Volcano House will remain closed longer than expected. The hotel and restaurant atop Kīlauea on the Big Island was closed at the start of the year for a $3.5 million facelift.

An initial March deadline for concessioners to submit bids to operate Volcano House projected it to reopen this coming January. But the deadline was pushed back to the end of June and now has been extended to Aug. 3 as the National Park Service amended details of the contract prospectus.

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park Superintendent Cindy Orlando said Thursday that the reopening could be delayed until June 2012.

The park service had wanted 12.5 percent of gross receipts, up from 5 percent paid most recently. The new figure is 9 percent.

The park service's original plan called for a 10-year contract with a new concessioner to begin July 1. The concessioner would then have six months to complete a series of renovations, for which it would have to foot the bill, and reopen the facility for business on Jan. 1, 2011.

IRS STAFF TO ASSIST PERPLEXED TAXPAYERS

The Internal Revenue Service will host an open house today at its Honolulu office to help taxpayers dealing with notices and payments, return preparation and a variety of other tax issues.

The office at 300 Ala Moana will be open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

"The focus of this open house event is problem resolution," said IRS spokesman David Tucker II. "We want taxpayers to have the opportunity to work directly with our IRS staff during these special Saturday hours and have their tax issues solved."

CLEAN-ENERGY MEETING RETURNING TO ISLES

Hawai'i will host a regional clean-energy summit for the second straight year.

Gov. Linda Lingle says a key focus of the 2010 Asia-Pacific Clean Energy Summit will be renewable energy in China. Parts of the meeting will focus on energy efficiency and alternative energy sources like solar, wind, biofuels and geothermal.

The conference is scheduled for Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 at the Hawai'i Convention Center.

Last year, 800 energy industry representatives attended from nearly two dozen countries and territories including Fiji, Canada, China, New Zealand and Palau.The meeting is being coordinated by the state of Hawai'i and the Clean Technology and Sustainable Industries Organization.