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• HERKES: Most? I didn't know that. Most is not - <br />SANTANGELO: The same reason you have your bathroom elsewhere in your <br />house and your dining room sits next to your kitchen. It's just two different things. The <br />point is that we have to look at the practicality of it all, so again, I don't even think this <br />should be discussed here, but we're on it. You start recycling water. You have a lot of <br />trouble recycling water except for during drought periods in Hilo. I mean, let's just get <br />real. And then you've got to haul it up a mountain. They're just two different problems. <br />I go back to environmental, and again that's why I say it's administrative. Frankly, in <br />my opinion, and I said so when I was on the Council, the expense of taking care of this <br />waste should be an expense to the entire county because we all enjoy the <br />environmental impact of sewering, but this county, and the administrative part of this <br />county, and the people have yet to decide whether we're going to sewer or not. You <br />have a lot of problems in that area, and I really, realty caution us to even get involved. <br />Again, I think it's at the family feud stage, and it really shouldn't be here. Billing's <br />different. <br />SUMADA: Mr. Chairman, may I respond? <br />RAY: Sure. <br />• SUMADA: Commissioner, I don't know all the history behind how the Charter <br />was established, but in my view, our island, at one point in time , was of a size that <br />required government to be not as complex as it needed to be, so that we could combine <br />all the different agencies that are within Public Works. At one point in time, <br />wastewater and solid waste were not major issues. Before EPA came about with their <br />big role in the nation, those divisions within the Public Works were not major issues, or <br />major concerns. But now,because of Federal requirements and the mandates we have <br />to face, they are, and we have to deal with them. So, I think it's like a normal evolution <br />that we're going through now, that from a functional standpoint, and Peter touched on it <br />too, is it practical to have the diverse number of divisions within Public Works under <br />one chief, or one agency head, and are there different mechanisms to separate it out to <br />become more efficient, and to be more responsive to the public needs? <br />• <br />SANTANGELO: I don't argue that point. That's a really good point, and you're <br />exactly right. In most municipalities, solid waste and wastewater are not part of <br />Public Works. They're their own environmental division, but putting it in a semi- <br />autonomous agency that can barely - I mean, we don't have problems with water on <br />this island. We have problem with money getting to it. Milton happens to be a friend, <br />and he did good things for our community and other peoples' community, but if anybody <br />can be criticized, it's Water, for not getting enough water. We need to drill more wells, <br />hook more into it, and they can't. Taking this, because it doesn't belong with Public <br />25 <br />