HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0176.007 2002-2004 comments on Resolution 54-03 re board for Pohakuloa
for County Council April 16, 2003 9 AM
Cory Harden, PO Box 10265, Hilo 96721 mh@interpac:net 968-8965
If there were an advisory board for Pohakuloa, it would b~ asking why the Army
hasn't done its homework. It would be asking why the Army is planning to take
23,000 more acres of our island to expand Pohakuloa before looking at other ways to
meet its training needs.
At a public meeting with the Army on June 25, 2002, ]asked: "Suppose the Army
cannot acquire the extra 23,000 acres. How could it meet its training needs without
the extra Iand7"
Ron Borne, Transformation Manager for US Army Hawaii, answered this way. (This
is from a video so some parts are unintelligible. (added underlines for emphasis.)
"Under the auspice ofacquire--means rent, lease, or purchase-is the alternate for
transforming but not changing the infrastructure. We would look at other sites that
maybe other Department of Defense agencies may have, like the Marine Corps,
which there's not a lot of, but we would look at other areas, possibly besides west
part of Oahu, or maybe somewhere on Oahu, or we would look at doing this training
some other location as was brought up earlier (unintelligible) Mavbe we do it at a
military installation either on the mainland or possibly in Alaska (unintelligible)
(unintelligible question) Probably in the aspect of moving to (unintelligible) in other
words, to the mainland, then it would not be an acquisition of land, it would be
looking for some land where we could use it that already exists, possibly, you know,
somewhere on the West Coast, or in Alaska, might be a good example, so maybe
usin eg xisting military land so we wouldn't, we fUS Armv Hawaril could not make a
proposal to acquire land outside of the US Armv Hawaii (question unintelligible)
Well, that's what we'll have to study. We don't know if we could meet those or not.
And then the other one is the cost, the cost associated with going somewhere else, the
time loss, the soldiers away from home, the ability of those other installations to
accommodate, you know, while there may be land in other locations, it may already
be used to its full capacity. Those will all need to be studied."
So-the Army hasn't looked arxywhere else to meet its training needs. That is, the
Army hasn't done its homework.
Since we don't have a board to talk to the Army, l hope you will comment on the
draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Pohakuloa expansion. It comes out
in June and there are 45 days to comment.
I hope you will support the board to deal issues in the future. ~~77
lOntnr. h0.~1
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