State briefs for October 6

UH to move forward with apartment towers

HONOLULU — The University of Hawaii plans to move forward with developing apartment towers to increase the housing options on the school’s flagship Manoa campus.

The apartments in the estimated $110 million project are expected to be available to students and faculty at below-market rental rates.

The units, with private bathrooms, kitchenettes and the possibility of partial furnishings, are expected to house singles and families. The project could produce the tallest building on the campus in Honolulu.

A child care facility and retail spaces are included in the plan for two connected towers housing more than 400 primarily graduate students and junior faculty.

Construction is expected to begin in a little more than two years and finish in 2025. Officials planned the project for more than five years.

The towers are part of the university’s strategy to provide new, affordable student housing built at no cost to the university or Hawaii taxpayers by enlisting a private developer to build, own and operate the facility on land leased from the school.

The construction is planned on property conveyed to the university by the federal government that was previously used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

Apartments in the towers could cost more, but offer different accommodations than existing dormitories. The rental rates have not been projected.

There currently are 3,654 housing units on the Manoa campus serving more than 12,600 undergraduate and 4,800 graduate students, the university said.

Authorities identify remains found in 2019

LIHUE, Kauai — Authorities used DNA research and tips from the public to identify the remains of a man found last year along a mountain trail on Kauai.

The Kauai Police Department identified the remains as Harry Higashi Jr.

Higashi’s remains were found June 11, 2019, by a group of people cutting trees for firewood about 25 yards from the paved trail.

The case was classified as an unattended death and no foul play is suspected.

Higashi was not reported as a missing person and was thought to have been affiliated with a former camp near the area where his remains were discovered, authorities said.

Higashi’s family members provided Kauai police investigators with DNA samples for comparison.

Bryson Ponce, Kauai police assistant chief in charge of the department’s Investigative Services Bureau, said the search for Higashi’s identity was assisted by numerous phone calls and anonymous tips submitted through the Crime Stoppers Kauai P3 Tips app.
Source: Hawaii Tribune Herald