CHC 1979-05-22 PH - Laserfiche WebLink

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Insofar as service is concerned, if you look around Kona, you will find that there are lots of homes going up; much development ; certainly a lot more tax now being assessed against thisside of the island and perhaps as 1973 ' s records show that we expended in North Kona twenty-nine and a quarter of the total tax budget over 'against South Hilo at twenty-nine and three quarters . Certainly," six years later it must be more than South Hilo. I 'm guessing at this , I don ' t know the figures, but I would take it that is the way it has gone because the trend has been more building on this side than the other side. In fact, back in 1970 when we first organized the West Hawaii Committee, its long-range goal was to cut this island into two parts and have a West Hawaii County and an East Hawaii County. Some of the people in the administration thought, at that time, that we could not afford it until we showed the facts and figures. But, meanwhile, our present administration has not been as progressive as the previous administration under Mayor Shunichi Kimura, in that there were more services being provided for West Hawaii. It isn ' t as if we want some people to come over two days for planning per month. It ' s that we need people who are actually living here and experiencing the whole situation of our growth or our inability to properly plan and grow. For example, I called the water department and wanted to know about certain areas of growth, subdivision , etc. , and I was given a very dismal picture insofar as development in West Hawaii because of the lack of water distribution. I don ' t know what the situation is on the other side of the island-," but certainly this side we are being restricted to develop and it is no wonder that Kona Heavens is now calling. for $85 to $95 thousand dollars per acre of property. Certainly it is because of the law of supply and demand. We just don ' t have enough subdivision lots. But people would rather move on this side. I don ' t know about the census that was last taken , whether it was anhonest to goodness census , some of us have our suspicions , Even though by 1970 there was loss of growth in the previous 5 years from ' 65 to ' 70 ; we had something like 223 increase in Kona. We couldn ' t believe it. Well , from 1970 to 1980 cer_-- =t_ainly_the increase will multiply to some phenomenal figure'.? : If you look around at all the buildings , the new homes. Tourists come and buy after ten years, they can ' t believe what has happened. The state has responded to the needs of services in Kona. It has now established a district court, a prosecuting attorney, a defender' s office, etc. I don ' t know why the county can ' t furnish--not only streamlining its departments for efficiency, but to furnish perhaps even a satellite office out here with the second in command with authority. To demand for people in West Hawaii to travel all the way to Hilo for services is really asking too much. Particularly, with the energy situation that we are now facing. I would propose, therefore, I don ' t know whether this is in the purview of the Charter Commission, to establish a satellite administration here where both the council and the administration can represent people. And those who are in the administration actually living here in West Hawaii. The easiest way to travel back and forth is to -16-