2019-10-29 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – October 29, 2019 could be used not only personal safety – law enforcement here in Hawaii has one place that they train – that’s a cinder cone up on the Kohala Mountain Road – so that when the cadets – the new recruits have to train, you know, they have to drive from Hilo up there a good 70 miles RT maybe an hour in before it’s time to go back and stay within budget. So they don’t get a lot of training involved so... Our hunters would have a great place to do their new rifles, their new scopes – get ‘em dialed in before they go off to Lanai or Montana or Minnesota, you know, to go for that nice nine-point buck. Ah, there’s a big economic benefit – we’ve seen – I talked to the directors of the Chambers of Commerce in the Camp Perry Ohio area, Cincinnati – that part of the north, you know, Erie’s Post of Ohio and they cumulatively reap 20 million dollars every year from one series of matches that the NRA puts on at Camp Perry – it’s called The Camp Perry National Matches – they get 6,000 visitors annually and they’ve calculated that the bed & breakfasts, you know, the restaurants, the hotels, the camp sites, the local markets gets a $20 million dollar in flux to the community for that. The State of Nebraska – they figure that of their people target shooting there – they gain 124 million dollars in revenue – our Pacific International Trap Association – we have an annual match here – we bring in competitors from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, from Canada, from the West Coast, you know, the States – 75% of the competitors here for that event are from off-island so it brings in a lot of folks to Hilo, you know, it’s a very productive one. As a small business I catered them several years ago – many more than several years ago – and it was a very nice catering contract so I can tell you it’s a big boon to the community. NP: Yeah. Forget TMT. JO: This is one of our other board members is a competitive shooter in the National Sporting Plays Tournaments and their studies and what they’ve done total economic impact of several of these events are in the millions of dollars each one they do. It’s an amazing money-raiser there. Now for funding we have state general funds – we’re gonna need some of those to get moving forward on a range, whether it’s Puuanahulu or we have to do something else the money has to come through the State because they’re the ones that control the purse strings of the Pittman-Robertson Funding. Federal grants are possibly available. Private grants are a good source that we will have available once we have a site moving somewhat forward. We’ve been talking to some of the industry leaders about that and we do have commitments from people that when we’re ready to move they’re ready to make it part of their business strategy. NP: Well, it makes every bit of sense because so much as been put into it already... Why start all over again... JO: Truth, yes, and as a 501 (c) 3 we can accept tax deductable donations and we have – they have funded many of our youth programs, many of our 21