Dozens of vehicles towed from Kahului Boat Harbor
Second Phase of DLNR Clean-up continues this week
KAHULUI—With a large presence of workers from the DLNR Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR), and under the watchful eye of officers with the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE), the public parking areas at the state’s Kahului Boat Harbor are relatively clean of camps, and more than five dozen vehicles, many of them abandoned, according to a Tuesday press release from the DLNR.
Local towing operators, under contract to Maui County, put cars and trucks, some without tires or in various states of repair, onto flatbed trucks. Behind them, DOBOR staff and workers from a private contractor finished the work they started a week ago cleaning up encampments.
For months, DOBOR Maui District Manager Paul Sensano received complaints about the conditions of harbor facilities. An initial clean-up in January was followed by last week’s and today’s. “It was quite an effort and as we’re winding down certain tasks did not get accomplished,” Sensano said.
More than a dozen vehicles were moved, by their owners, to a private strip of land next to the harbor, but the responsibility for what happens there is the landowner’s.
Some of the complaints involved illegal activities. Last week one person was stabbed and one man was arrested on an outstanding warrant and two other criminal charges.
Today, that man appeared to be preparing at least three of his cars for towing.
Several other vehicles, lacking wheels and tires, were dragged by their drivers across the dirt lot and onto the paved harbor entrance road.
DOBOR will be posting signs around the harbor, notifying people that only boat trailers with state permits and the trucks pulling them are allowed in the harbor between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. All others are subject to ticketing or towing.
Sensano noted that the issue of houseless camps in small boat harbors has changed over the years. “At Hale‘iwa Small Boat Harbor on O‘ahu, ten or fifteen years ago, many of the people camping long-term were older anglers, who just wanted to fish. Now some of the people in these encampments have severe substance abuse and mental health issues,” he said.
Social service providers have made numerous visits to the camps at Kahului, attempting to place people into transitional or permanent housing. However, most decline, according to the DLNR.