2008-08-22 TSKCDP - Laserfiche WebLink

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president of the Waikoloa School’s Parent Teacher Student Association. We are proud to have a very involved, committed group that helps Waikoloa Elementary & Middle School in a variety of ways. I volunteer a lot of time to the school on behalf of my own children and the children of our community. I notice that time is a limited commodity for most parents in our community. Many of our Waikoloa families stay afloat economically because both parents work – sometimes, a parent works more than one job. This limits time for other community activities, such as the CDP process. Apparently, the absence of adults with school-age children at all of those evening meetings came to the attention of those involved in the CDP process. It came as a pleasant surprise to the PTSA organization to be approached by Bruce Tsuchida of Townscape to come to our meeting. We meet at an hour earlier, and our children are present as we get our business done. In this somewhat chaotic environment, Townscape let us know about the CDP process and got our input on what matters to the younger adults in Waikoloa. We so appreciated being included and consulted in November 2007 and March 2008. We are thrilled that the pre-final CDP identifies our need for public educational facilities for elementary & middle school students within Waikoloa Village and for high school students in South Kohala. We know that the DOE is a State entity and a County document cannot dictate what the State will do; however, we hope that this document serves as the “voice of the people” on needs and desires of our community that cannot be confined by separate areas of jurisdiction between the County and the State. We need schools at all levels in our area and are glad that the CDP states that clearly. As parents, we want the parks to play in as families and when our kids are on teams, and we need the meeting areas and centers beyond that offered by the school for community-based activities such as Boy and Girl Scouts. We want to be able to escape from the Village safely in case of emergency. And we want this place to continue to be the beautiful, marvelous place to live and always to honor the Hawaiian culture. All of these priorities are included in the CDP. I support the CDP for South Kohala and am committed to seeing the basic principles enacted in our community. Please recommend this Plan to the County Council for approval and to the Mayor. Thank you. WATANABE: Do we have any questions of Ms. Stapleton? None? Okay. I believe this would be Ruth Smith then, yeah? SMITH: That’s me. I’m Ruth Smith. I live at 68-1909 Koiula Place in Waikoloa, 96738. You’ve heard a lot tonight from people about the involvement that has happened at the community level to bring this document before you, and I think one of the conclusions you have to draw from that is sometimes democracy is messy. We are not always able to contain where it is that we go and what we discuss. And some of the issues that have been raised by various Commissioners about what we’ve said and how we’ve done it, I hope there is understanding that, when you initiate a process like this, CDP process, that you can anticipate that there will be changes that come up and that will be recommended by community. It has been a remarkable EXHIBIT E 25