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MR. MELROSE: Yeah, okay, thank you. <br />VICE CHR. KANUHA: Any other questions for Ms. Irwin? Okay, moving on to the next <br />testifier we have Rick Warshauer. I hope I said that right. <br />MR. WARSHAUER: Thank you folks for hanging in all those years. For the first time ever <br />I've got confidence that maybe we'll get a product that I like. The last couple really sucked so <br />we got a long ways to go to get something good. And I see most of the plans up there I don't <br />really like. In fact I don't see anything I like completely yet so, I urge you to do what you said <br />you were going to do earlier that there's a possibility to do hybrids. And the one that catches <br />my eye the most I've seen under two different numbers, 27 modified and 40 modified. And <br />I'm familiar with that so I won't belabor it. But basically I take a contrary view from the last <br />speaker. I really feel Volcano belongs in Puna. I've lived in Volcano for forty years and <br />visited for ten or fifteen years prior to that and the whole time Volcano is strongly attached to <br />Puna and is a part of Puna. And Volcano basically as I know it runs from Volcano Golf <br />Course down to Akatsuka's Orchids in that area. <br />So it's a large diffused area and to split it would be really, really bad. More importantly, or <br />just as importantly, the County has finally gotten serious about Community Development <br />Plans. So we've got several established on the island, the one in Ka`u is under way and one for <br />Puna has been completed with a lot of effort. I was involved in it and those areas divided at the <br />Volcano Golf Course. To the west was Ka`u and to the east was Puna and I know your <br />directions are not to split communities. We shouldn't split Community Development Plan <br />areas either and I think that's something you should very strongly keep in mind throughout this <br />thing. And all these plans except for one of them do that. And I think that would really be bad <br />if one arm of the County is moving one direction and another arm is going the other. I think <br />you need to be a little more consistent. Okay. <br />VICE CHR. KANUHA: Thank you. Any questions? <br />MR. MELROSE: You know Rick, I appreciate your history in town and I mean it's clear that <br />Puna has 45,000 residents, that's two seats at 20,000 a piece plus 5,000 other votes and you <br />can't split them half by half cause you end up breaking the law. You're now ten percent over. <br />If you were just to split it in half and create two districts and all keep it in Puna you'd be over <br />your number and you would have ten percent variation in each of those districts. The <br />particular districts that are growing and actually should be lower than at the end of their <br />spectrum. So, part of our challenge is what we have to deal with is where do you draw those <br />lines and do you share the Volcano vote with Kea` au or do you move Hilo into Kea` au. But <br />from your, because somewhere along the line you have to move a district to pick up some of <br />that vote because there's simply too many. So in your view, is it more, I understand where you <br />live and your priorities there but there are two separate kinds of choices. If this was your <br />choice how would you make those choices? To have Puna stay with the National Park in the <br />Ka`u district or bring Hilo in and pick up the Kea`au central core of town? Conceptually that's <br />a question I want to challenge you with and see what you do with it. <br />12 <br />