Action postponed on bill requiring fire sprinklers ADVERTISING Action postponed on bill requiring fire sprinklers HONOLULU (AP) — The Honolulu City Council postponed action on a bill to require the installation of sprinkler systems in older high-rise buildings. The decision
Action postponed on bill requiring fire sprinklers
HONOLULU (AP) — The Honolulu City Council postponed action on a bill to require the installation of sprinkler systems in older high-rise buildings.
The decision was made about a month after a blaze killed three residents of a high-rise building that did not have the safety feature.
Council members want to wait for more information from the Honolulu Fire Department. Fire officials during a committee hearing Tuesday proposed a later deadline for installation than what was initially in the bill.
Some apartment owners are against the idea of requiring sprinklers because it can cost thousands of dollars to install them.
Throughout the United States, city laws vary on whether older high-rise apartment buildings must install fire sprinklers that weren’t required when the towers were first built.
Sandbag barrier being considered to stop erosion
HONOLULU (AP) — State and city officials are hoping to get together with Waikiki business owners and the surfing community to brainstorm ways to fix a serious beach erosion problem.
In 2012, the state took two concrete erosion barriers off Waikiki beach because they were falling apart. But since then, the shore has eroded to the point where water now is turning brown.
“It’s ugly,” said Sabrina Kim, who was visiting the beach from California. “It’s not what you really expect when you come to Hawaii. You want to see sand.”
Officials have used temporary fixes, such as placing old carpets by the shoreline to help prevent the dirt from going into the ocean. But one long-term idea officials are considering is a sandbag barrier.
It would take about six months to get permission and install the sandbags because talks with officials would be needed and permits would have to be obtained, Dolan Eversole of the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program said.
Doing so “would be an appropriate response to the erosion here, depending on dimensions and the size of course,” Eversole said. “There needs to be careful thought and consideration to down drift impacts.”
He blames the erosion on the extremely high “king tides” Hawaii had this summer, plus elevated sea levels.
The erosion is the worst Eversole has seen in 10 years of monitoring the beach, he said.
“What happens is a lot more wave energy approaches the shoreline,” Eversole said. “It’s allowed to run up much higher and cause more erosion that it normally would.”
Honolulu tightens reins on homeless community
HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu expanded its list of areas where people cannot sit or lie down in an effort to further contain Oahu’s homeless population.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell signed a bill Monday expanding the city’s “sit-lie” law to Pacific Street in the community of Iwilei and several areas from Victoria to McCully streets. The law is part of Honolulu’s overall strategy that includes sweeping homeless encampments until the occupants seek services and legal housing.
“We have a very vigorous compassionate disruption program going on for the past four or so years, and I think it’s made a difference both in how our community looks and also allows people to move down our sidewalks and in our parks much more freely,” Caldwell said. “But I also believe it’s resulted in more people seeking shelter and in our housing.”
Homeless people on Pacific Street will be given warnings for two weeks before officers enforce the newest sit-lie bans, Honolulu police Capt. Stephen Silva said.
Pacific Street runs behind the Iwilei Lowe’s store and in front of City Mill. About a dozen homeless people watched Caldwell’s bill signing from their encampment on Pacific Street.
“I’ve been on the street over 10 years,” Lani Reiger, 48, said. “Where can we go?”
