Wai is the Hawaiian word for water. Waiwai means wealth or prosperity. Around these thoughts and what it means to protect and manage watersheds, and deliver safe, potable water at a time when climate change-induced drought, storms and wildfires all seem to be upon us (on top of a pandemic), water will be the focus of Waimea Community Association’s next Virtual Town Meeting from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday.
Water will highlight the agenda with an update from the Hawaii County Department of Water Supply Keith Okamoto, P.E., Manager-Chief Engineer, on significant potable infrastructure projects and repairs in the Waimea region, followed by watershed protection program insights from The Kohala Center’s Liam Kernell, Mahina Patterson and Jake Merkel.
Yishan Wong, whose vision is to bring Silicon Valley technology expertise from his time with Reddit and Facebook to the climate movement, will then a glimpse of a little-known nonprofit, Terraformation, which he founded.Wong recently completed construction of the world’s largest fully off-grid 100% solar-powered desalination system on Hawaii Island to alleviate water shortages that hinder arid ecosystem restoration. This relieves a key bottleneck that has prevented mass reforestation from closing the gap on comprehensively solving climate change.
The virtual meeting will be streamed “live” on WCA’s Facebook page. The meeting will be saved to Facebook and YouTube for on-demand viewing thereafter. Questions are welcome, preferably in advance via email to Waimea-CommunityAssociation@gmail.com. Questions can also be typed into the Facebook “chat” during the meeting and will be addressed as time permits.
WCA’s October Virtual Town Meeting will also include a mixed plate of news about important events, opportunities, pandemic safety and ways to get involved.
It will open with a brief overview by Greg Chun, Ph.D., with UH Center of Maunakea Stewardship, of the draft Maunakea Master Plan. Hawaii County Redistricting Commission Member Meizhu Lui will then provide an update on the process in progress for realigning County Council district boundaries with the 2020 Census. Following redistricting will be Dr. Crystal Hammer with a COVID-19 update on behalf of Queen’s North Hawai’i Community Hospital.
Then, WCA’s spotlighted not-for-profit for October will be the West Hawaii Mediation Center, represented by Kate Sims, who will discuss a new state law regarding eviction mediation. The intent of the law is to try to prevent evictions and more homelessness through mediation, counseling and referrals to a variety of possible support programs and services.
Next up will be a proposal to “Pink It Up Waimea!” to commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It will be presented by Tammy Muranaka, who along with both Waimea Elementary and Waimea Middle Schools, is urging the entire community to wear PINK on Friday.
WCA Board member Mary Beth Laychak will then brief the community on a new Hawaii Science Walk that will replicate the annual Waimea Solar Walk along Ala Ohi’a Road. It will be accessible to the entire community in late October.
Hawaii County Councilmembers Heather Kimball and Tim Richards will then provide a county issues update. Also on the virtual town meeting agenda will be an update by Waimea Community Policing representatives.
For more info about the meeting or community association, email WCA President James Hustace at waimeacommunityassociation@gmail.com or go to www.waimeatown.org.