State roundup for Aug. 26

Building could surge on Kauai

LIHUE, Kauai (AP) — Owners of nonresidential land on Kauai may get more time to build additional dwelling units on their properties.

The practice was discontinued about seven years ago. But property owners can build if they submitted the proper forms and permit paperwork before that time. Many proposed projects slowed when the economic recession hit in 2008. There were nearly 460 proposed but only 130 got off the ground.

“This is an opportunity for people to be able to build and keep stimulating the economy through carpenter and cement jobs,” Council Chairman Jay Furfaro said.

The deadline to finish those projects is in December, but county officials are considering giving property owners more time if they pay a $750 annual fee. That fee would be too much to handle for some residents. They say it would hinder longstanding ambitions to build on land that has been within their families for generations.

Patricia Lyons, a 52-year-old Kapaa resident, said her father purchased land in 1967 so that family members could build an additional dwelling unit when they became older.

N.Y. marker honors Bishop

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) — New York’s newest roadside historic marker honors an upstate native who grew up in the Adirondacks and went on to become a prominent figure in Hawaii during the 19th century.

A blue-and-gold historical marker was recently erected along Route 9 in Lake George at the site of Charles Reed Bishop’s childhood home.

He was born in 1822 in nearby Glens Falls and spent his early years in the Adirondacks.

In 1846, he traveled to Hawaii, where Bishop became a lawyer, diplomat, banker and philanthropist. He married into the Hawaiian royal family and advised a succession of kings of the islands.

Bishop died in 1915 in California.

The historic marker was unveiled with the help of a Polynesian dance troupe performing at a Lake George resort.