2008-01-11 THALEKII - Laserfiche WebLink

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traffic light, turning right to get back onto the highway. As you were talking I got the feeling like we’re just doing this to, we’re spending all of this money, and I’m not sure how much it costs, but spending all this money to make the improvements on that road or safety improvements on that road for “x” number of people using that road during that period of time to get to the subdivision to get to their homes. I’m not sure that’s what we really want to do. I mean I think we really should count them, go house to house, and see exactly when they come home, and see whether or not it really is going to solve our problem. Or are we just doing this as an exercise if in fact what you’re saying, you know, most people will not use the bottom road to go through the subdivision to get to Mamalahoa because it’s just faster to just stay on Mamalahoa. But going back to this Yamagata Road, the reason I brought that up is because of that Post Office and, to me, the amount of traffic that’s turning right to get to the Post Office and then getting back on the highway. So, you know, if Yamagata Road is available then why not use that road? I don’t really think it makes a hell of a lot of difference to go, I don’t know, 1,000 feet maybe to the intersection. And the other thing that I just wanted to point out, just to throw out on the table, is in that little area where the Credit Union is, Bank of Hawaii, American Savings, the First Hawaiian Bank, that’s also a bottleneck; and I’m afraid that by opening it up, and I know that this is just an experiment, it’s just going to create another bottleneck, as somebody else pointed out in one of the submittals that we received. And I want to stop at that point. I think I’ve taken too much time already. WATANABE: Mr. Woodward? WOODWARD: Yeah, with regard to the question of the Yamagata Road, my understanding, I look upon this from what I’ve heard all the testimony and what I’ve read, is that this is going to be on a trial basis and this is a temporary move to allow traffic to flow up to Mamalahoa Highway pending the second phase completion of the next three miles or so to Napoopoo junction. I would guess if you were going to improve the Yamagata Road that that would take at least as long as we’re looking at; and, you know, temporary is a relative term. Temporary here probably means three to five years; and that’s temporary for government purposes. That’s a long time for us. But I would think that putting in another road as a temporary measure when the main road is going to connect this to Napoopoo junction is going to be done in about the same amount of time probably is not fiscally responsible. And I’d just like your comments on that, Mr. Sumada. SUMADA: Mr. Woodward, I would agree with you. The only caveat is that I think the settlement agreement puts the onus on Oceanside to build, develop Yamagata Road. So if you’re not worried about Oceanside’s profitability then that’s their responsibility to follow through. But as far as expending money as a general rule I would agree with you in total. Getting back a little bit to Mr. Rho’s comment, right now there are speeding and traffic concerns through Keauhou and Halekii Street right now. The short-term measures that we proposed would benefit both those communities right now, whether you folks agree to lift the restriction on the zoning condition or not. To me that is a very good investment of County funds. And it also recognizes that eventually when the road opens up, I mean I’m still hoping that that happens EXHIBIT A 20