2006-02-24 TSmith_REZ05027 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

GRAHAM:Weve had, were in a questioning procedurally but were questioning the applicants representative here but weve asked a lot of questions of Staff. I wondered if Mr. Mooers had any comment he would like to make based on what hes heard? MOOERS:Well I think the comments from the Commissioners are quite telling because you are now starting to appreciate the frustration that we have. This is a very unique situation. I mean you have a State highway that intersects with the County road. You have an intersection that the State repeatedly says is dangerous and yet they have never placed it on their log term Capital Improvement Budget. Yet the County who says and agrees that it needs improvement and its not on their budget either. And yet weve collected, if not sufficient funds and there is sufficient funds to make the improvements. So its, its really a coordination problem. The previous Councilman from North Kona, Councilman Tyler made it one of his priorities to try to develop some coordination between the Department of Transportation and Public Works to determine what the improvements would be and then to get it started. But its very frustrating fortheapplicantsbecauseyouknowinthiscaseMr.Smithhasproperty.Hestryingtocomply with the General Plan. Hes trying to comply with the Council resolution. Hes willing to accept all the conditions and yet were being you know faced with this issue in which theres really a condition that he cant comply with. You know he cant make that improvement. He can do his part but he cant actually execute it. What I would recommend and I guess as a request to the Commission is of course that you approve the application as is and that you request the Council to direct the Department of Public Works to do traffic counts to coordinate with DOT to do whatever is required to have the intersection improved. Its unique in the sense that it doesnt stand up to the other criteria. You dont go out in North Kona and say well is this worse, a worse intersection than Palani and Mamalahoa? Is it worse than Hina Lani? Thats not the issue because were not asking for funding, we have funding. What were asking for is that somebody execute the project. And I guess if Public Works doesnt have the staff Staff perhaps some of the monies being collected could be used to private engineering firm to develop the construction the construction documents and to supervise the construction as well. But I think the community deserves the intersection. The money is there for it and I understand Public Works and Department of Transportation have other issues. Certainly there are many traffic issues in North Kona but this is unique in the sense that the money is there. GRAHAM:Commissioner Iwashita? IWASHITA:Thank you. Im not knowledgeable what it will cost to signalize the intersection and do the channelization and do those kinds of things but you know what I mean. Here, I dont know who to ask this question. I want somebody to say you know, Mr. Mooers comment that theres enough money to do what needs to be done is that accurate or will it take a million dollars and not half a million to do? YUEN:The report that we had listed some improvements that could be done within approximate budget of what was available and collected. I dont think it included a signal light but there were some improvements that could be done with it. And I will follow up with Director of Public Works to make sure that they review this. And see what they if they believe that they can do a project with the intersection with the amount of money thats there and its a worthwhile project. EXHIBIT A 12