Another Oahu Beach "Off Limits" to Public

This article appeared in the Honolulu Advertiser on Oct. 6. Further down in the story if you go to the link, Waimanalo Neighborhood Board Chairman Wilson Ho says the public has been going to this beach for 20 years and is just hearing about this restriction now...

Bellows beach policy a surprise
Air Force says stretch some assume is open to public is off limits - By Eloise Aguiar, Advertiser Windward Writer

WAIMANALO - For decades the public assumed that Bellows Air Force Station beaches were open to local residents on weekends, but an encounter with military police there has revealed otherwise and community leaders are studying the situation.

Kim Falinski of Kailua said she was walking on the beach between Waimanalo Bay State Recreation Area and the public campsites on Bellows when she and other people were approached by a military man in uniform riding a four-wheel drive vehicle. He asked for identification and told her the beach was closed 24/7, Falinski said, adding that she asked for a contact person she might talk to but was brushed off. Rather than confront the man, she said she left.

"I'm not a community activist," she said. "I'm just a community member. I'm told it's closed 24/7 and I'm told by someone with a gun."

Click here for the rest of the story.