ASK THE MAYOR
Mayor Alan Arakawa answers some of the most asked questions submitted to his office staff.
Q: I have a niece who is a single mother that lives in the Kulamalu affordable rentals, which really helped to keep her family together so I appreciate that being built. What is the next affordable housing project that’s coming up? These projects are too few and far between.
A: Probably the most recent affordable housing project coming up will be Catholic Charities Housing Development Corp.’s 165-unit senior affordable rental housing development, called Kahului Lani. The location will be near the Kahului Library, bordered by Kane, Vevau and School streets. According to the Catholic Charities website, the first phase will “include a sixstory building with 82 units, with construction set to start by the end of this year and be completed in 2020.”
Q: I wanted to know if there are specific hours of operations for private disposal companies to drive through residential neighborhoods. Apologies, as I have not had luck finding this on the Maui County website.
A: No apologies necessary, but this sort of info wouldn’t be on the county website because these are private haulers. I can shed some light on the situation though. The private commercial haulers tend to start before our landfill opens at 6 a.m. This means they usually start around 4 to 5 a.m. because they want to dump their load as soon as we open up the gates, which explains why you’re hearing their trucks so early. If you plan on calling the company up, make sure you review our noise laws first; check out this Noise Reference Manual from the State Department of Health via this link: health.hawaii.gov/irhb/files/2013/07/noiserefmaui.pdf.
Q: There were a lot of meetings about the changes at Wells Park but I haven’t heard anything lately. What’s going on?
A: Right now the parks department is hiring a design firm to do the construction plans. The community was very clear about what they wanted done to Wells in those meetings — improved playing fields, resurfacing the tennis and basketball courts as well as adding a multipurpose court and moving the Wells Park restrooms closer to Wells Street for more visibility, because as it is right now it’s a haven for the homeless in the area.
Want to Ask the Mayor? Submit your Maui County-related questions to Mayor Alan Arakawa by email at askthemayor@mauicounty.gov, by phone at 270-7855 or by mail at 200 S. High St., ninth floor, Wailuku 96793. Questions submitted will be considered for inclusion in the “Ask the Mayor” column; to request a personal response to a concern, email mayors.office@mauicounty.gov.