HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0217.002 2020-2022 From: Jordan Epperson
Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2021 7:21 PM
To: Council Testimony
Subject: My testimony for Resolution 105-21
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To: Hawaii County Council
RE: Road Improvement District for Hawaiian Acres Resolution 105-21
I strongly support Hawaiian Acres Road improvement District Resolution 105-21. I am a resident, property owner and
have been a lifetime volunteer road worker on road 1 in Hawaiian Acres. In addition to doing regular voluntary road
work on road 1 (Uhini Ana Rd) for most of my adult life and even a good part of my childhood, I am the current road
1 representative for Hawaiian Acres Road Corporation. In recent years we've seen a major increase in population due
to many reasons. More traffic combined with higher costs of materials, higher equipment rental costs and less
monetary support from our community has left us scrambling to catch up with repairs that needed to take place years
ago. As a result these roads are not always safe to drive.
As a resident/homeowner in Hawaiian Acres I share many of the same concerns about our roads as many of my
neighbors, such as the recent loss of private ambulance service, safe and timely access for our police and fire
responders, and of course safe daily access to work and back that won't destroy our vehicles. There has also been
growing issues with deliveries or other service providers that are no longer available here due to our poor road
conditions. I'm sad to see these services disappearing along as the population of this neighborhood grows. I'm also sad
that I can't have friends or family over without worrying about the safety of them or their vehicles while trying to
get here or home from here.
Now my concerns as the road representative for Hawaiian Acres Road Corporation or HARC. As a child in Hawaiian
Acres I watched my father and many others spend countless hours trying repairing roads as creatively as possible with
the little voluntary road fees that had been donated. At that time the pavement on Rd 1 was brand new and lightly
traveled so it required very little attention, so they could use the monetary support they received to focus on
maintaining other roads, continuing paving projects, drainage and other improvement projects. As years went by
community contributions have dwindled, material prices have risen, population has grown and volunteers are harder
to find. As an adult I've now been volunteering to keep road one as passable as possible by filling the majority of
potholes in the roughly 3.5 miles of pavement on road one. 15 years ago we would have to patch a few holes a few
times a year, then it went to patching several holes several times a year, to now every time it rains potholes open up
everywhere. In the past I could pick up 3-4 tons of cold patch material and fix the whole 3.5 miles and have some
leftover to fill holes when they showed up. Last week I picked up 3.5 tons of cold patch and made it less than a half
mile with our repairs. Traffic controls and safety are becoming a major concern for volunteer efforts as well, I feel
like the massive increase in traffic since the 2018 eruption has made our volunteer efforts very dangerous. We can
barely afford the material nevermind the proper traffic controllers that should be implemented when we do this sort of
road work with this amount of traffic. At this point I can no longer keep up with the repairs needed to keep our road
safe for it's users and I beg you to help. I do believe this road has become an emergency situation and really hope you
can help us help each other.
Please approve Resolution 105-21 so we can have the feasibility study we need to know what we are up against here.
Thank you for the consideration.
Aloha,
Jordan Epperson ��,•�.
Comm. No. n �(/
Ref. To: _ 4 2Q21
1 Ref. Date MAY