Punchbowl gets new admin office, visitor center ADVERTISING Punchbowl gets new admin office, visitor center HONOLULU (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs is putting the finishing touches on a new administration office and visitor center for the Punchbowl cemetery.
Punchbowl gets new admin office, visitor center
HONOLULU (AP) — The Department of Veterans Affairs is putting the finishing touches on a new administration office and visitor center for the Punchbowl cemetery.
The 7,462-square-foot building is on a hillside outside the main gate of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Joshua Mathis, resident engineer on the project, said the two-story building is built on 123 concrete piers. The old offices were in a former caretaker’s quarters built in 1949.
Gene Maestas, a Punchbowl spokesman, said the desire to provide more niche spaces in the cemetery’s columbarium place for cremated ashes was the main reason for the office relocation.
The new building is part of a nearly $30 million project started in 2015 to create the new columbarium, new offices and a memorial wall.
Seven of Punchbowl’s 27 employees will work in the new building. It will be a hub for visitors, families and cemetery representatives who assist with internments, officials said.
Man sentenced for hiding meth pipe in son’s diaper
WAILUKU, Maui (AP) — A Kaunakakai, Molokai, man accused of hiding a methamphetamine pipe in his infant son’s diaper while police searched his home was sentenced to a year in jail.
Aaron Moran, 55, pleaded no contest to two counts of third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and possessing drug paraphernalia.
The charges were for hiding the pipe in the baby’s diaper and for an arrest after police reported finding a meth pipe in Moran’s vehicle.
Moran asked for probation and no jail time, saying he has been off drugs for 10 months.
Kathy Puaa, 65, who was living with her husband at the house that was searched, is awaiting sentencing after pleading no contest to a reduced charge of third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and possessing drug paraphernalia.
Bruno Mars boosts scholarship
NEW YORK (AP) — Bruno Mars is expanding his support of a Grammy scholarship for high school students.
The five-time Grammy winner has lent financial support for a student from his native Hawaii to attend the Grammy Museum’s Grammy Camp since 2014 to honor his late mother. Now, a student nationwide will be eligible and Mars will cover the student’s tuition, housing and transportation. Mars will fund a student a year for five years.
Grammy Camp allows students to learn about the industry from professionals and has sessions in Los Angeles and Nashville, Tenn.
