Kailua High offers imu space

The Kailua High School athletic program will tend to a Thanksgiving imu and is offering space inside for trays of food.

Food goes into the underground oven on Nov. 24, emerging the next morning steamed full of luau flavor.

Cost is $15 per large foil tray. Food — such as whole turkeys, roasts or pork butt (meat chunks should have three deep cuts in them), sweet potatoes, taro or luau leaves — must be thawed, seasoned and well wrapped in foil. Drop in pan and wrap again in foil. Weight limit per tray is 25 pounds.

Reservations due by Nov. 17. Make checks payable to Kailua High School and send to the school, 451 Ulumanu Drive, Kailua 96734. Write “Attention IMU” in lower left corner of the envelope. Include your name, telephone number and a self-addressed, stamped envelope so a confirmation ticket can be sent to you. To be included in an e-mail list for future imu, provide e-mail address as well.

Call 266-7910 or 728-7389.

Morsels – Hawaii Features – Staradvertiser.com

CTAHR dean details impacts of ag. inspectors layoffs | Hawaii247.org

CTAHR dean details impacts of ag. inspectors layoffs

Updated at 3:27 am, Thursday, August 20, 2009.

Andrew Hashimoto, dean and director of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, gave the following testimony to the Senate Ad-Hoc Committee about the potential impacts of laying off  Department of Agriculture staff.

I am pleased to provide personal testimony relating to the potential impacts on the community and agricultural industry on the Big Island, arising from the anticipated reduction and possible elimination of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture’s Plant Quarantine Branch. This testimony does not represent the position of the University of Hawaii or CTAHR.  

Background 

The Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) has 329 “permanent” employees, of which 118 (approximately 36 percent) have received notices for layoff. 

The Plant Quarantine (PQ) Branch will be especially hard hit. It has a total of 78 inspectors and 16 technicians (aides).

Of that, 50 inspectors and two technicians (all general funded) have been given notices. The remainder (11 inspectors and 14 technicians) are paid from special funds.

Most of the inspectors to be laid off will be from the neighbor islands. Information on the number of layoffs for each of the other HDOA branches is not known. The impact of the layoff in the PQ branch is discussed. 

State auditor: Molokai water system mismanaged

By CHRIS HAMILTON, Staff Writer
Maui News

WAILUKU ? The state auditor issued a blistering report last week charging the state Department of Agriculture with mismanaging the Molokai Irrigation System while simultaneously allowing it to deteriorate over a period of decades.

The irrigation system is crucial to the island?s agriculture-based economy but draws only about 4 million gallons a day ? less than 10 percent of its projected capacity when it was first planned.

?We found that while the Department of Agriculture inherited a broken system, little has been done to learn about system problems or to create a plan to address them,? state Auditor Marion Higa wrote in her 57-page report. ?The department?s flawed management endangers agriculture in Molokai.?

However, state Agriculture Chairwoman Sandra Kunimoto called most of the report?s criticisms ?overreaching? in a telephone interview Friday.

She said she felt as though the report?s dramatic statements weren?t backed up by the actual details contained within it.