Brighamia insignis

Brighamia insignis (Campanulaceae family) is one of the rare and unique endemic plants native to Kauai. Today I had an opportunity to assist pollinating some specimens at the National Tropical Botanical Garden.

Mature plants look a little like cabbage growing at the top of a long branchless trunk that's fat at the bottom and tapering up.

We began by inventorying the plants they have in the nursery which is fewer than a hundred and of these perhaps two or three dozen were flowering. Of those flowering, we only had a few distinct genetic lines to work with, of which only one type was from the wild. The flowers function as male or female at different times and manage not to self-pollinate.

The idea was to cross the plants as much as possible in hopes of getting more viable offspring. Only a few plants were providing pollen so that was the limiting factor. This closeup of the process (remarkably clear for a cell phone shot) shows the pollen being applied to the sticky center of the flower. We managed to do five different crosses to a couple of specimens each. All the plants we were working with came from the Napali coast.

This will be an ongoing process as there are lots more flowering specimens still developing. We also need to learn what time of day (and other factors) will be most conducive for success.

It will be interesting to see if these attempts produce seed and then how those plantings do. If we are lucky perhaps these unusual plants can be grown out and reintroduced in the wild.

Nualolo hike

Saturday I hiked the Nualolo Trail which I have written about here before several times. If you forced me to name my choice for best hike in Kokeʻe this would be it. Instead of yet another detailed hiking guide, I wanted to write about the day a little differently.

Heading up to Kokeʻe on Highway 550 (turn mauka on the west end of Waimea town, right where the big sign points you out to Kekaha to take Kokeʻe Road for reasons I cannot understand) you get some great views of Niʻihau Island. The best views are usually from the lower elevations (below 1000 feet) which means the first few turn outs once you get up past the last houses and water tank. (Photo at left looking back toward Waimea of the road where best views can be had.) Repeatedly I have put off stopping to see Niʻihau Island until the return trip and almost always the view is much hazier in the afternoon so I recommend taking a few minutes to stop on the way up if it is clear.

The photo above was from a pretty clear day (click to see larger size): look closely. On the right is Lehua, the uninhabited small island north of Niʻihau. Note the other two arrows that show you the full extent of the island. Unless it is very clear it's easy to think just the taller middle part of the island, shown in the center here, is the whole island but actually very flat and low land extends a few miles in both directions. To the left in this photo what looks like another small island is actually the south end of Niʻihau: in between is connected but so low usually you can't see it.

I went hiking with a guy recently who says everyone going up the mountain should take a few minutes to see the canyon and I think that is a good idea so I make it a habit to stop at the Waimea Canyon Lookout (well marked first major turnoff on the right). Every time the light is different and I have never been disappointed. From here you can look across and up side canyons, or further up the Waimea River with a major waterfall (Waipoʻo Falls) on the far side of the canyon, or downriver and out over Waimea town to sea.

The Nualolo Trail starts close enough to the Kokeʻe Lodge and museum that I just part there. Just as I was getting set to go a woman asked about the Nualolo Trail being closed? I knew exactly what the confusion was: the Nualolo Cliff Trail that contacts the Nualolo to the Awaawapuhi Trail has been closed for some time I explained, but the Nualolo was definitely open and a great hike. We ended up hiking together, doing a brisk hike out since she had an early afternoon flight to catch. I played tour guide a little and we had a good conversation and when we got out to where the great views are she wanted me to take a photo featuring her special pose (a break dance move called "Baby Freeze"), and that's Niʻihau island again in the background on horizon visible on the right.

After a short time out at the trail end enjoying the spectacular views - it was an ideal day for this hike - she high tailed it back but I spent more time out there and then leisurely (it is uphill almost all the way) headed back up. On the right that's Nualolo Aina valley and the Na Pali coast stretches toward Kalalau on the left.

Back at the car as I was heading back home I noticed something on the car windshield - a note from Nina noting the time she made it back, in plenty of time to make her flight and whatever adventures awaited here on Oahu for the rest of her trip.

Summertime

It's summer on Kauai: mostly sunny days and a little warmer than usual. We are in the middle of hurricane season and had a recent scare - although the Big Island was serious hit in places - and possibly more storms are brewing. Follow the latest here.

On a recent walk after a couple miles I was coming in to town, the sun was overhead, and I was quite thirsty … What more could one ask for than a homemade lemonade stand right there by the road: they even wrote the "D" backwards. If you look carefully at the sign you can see their business strategy is to sell to the high end customer (the price is 25 50 c). They didn't have change so I gave them a dollar. Good to see that some things like this that I remember from childhood have staying power.

Summer also means bon dance at the local Buddhist temples. Originating with the Japanese community here, bon dances are popular with locals of all backgrounds, inundating one of the temples every weekend through much of the summer. Bon dance is loosely based on Japanese bon odori where the dancers proceed with proscribed steps, circling a raised dais in the center of a circle. There are organized groups of dancers as well as lots of audience participation. Serious dancers go to practice sessions to learn the numerous varieties of dance but most people just watch the people near them and follow along.

Lots of people are at the beach and in the water. A friend who recently visited made a short video featuring lots of water sports.

Summer also means an extra plentiful supply of local fruit. The mango trees are starting to ripen - I just peeled several pounds for freezing and will back mango bread (with mac nuts). Soursop is also coming.

Primary election results

The election results from yesterday's primary are in (not official final yet but the writing is on the wall).
Here's my analysis of the local races for mayor and county council.

• Incumbent Mayor Carvalho looks on track to re-election.
• Most of the incumbent county council members are leading the pack, with newcomer Arryl Kaneshiro placing an impressive third.

Overall, the prospects for any kind of change seem small to none.

Mayor

Mayor Carvalho did well against a well organized challenge from Dustin Barca (former pro surfer and mixed martial arts fighter). Clearly the incumbent mayor was expected to do well but I saw a lot more Barca signs and he made news with his run around the island. By percentage you can see (below) that The Mayor is weakest on the north shore which is where Barca's strength is. Barca's won't have a chance in the general general election unless he can compete with The Mayor in Lihue, south side, or (where I expect his best chances would be) west side.

NOTE: The precincts numbers below from Hanalei 14-01 working around the highway (clockwise) toward the west side winding up Niihau 16-06. 

	BARCA	CARVALHO
14-01	25.94%	12.63%
14-02	29.47%	14.85%
14-03	19.22%	22.80%
14-04	15.52%	25.47%
14-05	11.95%	28.04%
15-01	17.11%	24.58%
15-02	7.93%	30.92%
15-03	8.49%	34.56%
15-04	9.79%	33.71%
15-05	14.73%	26.24%
16-01	14.19%	24.16%
16-02	14.18%	29.59%
16-03	7.55%	32.44%
16-04	10.88%	35.11%
16-05	8.13%	33.04%
16-06	2.08%	40.63%

County Council

For all the talk out there about dissatisfaction with county government, I was a little surprised to see the very same names leading the pack. 

• Only Arryl Kaneshiro beat any elected incumbent. As an employee of Grove Farm, one of the biggest land holders on the island, I wonder how he will be an independent voice of the people.
• Incumbent Mason Chock, Sr. (who I think is one of our best council members) was appointed, not elected, and has the farthest to come to get re-elected.
• Kualiʻi who finished eighth (just below getting on the council) is poised in that position again.
• Police Chief Perry is also close to getting in (impressive since I can't recall seeing a Perry sign).
• Billy DeCosta ("Don't be silly, vote for Billy.") made a stronger showing than I expected.

The results are shown below (based on latest official results as of 08/10/2014 at 03:16:25 am) with candidates in the top seven (who would be elected if this were the general election) in bold, and below the cutoff (14) to get into the general election shown grayed out in italics.

Candidate	Votes
RAPOZO	9,592
KAGAWA	9,387
KANESHIRO	8,173
YUKIMURA	7,252
FURFARO	6,868
HOOSER	6,642
BYNUM	5,839
KUALIʻI	5,525
PERRY	4,902
CHOCK	4,672
BRUN	4,577
COWDEN	4,524
DeCOSTA	4,243
LARANIO	3,754
KATO-KLUTKE	3,409
KANEKOA	3,056
KAAUWAI	2,243
GEORGI	2,102
LEONG	1,816
HOROSHKO	801

Finally, I would like to thank all the candidates, including Ron Horoshko who runs Birdie's restaurant at the Kukuiolono golf course, for participating in our democracy.

Kauaʻi County annual report

Kauaʻi county publishes an annual report summarizing the activities of each department for the past fiscal year. The 2012-2013 report is just out and can be found here.

The county fiscal year is from July to June, so that means it took nearly 13 months to get the report out this year. I wrote to the mayor's office asking why the delay and with persistence heard this year they took extra time without an explanation of why. Normally the report is out by late fall they said.

A few highlights from reading a few sections:

• County Auditor
• The review of county take-home car policy (notably including the gas the county pays for that allegedly went to personal use) is still in progress.
• County Auditor returned 36% of the budget unused
• County Attorney
• almost $500,000 over budget (apparently unplanned high cost of litigation)
• the county is embroiled in lawsuits against it: well over 100 cases were pending at the start of the fiscal year (two years ago, July 1, 2012) and just over 100 were filed during FY2012-2013; since only 50-some cases closed that means the county had nearly 200 cases pending as of June 30, 2013.
• Mayor
• a collection of reports from a number of boards and projects under the mayor's office

There are a total of 19 department sections in the county annual report. I will update with highlights from a few more at a time.

Fiscal Year 2012 - 2013 Annual Report by Department

Annual Report Cover

Message from the Mayor
Table of Contents
Section I: Office of the County Attorney
Section II: Civil Defense Agency
Section III: Department of Personnel Services
Section IV: Office of Economic Development
Section V: Agency on Elderly Affairs
Section VI: Department of Finance
Section VII: Kauai Fire Department
Section VIII: Kauai County Housing Agency
Section IX: Department of Liquor Control
Section X: Office of the Mayor
Section XI: Department of Parks & Recreation
Section XII: Planning Department
Section XIII: Kauai Police Department
Section XIV: Office of the Prosecuting Attorney
Section XV: Department of Public Works
Section XVI: Transportation Agency
Section XVII: Department of Water
Section XVIII: Office of the County Clerk
Section XIX: Office of the County Auditor

Healthcare in Kauaʻi

We visited West Kauai Medical Center recently and this post is a small thank you for excellent medical
service. Everything went smoothly and the staff was uniformly friendly and competent.

While visitors don't think about this when considering the trip, we do read in the papers about visitors needing medical care unexpectedly while here. No Kauaʻi facility does complex major surgery (airlift to Honolulu for that) but the capabilities for here are hardly primitive either. Visitors with serious emergencies can get support from Visitor Aloha Society of Kauai - one of those things nobody wants to ever need, but nonetheless it's good to know it's there.

Living in Kauaʻi one often hears complaints about the level of medical care available. Many times I have heard this as the stated reason people move to the mainland or to Honolulu which has comparable facilities. No doubt regional healthcare is a major challenge in this country and being on an island makes it even harder. Certainly anyone with chronic health issues requiring specialized or intensive treatment will find it difficult if not impossible to live here.

Locally people are worried about plans to possibly close the Kalaheo Clinic and are taking action to keep the doors open. With a small population and everything being expensive here there are a number of clinics that rely on government grant subsidies, and this year money is tight.

UPDATE: The Kalaheo Clinic has just gotten a six-month extension to stay open but the battle for survival is far from over.

Healthcare is not a hypothetical issue for any of is. Coincidentally while writing this for the first time in this neighborhood we heard sirens and fire department and later ambulance arrived at a house a block away where they seem to be taking someone to the hospital. Annually 911 gets over 2000 calls for medical emergencies.

Markʻs Place

Recently I discovered perhaps the best plate lunch on Kauaʻi at Mark's Place, located west of the Lihue shopping mall in Puhi. Food is always well prepared and fresh, portions are plentiful, and service is friendly. They take orders at the register and food is prepared to go but there are a few picnic benches outside if you want to eat there. This place is clearly a favorite with the locals and it is so popular you should expect it to be crowded so parking is tight and you will have to wait a few minutes in line to order but it works out just fine - you might meet someone while everyone is standing around and waiting. If you are in a hurry check out the menu as well as daily specials first, then call to place your order in advance.

In addition to the regular menu they have daily specials as well as a selection of baked goods. Today I had the Furikake crusted ahi, wasabi butter sauce ($10.75) - it was well prepared, generous portion, and quite tasty. I you like spicy food I recommend adding (to taste) some Sriracha sauce (available there) to the mac salad to give it a little kick.

Getting there: Mark's Place is tucked away in an industrial area a ways from the main highway so it's a little tricky to find the first time. From Highway 50 at the Puhi intersection (opposite Kauaʻi Community College) go makai (South) a half mile; turn right at Hanalima Street; turn right at Haleukana Street and immediately turn right into the parking lot.

Details: (for latest see the web site)

1610 Haleukana Street  Lihue, HI 96766

(808) 245-2522

Monday thru Friday:  10:00 AM to 8:00 PM, closed weekends and holidays

Kauai County election filings closed

In 2014 Kauai elects the mayor and county council. Here is a summary of candidates who have filed nomination papers - to appear on the ballot the signatures they have collected still need to be verified. This year we elect the mayor and the full council; the prosecuting attorney is not up for election until 2016. State office holders are also on the ballot, but not mentioned in this piece.

• Register to vote (or re-register if you have moved) by July 10, or call 808-241-4800
• Request absentee mail-in ballot at least one week before election day
• Primary election is August 9, voting begins July 28
• General election is November 4, voting begins October 21
• Kauai county elections web page, elections fact sheet
• League of Women Voter's candidate info: Mayor, Council
• Last election (2012 results): over 40,000 registered with over 25,000 voting

Mayor

There are four mayoral candidates with the top two vote-getters from the primary going on to the general election. Incumbent mayor is widely expected to win but there is a lot of buzz about former pro surfer Dustin Barca challenging in his first election for public office.

1. Dustin Barca - Kilauea
2. Bernhard Carvalho, Jr. (i) - Kapaa, wikipedia; Facebook (not updated since 2010)
3. Debralynn M. Desilva-Carveiro - Eleele
4. Curtis H. Lake - Kapaa

County Council

All seven council positions are up for election this year. The top 14 vote-getters in the primary will be on the General Election ballot for the seven at-large positions. Vote for the best candidates of your choice, not necessary to vote for seven. I recommend against the strategy one sometimes hears of not voting for good candidates considered "sure to win" - obviously if everyone did that it doesn't work. Over-voting (voting for more than seven) is not allowed an nullifies your vote so count carefully.

1. Arthur Brun - Kekaha, works for Syngenta (biotechnology corporation)
2. Tim L. Bynum (i) - Kapaʻa, recently won settlement to lawsuit against the county in court
3. Mason K. Chock, Sr. (i) - Kapaʻa
4. Felicia E. Cowden - Kilauea, prominent local radio personality
5. J. Furfaro (i) - Princeville, current chair of the council
6. Joanne Georgi - Eleele, ran for state senate unsuccessfully in 2010
7. Gary L. Hooser (i) - Kapaʻa
8. Ronald J. Horoshko - Kalaheo, operates the golf course cafe Birdie's
9. Joseph H. Kaauwai, Jr. - Anahola, ran and lost in 2012
10. Ross K. Kagawa (i) - Lihue
11. Ernest L. Kanekoa, Jr. - Kalaheo, police commission member
12. Arryl J. Kaneshiro - Lihue
13. Sandra I. Klutke - Kapaʻa, on the Agribusiness Development Council (source)
14. Kipukai L.P. Kuaalii - Anahola, ran and narrowly lost in 2012
15. Tiana K. Laranio - Kapaʻa
16. Arnold W. F. Leong - Hanapepe
17. Darryl D. Perry - Lihue, chief of police
18. Melvin F. Rapozo (i) - Kapaʻa
19. JoAnn A. Yukimura (i) - Lihue, former mayor

My predictions for the primary election, not that it matters:

• Mayor: Carvalho (over 50%) and a strong showing from Barca for mayor
• Council: all incumbents plus Brun, Cowden, Georgi, Kanekoa, Kaneshiro, Kuaalii, Perry

When to Visit Kauai

Based on my experience visiting here and living here, here is my answer to the common question of what to consider when planning the timing of a visit. Tourism is active all year round but there are peaks and low volume seasons. When tourism is up you can count on higher rates and lower availability for lodging and rental cars so expect to plan further ahead and to pay more.

Weather trends are reliable but exactly what the weather will be on a given day seems increasingly hard to predict. Even during the cooler and wetter season it could well be hot and rainless, and vice versa.
Key dates are listed below with understanding that obviously the crowds ramp up several days before and after holidays - i.e. the Christmas / New Year peak season starts around December 20 and tails off after the first week in January.

Christmas - New Year	cool/wet	Very crowded	Busiest time of the year
January - April	cool/wet	Moderately crowded	Busier around holidays
May	moderate	Less crowded	Busier after Memorial Day
June	warmer/drier	Moderately crowded	Busier after schools are out
July - Labor Day	warmest/driest	Crowded	Beaches especially crowded
September - October	warmer/drier	Less crowded	Less busy after school starts
November - December	cooler/wetter	Less crowded	Thanksgiving week is busy

Other seasonal considerations include:

• Hurricanes season in the Pacific runs from summer to fall with September as prime time.
• The Garden Island is colorful all year around but late spring to early summer blooms peak.
• Tropical fruit is especially abundant in the summer time.
• Learn about the Hawaii climate.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual
Hi	77.9	77.8	78.2	79.2	81.1	83.0	84.0	84.6	84.8	83.3	80.8	78.6	81.1
Lo	65.0	65.1	66.4	68.2	70.0	72.3	73.5	74.0	73.5	72.0	70.1	67.2	69.8
Rain	5.24	3.61	4.73	2.89	2.63	1.68	2.02	2.00	2.36	4.30	5.18	5.13	41.76

• Source: Average Lihue montyly weather (1950-2005)
• Average Temperatures in Fahrenheit, Rainfall in inches

Kalaheo water details

There has been interest in details I have been writing up here from folks in the community, so here are some more. I hope it is of interest.

Most of today water department trucks were gathered at the entrance to Kakela Makai around a hole in the road working on something.

Gauging the water level in the tank

Today I learned from a citizen in the Kakela Makai area how you can tell the level of water in the supply tanks, i.e. how close the community is to running out of water.

Along Puu Road on the makai side of the Kukuiolono golf course there is a big green water tank. The GPS location is approximately (21.912192,-159.523775) or see Google map.

Along the right side of the tank is a white vertical bar that has an indicator that goes up and down: see the yellow arrow in photo at left. This is attached to a pulley at the top, over, and down into the tank connected to a float to measure the water level. The further up this indicator goes the lower down the float is and vice versa. This shot (June 2, 3pm) shows the indicator about 1/4 from the top (dashed yellow line) which means the water lever is roughly 1/4 from empty (dashed blue line below). As the indicator moves lower it means there is more water in the tank (and if you look closely at the Google Street view at the link above, the indicator is down a few feet from ground level) showing normal very full supply.

Kalaheo's wells and water tanks

The two wells that have both failed causing this water shortage are mauka side uphill from the highway, approximately at (21.938187,-159.525099) according to the map provided at the water department meeting on Saturday. There is a water tank near the wells and another tank (100,000 gallon) further uphill on Puuwai Road.

On the other side of the highway to the south in addition to the Puu Road tank shown above, there is a (250,000 gallon) tank up near the northeast edge of the Kukuiolono golf course, roughly at (21.9180151,-159.5261859).

What about all the other water?

At the water department meeting one good question was about potentially using Alexander Reservoir (21.9570011,-159.5243735) which is just uphill from the highest mauka tank and presumably contains lots of water. Chief Engineer Saiki responded that the water treatment facility for the reservoir was damaged in Iniki (major hurricane) and have been abandoned. Restoring the treatment facility probably doesn't make sense as an interim measure since it would take considerable time and expense, probably repairing the wells is cheaper and faster. Additionally, since this isn't a department of water reservoir (it seems to be private) it isn't even part of the system as I understand it. This explanation makes sense to me. 

Another question was about the nearby Kauai Coffee fields having water while the adjoining neighborhoods in Kalaheo don't. The coffee fields are supplied by private agricultural water system not part of the department of water and since it is non-potable water it isn't clear how they could even usefully share even if they wanted to. That said, so see all that water running in ditches when you have none in the tap is hard to ignore.

Kauai new ordinances

After all the Bill 2491 / Ordinance 960 hubbub last year the legislative activities of the county council have been relatively quite. I recently heard about new county legislation to address the long-standing issue of dealing with barking dogs had passed but it took quite an effort to find it online. This seems like a good reminder so I managed to dig up all the recent new county law.

Here is a summary with links to the actual details. Obviously the law is more complicated than a simple summary so read the linked text if you want to understand the details.

Ordinance 960 - "The Bill" (more precisely Bill 2491) about pesticides and GMO.

Ordinance 961 - Repeals temporary exemptions to ease rebuilding after Hurricane Iniki (well over twenty years ago). Specifically, repeals Ordinances 642, 649, 653, 689, and 716.

Ordinance 962 - Provides exemption from solid waste dumping fees for volunteer public space cleanups.

Ordinance 965 - Provides mandatory licensing for pet cats.

Ordinance 966 - Extends the deadline for homeowners to apply for the Home Preservation Tax Limit (a low income property tax reduction) this year.

Ordinance 967 - Barking dog law.

Ordinance 968 - Changes some fees for solid waste disposal and incorporates the public cleanup exemption of Ordinance 962.

Ordinance 969 - Updates county vehicle tax raising rates.

I do not know why numbers 963-964 were skipped.

The barking dog ordinances carefully defines nuisance barking and imposes escalating fines after an attempt at remediation. A dog violates the ordinance if it "barks, bays, cries, or howls intermittently for a period of twenty (20) minutes within a thirty (30) minute period of time, or continuously or incessantly for a period of ten (10) minutes." It's not easy to define exactly what constitutes a problem but I'm not sure this is the definition I would come up with. I am not a lawyer but I think like art it is something people generally recognize when they see hear it.

Let's hope nobody has a dog next door that barks for nine minutes continuously then takes a six minute rest as I don't believe that qualifies as a violation!

It's nice to see the council addressing contentious issues without an island-wide firestorm. Hope it works.

County council race update

With the filing deadline a few days away here is an updated list of candidates (as of 30 May) vying to get on the primary ballot.

The council's latest appointment Mason K. Chock, Sr. has now filed so all incumbents should be on the ballot ... with the surprising exception of council chair J. Furfaro who has not yet filed nomination papers.

Question mark (?) indicates candidates who have not completed filing. Candidates file and receive papers that they must returned with voter signatures to get on the ballot. June 3 is the deadline to file nomination. Next step to getting on the ballot is for the nomination papers to be validated by election officials to ensure they have the requisite number of voter signatures.

New candidates since last time I reviewed the field are in italics.

1. ? Dominic C. Acain - Kekaha
2. ? William U. Asing - Lihue
3. Arthur Brun - Kekaha, works for Syngenta (biotechnology corporation)
4. Tim L. Bynum (i) - Kapaʻa, recently won settlement to lawsuit against the county in court
5. Mason K. Chock, Sr. (i) - Kapaʻa
6. Felicia E. Cowden - Kilauea, prominent local radio personality
7. ? Vince E. Flores - Lawai
8. ? J. Furfaro (i) - Princeville, current chair of the council
9. Joanne Georgi - Eleele, ran for state senate unsuccessfully in 2010
10. ? Eva Hoopii - Kapaʻa
11. Gary L. Hooser (i) - Kapaʻa
12. Ronald J. Horoshko - Kalaheo, operates the golf course cafe Birdie's
13. Joseph H. Kaauwai, Jr. - Anahola
14. Ross K. Kagawa (i) - Lihue
15. Ernest L. Kanekoa, Jr. - Kalaheo, police commission member
16. Arryl J. Kaneshiro - Lihue
17. ? Sandra I. Klutke - Kapaʻa
18. Kipukai L.P. Kuaalii - Anahola
19. Tiana K. Laranio - Kapaʻa
20. Arnold W. F. Leong - Hanapepe
21. ? Toi Pualaa Norwood - Lihue
22. Darryl D. Perry - Lihue, chief of police
23. Melvin F. Rapozo (i) - Kapaʻa
24. JoAnn A. Yukimura (i) - Lihue

Kalaheo water meeting

Chief Engineer Kirk Saiki & Mayor Carvalho

I attended the community meeting about the water outage here: not a lot of new information but it was good to meet and get everyone together.

Repairs are expected to take about six weeks: most of that delay is time to get a replacement for the part that broke which must be custom made to order. Until repairs are completed all of Kalaheo is asked to voluntarily minimize water usage.

A lot of talk about people who do have water pressure being unaware of the restriction and over consuming. There are two holding tanks on each side of the highway and if you are near the bottom of the area served by a tank you have the best chance of getting water - on the high side if the tank goes empty you are first to lose service. Clearly the meeting was heavily attended by people who had lost water but it's the other folks who need to get the word.

"Connect-CTY" is the county's automated communications system they want everyone to sign up for. Lots of people who heard about it were unable to figure out the web site and it is hard to find and use. To sign up, click this and then click the "Add my contact info" button. You will have to fill out a form and go through another page (called CAPCHA). One problem I have had is that the system sends the same notice three times - by email, by recorded phone message, by SMS text - which is quite annoying.

While it is fine to ask people to signup for this notification service, this incident demonstrates it is not widely used. I would like to know how long this system has been deployed and how many signups they have. I suspect without more aggressively getting people to register it will be hard to reach everyone.

• Latest press release
• News coverage video

The unfortunate background of this problem came out a bit at the meeting that suggests that this may have been avoidable. January 29 the primary well failed and an emergency procurement request was prepared and approved by the water board in February but somehow work did not begin promptly. When questioned about the delay a county attorney responded explaining that "contract and bonding" issues resulted in a delay, and also mentioned that the contractor took "three weeks" to execute the contract and suggested the paperwork was not properly done. Nearly four months went by with no work on the well and then the backup well failed last week. Somehow once the second failure occurred the paperwork got sped up and within a couple days work on the primary well began. Exactly what happened was not revealed: possibly the months-old contracting delay just happened to resolve coincidentally or (what seems more likely to me) with increased urgency a fire was lit under whoever was slowing down the process. This meeting was not the time or place for investigating exactly what happened but in time we deserve to be told why nearly four months was insufficient to repair the primary while we still had backup, completely avoiding all of this.

There are voluntary restrictions being asked to limit water consumption to "essential uses" but I wonder how effective they are. Since they read meters monthly the department will get water usage numbers for Kalaheo residents and should be able to see on a customer basis. I would rather see a suggested amount of water rather than permitted and disallowed usages. If I use less water taking a short shower and washing some clothes that's better than using more water taking a bath. The county directive specifies "limiting" laundry but I don't know quite what that means. At the presentation they suggested using coin laundries in neighboring towns but I doubt they have the capacity for over a thousand households on top of the existing customer base.

What I was hoping to hear but did not was anything the department would do differently in future to avoid repetitions. 

• Faster procurement, approval, funding, contracting for emergency repairs.
• Better information about water outage and restrictions on use to mitigate the problem.

It was very heartening to hear several citizens politely thank the department for their efforts and urge the community to "pull together" and overall a good spirit of aloha was in force.

Kalaheo water supply update

The recent 48 hour water service failure has provided a window in the operation of the Kauai Department of Water in providing clean, safe drinking water - a service too easy to take for granted. Since yesterday afternoon water service has been working for me here so that's real progress.

This part of Kalaheo gets water from who wells near the golf course area at the top of the hill makai of the highway.

Four months ago on January 29 the main well failed and the department responded by requesting a contractor to perform necessary repairs[1]. The emergency procurement request states specifically that the contractor, Oasis Water System, commits to mobilize their rig "same day" the department orders the job. The next mention of this emergency request I could find was two months later[2] contract #581 was awarded as requested (the date of Notice to Proceed is not listed but presumably is before April 24). So repair on the primary well should have been underway at least a month ago.

Then the backup well failed last weekend. "The Department was executing a contract for the repairs to Well no. 1, but before the contractor got started, Well no. 2 was damaged on Sunday, May 25, 2014. "[3]

The latest timeline: "DOW estimates 4-6 weeks to fully restore Kalaheo well damage; Temporary measures should improve water service by early next week"[4] It's unclear if this means repairing the backup well or also the primary well. Temporary pipe was put in across the highway last night which I suppose allows water from the mauka reservoir to be shared with the rest of Kalaheo.

Open questions include:

• Why did it take one to two months to approve an emergency repair request?
• Did the contract indeed start work "same day" and what is the status of that work?

[1] Water board minutes of February 14, 2014: page 51-53.
[2] Water board minutes of April 24, 2014: page 158.
[3] Water department reply to comment on Kauai DOW facebook page.
[4] Water department announcement on Kauai DOW facebook post.

Currently the mainland is facing severe drought conditions in much of the southwest and south central regions. This is a much bigger problem than fixing a couple of broken wells. In the map below the black, red, and orange areas represent exceptional, extreme, and severe drought conditions, respectively. The past two days have demonstrated to me personally that running low on water very quickly impacts daily life. What we can do is raise awareness and act to address these challenges. What we mustn't do is ignore the situation and continue taking our water supply for granted.

No Water in Kalaheo

The water has been off here in Kalaheo since yesterday afternoon. The Kauai Department of Water is providing non-potable water tanks for residents to use at these locations:

• at the Kalaheo neighborhood center
• opposite the Kukuiolono golf course entrance, at Papalina & Puu Road

Apparently this area is served by two wells and both are broken. There is no estimate how long it will take to restore service.

Latest details are posted here.

UPDATE (Thursday 5/29/14 AM): Still no water on third day - that's zero water. If we had any water pressure at any point the toilet tank would have filled to the shutoff and it has not.

This morning saw Department of Water truck working along the road just across the street. The word from neighbors is that there was a leaky valve apparently that someone reported when they saw water gushing out. So it seems that even though they have been trucking water to fill the holding tanks uphill only a little was reaching the most downhill homes here and most of it was being wasted. This would explain why we haven't seen even a drop.

The good news is that with people out to collect water and observe repairs, curious about what's being done to alleviate our shared problem, I've met more of the neighbors. It seems it takes something like this to get people out of the houses where you have a chance to commiserate.

Note to Department of Water: for safety please label the water tanks provided as potable or non-potable. From the updates, both types are being set out and since there has already been one correction as to location of which it would be reassuring to know without doubt whether it is safe to drink the water provided at a given location. Also, it would be good to have authoritative information on how to safely store and use potable water. Here's the CDC's advice for water storage and use ... it begins with washing containers with soap and (safe) water so if you didn't have that prepared ahead one is kind of stuck.

FINAL UPDATE (Thursday 5/29/14 AM): Water is back on after 48 hours! Pressure seems a little low but it's plenty. The Department of Water left a case of bottled water on the porch with a letter of apology. The letter states that they hope to have a plan and timeline for repair "by the end of this week".

I have never experienced long-term water outage before and I certainly learned how important fresh water is to comfortable everyday life and we totally take it for granted. Losing electricity is inconvenient, but I would gladly chose that over no running water.

Perhaps in a small way I can being to imagine how 780 million people live without access to fresh water. Unlike all these people I could drive in my car on paved roads to fetch water, get a shower at a friend's place, and borrow a washing machine, and still it was a big impact.

Mars landing test

NASA is gearing up for a test of a payload landing system for an upcoming Mars mission on Kauai.
Tentative test dates are scheduled for the first half of June. The test will be done at PMRF on the west side. No mention of public viewing opportunity unfortunately.

For full details see coverage on the NASA site.

Learn about the Low-density Supersonic Decelerator project.

Geckos

Geckos may be the nicest of the invasive species that have come to thrive in Hawaii. They like to hang around houses and eat bugs and usually stay out of the way. We see both bright green (at right) and more plain looking brown ones (below).

They seem to like hanging out on our lanai and so far they have stayed outside the house. Mid-morning we often see them running along the back edge of the lanai. Usually they are headed for a specific spot where they sit a while and then leap onto the nearby bush and disappear.

The males are very territorial (I have read) and will do little "pushup" routines where they go up and down and often inflate their throats. For some reason gecko seem to run in spurts going a few feet and then stopping often doing "pushup" display before continuing on.

In the day we tend to seem them on scurrying around on the ground and hiding. At night is when we see them using their Spiderman skills and crawl up high on walls or often walk upside down on the lanai ceiling. They especially like the corner between wall and ceiling. Again usually only at night we hear them vocalizing, a surprisingly loud for their size repeated screech.

Geckos feel a little like pets that you don't have to buy, feed, or take care of: they just show up and eat bugs.

Kauaʻi County Council race begins

While politics may be of little interest to many readers, the outcome of this process very much effects the future of this island. 

In the USA I think we tend to take elections for granted, even after the 2000 election raised some very serious issues with the process. Kauaʻi is small enough that I wanted to look into the process behind the election itself.

Candidates are still filing for the primary election ballot for county council seats but here is an early look at the official uncertified preliminary status as of 9 May. The follow lists candidates who have applied for nomination papers to be returned with 15 (thatʻs all) signatures of voters to get on the ballot along with a filing fee. Until all papers are in and signatures checked we won't know the final list but the following is a reasonable approximation of who will be in the running for seven seats.

According to the candidate's manual, each candidate chooses whether or not to comply with campaign spending limits and if so a viable candidate can receive funding from the state (taken from state income tax revenue) for the campaign. The spending limit is $1.40 per registered voter (from the last election) or about $56,000. Candidates must independently collect at least $3,000 to be considered eligible for funding.

Candidates are listed alphabetically with their city of residence; incumbents marked "(i)". Link to best web link I found relevant to candidacy:

1. Arthur Brun - Kekaha, works for Syngenta (biotechnology corporation)
2. Tim L. Bynum (i) - Kapaʻa, recently won settlement to lawsuit against the county in court
3. Felicia E. Cowden - Kilauea, prominent local radio personality
4. J. Furfaro (i) - Princeville, current chair of the council
5. Joanne Georgi - Eleele, ran for state senate unsuccessfully in 2010
6. Eva Hoopii - Kapaʻa
7. Gary L. Hooser (i) - Kapaʻa
8. Ronald J. Horoshko - Kalaheo
9. Joseph H. Kaauwai, Jr. - Anahola
10. Ross K. Kagawa (i) - Lihue
11. Ernest L. Kanekoa, Jr. - Kalaheo, police commission member
12. Arryl J. Kaneshiro - Lihue
13. Kipukai L.P. Kuaalii - Anahola
14. Darryl D. Perry - Lihue, chief of police
15. Melvin F. Rapozo (i) - Kapaʻa
16. JoAnn A. Yukimura (i) - Lihue

The only incumbent not listed is Mason K. Chock, Sr., recently appointed to fill an open seat.

While I don't want to overestimate the power of the internet, it's notable that only incumbents (and not all of them) have campaign web sites. Of those most are fairly barebones. A couple of new candidates got short interviews in the local paper which I did link to. That said, signs in people's yards may be more powerful that web sites, and I have seen several signs for candidates that don't have web sites, or at least sites I could find via searching.

Election year

This is an election year and in the past few weeks signs have been popping up along the road or in front of homes and businesses in support of candidates. Less than two months remain to register to vote.

• Primary election is August 9, 2014
• General election is November 4, 2014

County mayor, council, and prosecuting attorney will be on the ballot in addition to governor and state representative. The county council members are "at-large" meaning each serves the entire island rather than having regional seats. The top 14 vote getters in the primary vie for the 7 seats going to the top 7 vote getters in the general election.

By far the strongest early showing on the streets is our incumbent mayor Bernard Carvalho: not just signs but he has people waving his signs by the highway. Last election he won easily and I have heard folks here opine that he doesn't have any serious competition this year. It's too early to tell as there are a few weeks left for candidate filings so the process has just begun.

So many people I have asked about local government shake their heads and complain. There certainly have been reasons to worry, but one easy improvement that is very doable is better voter turnout. In 2012 general election voter turnout was 62.9% (25,617 of 40,738 registered voters).

For politics, I realize this is a rather bland opinion-free posting, but I am just beginning to learn about all this so will wait until I actually have some insight before sharing my critical thoughts on candidates.

Official county elections information is available at kauai.gov/elections or see state elections where results will be posted.

Dennis Kamakahi

Slack key performer and composer Dennis Kamakahi passed last week. Originally scheduled to
perform at the recent NTBG concert, he was too ill at this point but the performers honored him by playing several of his songs as a tribute. The organizer made a great gesture by getting him on the phone from on stage and let us all send our applause as support to him and his family.

He wrote one of my favorite Hawaiian songs that just happens to be about this island: Kokeʻe.
Take a few minutes to enjoy this recent video of Dennis performing the song live a few years ago.