EXTRA STUFF: [FMP width=”280″ height=”153″]https://www.bigislandvideonews.com/media/2011/12december/YIR/HonomuRevitalization.mp4[/FMP] Honomu Revitalization, aired as four part series in October

A look back on ten memorable moments – for better or for worse – covered by Big Island Video News in 2011

HAMAKUA COAST, Hawaii: For the next two weeks, we will be taking a look at the moments that mattered over the past year, paying special attention to every region of Hawaii Island.

Today, we focus on Hamakua… where in 2011, a national television audience watched resident TV star Roseanne Barr work her macadamia nut farm on the short lived reality TV program “Roseanne’s Nuts” , and where biking champion Lance Armstrong tackled the steep Waipio Valley on a dare issued over Twitter, but for the every day folks the news headlines that mattered most were a little different.

The following is a list of the Top 10 stories, as featured in our broadcast, with links to the actual stories in our archives as well as other supplemental information.

The TOP 10 – HAMAKUA 2011

10. Paauilo Gym

In some of the year’s good news, the Paauilo Community Center Annex was finally reopened on Saturday after extensive repairs, and officials marked the occasion with this blessing.

MORE: Paauilo Community Center re-opens with blessing

9. NHERC rural initiative launched

In Honokaa, a large crowd gathered at the North Hawaii Education and Research Complex, for the kick-off of The Rural Outreach Services Initiative, which drew dignitaries from across the state.

MORE: VIDEO: Honokaa celebrates rural outreach launch

8. Kalopa Bypass opens

A joyous event in Kalopa in August… where a highway that was decades in the making finally became reality.

MORE: Apelahama Highway opens in Kalopa

7. Honokaa Jazz wins a Grammy

In May 2011, a huge honor was bestowed on Honokaa’s small high school.

MORE: VIDEO: Honokaa High School Jazz Band gets Grammy

6. Death on Kawainui Stream

Island residents know that when heavy rains fall, trouble follows, especially on the Hamakua Coast, where dangerous landslides like these can snarl traffic for hours, and streams swell to become raging rapids.

Tragedy struck with little warning in July.

After three days of searching the area, the body of the missing man was recovered.

MORE: Hawaii search continues for Puna man after flash flood

5. Honolii Stabbing

The good and the bad were on display at Honolii Beach Park in 2011…

For the second time, the popular surf spot was host to the finals of the Stand Up World Tour, and enticing breaks year ’round.

But crime was also on the rise. Car break-ins plagued the overlook, and in October, this news story made state wide news headlines… as much for the strange details, as for the violence…

MORE: VIDEO: Arrest in Honolii stabbing, suspect had Hawaiian dagger

4. Hamakua Land Lease

It has been a heated topic in recent years. 3,400 acres of former Hamakua Sugar plantation property that was taken over by the county in lieu of back taxes in 1992. Past administrations have tried to sell the land – even the current mayor gave it a try – but ultimately the philosophy of leasing the land appears to have won out.

Mayor Billy Kenoi silenced critics when he made 1,739 acres of the Kapulena lands available for community-based agriculture, the largest such project in the state… and in 2011, Hamakua’s councilman Dominic Yagong passed a resolution through the council to lease more land in Paauilo.

TAG: Hamakua Lands

3. Hu Honua bioenergy in Pepeekeo

2011 was proof that change was coming to Hamakua’s rural, agricultural traditions…

Pepeekeo was front and center in the push to find energy alternatives to fossil fuels. And as this story shows, there is no easy answer for our future power solutions.

TAG: Hu Honua Bioenergy

2. Laupahoehoe charter school fiasco

In Laupahoehoe, the future of a small school had the community sharply divided. We followed charter school merry-go-round over the course of the year.

TAG: Laupahoehoe School

1. Zip Line death

In the higher elevations about Paukaa, tragedy struck in October 2011… dealing a blow to a burgeoning thrill-seeking industry on Hawaii Island.

In October, KapohoKine Adventures confirmed that it had suspended booking zipline tours pending a full evaluation on the soil composition and structural integrity of the lines.

TAG: Honolii Mountain Outpost