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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN PRPSC 2021/03/17 2020-2022Committee on Parks and Recreation and Public Safety 6th Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii March 17, 2021 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Parks and Recreation and Public ORDER: Safety was called to order at 10:31 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Vice Chair (via videoconference from Hilo) Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (came in later) Absent & Excused: Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: (There were none.) CHR. INABA: Mahalo. We'll close public testimony at this time. And if we can move to Communication 140, please. Actually sorry, we'll work with the nominations first. So Communication 158. Change Order As directed by the Chair and with no objection from the Council Members, of Business: the following items were taken out of order: COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 158: NOMINATION OF DEBRA LEWIS TO THE VETERAN'S ADVISORY COMMITTEE From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated February 19, 2021, requesting the Council's review and confirmation. PRPSC-6 Vote on Comm. 158 (Approved) Comm. 159 March 17, 2021 Ms. Lee Loy moved to recommend confirmation of the appointment of Ms. Debra Lewis to the Veteran's Advisory Committee. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Inaba — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member David —1. Excused: None. Executive Assistant to the Mayor Ms. Pomaika`i Bartolome came forward and provided a brief narrative of the nominee's background and experience. Committee Members spoke in favor of the appointment. Chair Inaba informed Ms. Lewis that she does not need to appear before the full Council for final confirmation. NOMINATION OF LUAHIWA NAMAHOE TO THE FIRE COMMISSION From Mayor Mitchell D. Roth, dated February 25, 2021, requesting the Council's review and confirmation. Requires Council Confirmation by: April 11, 2021 (Section 13-4(k), Hawaii County Charter) Nomination Withdrawn: At this time, at the request of the Mayor, the Chair announced the withdrawal of Ms. Namahoe's nomination. Return to Order The Chair directed the Committee to return to the order of business. of Business: Comm. 140: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION DIRECTOR MAURICE MESSINA REGARDING THE STATUS OF FACILITIES AND RECREATIONAL SPORTS PROGRAMS DUE TO IMPACTS FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC From Council Member Susan L. K. Lee Loy, dated February 22, 2021. Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 140. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. INABA: Director Messina is in Hilo chambers, and mahalo for being here today to give us this update. (Note: At this time, Parks and Recreation Director Maurice Messina came forward to address the members of the Committee.) Page 2 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 MR. MESSINA: Good morning Council. Maurice Messina, Director of Parks and Recreation. Also have behind me Michelle Hiraishi, our Deputy Director. CHR. INABA: Ms. Lee Loy, sorry did you want to start off, my apologies. MS. LEE LOY: Oh, no, really. But thank you, Chair. You know, as we ventured into the New Year, the new Administration there was a lot going on in our parks. And in the past there was a lot of confusion around the use of the parks, and the rules that we're applying. So I thought this was a perfect opportunity for Director Messina to use, you know, the first quarter of this Administration to talk about what's going on now, what we can envision over the next 24 and then the next 48 months. So please Mr. Messina, go ahead. MR. MESSINA: Okay. Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. I would first like to start off by commending and thanking our staff at Parks and Recreation. They are at our facilities right now conducting, or helping set up vaccinations, testing, food drops. You name it, our people are doing it right now. So just want to first mahalo them, for everything that they're doing. So some of the changes that were recently made, and the last Mayor's COVID rule that affected Parks and Recreation that falls under Exhibit number two, in the COVID rule. The first one is that we've increased the sizes of pick-up games, from 10 people to 25 people. One of the reasons that, that's of note is that when we looked at sizes of pick-up games that can happen with 10 people only. And if you're including the coaches and whoever else is there, that's a very, very, small amount of people who are playing. I go on 25, our outdoor courts, our outdoor soccer fields they're able to, you know, guys are just able to show up and play basketball again. So that's a positive. The other thing that we're doing is, we're opening up our three gyms that have that are more or less like an open air facility. Which is at Pana`ewa, Pahoa, and Waimea. The reason we're opening these up is because they're not enclosed, they have like wire mesh all around them, a fencing all around them, which allows air to go through. And this is a really big one for us, because this is going to be a spot where we're going to allow our seniors, our senior citizens to come back to our facilities. You know, doing Tai Chi, playing pickleball. They're not always able to do it outside, because of the inclement weather like in Pahoa, Waimea. So being able to have those guys come back in is a real big plus for us. Next week we're having an island -wide recreation meeting. Where we're going to be discussing our recommendations to the Mayor, and the Administration on where we go next. We wanted to wait, and do that meeting after spring break. Because just like Christmas, just like Thanksgiving when we were going through all this, just like Halloween. Department of Health has always recommended we give about three to four weeks, after something like that to see if we have a surge. Page 3 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 To see if the island has been impacted in any way. So we're going to start that planning up next week, and we'll present those recommendations to the Mayor. Those recommendations will include, should we start looking at gyms, should we start looking at community centers? And if we do, what should be our rules at those community centers? What should be our sanitation processes? And we'll also be working with Department of Health, and Civil Defense in developing those plans. And then how do we get that information out to the public? Do we develop a website portal for Recreation, we already have a Recreation website portal on our website. But we're thinking about doing something like a phase, to where people know which phases they're in right now as far as Parks and Rec is concerned. What's the next phase, and what are the precursors for allowing us to go to the next phase. Right now, all of our parks facilities are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. With a couple of exceptions that I've made for couple of tennis groups in Kona, which we're allowing them to go until 9:00 o'clock. One of the biggest reasons for that is when they're playing out there in Kona it's just the sun is beating down on them, so we're going to allow them a couple of extra hours. We have a request right now, from the people who utilize the roller rink out there to see if they can also use the park after hours as well, because they're not able to go out during the sun time. Right now as you all know, we have the social gathering has increased to 25. And as far as Parks is concerned, for practices right now we're set at 25 people, and games we're set at 50. And for each of those to happen, we ask that the representative from the teams send us a COVID plan. We look over that COVID plan, we share with our Recreation. And it comes to me, and then I share the plans with Civil Defense and the Mayor's Office, making sure that everything is set. If somebody wants to come in and do a sports activity, but they don't have a plan. We share with them some of the ones that have been passed through us already, so they don't have to startyou know, reinvent the wheel on that. We've had a lot of questions about contact sports. And right now, the Mayor still considers contact sports a high-risk activity. Which is like football, flag football, basketball, these contact sports are—when he speaks for the Department of Health it's just, right now we're not ready to go there yet. And the question has been brought up a couple of times about the amount of people that we have out on the fields. We control it the best we can. We have the plan. When we notice something's not going as to the plan that we have approved, we do go out and reach out to those folks. If something comes to us that it's outside of the Mayor's COVID rules, or the Governor's proclamations. We ask those people to go to the county website under COVID, and there's an event request button on the second page there. That event request button goes straight to Civil Defense, and Civil Defense will get that Page 4 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 event, they'll go through their determination process. And if it's a county and parks facility, then that request will come through us. For scheduling and seeing if the dates are open, and looking at their plans as well. So just to give you an idea of what our facilities are doing right now. I just listed a few of the facilities here that we have testing, vaccinations, food drops. We got the Civic, the Tennis Stadium, KCAC (Kona Community Aquatic Center) pool, Yano Hall, H6naunau Rodeo Arena, Greenwell Park, Cooper Center, Kamehameha Park, Waimea Park, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Our staff is not sitting around, we've got requests coming in all the time. And the Mayor has made it a priority for vaccinations, and testing. And if you go to the Ho`olulu Complex on food drop day, you'll still see cars lined up around the block. There is a big, big, need there. And so when some people do call us and ask for the facility usage because they want to do other things, we look at these three things first, as our number one priority. We do want to get people out there, but everyone says it and the Mayor said it. Vaccinations, and testing, and the food drops all are very, very, very, high priority and we got to stick with that for right now. We are getting a lot of requests, for usages of our parks and facilities. We're getting them from UH (University of Hawaii) Hilo, we're getting a lot from Department of Education (DOE). Because right now DOE still has all their gyms, all their fields all closed. And there's a lot of teams; tennis teams, soccer teams, that use those that aren't necessarily affiliated with the schools. So all those requests is coming to us, and it is a bit right now to try to schedule, to try to coordinate. We've opened up Kohala Field Park now, for UH Hilo for the soccer. We've got softball going on, we've got just numerous, numerous sports and activities going on. And we just ask that everybody be patient with us for right now, because right now we're basically the only game in town. So we doing our best to accommodate as many people as we can. The swimming pools are going good, we're opening up more and more each week. Right now we've got lap swims, we got master swims, and we're bringing back the diving programs. If there's somebody that wants to utilize the pool for a team event, just got to let us know we'll work with you on the COVID plans, making sure that our staff has control over the facility, and control over everything that's happening there. Our senior programs it's a bit disheartening and sad when you hear about what's happening to our seniors out there. It's the seniors who are used to going and being with the other people. Going to the Halloween get together, Valentines get togethers, Tai Chi get together. Just hanging out with the other seniors. And the death rate is increasing on these guys, so we've got to get them back as quick as we can and start socializing again. Right now we're tentatively looking at April, to start our senior programs back up again. We're working on the plan right now, Page 5 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 we'll deliver it to the Mayor as soon as we get it. When the increase of social gathering is to 25, we think that we can do this in a safe manner. We weren't able to open up the programs that had only 10, because it just wasn't fiscally possible. We only charge a dollar a class, and it was just a money drainer. And then we were having the issue with the teachers not wanting to come in, because they were afraid for their health. But I believe as we increase the vaccination, we increase the testing we'll be able to get those going. And as soon as we're able to do that, we'll present all the information that we have out for that. I'm sorry, that's July. April 71h, marks our one year anniversary of our food program that we started up, the Meals on Wheels Program for the COVID emergency. One of the other things that were very, very proud of our staff about doing is, when they go to drop off the food at these houses, and it's a single senior at these houses, they make contact, and then they get phone numbers and they continue contacting with these folks throughout the week. They try to at least call a few times a week, just check on Aunty, check on Uncle just making sure that they're doing okay. Otherwise, you know, something could happen between the times of the food drops, and we just want to protect them as much as we can. The golf course is running pretty good. We have increased our golf cart usage from one time we were just doing single carts, now we're back up to double carts. We've increased our times of play, that's also been positive. We're looking to bring back club play as well, and so far everything seems to be going okay. We had a real, real big influx because the golf course was one of the first places to open back up. And I think we've stemmed the tide on that a bit. Seems like play is going better, people can get their tee times more. So that's looking pretty good too. Some of the areas that we're struggling to help the community with are things like the dragstrip. Even with 50 people allowed the dragstrip is very, very hard for these guys to go out there and race. I do note that they're submitting some of their plans through that website portal that I spoked of earlier with Civil Defense. And so I'm going to look at those plans, and see how they go. But they do require there's a lot of people, a lot of moving parts, when you're out there racing the cars. Let's see what else we got, just a couple more things. Summer fun. So we're ramping up for our summer fun right now. Our plan is to run from June 7, through July 16. We're going to basically double the size, or double the amount of participants that we had last year. We're going to have 20 sites, with 30 students at each site, or 30 children at each site. And we're going to have about fifteen to one ratio on that. We think we can do it in a safe manner. Unfortunately we just can't right now go over 30, because with the amount of space that we have and these are not all in gyms, some are in community centers. Page 6 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 And so we still have to do our sanitations. And we want the parents and the children all feel safe coming to it. So we're just going to stick with that right now. Hopefully next year we can increase even more during the fall, we can increase even more but we'll get there as we get there. Other than the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) projects we have going on, we'll be opening up the Na`alehu Community Center sometime in April. We've finished our ADA project there, so that's going to be a whole other facility that we'll have. And we're looking at some track and field events coming up around April. And we think that right now, we're doing everything as safe as possible. I'm not aware of any cases, clusters, associated with any park facilities, any beaches. There are a lot of people would get a lot of calls every weekend about the amount of people in the fields, amount of people at the beaches. And we're working as best we can with that. The Police Department has been really, really helpful. And our staff that we have to call in on the weekends to go check facilities have also been very helpful. Our maintenance staff is doing the best that they can, as we increase usage. It's been about a year, since we had this many people back at our facilities. So we have some facilities that haven't been used in a while, so we're trying to get those back up and ready. You know, just making sure that when we do come back at full force, that the facilities can handle the usage. And if you have any questions, please let me know. CHR. INABA: Mahalo, Director Messina. We'll start questions in Hilo. MS. LEE LOY: Yes, Chair, please. CHR. INABA: Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you. Thank you, Mo. This is exactly what I wanted, is to just kind of give a high level and what people can anticipate. Can you please repeat the summer fun dates that you had? I thought I heard June 16. MR. MESSINA: June 7 to July 16. And we already have the flyers up on our Recreation website, County of Hawaii Recreation website. And you can go there and you can see which facilities are available, which phone numbers that you've got to call to register your children. MS. LEE LOY: Great, thank you. Because that helps families and parents, who are working and hoping to return back to work and get ready with that level of childcare. And then you mentioned fall break. We'll probably see, and possibly more opportunities during the fall break. And that's because we'll be a little further along with our vaccinations, is what I'm guessing. MR. MESSINA: So, we're hoping. Page 7 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 MS. LEE LOY: Okay. MR. MESSINA: That's what we're hoping. Last year our fall break was really, really small. And if we're in a better place this year, we'll be able to increase. MS. LEE LOY: Great. You mentioned the different facilities that we're using for vaccination, and I got a lot of requests because Ho`olulu Complex is in the district. And so I had to message back out, you know, the expectation, right. So could you just share again, you know, that especially our Civic, and our Edith Kanaka`ole Tennis Stadium necessarily mean so much for the community whether its food drops or COVID sites, what the anticipated timeline for the use of that facility is related to our COVID vaccinations, and when we hope to anticipate play. MR. MESSINA: So we do have some play going on right now, at Walter Victor. But to put it in a little perspective if you look at the Tennis Stadium, we just had a 4,000 person vaccination there. That is our Ho`olulu staff working a full day, a full night getting that ready to go. And then looking at maybe that next Monday, the next Tuesday a whole `nother group coming in with either vaccination or testing. And then possibly Wednesday, someone coming in who's doing a food drop. And then we go right back to Thursday and Friday again, doing vaccinations and doing testing. So there's been questions about, you know, people want to go in and park inside the facility to watch their kids or to watch the sports. And right now because we just need to have this really controlled environment, we just can't have that happen right now. We have people registered, preregistered, and it's just if you go there on any given day, you'll see that we have something going on there six days a week right now. But our staff, Dean Goya, who works there he's constantly taking the phone calls, he's making fit what he can. But again, our priority right now is to get these vaccinations, and testings, and food drops done. MS. LEE LOY: And understandable. I think everybody wants to schedule a tournament, or just plan ahead right. And so it's safe to say, it won't be any time until the summer. So maybe third quarter. MR. MESSINA: Right. And we're also getting a lot of requests right now for graduations, and things like that. So there's a lot of requests. MS. LEE LOY: And this is my one last question. You know, you mentioned the event requests, and Parks also takes care of our cemeteries. Is an event request required for a service? MR. MESSINA: No. So in fact thanks for bringing that up. Just this week or maybe end of last week, because of the social distancing. I mean not social distancing, but the gathering sizes increasing to 25 that does allow more at a Page 8 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 funeral, because funerals are under that definition of a social gathering. So we were able to at the West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery for example, we were able to bring back canopy services. Where we move our canopy over and they were able to do the services there, because that pavilion is very small out there for these services. So right now, we're able to accommodate most funerals, as long as there's 25 and under. For some reason somebody wants something bigger than that, they do have to go to the event request. MS. LEE LOY: Great, thanks for clarifying that. Thanks for being here, it's so much. Parks does so much for community. Chair, I yield. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Anyone else in Hilo? MR. RICHARDS: Yeah Chair, Richards. CHR. INABA: Go ahead, Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you, Chair. Mo, thanks for being here. I seem to always ask this question, regardless of what committee I'm sitting on. You are trying to re -tool some 200 facilities, I think that number we were given. And that's going to cost a lot. And I know your maintenance and repair budget, has always strained when things were functioning and probably more strained now. We're looking at hopefully being granted some money from the Feds, to take care of immediate infrastructure needs. Give me a number that your department could use and employ quickly, and deploy quickly that would make a big difference to get our parks back up to snuff, to take care of the community. MR. MESSINA: Thank you for the question, Tim. I'll first have that conversation with the Administration, and start those conversations once I know what kind of pot of money we're looking at. I'd rather speak to the Mayor first about that, and that way he's not surprised at our ask. MR. RICHARDS: Alright, appreciate that. The sooner the better, because we have a video call in about two hours with the Senator. And I'm not shame to ask to help us take care of our community. MR. MESSINA: And the Mayor has said the same thing to us. He said it the other day on a Waimea Community Association meeting, that he knows that the parks need money. We've had some preliminary talks, about amounts that I've thrown at him. I'd rather have the Administration, and come back. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And I appreciate that, I realize we're talking little under two hours. But if we could get something, that would be helpful for us. Thanks Chair, I yield. MS. KIMBALL: Chair Inaba, this is Kimball. Page 9 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 CHR. INABA: Ms. Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you so much. Hi, thank you, Mo, for being here today. I'm going to follow-up on Council Member Richards' question. Just wanting to make sure that we have several projects in the hopper that are shovel ready. Do you have an estimate on the number of projects that are ready to move forward, should federal funding come through? MR. MESSINA: Well I would say almost every project we have is depending on funding. MS. KIMBALL: Plans are done, permits are pulled all of that? MR. MESSINA: Well it depends on what the projects is. Some of the projects are small, some of them we need to re -fence this, some of them are we just got to fix these walls, some of them are, you know, if we could just fix this leaking roof. But again, that's a list I'd first like to share with Administration and Finance, to make sure that they're aware so that they can, you know, the overall picture they can help prioritize where the money is going to be coming to parks. MS. KIMBALL: Again, appreciate that, but I just want to make sure that we have some maybe bigger projects, not repairs, not rebuilding walls, but things are shovel ready, that are permitted, that are designed, that are ready to go should federal funding become available for that sort of infrastructure project. We do have things in the hopper like that, yes? MR. MESSINA: Right, there are. And one of our biggest needs right now, and it's just like what Tim mentioned, is our maintenance repair budget. It's taken a big hit during COVID, this last fiscal year it's taken a real big hit. And so we'll be speaking with the Mayor about our priorities, and of course that would be one of our biggest ones. Because that budget also has to deal with repairing facilities, that we can just get these kids in for like summer fun. We need to repair some of our facilities, so we can get the kids in a safe manner. And that has been mentioned to the Mayor's team, but we'll follow back up with them on that. MS. KIMBALL: Okay, thank you. Where do folks find the gather event request that goes to Civil Defense? I'm not seeing it. MR. MESSINA: So if you go to the top of the County of Hawaii webpage, on the top left you're going to see a Coronavirus link. If you click on that link, it will take you to the second page. The second page it's about maybe three or four inches down on the screen it says event request, or I think it says event request. MS. KIMBALL: Got it. Thank you. MR. MESSINA: You're welcome. Page 10 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 MS. KIMBALL: Alright. You may not know the answer to this, how long will we continue to have the help of the National Guard at our facilities to help with the vaccination? MR. MESSINA: You're right, I don't know the answer to that. Civil Defense, Talmadge, would know that one. MS. KIMBALL: Alright, thank you. I believe that is everything. You know, of course there's a lot of these maintenance and repair projects are in Hamakua. I'm sure we'll be working together a lot over the next couple of years. So thank you, again, for this high level overview and look forward to talking in detail about some of the specific projects. Thanks, Mo. I yield, Chair. CHR. INABA: Calling on Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, and Ms. Kierkiewicz. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yes, please. CHR. INABA: Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mo, for that real detailed summary. My questions. Volcano Skate Park? I got a text yesterday asking when we'll be reopening the skate park. And the more I thought about it, it does fit the description of being an open air style facility although it does have a roof. MR. MESSINA: Right. So this morning we met with our planning team, and our maintenance teams. We've got to go out and do an inspection on that before we can get it opened. We've had some reports of people jumping the fence, going underneath the—it's a wooden ramp. And we've had reports of people going underneath it and cooking food, and homeless in there. And so we've got to go out first, and make sure that it's structurally sound. And I had the conversation with my guys this morning about that, about we need to get out there and look at that. Because once that's able to happen, we have a group out there that we met with and they want to open up the skate parks on Wednesday's and Saturdays. And they're going to be overall in charge of it, and making sure everything happens. But we first need to get out there, and look at it and make sure that it's sound and it's safe. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. MESSINA: So I told my guys I need that to happen as soon as possible, this morning. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: The community would appreciate that. We have the Kurtistown Skate Park, Pahoa Skate Park, is the Pahoa Skate Park open? Page 11 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 MR. MESSINA: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. But the Volcano serves, I mean basically Pahala to Kurtistown and everyone in between. MR. MESSINA: Right, and you have a lot of youth out there that really don't have anything to do right now in that area. And so we know it needs to get opened. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you. And then as we discussed April, Easter. And Pahoa always had its Easter, you know, Easter whatever you want to call it. Easter fun event, but what are your thoughts for Easter? We briefly discussed this, you know, during a phone call, but what are your thoughts? MR. MESSINA: That is part of our agenda item next week when we meet with recreation. Right now still the social gathering sizes are 25, but you know, do we do that in like three or four different groups? You know, maybe an hour in between, something like that. I don't know. But that's part of our agenda item next week with recreation that we come and deliver to the Mayor's Office. And I know time is of the essence, it's not far away. But although we want to get these things going again, we also want to make sure that we're being as safe as possible. And the Department of Health is main. Them and Civil Defense are main on any conversations that we have about allowing more and more people into our facilities in a safe manner. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. MR. MESSINA: So if we're able to do it in a safe manner, that's something we'll present to the Mayor's Office. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Yeah, please let me know. Just given the circumstances anything we can do to help the community, have some of our normal events that make the keiki feel like there's some normal in their life would be amazing. I'm a definite proponent of that in a safe manner. But yeah, thank you. Because we're talking about parks is the Pahoa pool back open? I know there was an issue with the pumps. MR. MESSINA: Yes, we had some issues from flooding last week, but we're back open and ready to go. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, wonderful. Thank you for what you do, Mo. Appreciate it. MR. MESSINA: Yes, sir. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I yield, Chair. Thank you. Page 12 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Any questions? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: I don't have a question, but I do want to thank Director Messina, and his hard working team. I mean, I really appreciate this overview. And just what comes to mind is, how our parks are so critical to community vitality. And I really appreciate all of the great thought, and care that went into how do we stay connected as a community? So all the work that you're doing through all of these programs, you know, giving space to keiki, taking care of kupuna, just finding ways in which your staff can still make a contribution during these times, is really incredible. Thank you, for your leadership, and thanks for empowering your staff. I hear from them pretty often, they feel supported by you and Michelle. So thank you. Great job. I yield. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. Bringing it hereto Kona. Mr. Chung. MR. CHUNG: Thank you, Mo. You know, you and I talked about this matter a few days ago. You didn't really mention it and it relates to the golf course. I know that's in Ms. Lee Loy's district, but I have been getting, you know, a lot of calls on that because I'm a golfer. Yeah, you know, you talked about players being able to now play and ride in the same cart, okay. And then that you're going to be opening up the course, to club play again. What about the possibility of having larger groups, either five or six? I don't think it's going to be any problem, quite frankly. But I just wanted to know what your plan is. Because what's happening here, let's say five people come to play because there's a restriction on having only four people play at a time. You're forced to break up between into three and two, hence taking up two starting times, which doesn't make a lot of sense, right. MR. MESSINA: Yup, I remember that conversation, Aaron. And we feel that we can do that in a safe manner, and sorry, I have to repeat myself on something. But we have to propose all this to the Mayor's COVID rules team, and COVID rules committee. So we're proposing that, and we also received a proposal for how to get tournaments going again at the golf course. So those are part of the proposals that we've prepared for the Mayor's Office, and the Mayor's COVID team. If they give us the approval to move with that, we'll work with our golf course administration and we'll put that out there. I also am a golfer, and I think that's a good idea. We just got to make sure that number one, we have enough carts available. Because one of the things that's happening is having people who don't feel safe riding in a cart with someone else, they're doing a single cart. That's a lot of carts that are going out. And we're really hesitant about those guys that have a 12:00 o'clock or 1:00 o'clock tee time, they come out and they don't have a cart available for themselves. So everything that we do it has a cascading effect. So we just want to make sure if Page 13 PRPSC-6 March 17, 2021 we do that we're not hurting the golfers later in the day who also want to utilize a cart. But we are proposing that to the Mayor's Office. MR. CHUNG: Right. And that's basically what you told me, but I figured may as well since this is a public forum, you can send that message out to the greater or larger public. So what is the specific request you're going to be making, regarding the number of people per group? Is it five or six? MR. MESSINA: Well right now it's just increasing the number of groups, and we got three different proposals that we're sending in on that. And the other one is a proposal that we received from UH Hilo, to do a tournament. MR. CHUNG: Yeah, I'm not concerned about the tournament right now, just in terms of players per group. The request that you make to the decision making group will be just to increase? MR. MESSINA: Yes. To increase either five, six, or seven per group. MR. CHUNG: Oh, seven too. What is the possibility? MR. MESSINA: I don't know if it's a possibility, but that's one of the recommendations. MR. CHUNG: Yup. Okay. And when do think they might make a decision? MR. MESSINA: I'm not sure. I'll follow-up on it, as soon as possible. I think right now the low -hanging fruit would be five or six. But that's something that has to be discussed, you know, after the Mayor's rule committee gives us there decision, and then we work with golf administration to do that. MR. CHUNG: Yeah, I don't think anybody's asking for seven, so you know, there may be a reason for it. But thank you very much for all your work. MR. MESSINA: You're welcome. CHR. INABA: Mahalo. I believe that brings us to the end of this discussion. Mr. Messina, thank you for giving us the update. And mahalo, Ms. Lee Loy for requesting this update so we can all get on the same page for our facilities across this island. So there's a motion on the floor to close file on Communication 140. All those in favor, please say "aye." Page 14 PRPSC-6 Vote on Comm. 140 Filed ORDER OF RESOLUTIONS BILLS FOR ORDINANCES March 17, 2021 The motion to close file on Comm. 140 was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Inaba — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member David —1. Excused: None. The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Order of Resolutions. (There were none.) The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Bills for Ordinances. (There were none.) CHR. INABA: This brings us to the end of our agenda. Can I get a motion to adjourn? ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 11:21 a.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to MENT: adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Richards, Villegas, and Chair Inaba — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member David —1. Excused: None. Page 15 PRPSC-6 CHR. INABA: This committee is adjourned at 11:21 a.m. Approved: Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Chair Parks and Recreation and Public Safety Committee HI/rk (Date) March 17, 2021 Page 16