2007-03-15 Veteran Advisory Committee Minutes

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Veterans Advisory Committee Page 4 March 15, 2007 said Kukio promised allotting the County 3,600 gallons of water per day, however, 15,000 gallons per day was being used. This is a major concern for the VA because you can't put restrooms in if you don't have guaranteed water supply. Hopefully those dryland forest trees will take and won't have to be watered anymore as was promised. Mr. Minoru Hanato said he thinks the plants on the hill have a timer and are being watered only once a week now. He also commented that there is a tank that could handle a restroom, but it's in the wrong location. Director Engelhard agreed. Chairman Highley said that OVS Director Cruickshank said on February 20't' that the OVS and the County of Hawaii would explore possibilities of obtaining additional water for the West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery. Chairman Highley asked if Polyethylene graveliners need to be discussed any further? Mr. Minoru Hanato said that on the south side of the parking lot at Veterans III, polyethylene liners would be used and they would do double burials at a depth of 9 feet. He hopes they dig deeper than that since the height of the liner is almost (3) feet, if you put two together, plus the space in between and the fill with sod, it should be deeper than 9 feet. Chairman Highley said we should continue discussing graveliners at future meetings. Veterans Cemetery III - West Hawaii Columbarium Mr. Minoru Hanato shared that there is only one niche left (which was skipped) on the first Columbarium. Doesn't understand why the last two niches were skipped. Sunken Graves Mr. Minoru Hanato reported that P &R employees fixed (4) graves that sunk. They lifted it up and it looks much better. Veterans Cemetery III - West Hawaii - Backhoe Repaired Chairman Highley reported that the backhoe has been repaired, however, they prefer the one with the hoe ram on it. Veterans Cemetery II Concerns of Mary Yoshida - Relating to Rules - Items Left on Gravesites Mr. Ribbentrop said Mrs. Yoshida is an advocate for enforcing rules at Veterans Cemetery II and her final statement to him during a telephone conversation was "there is no need to post the rules if its not going to be enforced." Director Engelhard said we have been trying our best, but there are a lot of new burials and we allow families a few months to adjust to being without their loved ones by allowing more decorations then normal. However, as is the case with all cemeteries on Hawaii island, the people would like to leave more. We periodically do a sweep, which upsets a lot of people. We are performing sweeps at the graveyard as our staffing allows, but we have 2,700 graves up there, which is a lot to have to keep clearing.