Question: Residents who live around Kaiaka Bay Beach Park in Haleiwa observe park maintenance workers feeding chickens on a daily basis. I thought the city was trying to rid our parks of feral chickens. By feeding them, chickens lay eggs and multiply, causing more problems. While walking around Kaiaka Park, we noticed thousands of holes dug out by the wild chickens. These holes are a safety hazard to people who visit the park. Also, the noise from feral roosters that start crowing as early as 4 a.m. is a real nuisance. Why are parks maintenance workers allowed to feed the chickens? Shouldn’t they be tasked with catching and removing them instead?
Answer: People shouldn’t be feeding feral chickens there or at any city park, according to the city.
“Staff with the Department of Parks and Recreation, including groundskeepers and maintenance staff at Kaiaka Bay Beach Park, are not directed or allowed to feed feral chickens. We encourage residents surrounding park facilities to additionally refrain from feeding the feral chickens,” said Nathan Serota, a spokesman for the department.
The department follows up on complaints, which Serota said are best submitted via email to parks@honolulu.gov, accompanied by photographs or video if possible. “Visuals are normally very helpful when dealing with specific complaints,” he said.
You are correct that city officials say they want to reduce feral chickens. However, islandwide eradication efforts on city property were discontinued because they were deemed too expensive, at nearly $100 per chicken, as Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Gordon Pang wrote April 3 (bit.ly/2w9L77B Opens in a new tab). For now it is up to affected city departments to deal with nuisance fowl on their own, including by hiring exterminators if necessary.
Q: Auwe! My landlord is evicting me even though I pay my rent and my lease should be in effect. He says he has to do renovations, but I think he is turning this place into a vacation rental.
A: Call the state Office of Consumer Protection’s residential Landlord-Tenant Code hotline at 586-2634 between 8 a.m. and noon weekdays. Or check the website cca.hawaii.gov/ocp Opens in a new tab and click on “Landlord-Tenant Information” in the right-hand column.
Q: I missed the last “Going Green.” Is there one this month?
A: No, the next community recycling event is scheduled for June 30 at Leilehua High School, according to the organization’s 2018 calendar. Contact coordinator Rene Mansho at 291-6151 or renemansho@hawaii.rr.com for more information.
Mahalo
I’d like to recognize and give a huge mahalo to the pleasant employee at the Internal Revenue Service office in Honolulu. On Tuesday I accompanied my grandson to the IRS office for an appointment at noon for an identity verification. The nice man who helped us was very helpful and professional. He was sincere in helping us and not acting like we were wasting his time, which brings me to why we were there. My grandson called the IRS to confirm his identity, but the person who picked up his call did not want to help him and hung up on him. He called again, and the next person said there was a flag on his Social Security number and that he needed to go to his local office. The nice man at the local office took my apprehension away from thinking we would encounter the same type of interaction as my grandson had on the phone. He also went a step further to check on previous years and printed the W2 form for a missing year. After all this I did not get his name, but he was the only person in the office at noon Tuesday. I just want to say mahalo and tell everyone how impressed I was with his service. — Tina M.
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.
