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beginning, beginning of really something that’s very old, and how we honor the legacy. And it’s
<br />proper and pono that we are starting many of our new journey as Kamehameha Schools trying to
<br />learn from the past. When my father worked construction, building Kona Lagoon, and talks about
<br />unearthing iwi and sculls when we built the hotel, and it’s just funny and humbling that I actually am
<br />here in this position representing our CEO and trustees to allow us to right some wrongs, heal some
<br />wounds that need to be healed, and really honor Pauahi’s legacy of creating the space that’s
<br />welcoming to the world. I mean, Lili‘uokalani, Pauahi, they didn’t just speak Hawaiian, they spoke
<br />more languages than probably any of us in this room, and they celebrated other worlds, other
<br />cultures, and that’s what we want to celebrate here. We want to this to be a place of learning culture,
<br />education, to lift up our people but the whole community here, and even be a beacon to the world of
<br />what makes Hawai‘i special.
<br />
<br />So as we, so what we put forward is our best attempt, and we feel good about it, finding the balance
<br />between those two sides, of those we heard from in the last two years of this place is so kapu, which
<br />should be completely closed off, to only to certain crowds, to those really only few voices who
<br />wanted more unfretted access, and trying to find a way to honor both so all people are welcome here.
<br />Like Ms. Kirkpatrick said, how do we find the, come to the middle? We feel good about what we
<br />presented that recognizing the geographic and topographic realities of the side, the location of the
<br />heiau, the sacredness of certain spaces, but also needing access to certain areas for fishing, like on the
<br />south side where people go throw net and so forth, placing public access parking in the right place,
<br />manage the access so people could still come and learn, and of course on the north side with the
<br />beach park there is public access also. We feel good about that.
<br />
<br />So I want to keep it short, I can say that since the last hearing I really mahalo the Planning
<br />Department and the Planning Director and Bobby and others having the conversation in a very civil
<br />and productive way to find the best balance. And we, in a nutshell we agree with the conditions. We
<br />can live with the conditions that have been established. Even as the hotel is being down, we have an
<br />interim public access plan that we’ve been doing now. We are happy to turn in an interim plan
<br />during the demolition phase and happy to work with both the County and the DLNR to secure the
<br />long-term public, a little bit more detail in signage and so on and so forth, as noted in the
<br />Recommendation, we are happy to do that, and we have already since the last hearing further
<br />communication with DLNR so that we can resolve other both ownership and heiau access issues in
<br />the shoreline area. So we feel confident that we can get those things done. So in a nutshell we have
<br />no objection to the conditions in the Recommendation. We are ready to move forward.
<br />Commissioner Church at the last meeting had said, “Bishop Estates they sometimes haven’t followed
<br />through on certain things, are you guys going to make this happen?” I talked to our CEO this
<br />morning at 7:30, just to tell him where we are at, he sends his aloha to everyone for your support, and
<br />we have the budget, we have full approval, we are ready to go, we are ready to make this happen. So
<br />again, mahalo Planning Department for working with us in the last month to come to something that
<br />we think works. So basically we stand here with really no additional comments or changes. We
<br />agree with the conditions and we are ready to move forward. Mahalo nui.
<br />
<br />UNGER: Mahalo. If that’s all, very good, you can take your seats. Thank you. At this time then,
<br />Commissioners, I would like to ask for a motion for action.
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<br />EXHIBIT A
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