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lg REC:t~v~i County Planning Committee ~~18_^-___-_____ . y June 25, 2002 ~_-..,~---~f~-'-~~~~----- - -._._~~..o ~~u my Gnu ' ` N Aloha, My name is Leina~ala Enos. I was born and raised in Honolulu and 31 years ago I married a. Ka'u boy. We raised our 4 children here and they now live in Honolulu, where the jobs are and my husband has since passed on, but I continue to live in Wai'ohinu, Ka'u, a place I call home. am here tonight to share the Strategic Planning process that our Kau community has been involved in for the past 2 years. This all started when our kupuna and community said "ENOUGH" to all the people who wanted to plan our future or write grants for our community. They all used the demise of sugar, our rural status, our lack of services etc., as the hook to lure monies and possible economic development to our community. Our community gathered and said: "If we don't do planning ourselves, someone else will." In March of 2000 a steering committee was formed to organize and plan our first four community meetings (October 7, 2000; May 12, 2001; August 11, 2001; and October 13, 2001). At these community meetings it was decided that the three distinct, identifiable communities in Ka'u - Pahala, Na'alehu, and Ocean View would each draft their own unique community plan. Each community would select at least 2 priorities to focus on, with timelines of 5 years to 20 years depending on the project. Inclusive in their plans will be other areas that may be foreseen as an overall priority for Ka'u or areas that are priority to that community alone. It has been noted that priorities such as water, conservationlpreservation and planned economic development run through each of the 3 communities. Each community met separately for input and planning and after many weekly meetings selected a writing team. Again, each community's writing team met weekly or as scheduled and is working toward their first and second drafts. This is where we are at this time. fief. _ _