My Turn: Illegal camping at ruining Old Airport Park

Kona’s Old Airport Park is a diamond in the rough. Its calm pristine waters protected from the surf and supplied with clean white sand provide a an easily accessible refuge to sit and enjoy Hawaii as it should be. It has the potential to be a finely landscaped and manicured world class park that would rival any in the state. But that is a dream of a future yet to come.

Today’s reality is that this park is once again being over run by vagrants who are allowed to set up illegal campsites where ever they choose. They move in, put a structure up, distribute their dirty clothes and belongings amongst the trees and bushes. They park their most-likely stolen bikes and bike parts about and commence creating piles of trash about their newly claimed homesteads. Walking my dog along the path beside the shore two days ago, I counted 12 established campsites before I was halfway down the old runway. Three of them had placed themselves, their tents and their abundance of trash right on the path itself, blocking its use.

I have asked various people in government over the years who is responsible for stopping these people from illegally moving in a taking over this beach park. “Parks Department,” I have been told, “DLNR”, was another response, “call the county, ”offered another government employee in a white county truck.

I don’t know who is responsible for enforcing the laws regarding illegal camping, but whoever that is, is not doing their job. What if I and a dozen of my friends each pitched substantial camps with tents, tables and coolers up and down the beach at the “Old A” and left them there for months. Would any government official come and tell us to leave or not? If so, why? If not, then we have our answer about why the bums can camp without fear.

Brian Powers is a resident of Kailua-Kona.