel is deteriorating and the steeple is crumbling. We’re in discussion with United Christian Church (UCC) in Honolulu (parent church) now to see if our Association can save this cornerstone of our community. If given permission to act of their behalf, we will obtain repair cost
estimates.
If the undertaking is within our reach, we will file the State Historical Preservation Division application to see if we can make this a State historical landmark and develop a marketing/communication/fundraising campaign (including a heavy dose of grant writing) to seek the funds we’ll need to begin to restore the chapel.
We will report back on our progress and invite you to participate in saving this neighborhood treasure
.
CERT in our Neighborhood?
The Hawaii County Resource Center offers free CERT Training
(Community Emergency Response Team) to neighborhoods who want to form a team who will participate in a training program that
trains them in basic dsaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood following an event when professional responders (such as the Fire and Police Dept’s) are not immediately available to help. A trained CERT team will provide services that will:
- Increase their neighborhood’s disaster readiness
- Assess damage after a disaster
- Extinguish small fires and teach fire safety
- Perform basic rescue operations and provide 1st aid
