HAWAI'I BRIEFS
Hundreds of troops returning
Advertiser Staff
Hundreds of Hawai'i National Guard and Reserve soldiers who spent the past year in Iraq will return home in several waves, beginning today, officials said.
Reunions with family are scheduled at 9:30 tonight at Building 117 at Kalaeloa, early tomorrow at 1:30 a.m., and at 5:45 p.m. tomorrow for two more planeloads of troops.
"Over the next several days, these four planes coming in, that's a large number of soldiers, 800-plus," said Maj. Chuck Anthony, a spokesman for the Hawai'i National Guard.
The remainder of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry; many soldiers from the 29th Support Battalion and 2nd Battalion, 299th Infantry Regiment; and a smattering of others will be among the returnees.
For more information, call the National Guard public affairs office at 733-4258.
MAUI
'IAO VALLEY PARK PARTLY CLOSED OFF
Most of 'Iao Valley State Monument Park will be closed until Jan. 27 while the bridge crossing the stream is repaired.
The parking lot, restrooms and interpretive signs sections, as well as the 'Iao Needle viewing point, will remain open to the public.
The $19,000 bridge repair project is being done by March Painting, and is the latest in several recent improvements, including the pressure washing of the restrooms and replacement of the lookout shelter's roof.
HONOLULU
FORUM TO FOCUS ON DISASTER PLANS
A nonprofit group is holding a disaster preparedness forum Feb. 9 in the Capitol auditorium.
The forum will focus on how state agencies would respond to a disaster. It runs from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. The public is invited.
The forum is being sponsored by Government Efficiency Teams Inc., a nonprofit, nonpartisan that advises government officials.
Among the invited speakers will be Ed Teixeira, the state's vice director of civil defense, and Kenneth Harding, director of Government Efficiency Teams Inc.
Teixeira will talk about the state's immediate response to a disaster. Harding will address what would happen in subsequent months.
CASE WILL SPEAK AT BELL CEREMONY
U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawai'i, will be the featured speaker at Sunday's bell-ringing ceremony at the Nagasaki Peace Bell near the Kalanimoku Building, South Beretania and Lauhala streets.
The annual ceremony, held the night before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, also will feature speakers from the community and music by the Royal Hawaiian Band.
HAWAI'I KAI
SCHOOL HOLDING RECYCLING DRIVE
Friends of Koko Head Elementary School and Charitable Ventures are conducting a HI-5¢ recycling drive from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. Friday at the school.
People are invited to drop off redeemable cans, plastic and glass bottles at the school, 189 Lunalilo Home Road.
Money raised will help finance the school's physical education teaching position and various cultural arts programs.
The school has scheduled an additional recycling drive for April 7. For more information, call at 397-5811.
SALT LAKE
KOREAN BANQUET TO HONOR FIVE
The contributions of five Korean-Americans in Hawai'i will be commemorated Friday night as part of the Korean American Foundation Hawai'i's second annual Light of the Orient Banquet.
About 500 are expected to attend the festivities at the Honolulu Country Club to honor Dewey H. Kim Sr., businessman and former vice chancellor of the University of Hawai'i; Earl Woosung Lee, president of Prudential Real Estate Affiliates Inc.; Sook Ki Moon, founder of the Moon Book Club; Mary Hong Park, former medical social worker; and Jackie Young, an advocate against cancer and a former state House vice speaker.
The dinner, as well as a golf tournament that afternoon, is sold out.
