1:29 PM – Hawaii Tourism Authority seeks to support community based programs in each county, meetings planned

From the HTA:

The City & County of Honolulu, and the Counties of Hawai’i, Kaua’i and Maui are soliciting proposals for tourism product enrichment programs for calendar year 2012 under the Hawai’i Tourism Authority’s (HTA) County Product Enrichment Program (CPEP). Since 2002, the HTA has been working to support and diversify Hawai’i’s tourism product by developing new and enhancing existing community-based events, experiences and projects.

“The CPEP events are an integral part of what makes Hawai’i a one-of-a-kind destination,” said Mike McCartney, president and CEO of the HTA. “Support for these events and programs provide the Hawaiian Islands with unique experiences through our culture and people for both visitors and residents to enjoy.”

Last year, more than 100 events and projects statewide were selected to receive funding support including Kaua’i’s E Kanikapila Kākou, O’ahu’s Hawai’i Book & Music Festival, Maui’s Iao Theatre Special Events Series, and Hawai’i Island’s Mealani A Taste of the Hawaiian Range & Agricultural Festival.

Information packets will be available beginning October 10, 2011, from the appropriate county offices as listed below. Written proposals are due November 14, 2011. Free workshops will be held to assist individuals and organizations and to provide more information on the programs and the application and award process. Information on the workshops and contact information for each county is provided below:

WORKSHOPS:

Maui
Wednesday, October 12; 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
UH Maui College, Laulima Building, Room 105
310 Ka’ahumanu Avenue, Kahului

Kaua’i
Thursday, October 13; 3:30 – 5:30 p.m.
Līhu’e Civic Center, Pi’ikoi Meeting Rooms A& B
4444 Rice Street, Līhu’e

O’ahu
Monday, October 17; 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Hawai’i Convention Center, Room 324
1801 Kalākaua Avenue, Honolulu

Hilo
Tuesday, October 18; 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Office of Aging Conference Room
1055 Kino’ole Street, Suite 101, Hilo

Kona
Wednesday, October 19; 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai’i Authority (NELHA) Conference Room
73-4460 Queen Ka’ahumanu Hwy, Kailua-Kona

1:25 PM – Briefing on Public Land Development Corporation to be Held

From the Office of the Governor:

The Senate Committee on Water, Land and Housing and House Committee on Water, Land and Ocean Resources will be holding a joint informational briefing to discuss the progress and status of the Public Land Development Corporation on Thursday, October 6, 2011. The briefing will take place at the State Capitol’s room 16 at 2 p.m.

“The briefing will provide the public and Legislature an update on the progress of the Public Land Development Corporation since we last met in August,” said Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, chair of the Senate Committee on Water, Land and Housing. “The hiring of an Executive Director, status of rules, and an annual calendar of meetings are among the topics that will be discussed.”

“Through this Corporation, we aim to maximize our resources by utilizing our public facilities. Some are dilapidated and not being used but through the public-private partnerships the areas can be improved,” said Senator Dela Cruz. “The bottom line is, we must create jobs and this is an out-of-the box opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs to partner with the State to get the economy going again,” he added.

“Through this opportunity, we hope to stimulate the economy in small communities, such as Wahiawa.”

“We must strive to make our state competitive in the global economy, which it lacks at this time. Before we can put tax increases on the table, we must look at all of our assets and determine if we have maximized revenue opportunities with our state facilities. And this program does just that,” added Senator Dela Cruz.

The Corporation will also identify public lands that are suitable for redevelopment, administer marketing analysis to determine the best revenue-generating programs for the public lands, enter into public-private agreements to appropriately redevelop the public lands and provide the leadership for the redevelopment, financing, improvement, or enhancement of the selected redevelopment opportunities.

The overall purpose of the Corporation is to generate revenues that may be used to offset the regulatory functions of DLNR. The Corporation is tasked to administer a culturally appropriate sensitive program that will make optimal use of public lands for the economic, environmental and social benefit for the people of Hawaii.

Senate Committee on Water, Land and Housing Chair Donovan Dela Cruz introduced Senate Bill 1555 during the 2011 Legislature, which subsequently became law when Governor Abercrombie put his signature on the bill in May. The measure (Act 55), established the Public Land Development Corporation which will serve as an arm of the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR).

No public testimony will be accepted at the briefing.

For special assistance or auxiliary aids and/or services to participate in the informational briefing (i.e., sign language interpreter or wheelchair accessibility), please contact the Committee Clerk at 586-6090 to make a request for arrangements at least 24 hours prior to the briefing. Prompt requests help to ensure the availability of qualified individuals and appropriate accommodations.

1:15 PM – Surfing to be a Hawaii high school sport, as early as the spring of 2013

From the Office of the Governor and the Hawaii State Department of Education:

Hawaii public high school students will for the first time be able to compete in school sanctioned surf competitions as early as the spring of 2013, under a plan announced today by Governor Neil Abercrombie, the Hawaii State Board and Department of Education and professional surfer Carissa Moore.

Working with the appointed Hawaii State Board of Education, the DOE is developing a plan to incorporate surfing in school athletics, with collaboration from city officials, surfing organizations and the community.

“Hawaii is the birthplace of surfing. From Duke Kahanamoku to the thousands of residents and visitors who surf both recreationally and competitively, the sport is rooted in our culture and way of life,” said Governor Abercrombie. “Bringing surfing to our students is another step in our collective goal to transform public education and provide our children with rich and diverse educational opportunities.”

“Surfing will be an exciting addition for our students as we continue to expand and improve educational programs to increase student achievement,” Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi said. “School sports teach critical life lessons such as team work and goal-setting while helping students stay active and healthy.”

The Hawaii State Board of Education in May 2004 approved surfing – the official individual sport of the state of Hawaii – as a high school sport. Despite overwhelming support from parents and students, funding and other challenges have kept surfing from becoming a fully-fledged school sport.

The BOE and the DOE are working on an implementation blueprint to make competitive school surfing a reality. The DOE intends to support the sport with outside funding sources and consult community partners and city officials to ensure that surf breaks are shared equitably and safely. The BOE will support implementation processes that address safety.

BOE member Keith Amemiya, a former executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, said surfing will allow students to learn about their environment and themselves. He said it also will engage the community by fostering relationships and partnerships with a new group of individuals and groups

“Surfing is a unique sport that often attracts athletes that may not necessarily be interested in more traditional sports such as football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. Therefore, we’re confident that surfing will increase athletics participation numbers,” Amemiya said. “In our view, the more students that engage in athletics and other after school activities, the higher our student achievement rates will become.”

Hawaii’s Carissa Moore, who this summer became the youngest surfer ever to win a professional surfing world title at age 18, joined Governor Abercrombie and education officials in celebrating today’s announcement.

“It will open doors for a lot of students,” she said, explaining that surfing taught her important life skills such as to be perseverant, manage time, and be organized.

The BOE and DOE will continue to discuss a plan to implement surfing as a high school sport during the Board’s General Business Meeting tomorrow, Oct. 4, starting at 2:15 p.m. at the Queen Liliuokalani Building.

12:15 PM – Big Island Carbon Receives State Department of Health Clean Air Permit

Current Events forwards the following news release:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) District 9 in San Francisco recently reviewed and approved Big Island Carbon’s Clean Air Permit application prepared by Hawaii’s State Department of Health. The permit has now been issued.

The Big Island Carbon plant has been operating on a non-covered source permit while working through the State and Federal processes for the Covered Source Clean Air Permit which will allow the company’s Power Plant to be installed.

“The EPA’s issuance of our Clean Air Permit means two important things,” explained Big Island Carbon CEO Rick Vidgen. “First, it means we can operate our plant the way it was designed to operate—clean and green. And secondly, it supports the fact that we are fully capturing and reusing much of what would otherwise be burned in a flare stack by producing most of our power from the manufacturing process itself. This clean, green technology allows us to be environmentally prudent, lower our energy costs and importantly, contribute to our bottom line.”

Big Island Carbon’s technical process produces a gas energy stream that will be used to generate internal power with the recovered energy being used in a closed system process to make activated carbon in a highly efficient and highly sustainable process and system.

Big Island Carbon has developed a carbon plant that is state of the art and technologically unique in the world. Big Island Carbon has the first plant of its kind that has successfully developed a process to utilize macadamia nut shells as feedstock to produce premium specialty Granular Activated Carbon. The start up company has 25 full-time workers.

Big Island Carbon integrates biomass material (macadamia nut shell) from Big Island macadamia processors together with cutting-edge technology developed for activated carbon production. Activated carbon is a critical component that cleans up or improves the performance of products from cell phones to wind turbines. Other diverse uses include gold refining and catalyst support for the pharmaceutical industry. Activated Carbon has recently found extensive use in cleaning up some aspects of nuclear accidents.

Big Island Carbon was recently awarded a Best in Business Innovation Award for Hawaii County from the APEC 2011 Hawaii Host Committee. Big Island Carbon will be one of 5 Hawaii companies featured during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ Week in November. Big Island Carbon will be highlighted within displays at the Hawaii Convention Center, Ala Moana Center and the U.S. National Center for APEC CEO Summit at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and receive a feature profile in APEC Hawaii TV in-room hotel channel, APEC 2011 Hawaii virtual online exhibit, and the special edition Hawaii Business magazine that will be distributed to APEC delegates.

About Big Island Carbon, LLC

Big Island Carbon is a high technology start up company with $40+-million in private equitty capital funding that is bringing macadamia shell from Big Island macadamia processors together with new technology modified to fit specific requirements. Two major processes convert macadamia shell feedstock, currently a largely unused byproduct from macadamia processing, into granular activated carbon (GAC) in a biomass conversion process.

The output of this operation will be sold for use in higher value specialty applications in the growing market for GAC in a world increasingly demanding products that clean up gas and liquid phase materials to eliminate pollutants and impurities.

Ninety-percent of the start up funding was secured through Denham Capital, a leading energy-focused global private equity firm. The project also received a $5 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development. The plant is located in Kawaihae on Hawaii’s Big Island on land leased from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Visit www.BigIslandCarbon.com

10:50 AM – HO’EA MASTER PLAN RELEASED

The State Office of Planning has released a Master Plan for land acquisition, design, and construction of an agricultural resource center and processing facility in Ho`ea, North Kohala, Hawaii.

According to a Hawaii DBEDT news release:

“This Master Plan will help the residents of North Kohala move closer to their goal of strengthening this rural area’s local economy by developing a sustainable agricultural industry,” said Jesse Souki, Director of the Office of Planning. “The resource center envisioned in the plan will support small farmers and ranchers to ensure the future of agriculture and ranching in the region.”

Since the departure of the sugar plantations in the mid-1970s, the North Kohala area has been seeking new economic development alternatives for local residents. The primary goal of the Master Plan is to meet North Kohala’s Community Development Plan goal of producing 50% of the food it consumes.

The Master Plan was prepared for the Office of Planning and County of Hawaii by Kahua Pa`a Mua, Inc. and the Hawaii Future Farmers of America Foundation. The work was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration.

The North Kohala Master Plan can be downloaded at http://hawaii.gov/dbedt/op/special_plans.htm.

From the plan: