LIHU’E – Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, calling in from a promotional trip to Japan, and several members of her staff, decided yesterday to offer temporary permits to Spouting Horn county park vendors, allowing them to sell craft items from a nearby
LIHU’E – Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, calling in from a promotional trip to Japan, and several members of her staff, decided yesterday to offer temporary permits to Spouting Horn county park vendors, allowing them to sell craft items from a nearby grassy area while Americans with Disabilities Act improvements are made to the park’s facilities.
Vendor contracts expired at the end of July and three-month extended permits were issued to the nine operators; but paperwork problems forced the County to tell merchants they’d be evicted for a month while getting the bid process worked out. The county will accept bids for the nine permanent vendor sites beginning Oct. 21. Contracts will be awarded from Nov. 8.
After calls of concern to the Mayor’s Office, administrative assistant Wallace Rezentes. Sr. said he would try to come up with a solution. The County decided to issue the revocable permits for temporary vending operations during the construction project. Parking areas, walkways, a drinking fountain and bathrooms are being made accessible. Construction is expected to be complete by Nov. 5.
County officials will meet with the appropriate vendors on Monday, Oct. 7 to review and offer the revocable permits. The permits will expire on Nov. 7, but the County may issue new ones if construction is not complete by then.
“It is important that one of Kaua’i’s most visited attractions is accessible to everyone and well maintained. The construction at Spouting Horn ensures this. We are pleased to be able to keep our concessions available, even as our facility improvements are made,” Kusaka said in a written statement.
County public information officer Jenny Fujita said that Kusaka was called during her visit to Japan; she helped work out a solution to pacify the vendors.
