mtanji@mauinews.com
Maui County residents still need help paying the bills even as the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission last week extended the temporary ban on disconnections for electricity, water and other utilities.
“While the moratorium offers some relief to these households for the time being, it doesn’t eliminate the large debts owed,” said Cassi Yamashita, community services director at Maui Economic Opportunity.
The nonprofit has a program to assist low-income households with bills from Hawaiian Electric Co. or Hawaii Gas.
“Many of the applications we are seeing are from households who have not been able to pay their bills for months, some almost a year,” Yamashita said. “The same can be said about rental or mortgage assistance applications.”
The Maui News
Large tents have been donated to Kamali’i Elementary, Kihei Charter School, Kihei Elementary and Lokelani Intermediate this week to provide outdoor classroom space during the COVID-19 pandemic, state officials announced.
Trade Winds Productions/USA Network, which filmed the reality show “Temptation Island” on Maui primarily at a Wailea resort donated six 20-by-30-foot tents to the four Kihei schools, offering “ventilated, shaded outdoor safe space to accommodate in-person classes while getting our keiki back to school this spring,” state Rep. Tina Wildberger of South Maui said Monday in a news release.
Wildberger’s business, Kihei Ice Inc., covered the cost of installation.