At the Waianae Boat Harbor and Pokai Bay Beach Park, people are turning these areas into a cemetery by putting up cemented memorial plaques. Who authorized this? Leeward Coast memorial
plaques not legalNo one authorized them, but apparently some of those memorials go back decades. While state officials are taking a benign attitude toward their presence, city officials say the plaques will have to go.
We saw more than two dozen of them on the Honolulu side of the harbor and three at Pokai Bay. Some are quite elaborate.
Those familiar with the area say there are as many as 100 along the Leeward Coast and 30 in the Pokai Bay area alone, said Steve Thompson, boating division chief for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
You can't characterize these areas as cemeteries because there are no buried remains, Thompson said. They're "just a way to remember those deceased," he said.
"Some were fishermen, some just loved the sea. Some had ashes scattered in the vicinity. (The plaques) usually come some time after the actual burial."
So far, because the plaques are "not obtrusive" and because no one has really complained, "we have not had the need to address them," Thompson said.
"With limited staffing and resources, this has always been considered a nonissue. Should it become an issue, we would have lot of public input and comment before" anything is done.
However, the city says the plaques on its property have never been authorized or accepted by the City Council and "are not considered bona fide donations or gifts" under city law.
"Monuments and such should benefit the public and not just a small group," explained Patti Nagao, spokeswoman for the Parks and Recreation Department.
In the past, officials have suggested to families that they plant a tree or donate a bench with a plaque, she said. The proper channel is through the Council or Office of Culture and Arts.
As for removal, "once ample notice is given," the city will take steps to remove the plaques if they are not removed voluntarily," Nagao said. But as far as she knows, no plaques have been removed by the city in the past five years.
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