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MR. CARVALHO: Right along the gulch? <br />MS. POINDEXTER: Yes, that gulch where you see Camp Road, that gulch right there. <br />MR. MELROSE: The question will be how many votes are left in Hamakua? <br />MR. MELROSE: Go down. <br />CHR. SIRACUSA: So this is further away from the Wailuku River. <br />MR. MELROSE: It comes up Haile Street, down by the Palace Theater, and comes up and comes <br />around Haile Hill and then up, and then follows Ponahawai Street back up to Kaumana. I could <br />see a small tweak in here to try and keep us on more noted boundaries, and I wish we didn't cut <br />Hilo downtown quite so in half, but we could work with that. There are some small moves that <br />could be made in there. <br />MS. POINDEXTER: And I would like to point out like in Margaret Wille's testimony this <br />morning about considering the ag district. It kind of breaks that Hamakua area which is known <br />for its agriculture. It breaks it up because now you have Hilo and Pauilo and Kalopa will be on <br />the very tail end of that district. <br />MR. MELROSE: Hilo to me, at least as far up as Hakalau, most everybody comes into Hilo town <br />as their town focus, so in a way it kind of links the rural connection into the old portion of town. <br />It is less than half of the old district that went out into Wainaku. When I looked at this one it was <br />about 6,000 or 7,000 votes from into Wainaku into the edge of this boundary today. So it's not a <br />dominant piece; it is not the majority of that vote. The majority of that vote still lives out on the <br />coastline. <br />CHR. SIRACUSA: You are saying the rural vote is not diluted. <br />MR. MELROSE: Well, it certainly is diluted, because it has the town in there, but it is a town <br />that is connected. Most people from Papaikou, Pepeekeo, Hilo is there. It may not be their <br />mailbox, but it's where they come to do most of their-- - <br />MS. POINDEXTER: But still, they are ag. Their business, their lifestyle is based around <br />agriculture, even if you have to go into Hilo. I come into Hilo all the time too because it is the <br />only place I can do business. There is nothing out in Hamakua, like if I needed building supplies. <br />But I'm saying about ag; even out in that area, Honoka` a is such a big, and Kukuihaile; a lot of <br />ag. Waimea, yes there are farms and stuff too. But listen to Margaret's testimony too, we have to <br />take that into consideration. This kind of splits it out. <br />MR. MELROSE: I'm not dis- comfortable with this solution from a Hilo side of it. My <br />experience is that there is a natural flow here. And it actually makes a representative whose <br />responsibility is to both things, which I think doesn't necessarily mean one or the other; it means <br />both; and that is key. Somehow, the idea that we are supposed to have representatives who only <br />W <br />