2004-10-01 TKONA HALE - Laserfiche WebLink

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GRAHAM:Please. SPRINGER:Mr. Saunders? SAUNDERS:With Mr. Rechtmans help, we are cautiously putting out feelers to see if we can find entities that would responsibly take care of that property. We havent found them yet, were just in the early stages of that. But I, too, think theres a wonderful opportunity to do something with that site. What it might end up being, I dont know yet. I think a big key is to find an organization that has a track record of taking care of those types of properties. Its very special. We have no interest in owning it forever. If we could find such an entity, we would be willing to long-term lease it, a dollar a year or potentially even, you know, signing it off manuwahi. Its something that we have to determine. So, I dont think we want to get into it at this meeting; but if people have thoughtsonwhothoseentitiesmightbe,wedbeveryinterestedtohear,eitherdirect them to myself or Dr. Rechtman. SPRINGER:Thank you, Mr. Saunders. Commissioner Graham, any follow-up? GRAHAM:Does Dr. Rechtman have a sense that this particular area, these two parcels, as far as the significance to the Hawaiian community might be an area where the community would like further active involvement and actually cleaning, restoring, and making these sites more alive rather than just sequestered out of development? RECHTMAN:The answer is yes and no. There are burial sites in here and in Hawaiian community. Those sites, people tend to want those sites to be out of the public eye. There are other sites in here that are non-burial sites which could lend themselves to some sort of interpretive development. We are actively looking for a group, whether its a Kona-based local group or perhaps a larger group. There are stewardship organizations that take on properties like this. The answer is yes. I think this could be a property that could provide the public with sort of an avenue of education and understanding for its resources, given that we keep the burial sites sort of out of the public eye. GRAHAM:Thank you. I certainly recognize everyones thoughts on the subject here, and I appreciate that. I guess when I was first thinking about it, I was thinking maybe this could be similar to what Chalon did in North Kohala where the developer might allocate a fund to be used for equipment work that might come in and remove kiawe trees, or things like that if, in fact, this were to move forward. But maybe its not so clear that this project wants to be bothered with actively. SAUNDERS:No, I think its a good idea. The difference is in the case of Kukui Pahu, there were, they are descendants. There are people who are of that land who the developer worked with directly; and the Kona picture is broader. There are more individuals involved in descendency in the Kona area; and its not such a clear-cut picture of who you work with in developing treatment and long-term preservation plans with, as it was in the Kukui Pahu case. 18