Kokua Line June Watanabe

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File park complaints with police and staff

Question: Why doesn't the city parks department and Manoa District Park staff do anything about people drinking alcohol after baseball games? The drinking has been going on for a long time and occurs weekdays, as well as weekends. We've called police, but as soon as they show up, the red and blue cups disappear. We don't mind if people have a couple of beers during a potluck, then go home. But it's the ones who hang on to all hours, drinking not just beer, but hard liquor. You can see the evidence of it the next day.

Answer: You indicated making many complaints to parks officials about the problem without any success.

Staff at Manoa District Park "has addressed the league that holds the park permit about the complaints of the consumption of liquor at the park," said Dana Takahara-Dias, deputy director of the city Department of Parks and Recreation. "In this specific case, the league director informed all of the participating teams of the complaints."

She said the problem occurs at other parks, as well.

"When calls are received, staff will remind permit holders to abide by the permit rules as well as the park rules," she said.

Asked what would happen if the problem persists, she said the permit could be revoked or suspended if nothing happens "despite many attempts of communicating to the permit holder."

So, call police or park officials whenever the drinking occurs so there is a record of complaints.

Meanwhile, parking is not allowed on the grass without a permit or even during construction, Takahara-Dias said.

Mahalo

To the state Department of Transportation. Ever since the state modified the Liliha Street onramp to mate up with the Pali Highway offramp, traffic heading east hasn't been backing up along that stretch of freeway the way it used to. Before the modification, you could count on encountering a backlog there. Now there's not much of a slowdown during the times I've gone through it in the middle of the day. Kudos to the state for coming up with that idea! -- Dean Sensui

Transportation Department spokesman Scott Ishikawa said the department also has received positive feedback, perhaps because the solution was "so simple."

It entailed reducing the width of the freeway lane from 12 to 11 feet, allowing an extra lane for Liliha onramp drivers. The cost was about $25,000 for re-striping and the work was done in-house, Ishikawa said.

Correction

Meanwhile, Ishikawa apologized for the confusion, but said the damage to the concrete wall adjacent to Waialae Iki District Park was caused by "wear and tear," not by an accident ("Kokua Line," Aug. 3).

"The wall is simply breaking down, which may explain why it wasn't noticed earlier, since an accident supposedly didn't cause the damage," he said. Also, repairs were to begin this week and not last week.