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WOODWARD: Very good. Now, if you give us your name and address, and then you may <br />begin your testimony. <br />SHRINSKI: My name is Damien Shrinski. My physical address is 17-550 Volcano <br />Road, Kurtistown, Hawai‘i, 96760. I don’t mean to -. I appreciate the opportunity to be here, <br />and I know it’s late. Good afternoon <br />I wanted to add a few more thoughts to what was spoken at the last meeting. And I know that we <br />don’t need rehashing of what, a lot of the facts of the cell phone tower.But as the last meeting <br />was going on, one of the things that struck me was community support. So since the last meeting <br />we have put petitions in several different areas in Kurtistown, and walked around, and we’ve <br />gathered a little over 200 names. I’m not only representing citizens within the area of <br />Kurtistown and surrounding areas of Kea‘au and Mountain View, we have also got a few <br />endorsements from businesses, local businesses in the area as well that would support such a <br />tower. Some of those would include Gas 76, Benjamin Alonzo, we’ve had support from J Hara <br />Store, which is a large business in that area respectively, and different subcontractors and orchid <br />farms in the area, stating that they would support a cell phone tower built on that property being <br />that it would benefit their business. <br />As I’ve been reading some of the letters that have been sent from the public in opposition to this <br />Use Permit, my biggest response to that is that – I sent a letter a few days ago, about a week ago, <br />so I’m not going to read complete analogy of the contents of that – but I feel that the cool thing <br />about our government is that it’s fluid and it’s to change with the needs of the people, which is <br />why there’s vetoes and why there’s meetings like this. When the zoning was zoned Residential, <br />that was the purpose at that time. I understand that that was a need. But in that day there <br />weren’t as many people, there weren’t as many cars, and cell phones weren’t even in use. And <br />laws should change as the needs of people should change. So I think one of the biggest reasons <br />that I’m in approval of this is because the needs of the community, both residential and <br />commercial, are in need of this. And as this petition was passed out, I got several different calls, <br />several different comments about how it would help and how it would be beneficial to the <br />community as a whole. <br />Secondly, and hopefully lastly, there’re, in some of the letters and some of the comments that <br />were made in opposition, there was a concern that anything that was spoken by me or anyone <br />from the congregation of Kurtistown Assembly of God might be slightly biased, being that we <br />receive some kind of lease from that. And I would say that that’s the furthest from the truth. My <br />salary is fixed; I don’t get anything extra because of this. The congregation, they don’t receive <br />anything extra from this. This is going towards back into the community. The hundreds of <br />people that benefit from our church in food in the community, they’ll benefit. The hundreds of <br />families that benefit from our outreaches, and not necessarily outreaches, but we have <br />alternatives to Halloween and alternatives to Easter, so that families don’t have to travel all the <br />way to Hilo, all the way to Volcano; they will benefit. So when we see a tower such as this, we <br />see it as an opportunity to benefit the community in multi-faceted ways. Thank you. <br />WOODWARD: Thank you very much for your testimony. Do we have any questions from <br />my fellow Commissioners? Seeing none, you may be seated, sir. Thank you very much. We do <br />appreciate your coming. <br />EXHIBIT C <br />4 <br /> <br />