Ask the Mayor: Will County Continue to Pick Up Abandoned Vehicles?

Mayor Alan Arakawa answers some of the questions submitted to his staff.

Submit your own questions about County of Maui programs, services, operations or policies to Mayor Alan Arakawa at AskTheMayor@mauicounty.gov, (808) 270-7855 or mail them to 200 S. High St., 9th Floor, Wailuku, HI 96793.

Questions submitted will be considered for inclusion in the “Ask the Mayor” column.

Aloha Mayor,

Q: I heard that that Maui County ran out of money for the Junk Vehicles Assistance Program, but does that affect the vehicles that get abandoned on the side of the road? Will they still get picked up?

A: The good news is that the Abandoned Vehicles Program is alive and well and nothing is changing.

The Junk Vehicles Assistance Program and the Abandoned Vehicles Program are not the same thing.

We will continue to remove abandoned vehicles from public roadways as we have been doing for years.

The Junk Vehicles Assistance Program being suspended is a pilot program that offered a subsidy that paid for disposal costs for residents to junk/dispose of their vehicles in an effort to prevent people from abandoning them.

The county Department of Environmental Management is currently identifying sources of funding so we can reinstate the program. The department is unable to give us a timeline when it will be reinstated.

The Department of Environmental Management will be requesting funds for the program for the 2019 Fiscal Year.

In the meantime, the public can still take their junk vehicles to the permitted recycling facility, Hammerhead Metals, for a fee. Call Hammerhead at (808) 280-8844 for fees, hours and policies.