WHT at 50: Lease-holders await trustees’ reply, parents of fallen soldier receive posthumous award

Wednesday, June 11, 1969 | Volume II, Issue XXIII

ON THE COVER

“Bishop Lease-Holders Await Trustees’ Reply”

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Kona’s Bishop Estate lease holders — threatened with losing their homes as the leases near expiration — were awaiting word this week from the estate’s trustees on three proposals prepared by an ad hoc housing committee headed by Mrs. Josephine Norton.

The proposals were mailed to trustees last week in the form of a letter. Speaking for the people whose leases will be up in the next few years, Mrs. Norton listed the following requests: 1. We do not want to be relocated; 2. We want the Bishop Estate to grant long-term (65-year) leases to farmers on the land they are living on; 3. We want the Bishop Estate to grant long-term leases (65-years)with option to buy one acre or less at assessed tax value on present farm home sites.

“It is apparent to the people of Kona that the Bishop Estate has done little or no thinking about its lease-hold policy here. Suddenly, people are being faced with the possibility of being evicted from homes they have occupied for generations. The people want a definitive statement on just what Bishop Estate plans to do in Kona,” the letter read.

“Yano To Be Cited”

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Col. Allan Los Banos of Pohakuloa Training Center will present a posthumous award to Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Yano, parents of Sgt. First Class Rodney J.T. Yano.

They will receive the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and the First and Tenth Oak Leaf Cluster.

Yano was Hawaii’s first casualty of the Vietnam War in 1969. He was fatally wounded while on a combat mission with the Air Calvary Troop of the 11th Armored Calvary Regiment. The incident occurred on New Year’s Day.

Before his death, Yano had been awarded the Air Medal for flying 25 missions into hostile territory in Vietnam, and also the Meritorious Service Award for valor in action.

“Seventh Fleet Oiler To Visit Kailua During July Captain Cook Festival”

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The USS Hassayampa, fleet oiler with the Seventh Fleet, will call at Kailua-Kona during the Captain Cook Festival, July 4-6.

The Hassayampa, commanded by Capt. Jack E. Waite, USN, is homeported at Pearl Harbor from where she is sent to the Western Pacific to fulfill her basic mission by replenishing units of the Seventh Fleet.

The vessel is the third of a class of six large fleet oilers commissioned by the Navy, and all are named for rivers, and this one is named for the Hassayampa River in Arizona.

OTHER NOTABLE HEADLINES

“Kona Lions Delegation Departs Today For Tokyo”

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Kona will be well represented at the 1969 Lions International Convention to be held in Tokyo, July 2-5. Ten Kona Lions will depart in three groups with the first group leaving today.

The groups will visit Manila, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan. They will also visit their sister club, Shimono Seki while in Japan.

V Weekly deals:

At Sure Save Super Markets: One pound Dungeness crab, $0.69 and a fifth of Old Grand Dad 86 Proof Straight Bourbon for $6.99.

At Kamigaki Store: Two one-dozen count small Kona Laid Eggs for $0.79; two 15.5-ounce cans of Libby’s Corned Beef Hash for $0.79; and 10 pounds of C&H Sugar for $1.25.

N Featured films:

At Aloha Theatre: “The Big Mouth,” “Pendulum” and “The Dirty Dozen,” starring Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine.

At Kona Theatre: “The Split,” “Young Runaways” and “Sand Pebbles.” For adults only, “The Taming” and “Copenhagen Call Girls.”