The Maui News -- 29 March 1996
Prophet Zarquon
The Maui News - Friday, March 29, 1996
The Week In Review
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>From Sharon Westfall <wes...@aloha.net>
HOTEL OCCUPANCY -- With Kaanapali nudging 90 percent full, the state
recorded its best February for occupancy in six years, according to
Pannell Kerr Forster, the Honolulu accounting and consulting firm that
collects the statistics. With the exception of Molokai, everybody in the
state did well. Cheap hotels in Waikiki topped 95 percent occupancy.
Maui's overall rate was up three points to 87 percent. Molokai's rate was
unimproved at 54 percent. The overall state rate was 88.3 percent. Not
since 1990, when the rate hit 88.8 percent, has Hawaii had a busier
February. The average daily room rate was $131.23, up 7.8 percent.
Another way of measuring business, revenue per available room, was up even
more, by 14.4 percent to $115.92. Oahu's overall occupancy rate was 92.8,
up six points. Big Island occupancy was listed at 79.6 percent for the
west side. Not enough Hilo-side hotels participate in the voluntary
survey to be reported. Kauai's rate was 75.6 percent. Maui had had a
good February in 1995. Thus, Kaanapali's high rate was only a slight
grain over the year before, although the average daily room rate gained
about 4 percent, from $154.20 to $160.48.
HANA GARDENLAND -- Hana Gardenland finally won its special use permit from
the Maui Planning Commission. First lady Hillary Clinton's favorite at
the cafe, waffles with Ulupalakua strawberries, did not make the cut.
Waffles are still in, but a condition states only with "Hana fruit." The
vote was unanimous, a result that concealed a long, contentious and
difficult struggle. The approved permit, granted by the planning
commission acting for the Land Use Commission, is for a slimmed-down
business, minus its art gallery and with a very restricted list of retail
items -- just film, postcards and local craft and cultural products.
Until now, the business had operated without permits. Paul Mancini,
representing landowner Blair Shurtleff, said a good-faith effort to obtain
necessary permits was made, but the job never got done. Shurtleff finally
started over, seeking aspecial use permit in the articultural zone, but it
was turned down by the commission in 1994, following the recommendation of
the Hana Advisory Committee. It took a year and a half for the formal
notice that the application had been diallowed to be delivered, and the
business continued to operate. Once the notice was received, Mancini
filed a petition for reconsideration. However, the details were amended
to reduce the scope of the business considerably. Commissioners
acknowledged that the community is so deeply divided that no decision
would be satisfying to everyone. "We don't make friends here," said
Commissioner Moana Andersen.
ROGUE WAVE'S VICTIM -- A spring break fishing trip for two Maui High
School seniors came to a tragic end when one of the teens was swept out to
sea by a wave crashing onto the rocky coastline where they had set up
camp. Kristopher Aguirre, 18, of Kula, and his cousin, Alan Cabos, 18, of
Makawao, had driven down a steep jeep trail to reach the cliffside spot.
Early the next morming, at about 4:30 a.m., the waves became alarmingly
high, so the fishermen becan packing up their gear to leave. Suddenly a
big wave loomed, and the two tried to run for safety. "Me and him was
running, and it hit me first," Cabos said. "I managed to hang on to the
rocks. (Kris) was still running when the wave hit him." Cabos said
Aguirre was swept into the ocean and could be heard calling to him through
the darkness. Cabos called back to tell his friend to stay away from the
rocks while he ran for a cooler to throw in as a floatation device. He
said he heard Aguirre's voice getting farther and farther away, until
after about 30 minutes later, he couldn't hear him anymore. Cabos said
his cellular phone had been washed away, along with two of the seven ulua
poles they had set up on the rocks. He was trapped on the outcropping by
the surf, unable to reach shore. The only way to get up to their truck
was to jump into the ocean and swim for it. After climbing to a dry
ground, he drove up the dirt trail to the nearest residence and called for
help. Searchers found no trace of the missing teen.
FORMER PUBLISHER DIES -- Frances Baldwin Cameron, 92, scion of a kamaaina
Maui family and former publisher of The Maui News, died at her home,
Keanuenue, in Makawao. Mrs. Cameron was born July 3, 1903 in Hmakuapoko,
Maui, and grew up in Hamakuapoko and Kaluanui. She was the daughter of
Harry Alexander Baldwin and Ethel Smith Baldwin, the granddaughter of
Henry P. Baldwin and the great-granddaughter of Lahaina missionary Dr.
Dwight Baldwin. Her father was manager of the Maui Agricultural Co., one
of the precursors of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., and served several
terms in the Senate of the Territorial Legislature and as a delegate to
Congress. Frances Baldwin met her future husband, J. Walter Cameron, in
Honolulu, and they married in July 1924. The couple moved to Maui, where
he managed a newly started pineapple plantation that was to become Maui
Pinapple Co. With a background in the news business, Cameron began buying
stock in Maui Publishing Co. in the 1930s, and eventually became president
and publisher of The Maui News. After his death, Mrs. Cameron took over
as publisher in 1976. She served in that position, with her son, the late
Colin Cameron, as president, until 1986, when she was succeded as
publisher by her daugher, Mary C. "Maizie" Sanford. At the time of her
death, Mrs. Cameron was a director emeritus of Maui Land & Pineapple Co.
She was involved in numerous community organizations and was an amateur
artist.
SANCTUARY PANEL -- Fifteen citizens were named to a panel charged with
giving advice in the development and management of the Hawaiian Islands
Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. The appointees -- including
nine from Maui County -- will join six state agency representatives and
four federal agency representatives to complete the 25-member Sanctuary
Advisory Council. The group includes people who have openly opposed the
sanctuary as well as some ardent supporters. There are representatives
from business; Native Hawaiians; research, education and conservation
interests; government agencies; and others concerned with the long-term
protection of humpback whales. The Maui County members are: Claude
Sutcliffe of Molokai; James Coon of Lahaina's Trilogy Excursions; marine
biologist Hannah Bernard; Donna Liddicote, the Marine Options Program
coordinator at Maui Community College' Thelma Kia-Shimaoka, Office of
Hawaiian Affairs Maui liaison; boat operator Skip Weinstein of Lahaina;
Janice Pinney, head of the Activity Operators Association of Maui; Stan
Butler, executive director of Kihei-based Whales Alive; and Greg Kaufman,
president of the Pacific Whale Foundation in Kihei.
CRASH CLAIMS TEEN -- A St. Anthony High School student injured in a Feb.
27 wreck in Waiehu died at the Queen's Medical Center on Oahu. Shawn
Cravalho, 16, of Kahului, was airlifted to the Honolulu hospital in
critical condition the day of the single-car accident on Malaihi Road near
Kahekili Highway. Police reported that Cravalho was a passenger in a 1985
Nissan station wagon driven by a 16-year-old female at about 5 p.m. when
the car swerved and hit a utility pole in rainy weather. The drive was
treated and released at Maui Memorial Hospital. His death is the eighth
traffic fatality of the year in Maui County, compared with five at this
time last year.
'SPOT REMOVER' -- Dog lovers won a temporary stay of execution for dogs
accused of slaying innocent farm animals. The Senate Judiciary Committee
decided against approving what's been dubbed the "Spot Remover" bill,
which would have allowed Neighbor Island farmers to shoot any dog that
comes onto their property to threaten livestock. The state needs to
research how much of a threat dogs have really been to livestock before it
can approve of a bill that would let ranchers kill dogs randomly, said
Committee Chairman Rey Graulty. Sen. Mike McCartney agreed, saying the
total problem can't be defined in one public hearing. Although the House
has approved the bill, the Senate committee decided it would rathers set
up a task force to determine better ways to make dog owners more
responsible for the behavior of their pets. The two houses will make a
compromise on the bill later this session.
--
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