Ask The Mayor
Mayor Alan Arakawa answers some of the most-asked questions submitted to his office staff.
Question: Every Tuesday and Friday mornings, we are awakened somewhere between 4:45 and 5:30 a.m. when our rubbish is collected. As an adult, it is quite easy to be annoyed and then go back to sleep until it’s time to get up, but it’s not that easy for children. After the pickup, the loud banging of cans, the beeping from reversing and turning around- and then the pickup from the other side (about five minutes total) – my young child and many others in our Wahikuli (Lahaina) neighborhood are wide awake and often crying. Is there a way our trash collectors could wait until 6 a.m. to pick up the trash – for the sake of our kids?
Answer: Thank you for sharing your concerns. The county’s refuse collection program only collects single-family residential trash. The union contract limits the number of pickups per day, the route for refuse pickup and the hours of operation. By union contract, the crews’ starting time in West Maui is 5 a.m., and we have reminded our staff of this. The routes for residential refuse collection take into consideration fuel and time efficiency. The refuse collected in West Maui is trucked to the Central Maui Landfill with a maximum of two trips per day, which means that time efficiency is critical. While it could be possible to modify your refuse collection route to a later start time, it would come at the expense of time and fuel efficiency and, ultimately, the cost of service.
Question: I’m not sure who to ask, but maybe you can point me in the right direction. I’m going to be cremated and would like my daughter to bring my ashes to Maui to sprinkle them. We spent several years coming to Maui and whale watching, so this would be my ideal resting place. I need to know if this is possible, and if so, what needs to be done to bring me to the island.
Answer: The sprinkling of ashes, also referred to as a burial at sea, is a common practice in Hawaii. Local families paddle out on canoes, surfboards, kayaks or boats to gather in a circle to remember their loved one before sprinkling the ashes and some fragrant flowers into the water. It is a beautiful memorial that does NOT require any county or state permits to conduct.
Submit your questions about County of Maui programs, services, operations or policies to Mayor Alan Arakawa via e-mail at AskTheMayor@mauicounty .gov, phone at 270-7855, or mail to 200 S. High St., Ninth Floor, Wailuku, HI 96793.