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is really good Fung Shui over here, like they say, you know, it’s a very special place, and I know
<br />that’s really important.
<br />But what I want to say is I spent the last two years of my life dedicated to this process for the
<br />Community Readiness Program which, I felt, really gave us lots of information and education
<br />about not only what was going on in the present, but also with the talk-stories we had the
<br />kupunas come and tell us how it was like a long time ago in, like, Puako, you know, or Kawaihae
<br />or Waimea or, like, Waikoloa, you know, is actually an ancient name for a wind goddess because
<br />there are more than 200 winds that come through our district, you know – things like that. So it
<br />really gave people sense of place, wahi pana. And I’m a local; I’m not a native Hawaiian – we
<br />were represented in that place with Pohai Kirkland. And I figure we all leaned – the kamaainas
<br />and the manahinis – cause there are a lot of retired people in our community that have moved
<br />here from the mainland because they love it so much, and they volunteered in this program
<br />alongside with us because they moved here because it’s such a great place. So I’m really happy
<br />about that.
<br />But I just want to summarize some of this experience I had. We had plenty people come, you
<br />know, to all of these meetings. Some of the meetings were as big as 300 people in Waikoloa in
<br />the cafeteria, and that one was with the developers. So I want to comment and, you know, really
<br />support the first two testimonies in terms of when you provide information and then you allow
<br />time for communication, then you are building relationships. And it’s not like us against them;
<br />it’s like we all stay over here, so let’s laulima, let’s do it together, let’s paddle the canoe together.
<br />So I was really happy about that because we can actually work, the community can work with
<br />you folks, the County government. We can work with the people in our community and the
<br />developers that are coming from afar or maybe from Honolulu over here, you know. And there
<br />hasn’t been that kind of a chance for us to get together and really, you know, try to tell each other
<br />what we need and want and try to figure it out and create that together. So I think that the
<br />process was very successful. I think the product as you have in your hands is a very beautiful
<br />product. I want to thank our consultants and our liaisons with the County and all the people that
<br />worked on this.
<br />And I’m just speaking to one particular area. There are other people in the testimony or here that
<br />will talk about other areas. But what is really close to my heart is the environment – that is so
<br />important to me. And you are right, we did not in our Plan address Pohakuloa because it was not
<br />up; the community didn’t put that up in the first four or five important things. We are living in a
<br />largest cul-de-sac, you know, and when we had our fire, ’05, it was very scary – hard to get out
<br />of there. So that’s why transportation came up, you know – that’s really important. That’s why
<br />emergency comes up; because if we have a tsunami, guess what, people from the coast, they are
<br />going to come up to Waikoloa and Waimea, right? If we have a hurricane, we need to be ready
<br />for that. We had, ’06, the earthquake. We had no communication there for like 15 or 16
<br />minutes, you know – everything went down. So emergency preparedness, that’s really very,
<br />very important.
<br />But what I want to talk about and one of the sad things, like Alice mentioned, Puu Hinai, you
<br />know, I think that the whole district, if you drive around our district, no matter what point of
<br />view, you are coming from Puako, Kawaihae, Lalamilo, Waikoloa, Waimea, Kamuela, you’re
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