HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0710.035 2010-2012 Murashige, Laura
From: Denise Fleming [deefleming01 @gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2012 10:02 AM
To: County Council
Subject: An Open Letter to Our County Officials
An Open Letter to Our County Officials
LJ
Dear Mayor Kenoi & Council Members,
Please veto Bill 256. My partner and I have lived within a mile of the PGV perimeter for a
total of 16 years. Prior to that, we lived in Paradise Park for 16 years. We now live in a
nice home we built 1 mile from the PGV boundary and own it free and clear. It is in lava
zone #1, so we are accustomed to paying a redline penalty of $2240.00/yr. to HPIA to
protect our investment. We were prepared for that expense. What we are not prepared for is
Bill 256, which the County Council just passed to await either passage, with or without a
signature, or a veto. We feel betrayed by the council members who voted for it and who
will not likely directly experience the impact of the damage they will inflict on Lower
Puna.
My partner and I are retired and volunteer in the community. We would never consider
living anywhere else. The only serious chronic health problems we are aware of among our
friends and acquaintances in our area are caused by occasional vog incursions. Any
legitimate medical survey of random samplings of our community would probably reach the
same conclusion. If the justification for this bill is to address the supposed health and
safety concerns of our community, we would certainly expect that any health studies that
claim to link all health problems of our community to PGV be submitted for peer review and
presented with solid irrefutable scientific and medical evidence. . . not opinions,
speculative nightmare scenarios and anecdotal folklore that pass for medical science all
too often. We encourage periodic health surveys in our community, but until the threshold
of legitimacy can be met, forget about using destructive bogus "magic potions" like Bill
256 to quarantine segments of our community to serve as an antidote to cure specific real
or imaginary ailments.
There are several measures our elected officials can propose for the good of Big
Islanders. Streamlining the lengthy process of assigning house numbers for many of the
homes located on unnamed back roads island wide, for example. It took us nearly 4
frustrating years to get our road named and house numbered. . .clearly a longstanding and
ongoing potential health and safety issue for many rural homeowners like ourselves.
The asset funds, wisely allocated and carefully monitored, could help to address issues
unique to our Lower Puna community. This could include infrastructure improvement,
recreational facilities and evacuation sites in the event of fires, floods or other major
natural disasters. Another positive use of the asset funds would be to provide incentives
to residents near PGV to remain in the area, or to increase the value of their property by
making the residents of the property eligible for choices of a permanent low flat rate of
electricity and special low property tax rates or other incentives that would attach to
the home and property no matter who reside there.
The geothermal asset fund is intended to BENEFIT the residents of Lower Puna. . . not to
violate our rights and erode our living standards and property values. Using asset funds
to the advantage of one portion of the community to the detriment of another, we believe,
is an unjust violation of trust and a corruption of the original intent and purpose of the
asset fund.
To state the obvious:
FINANCIALLY SQUEEZING US OUT OF OUR HOMES AND PERMANENTLY DEVALUING THE PROPERTY WE WORKED
ALL OUR LIVES FOR IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE WAY TO RESPONSIBLY ALLOCATE OR CAREFULLY
DISTRIBUTE THE ASSET FUNDS INTENDED TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF EVERYONE IN OUR
COMMUNITY. X10.35
Comm. No.
1 Ref.To:
Ref. Date .iL:N 2_$ Z�1Z
The indelible mark of official county recognition of the fictional inherent dangers of
living within the unnecessary, arbitrarily designated 1 mile PGV buffer in the public
record will never go away, no matter that there has been no serious incident at the PGV
plant in over 20 years. The negative public perception will become reality without just
cause or compelling reason. Our cherished neighborhoods will be designated by county
officials as dangerous and undesirable, and seared into the collective mind of the general
public as deadly and uninhabitable.
Once the county government, its departments and its agencies officially recognize, endorse
and publicly proclaim the hazards that some claim to be caused by living within 1 mile of
PGV, property values, homeowners' insurance and real estate sales will be adversely
affected well beyond the extent of the 1-mile buffer zone. Title searches and required
seller disclosures during real estate sales already advise prospective buyers of any risks
they may consider prior to finalizing real estate transactions. However, the stigma of the
effects of Bill 256 will recklessly transform our entire community into a Hawaiian
Chernobyl . . .not unlike posting signs on every road warning of the presence of poisonous
gasses wafting throughout our neighborhoods, or issuing gas masks and hazmat suits to
those who are foolhardy enough to venture past guard shacks into the "dead zone". Is that
what our lawmakers have in mind for us? Is that the extent of service we can count on from
our public servants? It is an overt act of hostility against the people and taxpayers in
Lower Puna who, till now happily live, work and raise their families.
We the people are not your subjects, and we do not deserve these hostile actions directed
against us by our own public servants. Nothing short of a veto of this bill will convince
us of our county government's commitment to "good intentions" and "due diligence" amid the
backdrop of a prolonged contentious mayoral race. No computer-generated form letter email
responses to our pleas to veto Bill 256 will inspire our confidence either.
Please veto this insidious bill to end our anxiety and uncertainty. We have been living in
peace and contentment here and would like to continue to do so without the heavy hand of
overzealous county officials threatening our freedom and constitutional rights in heated
election year political posturing to appease a group of people who have persistently
opposed any kind of commercial development in our community. Please don't turn our
neighborhoods into a wasteland to serve the cause of this stealth scam Bill 256.
Retirement should be a time enjoy the fruits of our labors we never had occasion for while
we were earning our livings and saving up for retirement. Don't repeat the mistakes past
administrations made in the 1990's. Some of the "relocated" residents used compensation
proceeds to purchase new places in the same area and remain here today. It would not
surprise us to find that a few of them are some of the very folks who hope for the
opportunity to capitalize on "relocation" once again.
We urge you to use your veto pen on this bogus bill, Mr. Mayor. How could you not?
Mahalo,
Denise Fleming & Randall Brady
14-4074 Halekamahina Rd.
Pahoa, HI 96778
(808) 938-0637
2