Maui News

Kūlanihākoʻi Street in Kīhei will be closed between Piʻilani Highway and Māhealani Place for sidewalk reconstruction work from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 27, to Friday, March 3, according to a County of Maui announcement.

Public feedback is being sought on the latest renderings and floor plans for “Hālau of ʻŌiwi Art,” a Hawaiian cultural center slated for Wailuku, during an open house Monday night in Wailuku. The informational open house will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27, at the Maui Academy of Performing Art’s Promenade Food Court located at 2050 Main St., Wailuku, a news release said.

East Maui residents can take large appliances, automobile tires and batteries, and scrap metal to the Hana Landfill on March 17 and 18 during a County of Maui Hana Metals Collection and Recycling Event.

Work to remove fuel, other pollutants, and batteries from the grounded 94-foot-long luxury yacht Nakoa, will continue today (Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023) at Honolua Bay in northwest Maui. The State will bill the yacht’s owner for reimbursement of the $460,000 salvage cost, and for additional staff and administrative costs, and take legal action if necessary.

The most recent Visitor Satisfaction and Activity Survey released Friday surveyed visitors from the U.S. West, U.S. East, Canada, Japan, Oceania, Korea, and China who visited Hawai‘i from October to December 2022. More than 60% of visitors from all markets indicated they were “very likely” to return to Hawai‘i in the next five years, a news release from state DBEDT said.

A worker at one of Maui’s largest private employers, Grand Wailea, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, filed a class-action lawsuit Friday alleging owners of the luxury hotel giant misclassified hundreds of spa and salon workers, groundskeepers, facilities maintenance personnel and window washers as independent contractors in a “fraudulent scheme” to avoid pay and benefits at two of its landmark hotels, the Grand Wailea and Beverly Hills Waldorf Astoria.

Skunks are prohibited in Hawai’i. They are avid egg-eaters and would pose a threat to Hawai‘i’s native ground-nesting birds if they become established. 

Michael Castillo, the head golf professional at Kapalua Golf’s Plantation Course, has been awarded a sponsor exemption to compete in the 2023 Cologuard Classic by Exact Sciences, a PGA TOUR Champions event to be played March 3 through 5 at Omni Tucson National Resort in Tucson, Ariz., according to a news release issued today.

Cooke Memorial Pool on Molokaʻi will be closed for staff lifeguard training on Monday, Feb. 27, according to a county announcement.

Marc Togashi, Hawaiʻi Tourism Agency’s vice president of finance, will be leaving the organization Feb. 28 to assume a leadership position at the state Department of Human Resources Development, according to a news release.

Aloha Pacific Federal Credit Union is now accepting applications for its annual Masami Oishi Memorial Scholarship program. The deadline to apply is April 21.

Seabury Hall junior Dean Tapler has been selected to represent Kahului as a National Youth Delegate to the 2023 Washington Youth Summit on the Environment at George Mason University in Washington, D.C.

To recognize the big importance of tiny snails from Hawai’i, Gov. John Green on Thursday proclaimed 2023 the Year of the Kāhuli. The governor signed a proclamation Thursday that hails the native Hawaiian species, which inhabited almost every ecosystem across the state and played a key role in the natural and cultural life of Hawai’i, according to a state Department of Land and Natural Resources news release.

Hula kiʻi, a rare Hawaiian ritual dance of carved puppetry images, will be showcased from 10 a.m. to noon Sunday at Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s McCoy Studio Theater.

Maui County last month had the largest vacation rental supply and average daily rate of all four counties, according to a state report released Thursday. 

The statewide release of a small wasp to battle the devastating berry borer beetle — which causes millions in Hawai’i coffee crop damage — moved another step closer to taking flight. 

The U.S. Coast Guard with the help of a private contractor removed several barrels of diesel Thursday from a 94-foot-long luxury yacht that ran aground Monday in Honolua Bay and began leaking fuel in the marine life conservation district. Meanwhile, Mauians took to social media to decry the state’s alleged lack of mooring rule enforcement that could have prevented the incident and to critique the slow response time from state and federal officials that worsened the situation.

Pā’ia Bay Coffee & Bar is holding a two-day job fair starting today. Workers for a variety of positions are being sought. Interested candidates for bartender, hostesses, line and prep cooks, baristas, servers, bussers may attend the fair from 1 to 5 p.m. today or from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at the restaurant’s new location, 120 Hana Highway.

US Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) toured General Dynamics HSI-Electric Boat with HSI-Electric Boat leadership on Wednesday. The company provides installation, maintenance, troubleshooting and repair services for US Navy ships and nuclear submarines, commercial shipping vessels, wind turbines and conventional power generation operations, refineries, and medical facilities. 

Maʻemaʻe (cleanliness, purity) represents the idea that descriptions and portrayals of Hawai‘i should be clean, attractive and pure, and therefore without misrepresentations or inaccuracies.