LOCAL INDUSTRY for Sunday — September 04, 2005

NEWS & NOTES

My back pages

• Found. In a cave near the Menehune Fishpond. No, not the secret executive session minutes from some 4,000 County Council meetings, but the original formula for Hawai‘i’s gas-cap law. The one that might have worked.

Here it is, written in crayon. Take $3. Add 5 cents. Every two minutes. Divide by the number of miles a Gulf Coast dentist drives on the 12th of never to fill up his car in Galveston, Texas. Then, multiply by 22 percent of the pretax cost of gasoline in Reykjavik, Iceland for each Feb. 31 since 1996. Add 4 ounces of lomilomi, season with mixed intentions. Add $3. Multiply by the earned run average of Sid Fernandez in 1986 then subtract the number of letters of a former governor’s last name. Add 27 cents.

Let sit for two years.

Then take the square root of the annual profit of the state’s two refineries and hand them your car keys. After all, they pretty much own them now, don’t they?

Carinio is Kauai Care Center employee of the month

• Lowena Carinio, dietary aide, was recognized by fellow employees of Kauai Care Center for being an exceptional employee for July. According to her manager, Marisa Sacro, Carinio is quiet but extremely hardworking, dependable, with good initiative, and always willing to help her peers and the residents of the facility. Carinio has been with the company since 2001.

Cruise ships calling on Nawiliwili

• Tomorrow, Monday, Sept. 5, the Pride of Aloha, 850 feet long, calls on Nawiliwili Harbor, arriving at 7 a.m. and remaining overnight, leaving Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 1 p.m. This Wednesday, Sept. 7, Norwegian Wind, 754 feet long, arrives at 8 a.m., and leaves the same day at 5 p.m. This Thursday, Sept. 8, the Pride of America, 965 feet long, arrives at 8 a.m., remains overnight, and departs Friday, Sept. 9, at 6 p.m.

Deadline approaching for HTA’s program

• Through the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s (HTA) County Product Enrichment Program (CPEP), leaders of each of the four counties have issued a request for proposals (RFP) for tourism-product-enrichment programs for their respective islands for calendar-year 2006.

The deadline to submit proposals on Kaua‘i is Friday, Oct. 7. According to an HTA spokesperson, CPEP was introduced in 2002 to help create a partnership between HTA officials and leaders of the counties of Hawai‘i, Honolulu, Kaua‘i and Maui, to support endeavors to diversify Hawai‘i’s tourism activities in the niche areas of agritourism, cultural tourism, ecotourism, edutourism, health and wellness tourism, and technotourism, while also fulfilling the goals and objectives of leaders of each county’s tourism program.

HTA leaders oversee, support and direct the program, while county officials manage the day-to-day operations. Applications are available at www.hawaii.gov/tourism. For more information, please call HTA’s product-development office at 1-808-973-2258.

Chamber offering sexual-harassment seminar

• Did you know that sending sexually-explicit e-mail to a co-worker could expose your company to a sexual-harassment lawsuit? Did you know that supervisors could be held personally liable? Did you know that training frontline supervisors and managers in avoiding sexual-harassment situations can save your company tons of money?

Leaders with the Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce are offering a sexual-harassment seminar this Wednesday, Sept. 7, from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Aloha Beach Resort-Kauai Ali‘i Room. Facilitating the seminar will be Wayne Yoshigai, an attorney for Torkildson Katz Fonseca Moore and Hetherington. Yoshigai is a director of the firm, and concentrates his practice in the areas of harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, discrimination, wage and hour, drug and alcohol testing, union organizing, unfair labor practices, collective bargaining, and all other areas of labor and employment law, representing management.

The cost of the seminar is $65 for members of the Chamber and Society of Human Resource Management members, and $70 for all others. Refreshments are included. To register, please call the Chamber office at 245-7363, or e-mail info@kauaichamber.org. The Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce’s membership includes more than 650 business and professional men and women representing 450 Kaua‘i firms who give freely of their time and talents to advance the commercial, financial, industrial, civic and social well being of the County of Kaua‘i and the state of Hawai‘i. For more information, please visit www.kauaichamber.org.

Company receives honor for support

• Hawaii Air Ambulance leaders received recognition from officials of the Hispanic Center of Hawaii for their support of Hispanics throughout the state, center officials announced recently. “It is an honor to be recognized by the Hispanic Center of Hawaii,” said Andrew Kluger, Hawaii Air Ambulance president and chief executive officer. “We have collaborated with the organization to raise awareness on many issues the Latino population faces, namely health and education,” he added. Hawaii Air Ambulance leaders recently donated $1,000 to the Hispanic Center’s Annual “Salsathon,” the organization’s annual fund-raiser, to support Hispanic health awareness in Hawai‘i.

Poipu Spa & Fitness use permit approved

• Members of Kaua‘i County’s Planning Commission unanimously approved recently the use-permit application for the proposed Poipu Spa & Fitness Center, an 11,000-square-foot facility to be located on Po‘ipu Road, in front of Kiahuna Tennis Club, according to the Poipu Beach Resort Association’s newsletter.

The owners are now in the process of obtaining building permits, with hopes to be under construction as soon as possible. An opening is anticipated for late 2006.

Otsuka’s Village to open in Kapa‘a

• Otsuka’s Furniture and Appliances leaders are expanding again. Beginning this month, the land south of the main store on Kuhio Highway in Kapa‘a will be converted to a “Polynesian village,” a company spokesperson said.

Six kubos, each 14 feet by 17 feet, free-standing bamboo huts with thatched roofing, will soon feature an array of products.

According to store officials, Otsuka’s Furniture leaders have been planning this conversion for quite some time, but wanted to increase their reputation as employees at a tourist destination for furniture and accessories before beginning this new venture. Otsuka’s leaders will offer free shipping.

According to members of Otsuka’s management team, the concept allows visitors to “buy at will,” without the hassle of having to worry about carrying something around with them for the duration of their vacation.

Applications for tenants may be obtained through Phil Fudge of Landmark Realty, 822-1111.