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we work together. We share a fence line. We have the same problems. You know, we’re
<br />fighting a dog issue coming in and killing livestock. We work together to try and do that. I want
<br />that neighbor, you know, to stay the way it is. So that’s why we set the hours and the times in
<br />there.
<br />Back to your idea of delaying, I mean, I don’t have a choice in that matter. I mean, again, we
<br />have fought this now and trying to get through this process for 2 ½ years. We’re pretty close to
<br />the end of our rope. I mean, we’ve tried really hard to do everything the right way, to follow the
<br />rules, do the things that we’re supposed to do. But so far it has cost, you know, three employees,
<br />we’re not generating any tax revenue, other than 40 loaves of bread a week, which to give you an
<br />idea, I mean, yeah, that’s $1.75 a loaf at wholesale price. It’s, you know, it’s rough. It’s really
<br />rough. In today’s economy in what we’re trying to do, I mean, we can provide some jobs, some
<br />revenue to the County and the community. We’ll provide a place, I mean, it’s -. But, again, it’s
<br />in your hands. It’s your decision, that if you need that then, you know, that’s another process
<br />that we weren’t aware of that we’ll go through.
<br />KERN: Commissioner Ishibashi.
<br />ISHIBASHI: Well, that was basically my same question that I had there. But I just had one
<br />concern with the commercial kitchen. It’s going to be rented out, or you’re donating the time,
<br />how does that work?
<br />T.ROBESON: You know, we’ve had that question a couple of times. You know, the issue for
<br />me is power and gas. You know, power is expensive. Right now just doing bread and leaving
<br />just about everything off, most of the, we have one refrigerator running right now, one freezer,
<br />and the power bill is still $500 something a month. The lady that came up with the spices, she’s
<br />not using anything, so no. Why would I charge her? What I’m looking for from her is, hey, I’d
<br />like to be able to sell your product here and maybe utilize some of your product here. That’s the
<br />vision behind this, is a community-based organization. There are enough -. I mean we moved
<br />here eight years ago. You used to be able to drive down the road into Hilo and along the side of
<br />the road you could get just about anything. You can get avocados, you can get a cast net, you
<br />could buy fish, you know; and that’s gone. But for a small place with a certain number of
<br />products local farmers that are trying and struggling to make it work, they’d have a retail outlet
<br />that they don’t have to go sit like in a market that they wouldn’t have to pay for. I mean we
<br />don’t, you know, when we sold Kilauea Coffee out of there, we didn’t mark it up. I mean, that
<br />was just a retail place for it. It drew customers for us, it gave customers for them. It gave them a
<br />way to enhance their product. Now if somebody comes in there with the plan of, hey, I need
<br />three hours every day from noon to three and that takes away from what we’re able to do, yeah,
<br />we might have to look at how it’s going to be done. But, again, the vision behind it is
<br />community based. I want them to be able to use it. It has been used for that in the past. I mean
<br />Hilo Archers Club came in there. You know, they did a bunch of preparation work for a banquet
<br />dinner. And, no, there’s no charge for that. There are too few places that you can go to do that.
<br />And, yeah, it comes back to the letter from Constance here asking about community input and
<br />what does the community think. She set the bar pretty high for us. And that’s, I mean she
<br />actually got the vision better than we did. You know, she put us, you know, the comment in
<br />there was “the heart of the community.” So she sets some things for us to live up to.
<br />ISHIBASHI: No doubt it’s fabulous bread. I wished we had some to sample but, you know, we
<br />(laughter) -.
<br />T. ROBESON: Well, we were wondering, should we cater this or (laughter) -.
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