I had the opportunity to attend the County Council meeting in Ocean View recently, and would like to point out I concerns for our area.
Pohue bay was originally supposed to be a Yacht club for the landowners in Ocean View. Historically, the people of Ocean View were able to drive to Pohue; in fact with a road so nice, even cars could make the trek. Then the landowners bulldozed trenches across the people’s access and gated the roads they bulldozed for their development. In fact, they bulldozed over the kings trail to make house pads on the coast and I have found ancient cowrie shell lures in the rubble of the road. This area is so archaeologically rich with petroglyphs and habitation sites, it is amazing they got the authorization to bulldoze a single centimeter — and then they went and bulldozed the Kings Trail! There is no denying their lack of regard to the people’s access or consideration for the archeology in the area. You can rent access to this beach, I cannot believe they feel confident in this regard. This land owner is in violation of so many laws I can only wonder what power they have over our government that it would betray the will of the people. The people of Kahuku feel the county should take possession of the coastal access to Pohue. If there ever was, or currently is, a road to the beach; it is the peoples road to the beach!
Public restroom facilities/beach showers: Ocean View area businesses do not adequately serve the public’s need for restrooms. This includes any tourists traveling from Kona to the Green Sand Beach, South Point, Black Sand Beach and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park as destinations. They must all travel through the area and yet; there are no publicly available, convenient, clean restrooms for the people who pass this way. Restrooms with with soap, water, and paper towels. I am tired of the excuses from the local area merchants; as this is a public sanitation issue/hazard for the people of all Hawaii.
Up and down Alii Drive, Keaukaha, Pohoiki, Laupahoehoe, Honolii, Kawaihae, etc. are numerous beach facilities with showers/restrooms. I cannot count the times I have seen the people of Hawaii use these facilities to keep themselves fresh and clean.
The people of this place need a way to be clean; to keep from infections, skin disease, etc. as well; cleanliness for self confidence and basic hygiene, if nothing else to keep from spreading viral illnesses to your community.
Bio-fuels facility in Pahala: (Some humor here) Yeah, right, grub and grade the lands, deceive the people, then when it all goes under; sell it off as residential development. If for a second, any one entity, was concerned with creating jobs, rebuilding the economy, or creating bio-fuels. The first thing they would do is realize Brazil runs it’s entire country on the energy supplied by processing sugar cane. Pahala was once a thriving sugar cane community with all the skills, resources, and infrastructure needed to produce sugar cane in quantity. This would be easy to continue; all that is needed is to put the people back to work, make an ethanol distillation facility. Then force HELCO to purchase the bio-fuels at whatever 20-year fixed rate scam price, and allow the current state of HELCO corruption to continue in an effort to keep our ‘aina glowing. So, before they start breaking ground and grubbing the land; it would be wise to re-plant Pahala and put some opportunity back into the hands of the people.
This project is an incredible joke, I can only imagine what the level/cost of corruption is necessary to see it through. There is a great injustice to the people of Ka’u, it would be nice if you could help stop it.
It is not enough to have problems, we seek solutions. Possibly the People of Ka’u could open a toll way to collect some revenue for the development of our community, as well as the necessary funds to secure and maintain coastal access for our people.
Aubrey Hounshell is a resident of Ocean View