2007-03-16 THUSSEY - Laserfiche WebLink

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FISCHER:I can summarize by saying that the map on the bottom, you see the green areas this isnt a golf course these are sedimentation ponds that we are doing instead of drywells, because we feel that wed like to encourage growth and not waste the water going underneath the road into those drywell grates. So those are existing on the property. And if you are interested, I have color pictures of when they went in, and what they look like now is perhaps you can see this from where you are the green spots -. So we are desertus a lot of the time, so what we have are these green oasis-like spots where we are seeing natural growth. And they stay green all year around. And another notable thing is that terraces that you see on the bottom, instead of doing a big cut in the front of the hill youll see it in one of those photographs we did terraces. So it wouldnt look like a highway going through a hill. We have saved boulders, and made places where buildings have to be set back from boulders to save them. Weve made berms along the front to make a little privacy but not to restrict the view from the road, but it gave a little privacy to the front people. Weve saved every thornless keawe tree we have. We have made landscape easements around every hydrant and every piece of equipmentthatcomesabovetheground,sothatthingsliketransformersandmeterpedestalswill not be little ugly spots. I mean so many projects they may have underground utilities but then the meter pedestals are pretty unsightly. So weve gone to a lot of extra length, and this is exactly why its taking us so long. Now on the waterline: Why did the waterline fail? A year and half or two years ago was high market. And we had realtor pressure on us, quite frankly; speculative interest that pressured the Hussey family to pick an old friend where red flags all over the place not to hire this person, but old friend, and rush-rush, realtors pressuring, calling all the time. And our waterline was slapped in there. We had -. At that point out of frustration I was stepping back. The family was anxious to sell in reaction to all this realtor pressure. So the waterline went in improperly. The engineers came, and issued a stop work order their first in their career. And the waterline kept proceeding to be covered. All kinds of stories: We are going to do some kind of test; we have to cover just a little bit. It was basically a cover-up. I think what was hoped was that the waterline could quickly be covered, and then a slap on the wrist, a fine, and maybe a spot-dig two or three places, and then it would be passed. And I was told by the contractor that the realtor and the waterline people were tying to promote to, that they thought they could just tweak, fix a few places, and it would be fine and it would pass. The engineer insists that the only way to fix the waterline is to remove it totally. thth And since that time, on October 10 before the earthquake and October 16 the day after, we had excessive floods. In fact, you may have read in the paper an article called, Kohala Sediment Mystery. The Department of Health, DLNR, the Clean Water people find that there is some mysterious thing happening within from like the industrial area in Kawaihae up about three miles; therere about seven gulches and there is this big sediment plume. But our gulch, Keanahalululu, was not mentioned as being a problem. And Im hopeful that things like these sedimentation ponds are reason why there wasnt more sediment from our project that went down. So we hope that youll give us your approval. I have one problem: The housing. I certainly could not myself my husband and I we would notqualifyforeventhebarelythemedianincomelevel,sowecancertainlyunderstandtheneed for affordable housing. But to put this housing on us at this point after the washout we had from thefloodwecantevendriveinourroadnow.Althoughourbigarchbridge,thatweputin 6EXHIBIT A