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and shop. It's supposed to be the hub for transportation. Someday, I hope to be able to take the bus and go to Kea`au and actually catch a bus and go to Volcano, which I like to do sometimes because there are a lot of neat things that happen up there. I do consider it, as far as the ahapua`a, to be connected with us. I don't really understand all of these line changes and why Hawaii is doing it. I was back in New York for several months, and I am originally from Dutchess County. Since the origination of New York, those lines have not changed very much. Dutchess County has been Dutchess County for my entire lifetime, and even though the population really boomed there and changed when IBM came in, they never changed those districts. Why is that? I don't quite understand the need to do this, and to separate people. I'll just leave it with that; the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. One more little note; I need to go up to the North Kohala Hospital, but now, the new rule is, you can't use the Elderly Transportation to go more than 50 miles. That, to me, just doesn't make sense. We have to be able to reach our resources, and have that easily done. Thank you. CHR. SIRACUSA: Thank you. Our next testifier in Hilo is Gregory Smith, representing himself. GREGORY SMITH (At this time Gregory Smith came forward to address members of the Commission.) MR. SMITH: Good morning, and aloha. I must start off commending all of you for the great job that you have done so far. I have been involved, this is the third one of these little exercises I been through, and by far, you guys are the best that I have seen. At least you are trying your best to work in a spirit of cooperation and for what is best for the island. I thank you for that. But, again, this process is messy, and back to the bare knuckles of it. I, for one, coming out of Puna, I testified before that I would rather give away Volcano, if anything, because I was rather prejudiced against the treatment that we had of the Hilo - centricness over the past 30 years. Looking at the good work that you have done so far, I would actually have to retract at least one part of my thinking on that and try to get around my prejudices. First I stepped into the Council over 23 years ago with a request to repair the Poho`iki/Pahoa Road in which the County refused because, (guess what ?) they wanted to spend the money here in Hilo. As fishermen we were dragging some 12 million dollars worth of fish out of that landing at the time. We actually had to make a detour of 4.6 miles around Kapoho Road, so we wouldn't break the axles of our trucks and our trailers. So, but looking at the good work that you folks have done, I concede that maybe we should max out both of the Puna districts, and possibly give our overage of part of the neighborhoods in Kea`au who are traditionally both in work and socially, are a little more Hilo- centric, I suppose. But, I mean this is a hard decision for me, because of my past experiences and my prejudices I truly have. On the other hand, I think RenCs plan should be seriously looked at, RS3, with that in mind and tweaking it. But you folks have done very, very well, and at least we are not seeing the blatant gerrymandering that we saw in the last two processes. Thank you so much. CHR. SIRACUSA: Thank you. Joyce Folena, and then we will go back to Waimea. 0