La`au Point

Wailuku, Maui – Council Member Danny Mateo and Mayor Charmaine Tavares announced today they will host a community meeting on Molokai on Tuesday, July 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the Mitchell Pauole Center in Kaunakakai.

"In light of the announcement by Molokai Properties that it will stop providing water and wastewater services at the end of August, we would like to assure Molokai that the County is doing everything possible to protect the community’s rights to essential needs such as water and sewer service," said Council Member Mateo.

Via Hawaii Public Radio: Since its formation in 1897, Molokai Ranch has evolved through numerous enterprises including ranching, pineapple and, most recently, tourism, in its efforts to remain afloat.  This past April, Molokai Ranch and Molokai Properties Ltd. abruptly shut down, threatening water and sewer services to about a third of the island.  HPR's Noe Tanigawa spent a day with activists who helped precipitate the Ranch's most recent demise and are now proposing a way for the future.

Listen to the program at: http://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/hpr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2143&Itemid=70

Reprinted with permission by Howard Dicus. The photo inserted by Dispatch Staff.

Mr. Dicus is a seasoned expert in Hawaii business matters.

He was a reporter for the Pacific Business News for several years before joining KGMB Channel 9, where he can be seen on the "Sunrise" morning TV show airing Monday-Friday, 4:30 am-8 am.

Mr Dicus also has a weekly business show on PBS called "Everybody's Business", which can be seen on PBS Fridays at 7:30 pm.

Letting a little “sunshine” in on the sun-setting agency.

By Brandon Roberts

Molokai Enterprise Community (EC) will lose it’s federal funding status later this year on Dec. 24, at which time it will continue on as Ke Aupuni Lokahi (KAL). According EC interim director and president, Stacy Crivello, any remaining grant money will be lost if it is not spent by this date.

In light of the looming deadline, EC interim director and president, Stacy Crivello, is pushing the board of directors to amend the EC by-laws to allow a cancellation publicly held annual elections. Crivello said that it was not the time to bring in new board members when the EC must appropriate and spend its remaining funds.

County will be left responsible with servicing west end users.

By Todd Yamashita and Brandon Roberts

Molokai Ranch will let funding for West Molokai water operations run dry within four to six months, leaving Maui County responsible for operating the abandoned water system, said the new Director for Hawaii State Office of Planning Abbey Mayer during a community meeting last week.

Most of West End’s drinking water comes from the Ranch’s well 17in Kualapu`u, passing through the Molokai Irrigation System (MIS) in Ho`olehua, and on to a treatment plant in Maunaloa. According to Mayer, Molokai Ranch uses several regulated and unregulated subsidiary companies to manage this and all other Ranch water systems.

Where is Molokai two months after the shutdown?

By Brandon Roberts and Todd Yamashita

While Monsanto and ex-Molokai Ranch workers rallied with signs drawing attention to job loss on Molokai, lawmakers and community leaders nearby discussed strategies which might help the workers get back on their feet.

The Ranch has opened its doors solely for ex-employees to lease Ranch related businesses and to hunt Ranch lands for subsistence, according to Abbey Mayer, director of the state Office of Planning.

Of the roughly 120 workers laid off by Molokai Ranch only five percent have found employment, according to Mayer.

Representatives from the Molokai unemployment office and MedQuest said they have seen no increase in requests for service, but expect it to increase by the end of the month. Unemployment for Ranch workers will begin May 22.

(UPDATED 5/10/2008) KAUNAKAKAI, HAWAI'I:  On the eve of its tenth and final year of federal funding, the Moloka'i Enterprise Community (EC), Ke Aupuni Lōkahi, Inc., is taking final steps to exclude the community from its board by planning to cancel regularly held elections.

On April 17, in a meeting that was closed to the public, the board split 5-4 on the question of voting electronically to cancel the already over-due election, according to EC board member Bridget Mowat.

The organization's bylaws require annual elections.  This year's election was slated to be held in January or February of 2008, when the terms of office for four of the board members expired.  The EC board is required by federal law to have 55% of its members elected to their seats by the general public.  Six residents had announced their candidacies for the each of the vacant seats.

By DeGray Vanderbilt

An Advertiser editorial ("Molokai residents must be vested in island future," March 28) suggested that our Molokai community needs to determine what it wants in the wake of the Molokai Ranch shutdown.

Molokai knows what it wants, and has known for a long while.

I've lived on Molokai 30 years. During that time Molokai has been consistent on the vision it sees for future generations.

This vision has been promoted in a wide range of state and county planning documents since 1980. It's a vision based on long-term sustainability and living within one's means.

Here is a rendering of what the UPC wind farm would look like on Molokai.

Community forum hosts talks about Molokai wind-farm.

By Brandon Roberts

Renewable energy is a Hawaiian value in that it aims at harnessing the gift of nature without depleting it. But is the greater community willing to tap Molokai’s steady wind resources at the sacrifice of building a large scale wind farm?

For the past several weeks, it has been the mission of Molokai youth to gauge the community’s acceptance of the potential wind farm. Forums have already been held in Kilohana, Kaunakakai, Ho`olehua and Maunaloa.

I may not have been around the Kaluakoi Golf Course as long as most homeowners on the west end, but I have been around the maintenance shop long enough to understand its operations and long enough to know the dedicated crew who works there. They take pride in what they do and have worked hard to bring the eighteen hole Kaluakoi Golf Course back to what it is today.

At one time, the superintendent who oversees these workers had a staff of eleven. This number has since dwindled to only five who have had to rely on close teamwork in order to maintain all 18 holes of the course.

Why would the course staff want to destroy their own hard work and the beautiful landscaping at Kaluakoi? One homeowner suggested it was vengeance, and that employees were acting out on their own because of the shut down. Hello! This is property damage and something that this crew would never attempt.