Question: I was trying to get in touch with OC16 to find out why the Farrington-Kahuku football game wasn’t going to be shown. Going through Oceanic, I realized that OC16 doesn’t have a contact number for the public. Why not? It’s a business. Shouldn’t a business have a phone number for the public to call?
Answer: The number to reach someone from OC16 is the general customer service number for all Oceanic Time Warner Cable departments: 643-2337.
Dave Vinton, director of sports for OC16, said viewers also can call him directly at 625-8506 during normal business hours. Another option is to email questions by going to www.oc16.tv/contacts.
The short answer on why the Farrington-Kahuku game wasn’t aired: The Oahu Interscholastic Association declined to have it televised for safety and logistical reasons, Vinton said.
He explained that OC16 works with the OIA, Interscholastic League of Honolulu, the Hawaii High School Athletic Association and other organizations in coming up with its broadcast lineup.
“We look at the schedule months before the season begins,” he said, including the schedules each association works up for their member schools and institutions.
Farrington was the home team this year in the game against Kahuku. Because it doesn’t have an adequate field to host a game, Farrington (as well as McKinley and Kaimuki) uses Roosevelt High School’s field, which underwent a $4.5 million renovation in 2008.
The problem is that the crowds for Kahuku-Farrington games are huge because of each school’s following, so officials were concerned about on-street parking and noise issues in the Roosevelt neighborhood, Vinton said.
Makiki residents in the past had voiced concerns to the Department of Education and OIA about the disruption.
To have OC16 televise the game would have meant bringing in a “big tractor-trailer truck that’s our production facility,” plus a crew of about 30 with their cars, Vinton said. “So, if we take up space, who gets kicked out? … It makes a bad parking and staging situation even worse.”
Secure ID Day
Hawaii’s Better Business Bureau is again sponsoring Secure Your ID Day, when the public can bring sensitive documents to be shredded for free.
This year’s event will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday at McKinley High School, Mililani High School and Kailua Elementary School.
You can bring up to two boxes or bags of documents, plus CDs and floppy disks for shredding. Paper documents should be removed from binders, but it’s OK to leave on staples and paper clips.
You can also bring in cellphones for recycling, as well as old laptops, CPUs and servers “for secure hard drive destruction for free,” the BBB says.
BBB staff will also provide advice and tips for protecting yourself against identity theft.
The event is held in conjunction with National Protect Your Identity Week and sponsored by BBB Foundation of Hawaii, Access Information Management, Pacific Corporate Solutions and Bank of Hawaii.
Auwe
To the driver of an older-model Toyota Camry who sideswiped a parked car on a small side street by Moanalua Elementary School. The parked car’s driver’s side-view mirror was damaged and, in turn, your passenger side view mirror was broken. The right thing to do would have been to stop and leave your name so that the owner could contact you to have their car repaired. Instead, you kept on driving as if nothing happened. — No Name
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Write to “Kokua Line” at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 7 Waterfront Plaza, Suite 210, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu 96813; call 529-4773; fax 529-4750; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.