2018-07-25 BDHRA Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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forward a recommendation to the BLNR, DLNR that we support the proposal and we hope that they will look favorably upon it. If we have concerns we can address those concerns as well. And hopefully we'll continue to make progress. Does any members of the Agency wish to make K.T., you didn't say anything, I'll give you the last word. You can filibuster too if you want to. CANNON-EGER: Thank you, Brian. It's good to be here. This is my first meeting. I'm a new member of this agency. Thanks to all of the members of the public who have come out today. Some of you know my involvement on the peninsula with Friends of Lili`uokalani Gardens, celebrating a centennial for three years because the garden was started in 1917, didn't get finished till 1919, what date do you pick? We picked all of them, three year party. And one of the things we said we were going to do is involve the entire area, so we came up with the Banyan Drive art stroll and we will do that again in January. We came up with a photographer's competition and made a calendar. We're coming up with all of these oddball ideas to involve the whole area. The next one that's coming not too far down the pike is the Queen's birthday celebration that's in six weeks and three days from now. That attracted 35 hundred people last year to Lili`uokalani Gardens. Parking, yes, we know the difficulties and shuttling people from Afook Chinen is one solution, but having some parking in the area would be a great help. The next thing down the line is holiday lighting. It shouldn't be just Downtown Hilo; all of this area should be lit, including the gardens for the holidays. So the ideas we come up with for the gardens, an economic engine if there ever were one, gardens aren't just, "oh nice, look at that," gardens are economic engines for communities and they should not be looked at as, "oh, what can we put in that space." No, the space alone is valuable to any individual walking through it just for calm and tranquility, for grandchildren playing on the big stones. There are some big needs for the benefit of our residents and our visitors in this area. That pond is full of mud from the 1960 tsunami and it's time that stinky mud got taken out, more than one bucket at a time the way we've been doing it for the past year and a half. Yeah, we got 4,000 gallons out, we're getting ready to have a pumper truck from the County come in and do some more work so we've taken it away from the very fragile walls. Yeah, the walls need to be fixed too. So having an EIS for the entire area would be very beneficial to our residents and to our visitors in their use of this park, which is increasing as parks in Puna disappear. The demand for a place to have a wedding, a place for graduation, a place to take photographs with the family. All of these things are demands on our parks and we're going to see more as the parks in Puna disappear. I am so grateful to be here and thank you very much. DELIMA: That was very well said, K.T. I really appreciate your comments, it gives us a real healthy perspective of the opportunities to solve some of the crisis that exist. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS The Agency took this item up at 3:14 p.m. 1. Approval of minutes from the March 28, 2018, Banyan Drive Hawai`i Redevelopment Agency meeting. DELIMA: And if you could make the motion to approve the minutes, we can CANNON-EGER: I move the minutes be approved as circulated. Page 16 of 17 Banyan Drive Hawaii Redevelopment Agency July 25,2018 Minutes