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STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC <br />CHR. SIRACUSA: Our first testifier is Margaret Willie of Waimea testifying on her own <br />behalf. <br />MARGARET WILLE <br />(At this time Margaret Wille came forward to address members of the Commission.) <br />MS.WILLE: Margaret Willie, Waimea. I submitted testimony which you may have gotten a <br />copy of. This is a revision of map, Plan _40. It's identical to Plan _40 adjusted that Friends of <br />Puna's Future submitted last week, or Saturday. Other than that it adjusts the lines for District <br />6/7 boundary, and District 7/8 boundaries. It also extends District 2 all the way along Saddle <br />Road instead of having a portion of District 6 extend up to Saddle Road in the center section of <br />that road. We have been trying to work with different community groups around the island on <br />this, and let the different local areas work on it, and even since this plan came up, been <br />working on further adjustments for the 7/6 boundary because what I've submitted splits <br />Hokulia community and so we've worked on that. The idea of this plan is that it is not perfect <br />for any district, but it's not terrible for any area, that's the point. It's not as you say, some <br />maps are really good for some areas and bad. We have been trying to just get a lot of <br />community input on it and working with the neighborhoods and shared visions and interests <br />that are coming up over the next decade, particularly in the way of water issues and road issues <br />and those other shared issues besides just neighborhoods. <br />There is one concern that has been expressed to me or one criticism that I don't agree with, so I <br />just wanted to mention that; and that's perhaps the rural districts, large ones should be a higher <br />population under the principle that if practical, areas that may be low sort of the high growth <br />areas, should be kept on the low end and the low populations that may not move should be kept <br />high. I consider that, if practical, criteria to often be in conflict with the shared interest; and I <br />think that where you need to make a choice between those, you should go where you're <br />keeping the shared interest together. I also think that in terms of practicality making say the <br />Ka'u or Hamakua areas larger, is also impractical in terms of one person representing that area <br />as well, so I bring that up. <br />Lastly, I just want to say that I think in terms of maps that I'm concerned about would probably <br />be map 17 in terms of how it splits the different North Kohala with South Kohala and makes a <br />large portion of Hamakua would become combined with Downtown Hilo; and I could go <br />around the map on that. I do think there is a question in terms of Waimea, there are other maps <br />that might be better if I only looked at Waimea, and what's best just for Waimea, and how does <br />one deal with keeping North and South Kohala versus say whether we include Lakeland. I <br />came down on that; I feel that you either knock out Waikoloa, or the bottom half of South <br />Kohala, and bring in Lakeland, which isn't in part of District 9 right now. Or, you leave <br />Lakeland, get as close to that area, Mud Lane area as you can, and leave it in District 1 as part <br />of the rural Hamakua district so Hamakua doesn't go into or doesn't need to go into Hilo. I <br />think that Lakeland's interests are very similar to the rest of East Waimea and are generally <br />taken into account. When we worked on the shuttle bus, we did it from Lakeland, we include <br />3 <br />