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After a year like 2023, can anyone blame us for casting a wary eye on 2024.
One would like to believe things can only improve after a fire-scorched year that brought this island so much pain and suffering. Even the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 look like walks in the park compared to 2023. That's a big part of the concern. When it comes to jumping off points, 2023 seems more like quicksand than a springboard.
The past 12 months would have ranked as newsworthy even without the wildfires that consumed Lahaina and burned 20 homes and structures Upcountry. Last spring, a 52-day hospital strike between the United Public Workers union and Maui Health highlighted a number of island issues, including the fragility of our health care system, the high cost of living and the challenges of an extremely tight labor market.
At the Maui Space Force Complex located atop the summit of Haleakala, a failed emergency generator leaked 700 gallons of diesel fuel on Jan. 29. The accident sparked renewed concerns over the facility's impacts and lease, which must be renewed soon.
We had a yacht run aground at protected Honolua Bay in March and Bernard Brown was sentenced in January to life in prison after being convicted in 2022 of murdering and hiding the body of Moreira "Mo" Monsalve in 2014. In February, former Maui Environmental Management Director Stewart Stant was convicted of accepting about $2 million in bribes in exchange for helping an Oahu wastewater business secure more than $19 million in county contracts. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
On a lighter note, Kihei finally got its high school. Kulanihako'i High School opened its modern, attractive campus to students on Aug. 7 after years of broken promises and wrangling over the school's mandated grade-separated pedestrian crossing. For a while in 2023, it looked like the opening could be held up for years, but an indemnification deal between the county and the state Dept. of Education was struck and decades of waiting for the school came to an end. Kulanihako'i had room to host Lahainaluna students and faculty who briefly formed their own school within a school after the fires.
Everything changed on Aug. 8 when the windswept wildfires ravaged Lahaina and Kula. Five months later, far too many displaced people still cannot find permanent housing. Many have left the island and others bounce from hotel to hotel wondering what the new day will bring. They grieve their dead and comb through the ashes of their incinerated homes with dreams of finding a keepsake or two.
And don't get us started on the ghastly wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, the rapidly changing climate or the presidential election looming on the horizon as democracy hangs in the balance.
What will 2024 bring? We're hoping for the best, but keeping both eyes open.