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Community Development

What is community development? How should community development be governed?

Construction Begins on New Public Works Baseyard

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

Construction Begins on New Public Works Baseyard

A new county Department of Public Works baseyard will bring upgrades for both the department and Molokai’s emergency response capabilities. The current facility is located on state property next to Rawlin’s Chevron in Kaunakakai– which is also a flood zone, according to David Goode, Maui County director of Public Works. That means in the event of an emergency such as a tsunami, employees may not be able to access equipment.

“We needed to move out of the flood zone — we’re typically the first responders,” said Goode.

The new baseyard building, which costs nearly $4 million, will stand in the Industrial Park near The Nature Conservancy office.…

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Investing in Community

Sunday, October 21st, 2012

Mayoral Budget Office visits Molokai to gather testimony

When Mayor Alan Arakawa and his team of county officials visited Molokai last week, they did what many Molokai residents do every day–they waited for a ride from the Maui Economic Opportunities (MEO) bus.

That’s an example of ways in which the county is limiting their own spending to make more funds available for community needs, explained Arakawa as he discussed the county’s upcoming budget with Molokai residents last week.

The budget for the current fiscal year was $549.9 million, and Arakawa expects around the same numbers for 2013 to 2014. In a time of budget cuts across the board, Arakawa said his office has managed to maintain a consistent budget due in large part to limiting excessive spending within his departmental administration.…

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Caring for Koheo

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

Caring for Koheo

Wetland serves as learning grounds for community

At the end of Seaside Place in Kaunakakai, tucked behind a string of houses along Molokai’s southern shoreline, is what might appear to be a large, vacant lot. For years, this site was used as a dump, but through the efforts of Nene O Molokai, a nonprofit organization led by wildlife biologist Arleone Dibben-Young, the area has been cleaned up over the past 10 years and restored to what it is today –the Koheo Wetland. It is now home to dozens of species of native shorebirds, including one of the rarest shorebirds in the world and Kaunakakai’s official bird, the kioea, also known as the bristle-thighed curlew.…

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Molokai Internet Survey – How’s Your Speed?

Sunday, October 14th, 2012

Molokai Internet Survey – How’s Your Speed?

The State of Molokai’s Broadband Internet

High speed Internet can allow residents of rural areas like Molokai to participate in economic and civic life far beyond the geographic boundaries of our shoreline. Broadband technology can eliminate logistical constraints of regionally-based business, foster greater social interaction, and allow quick transmission of news and information. However, these economic and social advantages depend on the reliability and speed provided by Molokai’s limited Internet service providers.

In the spirit of community-building, The Molokai Dispatch is polling local customers of a variety of broadband providers to find out the quality and user satisfaction of Molokai’s Internet service.…

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Rock Wall Repair Work at Kalaupapa National Historic Park

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

Rock Wall Repair Work at Kalaupapa National Historic Park

NPS News Release

A skilled group of Hawaiian masons from parks throughout Hawaii Island joined park staff at Kalaupapa National Historic Park (NHP) to repair deteriorating drystack walls in the settlement and at Kahaloko Cemetery. Kalaupapa NHP has hosted the masons for rock wall repair within the park for the past five years. The masons follow traditional Hawaiian protocols to repair the walls, with respect to the nature of the work, the relationship to the landscape, and working with a laulima (or group) to pass the pohaku, a living entity.

The crew repaired the collapses along the south, west and north walls of Kahaloko Cemetery.…

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Beyond Big Wind

Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

Scope of clean energy initiatives broadens

When the Wind Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) scoping meeting was conducted in February of last year, many Molokai residents stood outside of the Mitchell Pauole Center waving signs that protested the state’s proposed Big Wind and undersea cable initiatives. From the comments that were made then, the panel, made up of both state and federal officials, returned to the drawing board and drafted instead the Hawaii Clean Energy PEIS, which promises to analyze not only wind energy, but a broader range of renewable energy initiatives and technologies, according to the initiative’s website. The goal is to meet 70 percent of Hawaii’s energy needs through energy efficiency and renewable energy by 2030.…

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West Molokai Association Opposes Big Wind/Undersea Cable Project

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

West Molokai Association News Release

The Board of Directors of the West Molokai Association (WMA), representing the owners of 811 West Molokai properties, has unanimously declared its “resolute opposition” to the proposed Big Wind industrial wind project and Hawaii Inter-Island undersea cable, and stated it will take whatever steps necessary to halt the project.

The project would cover 17 square miles of Molokai with industrial wind turbines 47 stories tall. It is being planned by HECO, Molokai Ranch, Pattern Energy and Bio-Logical Capital, and is backed by Gov. Neil Abercrombie.

Noting that the project would “dramatically alter and irreversibly change West Molokai’s rural character and pastoral environment,” the Board’s resolution added that it would also result in increased electrical costs for Hawaiian residents, already among the highest in the United States.…

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Protecting Public Lands

Sunday, September 2nd, 2012

Residents testify against the PLDC at public hearing

“It is dangerous to put public lands in private hands,” said Molokai resident Kauhane Adams. Yet it seems that this is exactly what legislature created the Public Land Development Corporation (PLDC) to do when they passed senate bill Act 55 in 2011 that established the corporation.

The PLDC’s intent to “generate additional revenues for the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) by developing under-utilized or unused public land,” according to a written statement circulated by the PLDC.

Homesteader Adolph Helm claimed that the PLDC would allow “fast-track boondoggle projects that benefit the private developer and the pockets of the well-connected [while] stripping Native Hawaiian beneficiaries of trust lands.”…

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Editorial: Mo`omomi Needs All of Us

Friday, August 31st, 2012

By Todd Yamashita, Molokai Dispatch Publisher

I can remember the days when my family got the key to visit Mo`omomi. Driving down the bumpy, dusty road watching the ocean shimmer in the distance, my anticipation would grow as we neared the shoreline. Although I was just a kid, I remember feeling really lucky. It was a privilege to be there and I was grateful.

Since then, Mo`omomi has seen many changes – the latest being the reintroduction of a gate which has made many upset. Gates can be controversial because they are meant to keep people out. But if you look deeper, past the gate, this is really an issue of conservation.…

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Bio-Logical Capital Agrees to Buy Hana Ranch on Maui

Sunday, August 26th, 2012

Hana Ranch Partners signed a sale agreement last week to pass ownership of its cattle ranch on Maui to Bio-Logical Capital, the land development company that teamed up with Pattern Energy last year and formed joint venture Molokai Renewables to study the feasibility of developing a 200-megawatt wind farm on Molokai.

Guy Kaulukukui, Bio-Logical Capital’s senior vice president, said the company plans to preserve and possibly expand Hana Ranch’s cattle operations.

“We are truly humbled to take on the kuleana of this remarkable ranch,” said Kaulukukui in a news release. “It is at once a privilege and a great responsibility… [Hana has] the potential to become a model for sustainable ranching and farming practices in the state.”…

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