PEARL CITY (HawaiiNewsNow) – Concern is growing in Pearl City after another notice of violation was issued to the owners of the old Kam Swap Meet property recently.

Residents who live near the vacant property near Pearl Ridge Center tell HNN it’s been an area of concern for the last several years with homeless and dry brush.

They said after the recent Maui wildfires, they don’t want to take any chances.

“It is true a fire hazard,” said one nearby resident. “Some of them cook on open fires so you see smoke.”

The property was once the Kam Drive-In movie theater and swap meet.

In 2014, there was were talks of developing the property and creating high-rise apartments but it never happened.

Hawaii News Now’s cameras found parts of the fence around the property cut open.

“They are very bold. The homeless just come back and cut holes in the fence,” said one resident.

Zeke Jasso, the property manager for the condos across the street, said most of the property live in the vacant buildings.

“I ask myself, why is the building still standing,” said Jasso. ”We’ve actually had people run to our fence saying, he has a gun, he has a gun.”

Last month, the city’s Department of Permitting and Planning issued a notice of violation to owner CP Kam Properties LLC, which was found to have Los Angeles address.

According to the violation, inspectors found “excessive overgrowth and flammable weeds” along with other debris and furniture. It also says two buildings on the property are unsafe and occupied by homeless.

“You can see on the weekends they have all their laundry out, all their vehicles out,” said Jasso.

The city gave the owner until Oct. 5 to make corrections but a week after that deadline, it appears changes haven’t been made.

”The frustration is that the violations get issued but nothing seems to happen,” said another resident.

The city issued a similar notice of violation in May of last year but officials said corrections were made by the owner and no fines were issued.

It’s unclear if the city will be issuing fines this time around.

HNN reached out to the owner for comment but have not heard back.

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At the 2024 Hawaii Tourism Conference, held Sep. 30 to Oct. 2, the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau’s (HVCB) Hawaii Tourism USA team shared how it’s hoping to stimulate travel demand to the Islands through events, partnerships, social media and engagement with advisors.

Jeffrey Eslinger, senior director of market insights and CRM for the HVCB, started off with some stats. Eslinger said the U.S. market will continue to be the largest source market for Hawaii tourism. Maui continues to see softness for visitation, and this fall, the state is seeing it as well.

“The U.S. West is expected to show resilience in both visitation and expenditures, but the U.S. East will continue to face some challenges in attracting both visitors and maintaining the spending levels that we currently have been seeing,” Eslinger said.

Jay Talwar, senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Hawaii Tourism USA talked about its efforts to saturate the Los Angeles market. One example is the completion of an Aloha Market pop-up retail experience in Venice Beach, which saw more than 7,000 visitors.

Who does Hawaii want to visit?

Talwar also defined Hawaii’s target traveler as a respectful explorer, who is conscious of their impact. The targeted traveler is also a culinary enthusiast, culturally curious and appreciates learning about Hawaiian culture. 

On the travel trade side, Robyn Basso, senior director of Travel Industry Partnerships at the HVCB, said Hawaii Tourism USA has brought educational blitz events to U.S. markets and has held fam tours.

Basso said she’s receiving great feedback from advisors who have attended fams and have regained their confidence in selling Maui. “We’ll continue with our [Hawaii Tourism] USA multi-island led fams,” Basso said. “We want to continue to support Maui, but we also want to support the strategy of multi-island visitation.” 

Basso also said Hawaii Tourism USA is investing in marketing to travel sellers so that they keep Hawaii top of mind. “Most importantly, driving them to our website to register, to engage with our resources and opt in for our communications. We want them to become a Hawaii destination specialist, so that’s the ultimate goal.”

Ashton Jeanty has been one of the biggest stars in college football near the midway point of the 2024 season.

In a sport in which the highest-profile names are increasingly quarterbacks — a fact reflected by the Heisman Trophy, which quarterbacks have won 12 of the past 14 years — the Boise State junior is something of a throwback, a workhorse running back helping carry a top-25 team.

As he continues to rack up cartoonish stats on the ground, Jeanty has become appointment viewing for college football fans nationally — even if, like last night, his team isn’t kicking off until many back in the Eastern time zone are preparing to go to bed.

REQUIRED READING: Oregon’s defeat of Ohio State headlines college football Week 7 winners and losers

Jeanty continued his stellar 2024 season late Saturday night for the Broncos in their 28-7 victory at Hawai’i, a game that kicked off at 11 p.m. ET.

Here’s a look at just how well Jeanty did in helping Boise State improve to 5-1 and take another step closer to the 12-team College Football Playoff:

Ashton Jeanty stats vs Hawai’i

• Rushing: 31 carries for 217 yards (7.0 yards per carry), one touchdown
• Receiving: Three catches for 20 yards (6.7 yards per catch), one touchdown

Jeanty rushed for 217 yards and a touchdown on 31 carries in his team’s win at Hawai’i.

He added a season-high three catches for 20 yards and his first receiving touchdown of the season. The catch extended Boise State’s lead to 14, 21-7, early in the fourth quarter, a much-needed cushion in a game in which it was favored to win by three touchdowns.

With his rushing and receiving totals combined, Jeanty had 237 yards and two touchdowns.

It was Jeanty’s third game (of a possible six) this season with at least 200 rushing yards. His seven yards per carry were his fewest of the season but, if anything, that speaks to the remarkable run the Jacksonville, Florida native has put together.

REQUIRED READING: How high will Oregon go? US LBM coaches poll ranking projection after wild Week 7

Ashton Jeanty highlights vs Hawai’i

Jeanty wasted little time logging his biggest play of the day.

With Boise State nursing a 3-0 lead and approaching midfield with about six minutes remaining in the first quarter, Jeanty took a handoff from quarterback Maddux Madsen, bounced to the outside and took it to the house for a 54-yard touchdown, also his longest run of the day.

Late in the third quarter, he barreled over a Hawai’i defender on his way to a 28-yard pickup.

Seven plays later, he capped off the drive with a 5-yard touchdown reception from Madsen.

Ashton Jeanty season stats

Following his output against Hawai’i, Jeanty has rushed 126 times for 1,248 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns this season, averaging 9.9 yards per carry.

His rushing yardage and rushing touchdown marks lead all FBS players. The next-closest rusher to Jeanty, Iowa’s Kaleb Johnson, is 311 yards behind him, making him the only FBS player who has eclipsed 1,000 yards on the ground this season.

Jeanty is on pace to finish the regular season with 2,496 rushing yards, which would put him 132 yards shy of Barry Sanders’ single-season FBS record.

However, Boise State is well-positioned to make the Mountain West championship game and will have a bowl game after that. If the Broncos win out, it’s possible they’ll earn the spot in the College Football Playoff reserved for the highest-rated conference champion from outside the Power Four leagues, giving Jeanty several more chances to break Sanders’ record if he maintains his current pace.

As of the completion of Week 7, Boise State’s only loss was a 37-34 defeat to No. 3 Oregon, against whom Jeanty rushed 25 times for 192 yards and three touchdowns.

Sanders finished his Heisman Trophy-winning 1988 season with 2,850 yards. At the time, the NCAA record book did not count bowl games as part of a player’s statistical profile, meaning Sanders’ 222 rushing yards in Oklahoma State’s Holiday Bowl victory against Wyoming were not included as part of his total for that season.