Ask the Mayor Correction: Who Renamed Mokulele Highway?

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, 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.

Dear readers:

The following is a correction to a response that ran in last week’s column.

Q: I really want to know if it was the state that renamed Mokulele Highway to Maui Veterans Highway.

Did they ask the Maui community for input?

I am all for a Maui Veterans Highway, but I am not at all happy to have it replace Mokulele. I think it would have been great to name Airport Access Road, Maui Veterans Road instead. I think our visitors are smart enough to find the airport without having to rely on such a “Captain Obvious” kind of road name. And every visitor in and out of Maui using the Kahului Airport will be honored to drive on Maui Veterans Road.

Can you please do something about this?

A: While the Maui Veterans Highway itself is under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Transportation, the renaming of it was facilitated by the 2017 State Legislature.

The state DOT supported the intent of the name change, but opposed the process.

SB283 was introduced by Sens. Baker, Inouye, Keith-Agaran, K. Rhoads, S. Chang, Green, Harimoto and Nishihara.

Companion bill HB545 was introduced by Reps. McKelvey and Souki.