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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 1155.003 2004-2006 Susie Collins PO Box 42 O`okala, HI 96774 808-936-0072 Testimony to the Hawaii County Council Committee on Human Services & Economic Development Agenda Item: Don Bryan, Tradewinds Nov. 28, 2006 9:00 a.m. Hilo Good Morning council chairman Riga, Chairman-Elect Hoffman, and Other Council Members. Thank you for your time today. My name is Susie Collins, and my husband and I have lived in O`okala for 16 years, across the street from the old mill site. O`okala has 89 homes, most of which are adjacent to the mill site. We are a thriving, privately-owned residential community, where we enjoy an extraordinarily good quality of life, and most of us in O`okala would like it to stay that way. Just because the mill site is already zoned industrial, a leftover from a bygone era, it does not mean that a veneer mill and power plant are acceptable in the middle of a residential community in the 21" century. The impact this project would have on our quality of life would be devastating. This is a big island, with lots of land, and there must be a better place to locate this project. Don Bryan is going to give you a great presentation today about his vision for O`okala. He's going to make it sound like his idea is the best thing that's happened to O`okala in 20 years. He's going to lead you to believe that he's secured the property, pulled all his permits, found his investors, bought his equipment, and garnished community support. And it's going to sound really good to you. That's because Don Bryan is a professional marketer, a salesman pure and simple-that's his background. lEs experience is in the field of marketing the timber industry. He has no experience running a veneer mill. He has no experience in community development. But he sure is a great salesman. Don Bryan is going to tell you that he's ready to start construction within the next couple of months. But I'd like to tell you a couple of things he might omit from his presentation. 1. Don Bryan does not own the O`okala mill site. He has an option to buy the property that he has not exercised due to lack of funding. For seven years, he has repeatedly told the Board of Land and Natural Resources that he has his funding in place-repeatedly-but Comm. No. 1 t 7 S 3 Ref. To: reseded Ref. Ucte to this day he has not even purchased or leased a piece of property for his venture, let alone built the project. 2. The only major investor Mr. Bryan has found-the only one he's proven is committed- is an international energy investor called Rockland Capital Energy Investors. Rockland invests in power plants that will show a sustained profit. Not exactly the same concept as a co-generation plant. 3. 1 don't know what Don Bryan is going to tell you about the size of his power plant. He told a reporter at the Trib two megawatts, he told a member of our community seven megawatts, he told the Board of Land and Natural Resources five megawatts, and he told the State Legislature 10 megawatts. If anybody on the council would like to ask Don Bryan the hard questions about this, we'd be interested in knowing the truth. 4. Tradewinds has no claim on the trees in Hamakua. Fulghum Fibres has that contract. And even though Mr. Bryan says that some of those trees will be "diverted" to his mill, this is highly unlikely. Fulghum is not going to hold up their harvest waiting for Mr. Bryan to build his mill. 5. Tradewinds' resource of trees is in Waiakea, south of Hilo, 40+ miles from O`okala. Which begs the question: why is Mr. Bryan planning to put his facility in O'okala? 6. Don Bryan does not have any of his permits ready. There are a minimum of 17 permits that will be required for this project, including some major ones like wastewater, and water rights, and clean arr. But none of the permits are pulled. In fact, the County Planning Department has not received any permit applications from Tradewinds. In closing, signed petitions have confirmed that the majority of O`okala homeowners oppose Don Bryan's vision for O`okala. We are organized, we are getting very savvy to the way this game works, and we are playing for keeps. Should this industrial project continue moving forward as planned, the opposition group is prepared and committed to vigorously seek recourse during the permitting process, including, if necessary, litigation to resolve our grievance. Thank you.