Maunawili Community Association

Maunawili Community Association Minutes May 4, 2004

Maunawili Community Association Minutes May 4, 2004

Maunawili Community Association
Regular Meeting: May 4, 2004
Maunawili Valley Neighborhood Park Pavilion

Present: Suzy Hemmings (Director); Merrill Johnston, Buck Ashford; Eleanor Pence, Sue Ashford, Dick Pendleton (Rep Pendleton’s office); Matt Heahlke (GBI); Jim Corcoran (Director); Virginia Fine (Director); David Laeha (President); Iwalani Sowa (Treasurer); Linda Ure (Secretary).
To Order: meeting was called to order at 7 p.m. by Jim Corcoran.
Minutes: Minutes of the April 6, 2004 meeting were deferred to the next meeting.
Castle Junction Excavation Site and Maunawili Valley Dirt Dump Site--GBI: The work at the excavation site is going slowly due to rain. The 24 hour work schedule has come to an end due to the nesting season of the Shearwater birds. Although last Sunday was used for work on the haul road, it is the intent of the contractor of not work on Sundays. The HECO pole on the top of the excavation site will still be there at the end of the project. The project completion date should be 2 ½ to 3 month of hauling, one month of landscaping or a total of 4 more months. HPU sill not be used as a dump site by the contractor. Governor Lingle has not stepped in to facilitate a HPU solution to the excavation site. Work can not be done on the sites in the wet days because the soil become slick and is dangerous. The traffic tie-ups is due to Department of Transportation’s timing of the lights and not the contractor as their trucks are not interrupting traffic, only merging with traffic from the barricaded truck lane. The contra-flow is done only for the project and will not be continued after the project is completed. The horses seem to be okay with the construction near their stables and exercise yards. The potholes are the responsibility of the Department of Transportation, not the contractor. Although $300 million for highway maintenance has been in the budget for the State of Hawaii, it is remarkable that highway maintenance programs remain unplanned and unfunded. It was requested that the two highways, Kal and Kam be repaired by the community. It is also requested that Lunaai Place and Lunaai Street be addressed for pothole repairs and resurfacing within the community. Dirt is available for those persons who make arrangements and come to the excavation site and haul away themselves. A reminded, the buckets on the loaders are very large, so small loads must be put in small trucks by the requestor. Dirt is available from the staging area at the Kailua end of the project.
Ameron Kapaa Quarry – Kailua as a City Landfill Site: It is suggested that Senator Colleen Hanabusa recuse herself from any decision on the Landfill site location as she lives, works, rents office space from the entity that has received a substantial tax credit from the State of Hawaii and opposes the landfill continuing at Waimanalo Gulch. The Leeward Neighborhood Board has passed motions to put Ameron Kapaa Quarry-Kailua on the City’s Facilities Map and Ameron Kapaa Quarry-Kailua to be the next landfill for the all of Oahu. It must be recalled that a number of elected officials have a conflict of interest in the selection of a landfill site both at State, City, City Council, and City Council Committee levels. Jeff Stone threatened to sue for Billions if the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill is not closed. Todd Apo was cited by the Office of Information Practices for violation of the Sunshine Law in securing a vote to remove Waimanalo Gulch from the potential sites list from the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Panel. The Community meeting held in Kailua had over 300 persons, businesses and groups opposing the Ameron Kapaa Quarry-Kailua site being on the list of potential sites or being selected as the Oahu site for a city garbage dump. The Land Use Commission met in late March or early April and has extended the date for the selection of the landfill site from June 1, 2004 to December 1, 2004. The third H-Power unit has not been build or completely funded. Only $6 Million has been set aside for design while another $60 Million, at least is needed to build the third H-Power unit. Currently, the two H-Power units have been closed for ‘regularly scheduled maintenance’. Recall, the off-line H-Power unit called Waimanalo Gulch to receive an extra 180 days of municipal waste only two years ago. Plasma-Arc is ‘pie-in-the-sky’ and has been unable to stay operational enough to handle even the medical waste stream. It may be 5 to 10 more years before the technology lag is efficiently addressed to manage the waste-stream. Even the revenue from H-Power has been lost in down-time.
Motion: The Association request a public hearing for the placement of a Sanitary Waste “SW” symbol on the City’s Facilities Map. The Motion passed unanimously.
Blue U. S. Postal Box in Maunawili: We now have a new post office drop box in Maunawili at 1066 Maunawili road. Our thanks goes out to the Laeha Family for their diligent work with the U.S Postmaster in getting our blue mail box back in the community. It is noted that pick up is at 9:30 am and it is hoped that more than the minimum of 25 parcels or letters per day will be deposited in the box so that the post office will not take our box away for non-use.
Traffic Congestion: The Trinity Church and School continues to create a congestion at Auloa and Maunawili Roads and residents must traverse this area carefully. The Association is most concerned to resolve this congestion situation in our community.
Survey: A request to the Kailua Neighborhood Board for copies of the KNB survey to attach to the next mailing of the MUSE will be made to the Chair of the KNB.
Kaneohe Ranch/Castle Foundation Vision Meeting: meetings are being held in conjunction with the University of Hawaii and Group 70 to promote development of Kailua.
Adjournment: There being no further business of the board, the meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m. Submitted by Linda Ure, Secretary

Email us
ureonnow@lava.net