Inside Honolulu: Feb. 3
Four short weeks until the city budget is due, but city officials have plenty of other big projects ahead: A rail groundbreaking and the mess at Waimanalo Gulch are at the forefront. Plus, the new City Council is finally up and running. Civil Beat is tracking all of it, and reporting from the inside.
Hanabusa Reaches Out to City Council on Landfill
10:16 a.m.
Hawaii Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa made a surprise visit to a Land Use Commission hearing on the Waimanalo Gulch landfill spill yesterday. She’s also reaching out to City Council members, Mayor Peter Carlisle and other officials to express concerns about the site.
“I am disappointed yet not surprised that the City plans to get another extension of 15 years,” Hanabusa wrote. “They will probably have to settle for 2 with yet another warning that the landfill will close … The reason this happens to us is because the City has more money, time and memory on its side.”
Hanabusa, a Ko Olina property owner who has long battled for Waimanalo Gulch’s closure, also CCed Rep. Karen Awana, Rep. Jo Jordan and Sen. Maile Shimabukuro.
FTA Funding Update Expected “Soon”
8:10 a.m.
Federal officials are expected any day to release an annual report detailing New Starts funding to cities building transit project. A spokesman for the Federal Transit Administration in Washington told Civil Beat the announcement would be made “soon.” The FTA’s proposed allocations for the 2012 fiscal year are key for Honolulu, which is banking on the feds chipping in $1.55 billion for its rail project.
Last year, Honolulu was one 10 new projects President Barack Obama recommended for future funding. Nothing’s guaranteed until the city gets a Full Funding Grant Agreement.
Check out the FTA’s from fiscal year 2011, released in February 2010.
Catch Up on Inside Honolulu
Feb. 2, 2011: Landfill hearing gets heated; Tom Berg wants to meet fellow tea partier Michele Bachmann; City Council asks Rush Limbaugh to apologize; Rail lawsuits start trickling in.
Feb. 1, 2011: Bulky item pick-up to start again; Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz introduces bill that would create development exceptions for rail; Tom Berg invites anti-rail groups into his office to discuss next steps in rail opposition.
