County offices will be closed on holiday
WAILUKU - Maui County offices and all county pools will be closed Thursday in observance of Thanksgiving Day.
Hana and Lanai landfills and the Olowalu Recycling & Refuse Convenience Center also will be closed. The Central Maui Landfill will operate on a holiday schedule and will be open from 7 a.m. to noon. The Molokai Landfill and Recycling Center will be open during regular Thursday hours from 8 a.m. to noon.
Trash pickups will be done on regular schedules.
The Waiehu Golf Course will be open for normal hours of operation.
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PDC agreement may be renewed with UH
KIHEI - The University of Hawaii has been selected by the Department of Defense to negotiate a new cooperative agreement as the managing partner for the Pacific Disaster Center on Maui.
The center, with a staff of 40, provides applied information research and analysis support in disaster management and humanitarian assistance.
The university has been managing the center since December 2006 under a three-year agreement. The new agreement is for five years and is expected to have a total value of more than $30 million.
UH President M.R.C. Greenwood said, "The University of Hawaii system is proud of the work our team has done over the past three years and honored to have been selected to continue our stewardship of the PDC. As the world faces increasing damage and harm from natural and man-made disasters, the PDC will be increasingly critical to improving our capacity to minimize suffering."
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MCC will close day after Thanksgiving
HONOLULU - Maui Community College and other University of Hawaii campuses will be closed to the public Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
The closure is in accordance with the recent collective bargaining settlements and will reduce energy costs to meet the budget shortfall, according to a news release from the university.
Certain critical functions or specialized facilities, such as research laboratories, will continue to operate.
University campuses also will be closed from Dec. 21 to 31, during the weeks of Christmas and New Year's.
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Retirement benefits topic of Dec. 7 talk
KAHULUI - A briefing for federal employees to provide information and to answer questions about the change in retirement benefits will be held from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Dec. 7 at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.
The meeting will be open to the public. The subject is the transition to replace nonforeign cost of living allowances with locality pay for federal workers in Hawaii.
Federal employees in Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. territories receive a nonforeign cost of living allowance (COLA), which is not taxed, but also is not figured into retirement calculations, resulting in lower retirement pay compared with Mainland workers.
Federal employees in the contiguous 48 states receive locality pay, which is factored in for retirement.
The briefing will be led by staff from Sen. Daniel Akaka's Senate Labor Committee work force subcommittee, the Office of Personnel Management and the executive director of the Honolulu-Pacific Federal Executive Board.
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'Kumulipo' author to lecture Saturday
WAILUKU - Rubellite Kawena Kinney Johnson, author of the "Kumulipo: the Hawaiian Hymn of Creation," will lecture at 6:45 p.m. Saturday at the Duco Building, 1464 Lower Main St. (mauka of Archie's and Tiffany's Restaurant).
Refreshments will be served at 6 p.m. Seating is limited, so reservations are requested by Wednesday. For more information, call 269-8865.
