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situation. The roof is over 50 years old, and the existing building that we're in now, it leaks, and
<br />we feel in our heart the people of Pahoa, the Puna area, deserve a nice, new location. We only
<br />receive 40 to 60 customers a day at the most. It's not a heavily trafficked road now, that section
<br />of Highway 130. We started this last year November. We never anticipated the May lava flow
<br />which wiped out—so the doesn't have that heavy traffic flow anymore because all the houses are
<br />gone. Entrance is through Hawaiian Beaches now for people down in Wa`a Wa`a. They don't
<br />come up through Nanawale area, Pohoiki. All that ceased. It's kind of desolate over there in
<br />that area right now, and with the traffic light they have right by the Pahoa High School, that
<br />regulates the flow of traffic.
<br />The other thing, the line of sight. And, again, I am not badmouthing County or State. I had gone
<br />out there and did a before picture of a left and right turn and an after picture left and right turn.
<br />The after picture picture showed where I went out on a Monday and cleared the highway of the
<br />eight- to ten -foot California grass. At the time I went out there, you couldn't see the guardrail.
<br />The weeds were so tall, the line of sight was impaired. After I went out all day Monday and
<br />mowed down that whole California grass, the line of sight was considerably better, and I just
<br />wanted to show that. Now, if you go on the road now, it's all burned, cut, guardrails are visible.
<br />This was something that had started after we tried to make our point about a line of sight issue.
<br />Thank you.
<br />KERN: Mr. Chair, if I could expand on this, just questions for Mr. Quinn right now. If I could
<br />just expand on that. Yeah, the line of sight has been greatly improved. The Applicant is also
<br />willing to do a right -turn in, right -turn out only which would definitely mitigate a lot of traffic
<br />concerns there, safety issues, and again, with the State Department of Transportation's letter
<br />being inaccurate as far as speed limit goes, I think that's also a major consideration. Because 45,
<br />55 is much different than 35, which is actually is 35.
<br />The—another point that's made in here is about the traffic engineer traffic study. The Applicant,
<br />you know, he's put a lot out, a lot of time, effort, and money out into this already, and with the
<br />challenge of this to go and pay for an engineer to do that right now with the uncertainty of this
<br />permit, just, it's just too much. But, I think it's very clear that the Applicant wants things to be
<br />safe. We've responded to every letter that's been there. Again, when he talks about the lava,
<br />traffic in the area has drastically reduced with the lava. It's reduced from a residence standpoint,
<br />and it's reduced from a tourism standpoint massively. Kapoho got a lot of tourism. Kapoho is
<br />gone. Kapoho is not coming back any time soon. Lower Puna is hurting; it needs help. And,
<br />you know, here's Mr. Quinn, who has been in business for 20 years out there just trying to
<br />continue to do that even in the face of adversity with such a hard economic climate in Puna.
<br />I'd also like to notate that we did pass out—you should have, Mr. Quinn put out a petition, and it
<br />showed, it talked about the permit. It gave all of the information. It showed the location. It
<br />showed the site plan. We have received approximately 258 signatures -258 signatures. We've
<br />received two letters of opposition as opposed to 258 signatures. People took the time to write
<br />their name, their address, sign it, date it. I think that says a lot. It also showed `em where it was.
<br />I think that says a lot as well.
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