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today, not tomorrow. We need to find a way to provide an educational institution in which we
<br />can begin to break this whole cycle of non-education, particularly for our native people.
<br />
<br />So when I, when I think about a park, I just went, spent three days with Mr. Kane, uh, Mr.
<br />Kunitomo at the regional airport charrette, three days we hung out, tried to figure out what weÓre
<br />going to do with a park, you know, how can we address the parks in our region, if not to make
<br />more parks. But ultimately we said weÓll go over there where the golf course was, cause nobody
<br />over there. The County owns that land. And we signed a petition, gave it to the Governor and
<br />the Governor agrees, although I think now itÓs in the CountyÓs hand. And so I urge the County,
<br />and Bobby Command is in the house, to accelerate that plan so th
<br />communities better opportunities in the recreation area.
<br />
<br />Now, donÓt misunderstand me. I mean I think Palamanui is obligated to provide that community
<br />park for that community; and that should not go away. But shoul
<br />for whom? Do we need the park, the regional park, on 200 acres in Kealakehe? I say, I say yes.
<br />When you look in terms of whatÓs happening in Kealakehe and Keahuolu, 5,000 units are
<br />coming, 5,000. ThatÓs 20,000 people if you average that out at 4 people per household. WeÓve
<br />got Hawaiian families living in our garages because of the econo
<br />Palamanui when we look at the economy and you cannot sell these homes, I mean, you know,
<br />these are high market homes. So delaying the park, I donÓt believe itÓs an unreasonable request.
<br />But when we look in terms of what we need today about bringing to fruition our institution, or
<br />our educational institution, the community college, that needs to start right away. And the
<br />connectivity to which this region is going to have through Ane Keohokalole Highway, is more
<br />critical because access to that is going to enable our communities from the south to go north to
<br />Palamanui. So we encourage this Commission, or at least I will, to approve and support this
<br />petition by Palamanui, so that we can start to look at a brighter future for our kids, yeah, with
<br />respect to the building of the community college. Mahalo.
<br />
<br />WATANABE: Thank you. Fellow Commissioners, any questions? Does not look like it.
<br />Thank you, sir. Mr. Kunitake?
<br />
<br />KUNITAKE: My name is Walter Kunitake. My address is P. O. Box lualoa,
<br />HawaiÒi 96725. Thank you for this opportunity for me to appear here to make comment. I fully
<br />support the application for the deferrals and the amendments that is being requested.
<br />
<br />I am the former UH West HawaiÒi director. And the community worked very hard for about,
<br />from 20 years ago to get this 500 acres thatÓs over at the Kalaoa site next to the Palamanui
<br />property. And as you know, for many years itÓs always been a very hard press to get funds to get
<br />any project of this magnitude started, and I think we are very fortunate that we have Palamanui
<br />that came on board as a neighbor who supports the university, community college in this case, to
<br />get started. You may have heard how hard pressed we were in the Foodland building up at
<br />Kealakekua, and we still are there all crammed up in small classrooms and hard-to-access place.
<br />So I think we are looking forward to this new site.
<br />
<br />Being a little selfish, you know, I donÓt see any of the amendments and deferrals that will impact
<br />negatively on the start of the college. In terms of the earlier comments about Roadway 1, the one
<br />thatÓs connected up to 190, you know, I strongly suggest to the developer that as we heard from
<br />prior testimonies, that we have kind of lost trust in some of the prior developments, and I think
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