“If I was at home, I would be doing something like this,” said Katie Speer of Tampa, Fla., Tuesday. Her camera in hand, she watched as about two dozen employees from the Marriott Waiohai Beach Club worked to paint the
“If I was at home, I would be doing something like this,” said Katie Speer of Tampa, Fla., Tuesday.
Her camera in hand, she watched as about two dozen employees from the Marriott Waiohai Beach Club worked to paint the main pavilion at the Po‘ipu Beach Park.
The project was part of Earth Day activities at the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort and Beach Club and its sister resort.
“I was going to help clean the fishponds on Maui with the whale group, but I got sick so I ended up doing nothing,” said Speer, an AAA travel agent, while taking photographs of the volunteers in action.
Chuck Brady, the human resources director at the Kaua‘i Marriott, said the groups tackled three phases of cleanup at the Po‘ipu Beach Park and the Nawiliwili Park adjacent to the Kaua‘i Marriott.
At Po‘ipu, the group of about two dozen volunteers, under the direction of Waiohai general manager Steve Yannarell, did general “opala” cleanup, repaired and painted picnic tables located on the Brennecke Beach side of the park, and repainted the main pavilion at the park.
“Our big project is to repaint the restrooms,” Brady said. “We have about 30 volunteers coming, and they will be doing general cleanup, painting and repairing the picnic tables as well. Jeff Poullath, the head of Engineering, will be overseeing the project.”
Additionally, Brady said the Nawiliwili group also included volunteers from the Kaua‘i Lagoons project who joined the Kaua‘i Marriott crew.
While the group worked at Po‘ipu, Myles Emura, one of the water safety officers stationed at the Po‘ipu tower, approached Yannarell about the possibility of creating signs asking beach users not to sit on the tables, but at the tables.
“We can’t do it today, but I think that’s something our guys can do,” Yannarell said. “We’ll work on it.”
Timmy Tin, one of the carpenters at the Kaua‘i Marriott, was armed with his cordless drill and a supply of screws when he started repairing the 21 picnic tables in preparation for repainting at Nawiliwili.
He said that with the weather, nails used to secure the planks on the tables get loose.
However, screws have the threads which are less susceptible to the expansion and contraction of the wood from the weather.
“You just can’t keep the man down,” Brady said. “Timmy was here from 6:30 a.m. ready to go to work.”
Virgilio Balisacan also arrived with his belt, but instead of carpenter tools, his belt was equipped to scale the coconut trees where he loosened and dropped dead fronds.
A multi-purpose utility cart came loaded with dirt to fill some of the divots created by the wild chicken population, and once unloaded, returned to the resort with piles of ironwood needles mixed in with various other trash.
“We’ll also take away some of the larger pieces,” Brady said, pointing out discarded BBQ grills, infant seats and various other large pieces under some of the trees.
Sol Kolomona of the No Ka Oi Surf School was setting up in preparation for the day’s traffic, his eye following some of the activity.
“This is good,” Kolomona said. “I painted the restroom once when the county first opened it. But that was about three to five years ago. The county is lucky they have people like this who come out to help. It saves them money.”
Kolomona said the Nawiliwili Park is very popular with tourists who come from the boat, and the restroom, located just below the Anchor Cove Shopping Center, is used regularly.
“Right now we have boats from Monday through Friday, and a lot of the passengers come through and use the restrooms,” Kolomona said.
“On top of that, the kids use it, too, so it’s good someone can take care of it.”
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com
