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<br />The other thing is that there are a number of safeguards, as Daryn pointed out and as Bill Moore
<br />pointed out, but our main concern is, again, the consumption of alcohol. I have attended two events
<br />in the past, and as many people have commented, there was a very wide spread use of marijuana.
<br />Coolers were not checked by volunteer security people. And so, I think the safeguards that Tim has
<br />proposed are very, very good, but the problem is, human nature being human nature, I don’t think
<br />we are going to prevent people from either smuggling in substances that we don’t want at the music
<br />festival or people leaving the music venue going back to their cars and then imbibing over a certain
<br />period of time and then going back to the concert. So those are my primary concerns as a resident
<br />of Waiki‘i Ranch.
<br />
<br />GIFFIN: Thank you. Commissioners, any questions of Mr. Shinsato? Hearing none, sir?
<br />
<br />GONZALEZ: My name is Daniel Gonzalez. I am a 20-year resident of Waiki‘i Ranch, and I’ve
<br />experienced most every Waiki‘i Festival in the past. And I would say pretty much the majority of
<br />the festivals that I personally have experienced, and my family, have been mostly negative. And,
<br />Tim is correct, there is a brand with the festival as having rowdiness, alcohol consumption, drug
<br />abuse, and the extreme potential, extreme potential for accidents to happen on one of the most
<br />dangerous roads on this island. And for anyone, and I’ve always said this every time this festival
<br />comes forward, for anyone to approve or permit to allow an activity where there will be drinking -.
<br />I don’t care if Tim has a hundred, thousands of security people up there and police, people will find
<br />a way to bring in the drugs and will drink. If they don’t drink or use drugs on the premises of
<br />Waiki‘i Ranch, they will find a way to use it on the perimeter of the Ranch. They will gather in
<br />groups outside of the Ranch along the Saddle Road, which they used to do as well, okay. When
<br />there was no alcohol to be brought in to the Ranch for the last Waiki‘i Festivals, there were groups
<br />of people along the Saddle Road drinking, using drugs, driving. It was incredible we never had a
<br />tremendous amount of traffic accidents. I’m a cardiopulmonary therapist and I work at North
<br />Hawai‘i Community Hospital. I work alongside Dr. Gary Goldberg, who is also a resident of
<br />Waiki‘i Ranch. And recently I had a discussion with him and he said to me, Danny, if you can
<br />possibly get this message to the Commission that the last Waiki‘i Festival in 2003, the emergency
<br />room was inundated, inundated, with drug abuse, alcohol intoxication, trauma from fights, okay. It
<br />was a tremendous amount of taxing of the emergency system of North Hawai‘i Community
<br />Hospital for those periods of time. And it’s, it’s, it’s not the Waikīkī Shell, it’s not the Waikīkī
<br />Shell. I have to say this to Tim: This is not the Waikīkī Shell. This is a rural area, a rural area, a
<br />very unique area up in the Saddle Road that is removed from services; it’s removed ten miles from
<br />medical or emergency services. That road, every festival that I’ve experienced, has been clogged
<br />up with cars – the normal traffic and then the traffic from Waiki‘i Ranch. Now, from Pōhakuloa,
<br />remember this was after 2003, after the war started, Pōhakuloa has a lot of training vehicles coming
<br />back and forth through that area. The Saddle Road has been improved upstream towards Hilo.
<br />There is a tremendous amount of traffic on that road compared to 2003, compared to 1999. I moved
<br />here, I moved to Waiki‘i Ranch in 1993, and the traffic back then was, wasn’t even a half of what it
<br />is now. It’s almost like a freeway up through that area. And I think that was the subtle reason why
<br />Waiki‘i Ranch decided not to have the festival, because of these potential problems that could have
<br />occurred that didn’t occur. Luckily there were no deaths sighted on Waiki‘i, Saddle Road. But that
<br />was an issue that crossed my mind every time this festival happened. And I was hoping that
<br />nothing would happen to the public in the regard, but it did; there were some issues that did happen
<br />along Saddle Road, as far as I was, as I mentioned before, the drinking and the drug use, etc.
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<br />EXHIBIT A
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