HomeMy WebLinkAbout5.9.17 H. HedrickFrom: He r
ickHNECA(ia),aol.com
To: puna-cdp-participants@hawaiicountycdp.info
CC: jen.ruggles@hawaiicounty.gov, eileen.ohara@hawaiicounty.gov,
valerie.poindexter@hawaiicounty.gov, rterry@hawaii.rr.com, tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com,
jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com, dyanahilliard@gmail.com, fcommend@yahoo.com,
t1boyles1@yahoo.com, nannettesavage55@gmail.com, stephbath@gmail.com,
pintonian@gmail.com, mhapai@aol.com
Sent: 5/9/2017 1:04:12 A.M. Hawaiian Standard Time
Subj: Re: Puna -CDP -participants Digest, Vol 79, Issue 1, PCD�P AC meeting, Connectivity
Thank you so much for posting PCDP AC meeting information, Tuesday, May 9, 3:00, Keaau
Community Center, on our list serve. I encourage all those involved with developing the PCDP
attend this meeting to learn how their issues are being addressed.
I hope there will be an opportunity to talk about Inter -subdivision Connectivity (in addition to S.
Lauko connectivity between Fern Acres and Highway 11).
As we know from Tom Calllis' article in a late March HTH, the State DOT Deputy Director Ed
Sniffen refused to release the $15 million appropriated for Puna roads because using the funds
for upper Puna inter-subdivsion connectivity "could impact priority projects, such as improving
Highway 130."
In the meantime, nearly 9 years after passage of the PCDP AC and 9 months after the County
Council emphasized the importance of implementing the PCDP priorities related to inter -
subdivision connectivity, not one single connection has been planned in detail, much less
completed.
For the past year, residents of Fern Forest and Eden Roc have been trying to communicate with
their respective "roads" Boards about removing the barriers blocking the connectivity location at
lower Kaleponi/Punahele (Road 17). Jennifer Ruggles attended an Eden Roc roads board
meeting and heard the president and vice-president (the only Board members in attendance)
adamantly refused to remove the concrete barricade blocking Punahele/Road 17. She later visited
the site and saw the rusty debris and overturned van the Fern Forest Board placed at the Fern
Forest boundary. Volunteers had spent more than 100 hours preparing a "visual represenation" of
the existing roadway, pulling out rusted car parts, breaking down massive berms of huge
boulders and dirt, and hauling away invasive species, including Himalayan raspberry.
At its May 6 meeting, the Fern Forest roads board announced that when the rusty debris and van
are removed, (with assistance from Solid Waste and Recycling departments), it will spend
mandatory road fees to purchase a $2500 concrete structure to prevent residents with family
members and properties in both subdivisions from having access to them. Past boards have also
illegally blocked this existing convenient access to employment, education, health care services,
early responders and emergency vehicles, etc.
Current roads boards use this "precedence" to justify refusing even to listen to efforts to provide
connectivity information at their meetings. It is our understanding that the road linking FF
and ER was part of the approved subdivision plan and that the successive boards blocking
"their" side have been illegally compromising the rights of residents.
A few Board members continue to display flagrant disregard for the repeatedly expressed wishes
of residents, a clear example of the INTENTIONAL discrimination cited in the 1995/2017 Civil
Rights Complaint.The specific individuals currently using subdivision resources to block the
Kaleponi/Punahele (Road 17) connectivity site are denying FF and ER residents their basic Civil
Rights, including those rights expanded to people with disabilities in the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
eomplainy,*kembers of the Connectivity Action Team are following up with a Police Report and
a Civil Defense complaint filed after Bill Watkins and Ken Gryde had the rusty debris that had
been removed by hand, along with a van full of debris, bulldozed back onto the road.
CAT members have thanked Jen Ruggles for her strong support for the resolution urging the
funding to be released prior to the expiration date, June 30. Thanks also go to Eileen Ohara and
Valerie Poindexter for supporting the resolution when other Council members were more
concerned about the County's relationship with the DOT than about implementing the PCDP.
Thanks so much to Jen, Eileen, and Valerie for being responsive to the decades -long pleas of
Puna residents who have no (or very limited) access to County services in general and to
transportation funds in particular.
Contact Hannah Hedrick, 808 968-7013, 812 249-8248, hedrickhneca@aol.com if you are
interested in promoting implementation of the PCDP priorities related to inter -subdivision
connectivity. CAT members have cleared an area for a Community Pavilion at the FF/ER site. In
addition to contacting Civil Defense and fire and police departments, CAT member are
contacting other groups and connectivity in general and about developing a FF/ER inter -
subdivision community gathering place, in accordance with the PCDP.
Contacts will include Public Works Director Frank DeMarco about the "master plan to improve
connectivity between Puna subdivisions." CAT hopes that Mr. DeMarco is now interacting with
the PCD AC connectivity group and that, 9 years after the PCD PLAN was adopted as ordinance,
departments are ready to move beyond the "physical plan or design" Mr. De Marco referred to in
the March HTH.
Warm regards,
Hannah Hedrick
Fern Forest