HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0663.004 2002-2004
MAR-03-2004 03[27 PM 8089659254 P-01
Ma(ama o Puna
P. O. box 1520
Pahoa, Hawat 't 96778
(808) 965-9254 www.malamaopuna o~
Vie~serving Hawa/ %'s precious nafura/heNEage
March 3, 2004 frt.elves
Ame_.-_'._rr- By---_--
Mayor Harry Kim Date ~Ll_°_`~-
County of Hawai 'i County Council P- htiri r RL
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo, Hawai 'i 96720
RE: PAHOA RESOURCE PARK A.K.A. AKEBONO PARKING LOT
Dear Mr. Mayor:
My Board of Directors haq recently authorized me to write to you about our
concerns regarding the delays in acquiring the subject property.
This issue has been on the community's plate for about ten years, and there have
been many well attended town meetings during that time in which the public need to
acquire this parcel was overwhelmingly voiced to our County and State government.
The population of Puna has growta dramatically since then, and so have the needs
that the resource park will address. Salvador Luquin has been paying x3,000/month to
lease the parking lot plus a great deal in liability insurance premiums, and he allows not
only his patrons, but the general public to use the lot. It is not fair that one individual
bear the burden for the entire community.
Salvador has informed us that he can no longer afford to do this and will not
renew the lease when it expires in October 2004. What will happen then? The owner will
surely gate it off, as she has done in the past. This will dramatically impact Pahoa
businesses, especially those along the boardwalk which have only minimal on-street
parking, starting at the beginning of the holiday shopping season. Our local businesses
depend on the Christmas shoppers to make up for slow season at other times of the year.
The economic ripples will spread out from there.
The Akebono Theater, which is planned to function as a center for the performing
arts, providing classes and a broad spectrum of entertainment venues, will be unable to
function without narkin¢. Pahoa Weed & Seed has heenlnnkina forward tathF nnc~n~no
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Ref. Date
also a social need that will not be filled if we lose the parcel. Mrs. Mulleek may very
well decide to sell it to someone else, even. at a bwer price than offered by the County,
just so she can thumb her nose at Pahoa and at your administration. She can afford to do
that and would get a perverse pleasure from being able to do it. She does not, after all,
have an altruistic commitment to us. Let us not play into her hands.
Mrs. Theodora "Asha" Mallcck, and/or her daughter, have rejected all the
County's rood faith otTers, the most recent of which is considerably more than the vahie
of the property. With the real estate market as it now stands, it appears that the longer
she can hold the County over the barrel, the more she can demand. She is in the driver's
seat only as long ag the County lets her by its timidity in seeking a remedy in the Courts.
Mrs. Malleck contends that she "improved" the property, ahhough many of us believe
that she invested a lot of money into destroying parts of it. Shc has been paying property
taxes based on the assessed valuation of the property e ore she "improved" it. if het
private assessor told her the land was worth $77Q000 (or thereabouts) the County is
being cheated out of the tax revenue it should get. Mrs. Malleck cannot and should not
have it both ways.
Please do not wait any longer to initiate a condemnation proceeding. Our
community is desperately in need of the parcel, but we should not have to pay
extortionate amounts to buy it.
Sincerely yours
Rent Siracusa
President
cc: Councilman Gary Safarik
State Representative Herne H. Hale
Mainstreet Pahoa Association