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SW: I’m sorry, that’s beyond our agenda because Nani is not our presenter.
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<br />RD: Ah, Ben, ah, Ben, if I could direct that to you, ah, Ben, if you have information on what would a
<br />new start entail.
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<br />BR: Yeah, ah, it’s not a short process though, it would entail jumping into I think what we call the –
<br />basically Hawaii County are working with the appropriate local agency to submit a letter of
<br />request to the Army Corps. We call these 7001 letters and it’s a request for a new start and so
<br />we get that request and we encourage local partners to then work a similar angle with their
<br />elected officials and start working it up to change because eventually these requests merge, you
<br />know, the local request working through their conduit and then we have the formal letter of
<br />request from the Hawaii County or the appropriate local partner, um, in our processes and it
<br />take about 2-3 years of these sort of repeated submissions of like letter of request, hey,
<br />representative, this is a big issue for us. I typically see it taking 2-3 years where you’re like –
<br />they get the message that this is a big deal and then they can through what we call the Water
<br />Resource Development Act (WRDA) give Army Corps authority to go out and, you know, initiate
<br />a new start and so 3-4 years to just even do a new start if you’re lucky, cause it may be a little bit
<br />different with a breakwater but a small boat harbor is not the easiest sell and that’s why we, you
<br />know, we can’t lobby for local partners but definitely with enough political voices behind it it
<br />helps get the message across and so, um, unfortunately, that is the reality as far as time frames.
<br />Nani, anything to add? OK. She’s gone. But I think we might be good…
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<br />NS: Sorry, I was trying to put something into chat but what, and I was listening to Ben talking about
<br />the timeline – just to get the new start up and running – from there I would say it could take
<br />another 10-15-20 years just to have something constructed, um, there, we need to get the
<br />project selected at our headquarters level, key points are having a local sponsor that’s willing to
<br />partner up with us, having it selected, getting the funds – all of that does take time – and I think
<br />3-4 years is very optimistic – it could go beyond that and once we start – begin it – we look at
<br />different – identify what the problems are, what are the different alternatives to address those
<br />problems if we come up with a recommended plan then it – then we need to go and we wait
<br />for money to flow into the design phase and then we do that design process – that takes
<br />another couple years and then we go into construction, so, it’s, there’s a number of factors that,
<br />I guess, once it gets out of our hands it’s left up to our headquarters, left up to Congressionals
<br />and so it is a time of I guess a long timeline that we would be looking at.
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<br />RD: Thank you, that was very helpful.
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<br />AA: So, I just wanted – so how long has this project been going, first question?
<br />
<br />BR: I think it depends on how you define been going, but I’d say this current, where I jumped into
<br />this story is about 2019, and trying to work this new design aspect to improve usability of the
<br />break wall and then where we’re at now where we just have to work our internal agency, so,
<br />the thing about the federal government as you know we are not the quickest option but we are
<br />trying to do our best here and get the necessary people…
<br />
<br />AA: Abraham, District – 5. So that would be my question – what’s the timeframe to – for it to be
<br />completed of like what’s the hold up right now – is there maybe some way we can kind of help
<br />you guys along in some particular way or, you know, how can we get this thing moving little bit
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