I would like to send a big mahalo on behalf of Aunty Prisca D. Medeiro's Art Exhibition that was held on Feb. 12 at Home Pumehana to the following people: Jonathan, Janna and Isaiah Espaniola, Frank and Cathy Parrino, Gwendolyn Gaspar, Aunty Lori and Uncle Lawrence Kalilikane, all those who donated towards the food, the Maunaloa St.
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Community Contributed by Sri TenCate, Branch Manager
The Molokai Public Library building has been closed since Feb. 14 for a new carpeting project. The staff has been providing limited library services at the carport behind the library Monday to Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The building will reopen to the public on Monday, March 21 as scheduled.
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Hui Pulelehua, a youth hula troupe the trains in the rare forms of hula with the Hula Preservation Society (HPS) out of Oahu, are presenting a free workshop on Molokai on April 16.
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Participants will have an opportunity to try out the different hula – hula papa hehi ame kala`au (treadleboard with hand sticks), hula `ulili (spinning gourd rattle), and hula `ohe (nose flue hula).
Hula `ohe is on the brink of extinction, and will be the primary focus of the workshop. The workshop will be from 9:30 a.m. – 12 noon at Kulana `Oiwi. Come early at 8:30 a.m. to make your own nose flute ($5 supply fee).
The workshop is free but registration is required; contact workshops.hps@gmail.com or call the HPS office at (808) 247-9440. Deadline is April 9.
Despite construction delays and unsecured funds, the Molokai Community Health Center (MCHC) is continuing momentum on the center’s expansion, calling for community voices and opinions to be shared during a series of island-wide meetings.
Currently the healthcare provider is awaiting the arrival of their initial $500,000 – Gov. Neil Abercrombie and state Rep. Mele Carroll promised the funds were to be released at the end of February. The amount represents approximately half of the center’s appropriated funds.
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The Molokai Community Plan, last updated in 2001, is on the move after holding community engagement workshops last October. Up next is for the Molokai Planning Commission is to choose a Plan Advisory Committee.
The Maui County Council will choose nine of the 13 members on the advisory committee, and Mayor Alan Arakawa will choose the other four.
David Yamashita, planning supervisor from the Long Range Division of the county, said that they are a looking at a variety of plans for Molokai, including environmental resources, historic and cultural resources, economic, land use and development, housing and infrastructure.
Changes in Permitting Process
The MoPC has also moved forward in their proposed changes for the Special Area Management (SMA) rules. Planning Commission Chairman Steve Chaikin said many of the rules in the permitting process required some “housecleaning,” since they have not been updated since 1989.
Currently, residents who do not apply for an SMA permit but move ahead on construction can see upwards of $1,000 per day fines. The commission recommends increasing the fine to $10,000 per day.
Shoreline setback areas were also given cleaner definitions.
For example, fishponds would be defined as a fixed shoreline, along with its current definition of “natural stabilized geographic features such as cliffs and rock formations.”
The new rules also state that desired construction projects should be 150 feet “from the high wash of the waves,” and applications must be published in newspapers at least once before the commission meeting at which it is presented.
“We’re doing this to get rid of some of the inconsistencies,” Chaikin said.
The Maui County Planning Commission will first take a look at the changes before presented to the Molokai community.
New Faces on Planning Commission
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Molokai Art Center (MAC) made it one step closer to the renovation of their new building this past weekend. They hosted nearly 250 people at a sold-out event at Coffees of Hawaii in an effort to fundraise for the first-ever art center on Molokai.
Last Saturday’s “Soup ‘R Bowl” party treated guests to handmade ceramic soup bowls, eight homemade soups, and the music of local musicians.
“I think [the center is] an important part of the community. We need a place for [artists] to do what they do,” said Darlene Hall, a community resident.
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The arts center was founded in 2010 with local artists Emillia Noordhoek, Dan Bennett, Kim Markham, April Torres and Betty West. The board members have been throwing fundraisers ever since in order to renovate one of the buildings on the Coffees’ property.
MAC is nearing the finalization of a five year lease for a 763 square foot structure behind the coffee processing plant. President Emillia Noordhoek said that she plans on signing the lease within the next couple of weeks.
The group had abandoned the idea of renovating a different building on Coffee’s property, because it would have been too costly to make the structure useable and safe, according to Bennett.
The Art Center will feature a kiln, eight wheels, and a raku kiln. Raku is a Japanase-style of firing, which uses a low-heat process.
“I thought it was great. I had a great audience and I’d gladly do it again,” said one of the night’s musicians, Norman DeCosta.
After the signing of the lease, the committee can finalize its building plans and begin construction.
“We hope to start having classes by this summer,” Noordhoek said.
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Some students at Molokai High School (MHS) are getting their hands dirty these days, as part of the school’s Natural Resources Academy. Their new farm has been growing a plethora of vegetables and students are learning what it takes to be self-sustainable.
It has been nearly five years since the last student farm on MHS property. Science teacher Malia Lee said funding for the program had run out. But the high school’s new administration finds that a school with the mascot of a farmer should provide an agriculture program.
“We are “The Farmers” after all,” Lee said.
She has been working with seven students since last October at the school’s small farm, teaching the students how to grow various vegetables organically.
The vegetables, such as tomatoes, lettuce, onions, eggplant and corn, are being grown through hydroponics. A hydroponics system grows vegetables organically using piping, fish, and water – all without using any soil. The main fertilizer in the process is the manure that comes from the fish pond.
The water from the pond is circulated through a series of tubes and used to give nutrients to the pla
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Hawaii’s Sen. Dan Inouye has had enough of Kalaupapa’s outrageous airfares and is taking action to help relieve the peninsula’s residents and workers.
He has invited Ray LaHood, the secretary of the Department of Transportation, and Kalaupapa patients to the Hawaii State Capitol for a March 25 discussion about ongoing airfare issues between Pacific Wings and Kalaupapa residents and workers.
Pacific Wings raised their prices dramatically for round-trip flights to Kalaupapa in 2009. Workers and patients pay up to $550 for round-trip tickets to Honolulu or topside Molokai.
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Community Contributed
By Nichole and Jill Ross, Permaculture Research Institute USA
Food security and canoes go hand-in-hand in Hawaii. When Polynesians first settled the islands around 750 AD, voyagers stocked massive double-hulled canoes with specific crops necessary for survival. They carefully prepared, packed and loaded vine cuttings, rootstock, crowns, sprouts, slips, shoots and seeds for long journeys across the unforgiving Pacific Ocean. Early Hawaiians understood the importance of successful plant and seed propagation. Their survival depended on it, as does ours.
The Polynesians planted these staples, known today as “canoe plants” – ulu, kalo, mai`a, niu, `uala, uhi, etc. – on the islands using innovative techniques such as stream irrigation, terracing, mulching, and green manure. Eventually, the `aina became momona, or abundant, with everything needed for survival. This was particularly true for Molokai; so plentiful with food, it became known as the “breadbasket” of Hawaii, providing surplus shared with all islands.
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Community Contributed
By Ric Ornellas
Tsunami waves couldn’t stop or delay eager Molokai High School students. An hour after the downgrading of Friday’s tsunami, four students and two teacher-chaperones left for Washington D.C. earlier than scheduled on March 11. A fifth student and third chaperone followed later. The students will participate in Close Up 2011, a nationwide educational program of civic engagement and citizenship training.
Days before, 2010 graduate Kawaiola Kalipi told the students, “Get lots of rest and learn to be flexible.” Kawaiola, a current student at Maui Community College on Molokai, was a Close Up participant last year and experienced first-hand the benefits of learning through civic engagement. Kawaiola told the students that meeting other high school students from different parts of the country was both interesting and challenging. While some of their new friends shared rural backgrounds and loved hunting, communicating at first was challenging with different pronunciations and slang.
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