Ask the Mayor: When Will Pāʻia Town Get Trash Cans?

Trash. Maui Now photo/graphic.

Mayor Alan Arakawa answers some of the most-asked questions submitted to his office staff.

Dear Mayor Arakawa:

Q: Thanks for continuing to mandate and budget in the recycling centers all over the isle. I know the county budget is hurting now, but you and your supporters did the pono thing!

Mayor, you should know that Pāʻia Main Street Association had hired a great local resident name Benny to do all the trash pickup in town for the last 25 years. Benny is now retired, and he has not been replaced as of yet.

There are few trash receptacles anywhere on Hāna Highway in Pāʻia Town, and what is worse is into the county parking lot next to the bank and Mana Foods. This parking lot is in usage 12 hours a day with overflow parking due to a nonstop influx of customers into Mana Foods. But there is no trash receptacle anywhere in that parking lot and none to my recollection for some five years now. It is literally a dump site.

You should drive into the lot itself on Baldwin Avenue and look at it firsthand. I suggest Public Works picks that up–just one canister needed by the exit ramp–as soon as possible.

With kind regards!

A: Thank you for the suggestion. Yes, Benny did a wonderful job of helping keep the town clean all those years. Mahalo Benny. For many years, Benny was working with the Pāʻia Merchants Association, which has now reorganized itself into the Pāʻia Town Association.

The good news is that the PTA just received a grant from my Office of Economic Development for $23,000 to purchase and install six trash cans in Pāʻia Town. The trash cans should be installed by July 1 and there is enough funding to provide daily maintenance through March 2016.

The funding is being made possible through the Small Town Grant Program; PTA is also looking for more sustainable funding to carry out and possibly expand the trash collection program.

Want to Ask the Mayor?

Submit your questions about County of Maui programs, services, operations or policies to Mayor Alan Arakawa via email at [email protected], by phone at 270-7855 or by mail to 200 S. High St., 9th Floor, Wailuku, HI 96793. Questions submitted will be considered for inclusion in the Ask the Mayor column.