HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0363.013 1996-1998 PO Box 1366
Kamuela HI 96743
November 20, 1977
" RECENED
County Counc;il nma--_------------------By.-_-__-_-
25 Aupuni Street
Hilo HI 967'1.0 Dotn
C4unfy Council
Dear Members of the County Council:
I support the position that your fellow cauncilmember
Dominic Yagong has taken with regard to the lease of County-
owned land t:o a large pulp timber industry firm. That is, I
encourage you to consider instead the option of allowing
local people to lease this land.
I have worked in Honokaa for six years now and was there
during the closure of Hamakua Sugar Plantation. At that
time, thank.: to Representative Dwight Takamine, the Hawaii
Island Socisll Ministry, the state Department of Labor, and
CBED, an extraordinary sense of empowerment was conveyed to
residents of this rural area. There was meeting after
meeting where residents were encouraged to envision a future
for Hamakua of their own making. This process worked, and
local friends of mine are now independent entrepreneurs in
diversified agriculture. Therefore I am confident that the
people of Hamakua will make productive use of the County-
owned land i,f given a chance. I surely encourage you to give
them that chance.
In the past I also researched the status of the 99-year
lease that F~arker Ranch made with Laurance Rockefeller for
the Mauna Kea Resart lands. Within ten years, as I
recollect, Parker Ranch was in court seeking better terms
than had originally been negotiated. The present timber
lease is for fifty-five years. At its expiration many of us
will no longer be here. It seems to me the lease rent, as
well as the annual property tax arrangements, are strikingly
low. It's probable that ten years down the road the County
of Hawaii will be in a position like Parker Ranch, if we
commit these lands for such a long time on these terms.
Sincerely, p
Judlth Graham
Waimea
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