2007-05-14 Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Commission Minutes

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Mr. Kaneshiro stated that anyone who wants to write this article needed to coordinate with Harry and Stacie for follow up. They would have to include what we talked about during these meetings, the new intake forms and an overview of what's been happening with this Commission. The Commission decided to use the Notice letter that was sent out to the public with the new Suggestion Form, add in the negotiation portion and form it into a press release. It was agreed that Mr. Gilmartin and Mr. Yada will work together to draft the format of the Notice letter. UNFINISHED BUSINESS • Report from Commissioners on community meetings Mr. Gilmartin stated he had two meetings, one in Volcano and the other in Na` alehu. Mr. Gilmartin stated the Volcano meeting was mentioned in the local Volcano newsletter, however, no dates or times were mentioned in it. Mr. Gilmartin stated no one showed up but he did solicit and talked to people that were there for other things; he got some forms distributed. Mr. Gilmartin stated the Na` alehu meeting was pretty interesting. There were approximately 6 or 8 people there. There were concerns of management issues once a property was purchased, such as, who will take care of the maintenance and where will the funding come from? Mr. Gilmartin stated he thought the Commission should bring this issue to the County Council. They need to know how it would be dealt with in the future. Mr. Kaneshiro suggested the possibility of using the 2% fund for the maintenance of the properties. Mr. Kaneshiro stated it's usually Parks & Recreation that's responsible for maintaining these properties however he doesn't know if they are funded adequately for maintenance. Ms. Self stated when Resolutions by the Council come up for purchase, they should be thinking about the maintenance issue. They have to create funds for maintenance because it can't come out of this Commission's fund. Mr. Yada stated in the Ordinance there's discussion about how the funds would be used for stewardship. However, it's very vague so they could take a liberal interpretation of that and say that we could use funds for maintenance. Ms. Garcia agreed that maintenance funds were important. She stated there was an article in the newspaper where a piece of land was marked for a park. They gave it to the County; however, the County didn't want to take it because they didn't want to spend the money to maintain it. So, they lost a park and leased the land to the YMCA and now YMCA wants to build a building. Ms. Garcia stated she agreed that the 2% fund should have a maintenance funding.