On Monday, the Honolulu-based Queen’s Health Systems formally announced its plans to construct a $450 to $500 million hospital with 80 beds and a helipad on its property at the West Hawai‘i Business Park. [...] Queen’s Health Systems stated the proposed new hospital in Kona would deliver comprehensive inpatient and emergency care, with a state-of-the-art emergency department, an ambulatory care center and enhanced inter-island patient transfers with the helipad.

https://bigislandnow.com/2024/12/16/kona-community-hospital-was-working-on-new-facility-but-queens-health-systems-announced-its-own-plans-for-west-hawai%ca%bbi/

Some sort of nasty flu or Covid going around. Going on day 3 with severe body aches, fever, chills, headache and cough. Stay healthy everyone.

Despite the overrun of geckos .... These little troopers manage to hang on .

I was at the Alii market the other day and there was a family (husband and wife I think) who had a table of woodcarvings from native woods. I want to buy more of their things but I didn’t get a card or anything.

They had a bunch of stuff, but one thing I want is an octopus shaped hair stick with three prongs.

Does anyone know who I’m talking about? Do they have a website or something?

Please do not tell me to google this- you try putting these keywords into the world’s largest huckster and see what comes up.

I’m leaving the Honokohau Harbor, and when I look south I see a big plume of smoke. Anyone have info?

Did anyone else see this in the sky last night took this photo from the point at the end of paradise in HPP

Been on the island a few years on the east side and I'm a bit of a homebody in a pretty rural area. Just enjoy 420 and some good music/beach scenes but not a fan of crowds so i don't go out much. My kids have flown the coop and thinking of getting out there more. Where's the good scenes lately?

I see some people refer to Waikoloa Village but mean the Hilton Resort and some people refer to Waikoloa Village and mean the actual Waikoloa Village up the hill from the resort. What is the correct way to reference these?

Anything new on the escaped convicts?

How’s it going I’m considering becoming a police officer but I’ve looked online and the pay is pretty vague I’d like to know if you don’t mind what do police officers in Hilo take home after taxes monthly ? just starting out and after having a few years of experience thank you in advance.

Seeking some help in finding Cotton Fruit (Santol) on the island. I have a pregnant friend with major cravings for this fruit from her home in the Phillipines. Help is appreciated, I haven't been able to find any!

I started talking to these two little boys using some kind of fishing apparatus down at the public beach in Kailua last night. They said they were trying to catch Omni crab. I am a granny so aside from finding them adorable (they were 6 and 7 respectively) my curiosity was piqued about what exactly an Omni crab is. Can anyone enlighten me?

Just bought some land in ocean view, (moving from Pahoa) and we bought an acre with a power pole already on it and paid for. We just found out that it’s going to be about another $30K to get the power to the house?? We haven’t started building yet but it’s insane, does that sound about right to you guys? Would it be cheaper to go solar?

So I grew up in Ka’u district but I’ve been away for many years.

Wanted to give some local blend coffee to my brother, but, not being a coffee drinker, I don’t know what’s good out there.

So who, in y’all’s opinion sells the best Ka’u coffee?

I'm on Hilo side but I don't mind driving if there's fresh mozzarella somewhrre.

Does anyone know of any plant seller that has Pangium trees?

Hello all

I was pretty impressed with the service I got from BlueSky Energy so I thought I would give them a recommendation and a shout out since they don't really have any online presence. I'm on the Hilo side and I got quotes from six different companies and BlueSky Energy was definitely the best option. They are very knowledgeable, no pressure and they have the best prices. also they use local electricians like Yamamoto Electrical Services to do the install and I like that it's supporting the local community instead of the mainstream companies. Blue Sky doesn't do commission or even have sales people which is very refreshing because there is no pressure at all. By the time I talked to Andrew from Blue Sky I had already received a few quotes from other companies and decided that solar was too expensive and we could not afford it but Andrew said he was in the area doing a service call and he could stop by and have a chat, maybe there was some other alternative options. And he also told me about some financing program at the state offers which is kind of cool because the loan will be less than what your current power bill is… fortunately we didn't have to go that route because the federal government's giving 30% tax credit and the state gives you a 20% so essentially getting 50% off your solar install and blue sky energy was about $5,000 cheaper than any other quote that we got. I will post a picture of the bid for reference.

One other thing I like to mention is Enphase versus Tesla solar. There's basically two types of systems, one is Enphase and one is Tesla. There are several differences between the systems but I will just point out the most prominent ones.

The Enphase system is built in a way that if one of the components stops working the whole system bypasses that one and continues to work, unlike the Tesla if one thing goes wrong the whole system will be down. So if you have to wait a month or two to get replacement parts you're going to be relying on the power grid until it's fixed.

With Tesla If the battery gets all the way drained because of a prolonged power outage, your whole system won't come back on even when the sun hits the solar panel's because the battery needs a little bit of electricity to wake up its little computer brain…. So you'll have to wait until power is restored to the grid before the Tesla Solar system will be operational again. if something like that happened it would be extremely important to be able to keep all of our food good in the freezer because the stores won't have any. Everyone would've already bought all of it. Part of the purpose of a solar system is the security of knowing that you'll have electricity even if there is no power grid.

The Enphase system has a black start capabilities because of its micro inverters so it's completely autonomous and will continue to work no matter what.

Ephase's warranty is 5 years longer than Tesla's.

https://preview.redd.it/9ttuxt1lt96e1.png?width=1465&format=png&auto=webp&s=90afb81b4f6989b6912b7a94f464754eb29d95c6

A friend’s family will be staying at our place in Mountain View for a month. We’d like to let them borrow our car while they are visiting. We have insurance on the car (collision, comprehensive, etc). As far as I know (and I’ll double check) they have their own insurance policies on the mainland. I’ve read auto insurance in Hawaii follows the car, not the driver. So if our car is insured and they are separately insured, is our car covered if they get into an accident while driving on Big Island?

Let’s just say…. Asked and answered.

Hey all,

Does anyone know if any tattoo shops on Kona side do anything for Friday the 13th? I always go on O'ahu, but I'm visiting my parents in Kona this week and figured I'd see if anyone knows anything!

We have 2 levels of land on our property. One is approximately 15-25’ lower than the rest (depending on where you are measuring from). There is a steep hill. We would like to fill in the area to have more land on the top level. Our HOA has limitations on wall height that are more strict than the county. But, in general, how much does back filling land and building multiple 4’ high terraces cost? Obviously this is not an estimate that’s easy to estimate without eyes looking on it, but would we be talking less than 100k? More than 200k? Somewhere in the middle?

Aloha!

Can you recommend any choir, or xmas night mass/service, that's an event to not miss? Hilo side please. It's been long long since I watched a xmas night choir, and would love to do so this year.

Many thanks!

The landlord put in the lease that I'm not allowed to get any mail delivered even though I live here. Is this allowed? They get mail here in Kona, no issues. I have prescriptions that require a home address, pobox not allowed, and for other packages it would suck waiting in line everytime

aloha! I’m looking for someone who can help me with figuring out gardening issues - I have a home here and I’m working so hard to make my yard look beautiful but am having a tough time knowing the details…like what’s invasive, what can be taken out and tossed, stuff like that

I’m a single woman here, and I would really love some support from anyone who has more experience with the plants on this island🧡

Mahalo ✨

Besides the place in Walmart and the little place next to Island Naturals Hilo, is there a place to get prescription glasses on the east side? Somewhere between Pahoa up to Waimea?

My optometrist doesn't sell glasses and I think the on-line places only do single prescription and I wear tri-focal lenses, so that won't work.