2005-08-05 TMIRANDA01 - Laserfiche WebLink

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special permit, looking at the land parcel itself and looking at what Act 205 addresses and the fact for support, supporting agricultural activities be located in agricultural districts. Okay, Chapter 205 recognizes these support activities to come in. During the last several years its really important as people in agriculture know that there has been a whole slew of agricultural thefts. I know of people that are losing backhoes, tractors, all kinds of equipment. And its really important that we farmers and ranchers really live where we have our equipment. Because a truck rig can run you quarter million dollars; and, you know, somebody can drive off with it. In the last couple of months I just bought a second-hand truck. It cost me $12,000 because it was by necessity. But prior to that in my 11 years as small ranchers we always depended on trucking services; and its no different. Agriculture is a business that requires trucking transportation services. We cannot over-capitalize. We cannot afford tohaveatractorrigsittingatour,inourlot.Wehavetocontractandwedependon people. In livestock hauling, it is a very specialized activity. He is one of the only trucking companies who would take his big rigs into unimproved roads. Theyre not a Mihara, theyre not a Kona Transportation, theyre not HT&T; but theyre the guys that you can identify with dirty truck tires and dented fenders because these are the people that go into the farm areas. They go along Mana Road to pick up cattle that Rancher Freddy Nobriga cant afford to maintain rigs or his neighbors cant maintain rigs, they have to contract with him. Chapter 205 is very specific in trying to encourage this kind of activities. But as I mentioned, within the last several years the whole issue on agricultural theft is hitting us right in the face, that farmers and ranchers want their stuff where they live. And I think thats his purpose, to live and to have his equipment there. One of the last things I did working for the Department was to administer a contract during one of the, the last drought we had on the Big Island. And we had to go through, I wasnt part of the selection committee. We had a selection committee that went through and selected a trucking company that would service people like, youll listen to Freddy Rice as he comes up later on to talk about how this trucking company service him. But one of my last duties with the USDA was to go and get a grant to help alleviate the drought conditions that were in 1985 in South Kohala and some of the North Kona areas. We had to find a trucker that was willing to go in, who had the capacity, was willing to go in on unimproved roads to, who really knew the local area. So what happened was he serviced all the ranchers on Mana Road, including all those farmers along the Hamakua agricultural ditch when they had to close it for repairs. It came at a bad time. It came, the construction had to go on onto the ditch to repair it, but it came during the drought. So he, their trucking company was the only trucking company that would do it. In fact, the story goes that he had gone into a fix, we had to dump his water because his truck was in danger, to lighten his load. But thats the kind of technique that you expect. We as small ranchers look at small specialized trucking services, people who knew cattle, who 15EXHIBIT B