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MR. KERN: We have Hilo representatives that are representing Puna. My case in point is that
<br />currently Puna is represented by three different council members, and only one of which actually
<br />lives here in Puna. That doesn't work. I have reviewed the various maps and I'm endorsing
<br />Plan _10. I know it needs work, but this is just strictly for the Puna district. I will only be
<br />commenting on those areas because that is where I live and that is where I vote. So, growing up
<br />in Puna, there has always been Puna Mauka and Puna Makai, and I think Plan _10 best depicts
<br />that. It was simple. We come into Kea`au, that is like ground zero. Highway 130 pretty much to
<br />the makai side, all the way down to Pahoa, all the down to Kalapana, was Puna Makai.
<br />Everything mauka of Highway 130, all the up to Volcano, that is Puna Mauka. And somehow,
<br />we need to keep that together. That is the key; two districts, two council people, representing
<br />those in the best way possible. I urge you, Commissioners, to push that deviation. To comment
<br />on Jeff s comment earlier, I would rather see our community represented and push those numbers
<br />to the high point rather than to leave it low and split up our community for the growth. We are all
<br />going to be living in the same community, and it's about us being together, working together, and
<br />talking together; I deal with that now. We have that arm that reached into Puna district, District 3,
<br />and I have friends in Orchidland, that don't want to go. I talk to my neighbors down in HPP, and
<br />Hawaiian Acres, and I'm not even in the same district; it is disheartening. So, that is the key, to
<br />me. So I humbly ask each one of you to do your best to keep our communities together. I know
<br />it is no small task, but thank you.
<br />CHR. SIRACUSA: Commissioner Melrose has a question.
<br />MR. MELROSE: Thanks, Zendo, for coming to testify. There are two obvious choices in the
<br />split of the two seats. When you say mauka and makai, I've always assumed that Kalapana was
<br />in Puna Makai. As this map is done, I think maybe a portion of it is, but then things on the mauka
<br />side of the road are not; as opposed to running it along the old Kea` au ahupua` a boundary from
<br />which the lands above it are the subdivisions of Hawaiian Acres and the like, and then the ones
<br />below it, including Pahoa, kind of what I would have thought was lower. So, I'm just interested
<br />in being educated about that distinction because it is one that kind of hits the break as one of the
<br />key ones.
<br />MR. KERN: To me, growing up here, everything past Pahoa is Puna Makai. It kind of drops off
<br />at Hawaiian Acres; all up through there is Puna Mauka, to me. There is no exact science to that, it
<br />is just how I feel growing up here and how I was raised to see it. I believe there might be a little
<br />bit of room to work with some of those numbers. Is that Plan_10 you are looking at?
<br />MR. MELROSE: Yes, and Plan _10 splits, what I would call, east /west, as opposed to
<br />mauka /makai or north /south. That is why I was interested in your choice of Plan_10 because
<br />there are portions of that subdivision on the mauka side of the road going down to Kalapana that
<br />have houses and seem to now be connected up across.
<br />MR. KERN: I would make that district line jump right on the other side of those houses and keep
<br />those in the community as best as possible. That is why I say I don't agree with the map in its
<br />entirety, I think that framework of it, splitting the council districts between Puna Makai and Puna
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