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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0853.020 2010-2012 FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING '7 I 5 r' {: 30 2012:10:16 Corn 853.10 Presentation by James Waugh and Charlene Prickett Charlene Prickett: At the center of this issue is enforcement of rules. No one likes the policeman. Rules are fine with everyone if they're not enforced. At Honolii and Richardson's Beach, lifeguards enforce rules. Hakalau has looser enforcement,but Skibs&his paka certainly manage to keep the place peaceful and beautiful. At Papaikou beach,we are the only enforcers. There are sometimes toxic confrontations with people trying to bring dogs, bikes, or motorcycles onto our property. I have asked for help with enforcement from the regular user group,but few are interested for fear of retribution. There have been a few times when regular surfers who we know,have come to our aid and used their influence to quickly resolve a situation involving bad behavior. This gives me hope that the right community leaders can improve enforcement and protection of this place. In 2006 when the monk seal known as Lighthouse gave birth to a pup on Papaikou Beach,a media organization revealed the location of the seals despite their promise to NOAA that the location would not be made public. As predicted by the Monk Seal Watch Team, it was a zoo. At one count, there were 17 vehicles parked outside our gate and along both sides of the Mill Road near the bottom. I tried to control it without success. Animosity against us and Monk Seal Team grew to a frenzy and we were told that a group of men at Baker Tom's were talking of burning down our house. A fireman friend on our street insisted I buy a commercial grade fire extinguisher and learn how to use it,which I did. He logged his cell number in my speed dial. During that rough period,I went to a Community Ag Watch meeting in Peepekeo and happened to meet Mitch Roth from the Prosecutor's Office and the community police officer assigned to our area. Together,they studied the situation,and decided that the best tool for us to use to control bad behavior was a Notice of Trespass which is issued by a police officer and acts as a restraining order to forbid access to a specified location, our TMK, for a year. After a year, the trespasser can return like everyone else. The consequence of violating a Notice of Trespass is automatic arrest. ARRESTS We deal with bad behavior by asking people to stop the behavior(please remove your dog,leave your bike outside the gate, etc). If people don't cooperate, we sometimes call the police for support. Usually their backup presence is all that is needed. There have only been 3 arrest incidents in 18 years. Estillore. One arrest has been mentioned in the testimony already given to the Finance Committee at the public hearing. The testifier began his statement at the point of the arrest, failing to mention what had led up to the arrest. This first arrest was Steve Estillore. He moved into a house two doors from us a number of years after we bought our property. This problem started when we were off island for a period and left our property under the management of a soft spoken local man, a retired chef in his 70s who had a heart problem. Bill Salvador didn't often go to the beach but effectively managed our property,in any case. On five occasions Bill saw Steve Estillore go down our trail with a dog, and Bill yelled across the yard from the house to Steve telling him"no dogs". Each time,Steve ignored Bill's warning,brushing him off with a hand gesture. On July 2, 2008, the sixth time this happened, Bill finally called the police for support. Officer Kim came some time after the initial call and so talked to Steve at Steve's home. Kim then drove off to his next appointment but called Bill from his cell to say that Steve said he didn't know dogs weren't allowed but promised he would respect that rule in future. While engaged in the call,Kim could hear shouting in the background on Bill's phone and asked what was going on. Bill told him that Steve was, at Comm. No. 3/.S-3• LC)Ref. To: P F L- Ref. Date UCT 16 7017 , 2 that very moment,standing on our front porch in a rage that Bill had called the police. Bill held the phone up to the window so Kim could hear, and then Kim told Bill not to open the door, and that he was turning around to come back. This time Kim brought two additional officers with him and issued Steve a Notice of Trespass. Steve was not arrested for terroristic threatening,he was merely issued with the notice of trespass which barred him from the property until July 2,2009. Barely more than three months later,on October 11,2008,Bill again saw Steve going down the trail. Bill called the police who went to the beach and arrested Steve for breaking his Notice of Trespass. Steve picked up the story at that point,but neglected to point out that the length of time taken to resolve his case was largely due to his insistence on a full trial. When that date finally came up after a number of postponements due to crowded schedules in the courts, Steve dropped his insistence on a full trial just moments before it was to begin, and pled guilty, something he could have done months before. Steve has become something of a local folk hero with his telling of the case and how he was arrested in the ocean by the cops. The facts are far more prosaic. Anoba et al. A second arrest incident which prompted letters to the editor of the local paper and much wider public awareness of this small beach trail occurred on our annual day of closing(required by State law to maintain our property rights, if we are otherwise open). This closing was on March 6, 2010. The security guard we always hired for closing was the late Norman Lyman, older brother of Kalani Lyman and cousin of Steve Estillore. Norman supported what we were doing,surfed here regularly,and volunteered to guard for us on our annual closing days to try to reduce the sometimes toxic nature of the closing process. He always said his mother told him in ancient times, Hawaiians closed the ocean access, often around Easter time,to give the ocean a rest. This was about the fifth year he had done this for us,and he generally arrived about 9:00 AM, so we had to watch the gate until he arrived. On March 6,Jim was away so I was the lone guard from 6:30 to 9:00 AM. Four young men arrived early and would not accept that we were closed for one day. I asked them to come back the next day,but they would have none of it. The ring leader Jeremy Anoba said,quote"You're just fucking with the locals" unquote. I explained the law regarding yearly closing and property rights,but Anoba goaded the other three to follow his lead in climbing over the rock wall right in front of me. Even as they were landing on my side, I suggested they reconsider and climb back out because I would have to call the police. They ignored me and went on to the beach, and I called the police for support. When two officers arrived,I asked if they could serve a Notice of Trespass. The officers told me to go in the house while they went to the beach. A while later,the officers called me to come out to the front gate where they would issue the trespass notice. As I rounded the curve of the driveway,I noticed a man walking quickly past the gate with a towel over his head. Officers had their backs to the men and were completing paper work on the tailgate of the police vehicle. I said"Where's the fourth guy?" Officers turned around and one of them asked the three remaining young men,"Where's Anoba". No answer. The officer said to me,"Open the gate". He jumped in his vehicle and drove off in search of the getaway. The officer soon returned and he was angry. He asked the three remaining young men, "Where's Anoba live?" He got no answer. "Right,he said,"Down on the ground. This is an arrest." I thought this is not what I had in mind. I went back in the house somewhat conflicted but decided it was not my place to second guess the police on their actions. Later I came back out to find the young men standing in a drizzle of rain all handcuffed. I told them that I was not mad at them, that they had made an error in judgement,but that didn't mean they were bad people. A warrant went out for Anoba's arrest,and,I was told that he turned himself in. I never heard from Anoba again,but the other three processed though the courts and in the end, they wrote letters of apology and came back to find us, shake hands and apologize in person. One of those young men has become a real friend whose presence on the property now is always an asset. 3 The third and last arrest occurred spring 2012 and involved outright theft on the property. We have been subpoenaed as witnesses in that case which cannot be discussed in this forum. RULES FOR ACCESS As stated on our posted sign, our rules were made in consultation with the Hilo Police Service and the Prosecutor's office. The rules are: Warning Enter at your own risk Anyone violating these rules is trespassing and subject to the laws of trespass under section 708-814 of the Hawaii State statutes. 1. Entrance to this property allowed only when gate is open.Owner reserves the right to revoke permission to access this property at any time.Access is limited to respectful pedestrians for recreational purposes. 2.No parking on road or shoulder of Mill Road. It is a private road.Your vehicle may be towed. 3.No dogs or other animals. [HCC Planning Rules 21-6(a)(15)] 4.No wheels-bikes,strollers,ATVs,etc. [HCC 15-31] 5.No overnight use or camping.Be off property by 6:30 pm. [FIRS 205,HCC 15-39,HCC Planning Rules 21-6(a)(13)] 6.No alcohol or drugs. [HCC 15-16] 7.No fires or fireworks. [HCC 15-13 &HCC 15-10] 8. Stay off planted areas.Do not take or damage plants,fruit,flowers,or cuttings. [HCC 15-28(4)] 9. Stay away from all buildings and structures. Stay on path. [HCC Planning Rules 21-6(a)(4)&(6)] 1.Recreational Use Statute protects our liability only against those involved in recreational purposes on our land. The police advised us to lock the gate at night since they cannot provide support against crime on the property if the gate is open. This issue would not exist if we built an alternate public access route from the Hamakua side of our property. 2. Mill Road is a substandard road with a paved surface only 14'/2 feet wide. If cars park along road, residents have difficulty backing into or out of their driveways. Our front gate has been totally blocked by parked cars many times. Cars parked along the road make access for emergency vehicles very difficult or impossible. On the night of the Japan tsunami,civil defense sent a fire truck down Mill Road to warn residents to evacuate. I saw a flashing light through my window after midnight and went out to investigate. The fire truck could not get past cars parked on the road in front of Steve Estillore's house, two lots from my property; they couldn't get to my gate. By the time I got out there, they were trying to get turned around, inching backwards and forwards into a driveway. It took quite awhile,I'd say about fifteen minutes,for the fire truck to turn around. This is why we have been so persistent in trying to prevent parking on Mill Road. Emergency access for our property is not Mill Road,but we worry about our neighbors at the bottom of the road near us. Mill Road is the only way to get emergency service to their homes. This incident got the attention of the fire department who talked to us about the need for an emergency turn around at the bottom of the road. The police department also got involved. We are working toward creating a turn around for emergency vehicles which would never be blocked by parked cars. The police went door to door with a printed notice that residents should not park on the road;very few residents want to park on the road. This issue would not exist if we built an alternate public access route from the Hamakua side of our property. 4 3. The no dog rule protects our safety as well as the users of our trail,the monk seals and other wildlife. We hope a no dog beach creates a welcoming home for monk seals to haul up. Since we had a seal birth at that beach a few years back,our theory may be working. Dogs have killed a peacock we once kept, and also a pair of koloa (native Hawaiian ducks)that once found a home in our stream. I was once close to an outright attack from a Doberman pincher on leash held by a woman at the end of our driveway beside our house. I went out to tell her where the trail was, and she got angry. The dog picked up on her energy and repeatedly lunged at me. Even she got scared and said"I can't control this dog". I said,"I know,you need to get your dog off this property." She managed to get the dog out the gate and into a truck parked on the road. That was a dangerous situation that drives our current no dog enforcement. Given the ratio of local dogs to the square footage of our trail and the beach area,E. coli pollution of the beach and river lagoon is a real concern. Because there are few County-authorized dog parks at the sea(or anywhere),people come from Puna,Kona,Honokaa,as well as Onomea and Paukaa,wanting to walk their dogs on our property! Since we maintain the trail, dogs make for a very unpleasant cleaning task. Accidently running a weed eater over fresh dog poop is a disgusting experience. This issue would fall to the County and the community to decide if we built an alternate public access route from the Hamakua side of our property. 4.Wheels will destroy that trail which is built on fill. The erosion caused by wheels constantly running over the steep grassed sections of the trail will destroy it. We already have a serious erosion problem under the first hairpin turn where an underground drain, installed before the rock surface was applied,cracked in the Kona earthquake of 2006. The County cannot repair such recurring damage from a ten foot easement. This issue would not exist if we built an alternate public access route from the Hamakua side of our property. The alternate route would not be steep and subject to erosion. However, due to the loud noise produced from motor bikes, it would be best to limit bikes and motorbikes to the parking lot with locking posts available. 5. Camping,drunken parties, vandalism to our plants under the cloak of darkness is not welcome. Kalani Lyman testified to you that he sees that our gate is never open at 6:25 in the morning when he checks on his home near us where Steven Estillore lives. Kalani is entirely correct; our gate is opened every morning at 6:30 AM,except on our annual day of closing,and we close at 6:30 PM. Surfers would like a later summer closing time,and that is possible if a trusted community members would take on the responsibility of making sure everyone is off property by dark and locking the gate for us. Part of this issue would dissolve if we built an alternate public access route from the Hamakua side of our property. We would not be awakened by sunrise surfers and night fishermen. Night entry could perhaps be regulated with a fishing permit and smart card reader like in place in Peepekeo. 6. Alcohol and drugs often foster bad behavior which is difficult to control and requires police support. This issue was very present when we arrived but is now mostly under control. It might resurface with any access that is public,but then it would be enforced by the community and the County,not just us. 7. Smoke from fires often fills our house, even at night. We appreciate that the major user group of this beach continues to improve on this issue,even if they do so reluctantly. This issue would continue to exist if we built an alternate public access route from the Hamakua side of our property. We would have to make sure that this County rule is enforced. 8. We have suffered extreme vandalism to our plants over these eighteen years. Of the hundreds of trees Jim has planted and replanted on that trail, only one hau and one kamani tree have survived a decade. In 5 some locations along the trail, Jim has replanted the same tree fifteen times. When replanting,he always plants more trees than wanted,hoping slowly to get ahead of the vandalism. This issue would not exist if we built an alternate public access route from the Hamakua side of our property. 9. We try very hard to keep people out of the derelict mill building and the structures that still stand along the shoreline. The multiple floors of the mill and its equipment have collapsed inside the building. The many tons of steel still inside are crumbling. The mill must be totally off limits to all but licensed, insured salvage and toxic waste abatement experts. Neither we nor the County can successfully keep the fool hardy out of the mill structures. The County will assume substantial risk by inviting the public into the proximity of such a derelict site. With no control over who enters our property,we will insist the County fully protect our liability for anything that happens on our bottom land including the mill. Because Kapue Stream becomes a raging river which fills the entire gulch floor under flood conditions,fencing is not now,nor ever was, an effective deterrent. This issue would not exist if we built an alternate public access route from the Hamakua side of our property. The construction of that route would include removal of the mill building. The rules that continue to remain the most troublesome are dogs,Mill Road parking,wheels,and vandalism to trees.