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MS. LIVELY: Thank you. Next we have Joyce Folena, and she is commenting on <br />Plan_40 and Plan—A. <br />JOYCE FOLENA <br />(At this time Joyce Folena came forward via videoconference from Pahoa to address members of <br />the Commission.) <br />MS. FOLENA: Good bye Plan _A and thank you Plan _40. I have comments concerning <br />Plan 40, and I wish I was more educated into exactly where these boundary lines are in <br />relationship to Kea`au and parts of Hilo. I am assuming in that Plan 40, Council District 3 <br />is comprised of Hilo. I hope I am right. My concern, being a resident of Puna for nearly <br />28 years, to the day; 28 years this month; it is the only district in which I have resided in <br />Hawaii. My concern is that Puna, being able to have two districts, contains two Puna <br />districts, and that we do not, at any time, become absorbed into a Hilo district, with the <br />voting block being in Hilo. Our needs are vastly different from Hilo's. So what I have to <br />say to you in a concentrated amount of time is with all of your considerations and tweaking <br />and changes and amendments to the map - -and I am assuming map 40 will be your number <br />one priority here - -that you definitely give geographical Puna two voting districts, two Puna <br />voting districts, with two Puna residents as our representatives on the Council. Thank you. <br />CHR. SIRACUSA: We now come back to Hilo. Our next testifier is Ruth A. Smith of <br />Waikoloa. <br />RUTH SMITH <br />(At this time Ruth Smith came forward to address members of the Commission.) <br />MS. SMITH: Good morning, I am Ruth Smith and I am here today as an individual <br />citizen. I am also the Vice Principal of Waikoloa Elementary and Middle School, a school <br />of 800 students. I served on the Steering Committee of the South Kohala Community <br />Development Plan, a plan that we worked on for almost a seven year period. There has <br />been some question about how that map falls. I brought a copy of our plan and all of <br />Waimea is included in the South Kohala Community Development Plan. So it is Puako, <br />Kawaihae, Waikoloa, and Waimea that are included in those plans. I have lived in three of <br />those places in my quarter of a century on the Big Island. I appreciate the points that have <br />been made here. The real critical things about how we have very strong ties to the South <br />Kohala district. Even with Waikoloa Middle Schoolers feeding to Kealakehe High School <br />as our High School. A geographical line will not create community. The community exists <br />within the South Kohala area. The CDP process we went through was by far the most <br />democratic process I've ever participated in. We had hundreds of little meetings with <br />people, we collected a lot of data, we worked really hard. I had the privilege of serving <br />with Margaret Wille and Dr. Billy Bergen, and other people in coming together with a well <br />thought out plan. My deep concern is if we were pulled off into the Kona area. Kona has a <br />CDP that gives no consideration to Waikoloa whatsoever. If we are not represented there <br />and we are not represented with Waimea and the others, we really don't have a master plan <br />for Waikoloa; and there is huge development plans there. So, I know how much time and <br />effort it took for me to understand just what we did, and to ask for a councilman to get <br />13 <br />