Maalaea News

Many of us attended the Planning Commission meeting last week at Kihei. Most of the public testimony given was against the 1,100-unit development at Maalaea.

Developer Jesse Spencer is seeking waivers of Maui County land use requirements and an expedited review by the state Land Use Commission to build 1,100 homes, most of them affordable, mauka of Maalaea.

Pacific Whale Foundation will hold July Fourth Cocktail Fireworks Cruises out of Lahaina and Maalaea Harbor at 6:30 p.m. View the July 4 fireworks in Lahaina on a cruise with a fully stocked bar, good food and great views.

Sandwich Isles Communications , a local telecommunications company that services Hawaiian Homestead communities statewide, has completed installation of its new, state-of-the-art, undersea fiber optic cable connecting the five major Hawaiian islands .

Maalaea resident Ed Begley said he "got lucky" as a brush fire roared close on both sides of his oceanfront home Sunday, but never burned his property.

A fire that was reported at 2:15 p.m. Sunday burned an estimated 80 acres and destroyed a home near Maalaea Harbor.

Sunday afternoon, Jim Foxboro was in his bedroom when he smelled smoke. "I called 911, and then I opened the door, and I saw flames that must have been 30 feet high." That was kiawe burning across Honoapiilani Highway near Maalaea.

They say one house was destroyed and another was damaged by the flames that led to the evacuation of three houses.

Driven by howling winds, a brush fire destroyed at least two homes and shut down Honoapiilani Highway at the pali on Sunday afternoon, stranding motorists trying to get between West and Central Maui, as well as flight crews upon whom hundreds of tourists were depending for trips home.

Maui firefighters contained an afternoon blaze on Honoapili Highway in Maalaea at around 5:30 a.m. Monday.

Damage to two houses in Maalaea, Maui, by a wind-swept brush fire Sunday was estimated at $600,000, according to a news release from Maui County.

MAALAEA - A brushfire that burned an estimated 80 acres and destroyed a house was completely contained shortly before 5:30 this morning, Maui County officials said.

The state Land Use Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a request by Alexander & Baldwin to designate more than 27,000 acres on Maui as important agricultural lands.

The sight of captive green sea turtles getting their first tastes of the open ocean brought tears to the eyes of some spectators, and shouts of joy from others, as staff from the Maui Ocean Center released the animals into the waters off Makena on Thursday afternoon.

A pygmy killer whale that was euthanized during the weekend was dying from pneumonia, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration biologist.

Scientists euthanized a pygmy killer whale that had beached itself on Maui Friday after they determined the animal was too ill to survive, a federal spokeswoman said.

A pygmy killer whale that stranded itself near Maalaea Harbor on Friday morning was probably from a pod of whales that has been lingering off the north Kihei shoreline for more than a week, officials said.

Pacific Whale Foundation will hold "Aloha to the Whales Cruises" from Lahaina Harbor at 6:30, 8:30 and 11 a.m., and from Maalaea Harbor at 12:30 p.m., on May 16.

Maui County projects funded in the budget passed by the Legislature last week include: * Maui Memorial Medical Center dialysis unit: $7.2 million * Maui Memorial facility improvements: $15 million * Kula long-term care facility: $5 million * Maalaea Small Boat Harbor sewer and electrical improvements, including construction of pump-out facilitites: ...

A 35-year-old Kahului man has been indicted on charges alleging he was under the influence of intoxicants when the dump truck he was driving rear-ended a pickup truck to start a five-vehicle collision that injured other motorists on Honoapiilani Highway near Olowalu last year.