Aloha, 2022: A look back at the year that was

It’s been said that to live on the Island of Hawaii is to deal with nature on steroids, so it’s no surprise that a volcano is the Tribune-Herald’s top news story of 2022.

The year marked the third of the novel coronavirus pandemic, and like almost everywhere else, Big Islanders were and are doing what they can to return to some form of normalcy.

Some of the island’s best known and most prominent citizens died in 2022. They include: kumu hula Johnny Lum Ho, the last living kumu from the first Merrie Monarch Festival hula competition held in 1971; former County Council members Leningrad Elarionoff and Daniel Paleka; Herbert Watanabe, educator and former chairman of the state Board of Education; Hilo attorney Brian De Lima, a former County Council member who also served as vice chair of the BOE; and self-described “semi-prominent” Hilo attorney Richard Peterson, an occasional letter writer to the Tribune-Herald.

As attention turns to 2023, here are the top 10 Big Island news stories of 2022, as selected by the editorial staff of the Tribune-Herald:

1. Mauna Loa erupts.

As local residents were finishing their Thanksgiving leftovers, Mauna Loa erupted at about 11:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 27. Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory reported the next morning that three fissures were spilling lava from the volcano’s northeastern flank. The eruption followed months of seismic rumbling accompanied by elevated alert levels issued by HVO. It was the first time since 1984 the world’s largest active volcano changed the island’s landscape with lava.

Mauna Loa’s eruption occurred during an eruption of Kilauea confined to Halema‘uma‘u crater. As lava from Mauna Loa headed toward Daniel K. Inouye Highway, then-Gov. David Ige and Mayor Mitch Roth issued emergency declarations — the former authorizing mobilization of the Hawaii National Guard, which later occurred. Roth’s emergency declarations prohibited parking and traversing/walking on the DKI and its shoulders between the 16-mile marker in East Hawaii and the intersection with Highway 190 in West Hawaii. Police were given the authority to tow offending vehicles and issue citations with fines of up to $1,000 for violators.

Roth also opened up a traffic hazard mitigation route for lava viewers along Old Saddle Road. Three men from Kazakhstan — 31-year-old Adibayev Axamat, 23-year-old Daurem Sabit and 32-year-old Nurz Niyaz — were cited by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources for trespassing through the closed area of Mauna Loa Forest Reserve to get a closer look at the lava. They’re due in court on Jan. 20, and face a potential 30 days in jail and $500 fine each if convicted.

As lava reached flatter ground, its march toward DKI slowed and stalled about 1.7 miles from the island’s main east-west thoroughfare. Lava emissions from Kilauea and Mauna Loa ceased almost simultaneously, in geological terms, as the former stopped erupting on Dec. 9 and the latter on Dec. 10. It was reported that various county departments including the Hawaii Police Department, Hawaii County Civil Defense and the county Department of Public Works spent approximately $392,000 responding to the eruption.

2. New bosses on Maunakea.

Without fanfare, Ige signed into law House Bill 2024, which removed the University of Hawaii as the management authority of the summit lands on Maunakea and established the Maunakea Stewardship and Oversight Authority. The bill was introduced by four representatives including Big Island Reps. Mark Nakashima and David Tarnas, at the behest of House Speaker Scott Saiki.

At the beginning of the 2022 legislative session, Saiki called for replacing UH as Maunakea’s management entity. The speaker also said UH should stop pursuing the renewal of the master lease of the Big Island mountain, home to Hawaii’s world-class astronomy observatories. The lease expires in 2033. The new law authorizes the new entity to develop a framework to allow astronomy development on Maunakea and declares astronomy as a state policy. It provides for a five-year transition period from UH management to the new authority.

The mountain was the site of protests and arrests in 2019, as opponents of the Thirty Meter Telescope project staged a massive blockade of Maunakea Access Road, stalling construction for months before winter, and then the coronavirus pandemic set in. The last remaining cases of those arrested were dismissed by a judge earlier this year.

The new board consists of 12 members, including: Chairman John Komeiji, vice president and general counsel for Kamehameha Schools; former Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Suzanne Case; Doug Adams, Hawaii County director of Research and Development; UH Regent Eugene Bal III, a retired Navy captain and former executive director of the Maui High Performance Computing Center; UH-Hilo Chancellor Bonnie Irwin; Hokule‘a crew member Pomai Bertelmann; Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, executive director of the Lalakea Foundation and TMT protest leader; Lanakila Mangauil, executive director of the Hawaiian Cultural Center of Hamakua who’s opposed both TMT and the UH lease; Kamana Beamer, a professor of Hawaiian Studies at UH-Manoa; Paul Horner, interim president of Na Leo TV; Kalehua Krug, an educational specialist for the state Department of Education; and Rich Matsuda, associate director of external relations at W.M. Keck Observatory.

3. Big raise for minimum wage.

Ige in June signed into law a bill that raises the state’s minimum wage in four steps that will eventually boost it to $18 an hour by 2028, which would be the highest in the nation provided no other states enact larger hikes. The first installment went into effect Oct. 1, raising the minimum wage from $10.10 an hour to $12 an hour. The increase, according to Ige, benefited 190,000 workers.

The bill received support among Hawaii workers during its progress through the Legislature, including the state branch of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, which said the pay hikes will help the state’s most economically vulnerable workers, who were disproportionately affected by the state’s COVID-related economic downturn. Miles Yoshioka, executive director of the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, said in late August that businesses, many unable to fill existing job openings, have been strapped by the cumulative effect of inflation, supply chain issues and pandemic aftereffects, with the wage hike adding to that strain.

4. Kilauea recovery continues.

More than four years after the 2018 Kilauea eruption destroyed more than 700 homes, overran roads and created a black sandbar in Pohoiki that rendered Puna’s only small boat ramp useless, the county continues to recover. The county received 820 applications by the October deadline for the Voluntary Housing Buyout Program. As of Dec. 23, 115 buyout agreements were executed, with $21.86 million expended by the program and an average of $190,152 awarded per recipient, all primary residential applicants.

There are 705 active applications pending, 196 from primary home applicants, 209 from secondary home applicants, and 300 for vacant properties. Recovery Officer Douglas Le said in November the county had committed $92.8 million of the program’s $107.5 million budget, which is funded through the U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery Program.

Environmental assessment is underway and could be completed early in 2023 for lava-inundated Pohoiki Road, Highway 137 and Lighthouse Road, with construction slated to start at various times and project completions projected for 2024 and 2025. And engineers confirmed during an October community meeting in Pahoa that 215,000 cubic yards of black sand that accumulated around the Pohoiki Boat Ramp will be dredged and placed on new land formed by the lava flow. The plan, estimated to cost $36 million, could be put out to bid by July 2023, with the potential of up to 75% federal funding. The disabled ramp forced fishermen to travel to Hilo at great expense to get their boats into the water.

5. The threat of fentanyl.

Authorities are alarmed about the spread of fentanyl on the Big Island. The synthetic opioid painkiller — 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration — caused an estimated 10 to 13 deaths statewide in 2016. By 2020, that number jumped to 28 deaths statewide, and in 2021, 48 people died of a fentanyl overdose in Hawaii. The DEA said a lethal dose of fentanyl can be as small as 2 milligrams, the size of a few grains of table salt.

Gary Yabuta, director of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas for Hawaii, said he thinks the Big Island “proportionately, has the most fentanyl deaths.” The drug can come in powder form or in a pill of any size or color, or disguised as as legitimate prescription pills such as Adderall, Xanax or Oxycontin.

Between January and September, police vice sections in Hilo and Kona seized a reported 4,268 fentanyl pills and 221.2 grams of powdered fentanyl. The drug has become such a concern a Fentanyl Task Force was created in 2022. The group has been distributing Narcan, a nasal spray that can rapidly reverse an opioid overdose, at community events.

6. Kalanianaole Street finally reopens.

After almost five years under construction, Hilo’s Kalanianaole Street finally reopened to both lanes of traffic on Dec. 16. Work on the only thoroughfare in and out of Keaukaha started in March 2018, with a budget of about $17 million split between the state and the county and an estimated completion date at the end of 2020.

The project was plagued with change orders, delays, a contractor change and cost overruns, with the final price tag coming to just over $24.86 million, although county Finance Director Deanna Sako said it could be less because contractors often overestimate the amount needed to complete a project. The first contractor, Goodfellow Bros., was paid $11.6 million for its work from the project’s start until its contract was terminated in December 2021. Nan Inc., which assumed the project in March 2022, was paid $11.7 million. The remainder went to Jas. W. Glover Ltd. and Bowers + Kubota Consulting, firms Sako said performed minor project work. Most of the funds came from the county, with the state chipping in about $7 million. Keaukaha residents and some county officials, including Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy, expressed frustration over the perceived lack of consistent work and the slow pace of the project.

7. Feds take aim at corruption.

Former County Councilman Stacy Higa was sentenced by a federal judge in February to 46 months in prison for embezzling from AmeriCorps and offering a bribe in return for federal relief funds while CEO of Na Leo TV in Hilo. The former mayoral candidate was from June 2011 to May 2020 executive director for the Hawaii Commission for National and Community Service, with responsibility for administrating AmeriCorps programs in Hawaii. Higa’s co-conspirator, Hanalei Aipolani of Oahu, also was sentenced for his role in the coronavirus relief scam.

In July, a federal grand jury indicted Hilo attorneys Paul Sulla Jr. and Gary Zamber and Big Island businessman Rajesh Budhabhatti. The indictment alleges the trio conspired to defraud and deprive the Office of Housing and Community Development, the county and its citizens of “their intangible right to the honest services of their public officials through bribery and kickbacks.” All three have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The feds allege the three received affordable housing credits — which can be transferred to other developers — and land conveyances with an aggregate value of at least $10.98 million, with no intention of developing affordable housing.

A fourth alleged co-conspirator, former county housing official Alan Scott Rudo, pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and admitted to accepting more than $1.8 million in bribes. Rudo is expected to testify against Sulla, Zamber and Budhabhatti, should their cases go to trial.

8. Hawaii goes Green.

Lt. Gov. Josh Green, a former Big Island legislator and a physician, was elected Hawaii’s ninth governor in November and sworn in on Dec. 5. Green and his Democratic running mate, Sylvia Luke, who were heavily favored, easily outdistanced the Republican ticket of Duke Aiona and Seaula Jr. Tupa‘i, garnering almost 64% of the vote. The well-financed Green also turned back U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele, who surrendered his House seat to make a late run for governor in the Democratic primary.

Green became the first Big Islander to occupy the governor’s residence, Washington Place, and only the second neighbor islander to do so, with Linda Lingle, the former Republican Maui mayor being the first. Green, who was born in Kingston, N.Y., and grew up in Pittsburgh, moved to Hawaii with the National Health Service Corps in 2000. He was a doctor in Big Island rural areas before entering politics, and continued working part-time as a physician while in the state Legislature and as lieutenant governor.

Green developed a following during the COVID-19 pandemic for his explanations of infection rates and trends and hospital treatment capacity. As governor, Green said he would encourage the construction of 10,000 new housing units to help address the housing shortage and will push to eliminate the general excise tax for food and medication. He aims to crack down on vacation rentals and tax vacant houses to encourage property owners to open up their empty dwellings for residents to rent.

9. Pandemic not pau.

Despite much social discourse about the novel coronavirus pandemic being in the past tense, COVID-19 is still very much a fact of life on the Big Island. According to the most recent figures received from the state Department of Health, there were 56 coronavirus-related deaths in Hawaii County in 2022, for a total of 222 since the pandemic began in early 2020. There also were 26,053 total cases of COVID-19 reported on Hawaii Island through Dec. 26, although the actual number of cases is thought to be much higher due to home testing and nonreporting. And according to the DOH, there were 103,596 vaccinations administered on the Big Island through Dec. 28, including booster shots. Vaccinations are available for infants as young as 6 months. The economic, educational and social toll of the pandemic continues, as well. State Department of Education Superintendent Keith Hayashi said on Dec. 23 it could take three to five years for students to fully recover behaviorally and academically from the pandemic’s impacts. And the so-called Great Resignation triggered by the pandemic continued in 2022, with many business struggling to find workers.

10. Merrie Monarch back to form.

After its cancellation due to the pandemic in 2020, and being held as a delayed, made-for-TV event in front of a mostly empty stadium in 2021, the Merrie Monarch Festival’s hula competition returned to its customary schedule during the week following Easter Sunday in 2022.

In-person attendance at the 4,200-seat Edith Kanaka‘ole Multi-Purpose Stadium in Hilo was capped at 2,000. In addition, all attendees were required to wear a face mask inside the stadium.

There were 18 participating halau, with 17 wahine and seven kane performances as well as 10 young women in the Miss Aloha Hula competition. The overall winner was Halau Ka Lei Mokihana O Leina‘ala of Kauai, under the direction of kumu hula Leina‘ala Pavao Jardin, a student of the late Hilo kumu hula Rae Fonseca. The Kauai halau also took top honors in wahine hula kahiko (ancient hula), wahine hula ‘auana (modern hula) and wahine overall.

In addition, the Merrie Monarch Hawaiian Arts and Crafts Fair returned after a two-year pandemic hiatus, drawing thousands to the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium over four days to peruse and purchase locally made goods from 130 vendors and artisans.

Nostalgia reigned supreme at the Ho‘ike — which had been a free evening of entertainment in the past, but was a bargain at $5 for the 2,000 ticket holders. A group of kupuna women called the Lexington Ladies brought down the house. The ladies, seven dancers and a singer, were all part of the legendary Hawaiian Room floor show at New York City’s Lexington Hotel in the 1950s and ’60s.

Also returning after a two-year pause was the Merrie Monarch Royal Parade, with festive floats, marching bands, pa‘u units, and dignitaries in convertibles, including the Merrie Monarch king and queen — plus the Lexington Ladies as grand marshals.

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.