Mauians Get Creative in New Ways to Protest Abandoned Pay Phone Stands

Tired of just taking or abusing handsets, Maui locals have turned up their creativity to protest all the abandoned public phone stands on island.

The telephone stands located all over Maui have not been operational in years. Still, the owner of the contraptions, Maui Telcom, refuses to remove them.

"Sure, no one's dropping quarters for calls now, but what if this cell phone fad goes away?" said Miriam Ohno, spokesperson for Maui Telcom. "If and when that happens, our stands are already stationed to provide affordable phone service for residents and visitors alike."

Few can remember when the public phones last worked. Some of the stands may still have some working lights, or digital displays, but even so the phones just don't work.

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Maui residents have complained for years that they dropped coins into the lit machines only for nothing to happen.

"Mobile phones are neat and dandy, but one time I had mine stolen near Foodland and had to report it to police," said Mika Flores, 39, of Wailea. "I dropped a fistful of coins in there and wrestled with what was left of the cord and handset, to no avail."

Maui locals are not fond of the eyesores and have sent messages to the phone company to remove them ~ including, recently, through new tactics.

It is not uncommon to see phone stands with no handset or cord ~ or just a half of a phone handset. In recent months it appears locals are stepping up their game.

For instance, a phone stand attached to a store wall in Paia has been decorated as a turkey in honor of the approaching Thanksgiving holiday.

Over in the southern end of Kihei, someone decorated a lonely stand at the entrance to the boat launch as a Christmas tree.

Finally, at Kahului Community Center Park, someone just cut the stand part up top right off the post securing it into the ground. Someone wrote on the fallen hunk of metal, "Kane Lalo!"

Some visitors find the old phone booths about as amusing as all the wild chickens on Maui.

A few years ago, some visitors reported old phone stands they ran across to government officials, believing them to be phone booths of space aliens.

Last February, Maui Telcom announced new handsets designed to help visiting couples to avoid conflict while on Maui.