Work at Kawa Bay questioned

A Hawaii County official was unaware of any work completed on an easement at Kawa Bay over the weekend.

A caller told West Hawaii Today someone had bulldozed about an acre of the property.

Rancher Kyle Soares, who has perpetual easements through the property, said his employees didn’t bulldoze anything. They did cut down grass, exposing the water lines that run under the highway, Soares said. The workers used a “little tractor” with rubber wheels, not a bulldozer. The grass was laid on the access road that runs along the easement down to the shoreline.

Abel Simeona Lui, a Hawaiian activist who has lived on the Kawa property for two decades, declined to comment Monday morning.

Soares said he and his family have been harassed for years by Lui and his supporters, some of whom also squat on the property, despite rulings from state and federal courts that Lui must leave. Soares asked, rhetorically, whether Mayor Billy Kenoi or his mayoral challenger, Dominic Yagong, would ever successfully evict Lui from the property.

Deputy Managing Director Wally Lau said Monday he had not heard of any work being completed on the county’s property. He said he is in charge of putting together a stewardship plan for Kawa and other open space land the county purchases. The legal proceedings to evict Lui from Kawa have been completed, Lau said.

Reports placed Lui at the property Sunday or Monday.

“Probably he’s still been out there,” Lau said.

Any stewardship program, for any county property, would start with lineal and cultural descendants of the region, Lau said. That means Lui could end up being a steward for Kawa, even after the eviction proceedings.

“If he wants to be a player or a participant, we can’t exclude anybody,” Lau said.

Anyone who is aware of work being done on any of the county’s open space land may contact Lau or county property manager Ken Van Bergen, Lau said.

A message left for Van Bergen Monday was not returned.