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Community Briefs

FEDS CONCUR WITH AWARD OF AIRPORT ROAD PROJECT

The Federal Highway Administration has concurred with the Procurement Office’s decision awarding the multi million dollar Airport Road Reconstruction Project to California based Whitehorn Construction.

Ground breaking for the federally funded project was held late last month after the project was awarded to Whitehorn Construction for $7 million. The company has already established a local office.

Chief Procurement Officer Ivy Taufa’asau told Samoa News on Thursday, this week, the same day that the Federal Highway Administration “concurred with our awarding” of the project to Whitehorn and the Department of Public Works has scheduled a pre-construction meeting next Monday with the contractor.

She said the federal agency gave the concurrence on Thursday this week.

SHRINERS TO BE IN TERRITORY NEXT MONTH FOR OUTREACH CLINIC

A Shriners Outreach Team from Honolulu will be in the territory early next month for an Orthopedic Outreach Clinic at LBJ Medical Center. The clinics will be held between Nov. 6-9 from 8am to 4pm at LBJ’s Surgical Clinic.

These clinics are specifically for children under 18 years old with orthopedic and or burn problems, according to a LBJ' news release, which also states that the Shriners Outreach Team would like to see former Shriner patients for follow-ups as well as new patients.

Parents are urged to bring their children to the surgical clinic for registration or call 633-1222, extension 305, for appointments.

LBJ says new patients are asked to make appointments with the surgical clinic if doctors at the hospital believe the child needs to be seen by the visiting Shriners’ team.

VISITOR’S BUREAU HOSTING U.S. TRAVEL WHOLESALERS

The American Samoa Visitor’s Bureau is hosting nine US travel wholesalers and one journalist from the US as part of a familiarization visit being organized the Visitor’s Bureau, in partnership with Hawaiian Airlines.

The travel wholesalers from California and Hawai’i, along with the journalist, arrived Thursday night and will be hosted tonight at a dinner function by the Visitor’s Bureau, whose executive director David Vaeafe is very thankful to Hawaiian Air for providing airfares for the group, who departs next Monday night.

The wholesaler and media visits are the third planned ones this year, organized by the Visitor’s Bureau. This month the group was from Australia and last month a group visited from New Zealand. The visits were made possible by a US Department of Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs technical assistant grant.

FED SENTENCE OF SAMOAN BROTHERS CONTINUED TO 2013

John Tai and his younger brother Louis Tai were scheduled for sentencing next month at the federal court in Honolulu on drug charges but attorneys for the government and defense sought a continuance until Aug. 12, 2013.

Earlier this month U.S. District Court Judge David Alan Ezra, who is presiding over this case, granted the request for a continuance.

No reason was cited in court documents for continuing the sentencing date after the Tai brothers pled guilty this year. However, the federal government’s case against the middle brother Kaisa Tai is set for jury trial for May 14, 2013 for the same drug case.

Kaisa and Louis Tai were arrested in Pavaiai last summer and taken to Honolulu where they and other co-defendants including their older brother John Tai were charged in a major drug case spanning from Hawai’i to California. John was arrested in California, where he resided.