2009-12-04 TMALA MOHALA - Laserfiche WebLink

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ISHIBASHI: Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you guys for coming forward. Yeah, I believe it’s needed, it’s a necessity. The program you guys are operating is a necessity for not only Hawaii but for the whole United States.We should have more programs like this. The problem I get is you cannot differentiate between mainland children and Hawaii children. Everybody get problems. You guys cannot just target one. So if you guys are going to operate one quality facility, let’s try and get the proper facility in place for cooking -. Cause the kids we love them just as much as our Hawaii kids. But we’ve got to provide the best facilities we can. So hopefully by breaking down your unpermitted buildings and building the proper buildings the facility is going to, you know, it’s your focus going towards that goal. Yeah, money is one issue because that’s expensive what you guys are charging. But I think just that program in itself is a benefit to the family. Cause once you get kids that go off track it’s kind of hard to put them back on unless, yeah, you remove them from their comfort zone. So it’s important that we do that. But I think we’ve got to look and really focus on providing the best facility possible for the kids, that’s the key. I just wanted to make that comment. So I forget the number -. How much students or children you can hold at the facility and what is the current-? M. MCKINNEHY: We, I think the most we’ve had is 20; and right now I believe we have 14 or 15 students. ISHIBASHI: Thank you. WOODWARD: All right. Any further questions? Okay, thank you very much. You can all be seated. We have two people from the public to testify. Jeff Silva who I believe testified last time and Councilman Guy Enriques. If you’ll come up and have a seat. All right, good morning, Gentlemen. If I could swear you in. If you’ll raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell truth today before the Windward Planning Commission? TESTIFIERS: I do. WOODWARD: Very good. Okay, Mr. Silva, you signed up first so if you’ll give us your name and address and then begin your testimony. SILVA: My name is Jeff Silva. I live in Woodvalley, Kau. My address is Box 201, Pahala. I’m here to recommend against the approval of their plan, as I did at the last hearing. Since the last hearing I had some time to do some research on this type of organization. Actually one of the things that the Commission did ask for is they asked for a definition of what they actually were, which apparently even they don’t know what they are. But in my research, actually it was pretty easy, on their own website they call themselves a wilderness therapy program. And they also mention experiential education and adolescent therapy. In fact, two of the main portions of their website are the academics section and the therapeutic section. In just essentially googling those items, a quick search even on dial up comes up with a number of organizations that regulate this type of company. Most of them have recognized that these facilities do have inherent problems. In fact, there’s quite a few documented cases of runaways, injuries, various other things. I’m not saying that, you know, these applicants are doing something bad in that regard. But there are regulate -, self-regulating organizations within the educational, experiential educational community and the adolescent therapy community. 8 EXHIBIT B