2018-06-04 South Kohala Community Development Plan Action Committee Minutes - FINAL

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BUSINESS: 1. Presentation by Pablo Beimler, Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization [HWMO]. Mr. Beimler provided a brief overview of the history and scope of the Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization, a statewide non-profit organization which seeks to reduce the occurrence and impacts of wildfires through fire-safe initiatives and education. He explained that a period of heavy rain this year in the South Kohala district has led to an overgrowth of vegetation which is forecasted to cause a greater likelihood of wildfire over the summer. He explained an initiative by HWMO to foster the public desire to act and inspire advocacy through educational programs. He described the process of becoming a fire-wise community and its benefits, including creating access to federal grant money, lowering insurance rates and connecting communities. He further explained that the creation of these fire-wise communities can lead to a network effect that provides assistance that encourages even more communities to work toward that goal. 2. Discussion of 2018/2019 AC Goal Setting: At the April 2nd meeting, Planning Staff asked the Action Committee members to individually submit 3-5 projects that they wanted to work on. Planner Morrison facilitated this discussion in order to shorten that list into a few, tangible priorities. She explained that through the process of asking AC members to submit their individual goals and priorities, they ended up with a list of 21 projects [communication number 2018-06.1]. Each member was asked to place a total of five votes on the projects they wanted to prioritize, with the option of adding multiple votes to one project. For clarity of this discussion summary, many of projects are referred to by the number associated with a particular line item. Communication Number 2018-06.1 shows these numbers in the leftmost column of the table. You may view and download Communication Number 2018-06.1 at the following website: http://records.co.hawaii.hi.us/weblink/1/doc/93566/Page1.aspx Committee Member Sanborn suggested removing numbers 4, 5 and 6 from the list. He expressed hope that the Māmalahoa Highway Widening project would help with number 4; that item 5 is an ongoing project that is tied to transportation; and item 6 needs a status update before moving forward and could be added as a priority later. He also explained that item 8 needs more guidance and could be considered a priority depending on how feasible creating an historic district is. Chair Kaneali‘i suggested removing number 18 from the list because it may not be supported by the Kawaihae community. She also suggested that item 19 might be more of a local project than something to be tackled by the whole Action Committee. Committee Member Alos suggested that item 16, if completed, could be a source of income for the Waikoloa community to use to pay for item 10. She suggested removing item 10 from the list for now, in-line with that idea. However, this item was later re-added to the list due to a request from Vice-Chair Smith. Committee Member McLaughlin suggested removing item 15 because it is similar and more specific than item 20.