2010-12-15 TCAITANOexhibitA - Laserfiche WebLink

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LINCOLN: My name is Alika Lincoln. I’ve lived in Waimea for the last 32 years. I’m not a public speaker, so please bear with me. What I am happy about is most of the points that I had on my mind have been said already. So I’d like to talk a little bit about my experience with mechanics in Waimea. In the period of time that I’ve lived in Waimea, I must have had twelve different mechanics. It seems that there’s a lot of people that come and try to get into business but they don’t stay long. It’s either because – of the twelve mechanics I’ve had, maybe a half of them were great, some of them were very bad – but it’s not because they were bad that they lost business but a lot of people went out of business because their rent kept going up on them. I have two mechanic friends of mine – that is exactly what happened to them. And for those who had no roots, they weren’t even here for a short time and they moved on. This family has been in Waimea for a long time. Tyson Caitano, Jr., born and raised in Waimea – he is a wonderful young man. He decided to go to school, become a mechanic. That was his love. He graduated as the top of his class. He did such a good job there that I already picked him up in a first choice to take a location, and he ended up in a prime spot of Las Vegas. As we all know, Las Vegas is not doing well; he ended up coming home. So now here we have a young man born and raised in Waimea, his roots are here. He’s not going to be leaving like a lot of the mechanics that we have all known in the past. He’s going to be here to stay. He has high work ethics. He is an outstanding young man. He was a swimmer in high school, which takes a lot of dedication, as it is a single-man sport. He has also accomplished a black-belt martial art status, and that all takes determination and humbleness. So I think that he will be an asset to our community. And I hope that you’ll all consider that it will be good for us – not only for him, for the wide community at large. I have personally had to take a 120-mile trip to take my car to Hilo to get it repaired. That’s when you can drive it. When you can’t drive it, you have to have it towed. So it will be a great asset to our community. Please support him. Thank you. HOUSEL: Thank you. KIM: I’m Kevin Kim. I own the property right next to Tyson on the second lot in. And I think, well, for me, I totally agree with all the testimony that was previous to me. And the one thing that I want to address: If there is concern about traffic, I don’t think traffic will be at all negative because of this shop. If you take a look at the road, you can probably see a half mile east or west on that road; so as far as safety-wise, it’s a great location for turning in and out of Alanui ‘Ohana Road. And as far as noise, I live right next to him and I live in agricultural land, although it’s two acres on a 40-acre lot that was subdivided prior to me buying it. But I’ve been there 27 years. And I really think that the noise level will not be as loud as the cattle, as my horses or as the chickens. There are about 100 chickens right across the street. So these sounds, of course, I like, that’s why I live out there. And I don’t see the auto shop, being that it operates during the day,being any inconvenience to anyone on our strip. Of course, across the street is all, if you look real closely, it’s ag land almost all the way around. And I hope that the Commission will approve this application for the automotive shop. Thank you. HOUSEL: Thank you for your testimony. Is there anyone else who would like to testify today on this issue? If you would like to return to your seats, go ahead. Thank you. Planning Director. LEITHEAD TODD: Commissioners, I do want to bring your attention to the letter from the Waimea Community Association in support of the application, and just make a comment that if there was not a South Kohala CDP, the Department’s recommendation would have been favorable for the special use permit. And I think the Commission could take a look at whether the Waimea community which -. You know, the process of adopting CDP’s tends to be, it’s an attempt to try and place where you want things in the future, but frequently in that process it reflects the people 6 EXHIBIT A