The West Hawaii Civic Center Council Chamber was packed Wednesday with residents who came to participate in U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda’s town hall meeting.
The informal “talk story” session covered a myriad of topics brought forth by island community members.
“It’s been quite a hectic 15 months in Congress for my first term,” Tokuda, a Democrat representing the 2nd Congressional District, said at the start of the session. “We have taken a lot of tough votes. I feel it has been very character building for me in terms of having to focus on what’s most important for our constituents and work across the isle to get things done.
“A big priority for me is to make sure I am razor focused on what are the needs of our community, being present to listen, so I’ve done my best to make sure I have been in the community as often as possible talking to different groups , just making sure your voices are heard.”
She said before she came to the meeting she spent almost two hours at the Kona airport to make sure that she could take a look first hand at the cracks in the runway, which she said “are very concerning.”
She said $87 million provided by the federal government will be used to completely repave the airport’s only runway, and that will take place in November.
“But my main question is, can we hold off until then? All of the patching that is happening, will that take us through November, and what does it look like from a time period perspective? We know it will take from 18 months to two years for us to do total re-do of the runway,” she said. “It is a big priority for me to make sure we can assure transportation for all of you, but also when we do the work, we do it right, because when we don’t then those cracks come back a lot faster.”
Tokuda added that while there are cracks in the Kona airport runway, there is a good chance cracks will start to appear at other airports across the state because the age of most of its infrastructure is about the same.
“Air transportation is a really big, important thing for all of us, so we are keeping a close eye on it,” she said.
After her brief opening statement, she opened the floor up for questions and answers.
One of the participants asked when the Kona airport will start looking like an international airport.
“We talked to DOT about the airport, and there are plans to do a number of renovations. We just got the new air conditioned Gate 11. They are looking at doing covered walkway areas that will shade you from the sun or potentially the rain,” she responded. “They are also looking at different retail situations inside. I was able to look into the customs and border control area and I think the goal is we want to see the return of some international travel because we invested quite a bit of money into that particular facility. There are a lot of things going on and the state is investing heavily in this.”
Another Big Island resident asked for the congresswoman’s support of the Energy Innovation Act, HR 5744, which imposes a fee on the carbon content of fuels, including crude oil, natural gas, coal or any other product derived from those fuels that will be used so as to emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and urged her to gain bipartisan support for the measure.
Tokuda responded that in order for Congress to pass anything, whether access to health care or transportation or climate change, they have got to make sure there is bipartisan support, and sometimes that is easier said then done.
“The reality is many of us fighting for climate change initiatives are in the minority, so we need those folks in the majority to be able to join us help us move some of this good legislation along,” she said.
A Waikoloa resident who recently founded the Wildfire Safety Advocates of Waikoloa said residents are terrified of being the next Lahaina.
“There are 4,000 residents, and 3,500 visitors every day, and one road. All we want is to get on your radar to talk about issues and how to move this forward, because this is keeping us up at night,” he said.
Tokuda responded that she has spoken to DOT and others on island about how to make sure that there is secondary access.
“As much as we talk about Lahaina, as often as I can, I remind people that we have fires threatening life and property on Hawaii Island, as well,” she said. “We have to match government action to be able to take a look at what are we doing for mitigation efforts.”
Another Waikoloa resident brought up the fact that the coconut rhinoceros beetle has been found in the village.
“It is going to be a long, expensive process to try to deal with this, because if we start to loose out trees and forests, it is going to be very difficult to recover,” the resident said.
“Biosecurity is a big deal, coconut rhinoceros beetle and every other pest and plant disease we have run into is really cutting us at the knees from being able to better feed ourselves and reduce our dependency on imported food,” the congresswoman said.
She said she has been trying to pressure the Department of Defense to invest significantly in updating some of the biosecurity plans that they have for Hawaii.
“We have a 365 day growing season, but that is a buffet line for all the invasives we have. We do know CRB likely came to us through some kind of defense facility, dirt or aircraft, so we are trying to make sure they invest in our defense and further protection. We cannot have other things coming in,” said Tokuda. “Sitting on the Armed Services Committee, that is one of the things I am pushing. They have to invest in and protect our borders. As you know, we are very strong in protecting other states. Even your hand carry luggage have to go through X-ray machines now before you can go to the mainland. When you come to Hawaii, you just have to check a box that says I have none of the above. CRB unfortunately doesn’t just attack coconut trees. It is going after ulu, kalo and other plants, so we have to be very vigilant.”
One participant asked Tokuda for support from the department of the Interior on Act 80 to lower the blood quantum levels from one-quarter to one-thirty-second Hawaiian for Department of Hawaiian Home Lands lessee’s relatives to retain the family lease.
“This is on behalf of all the HHCA beneficiaries out there. We have 29,000 individuals on the wait list. If we are not able to succeed down to one-thirty-second, we will not only have more people houseless, but we will have a larger issue and this is not what Prince Kuhio envisioned or intended for our people,” she said.
Tokuda said she has talked to the secretary about the situation. She said part of the problem is that DOI has not received the information requested from DHHL to advance the act. She asked that families share their stories so she can provide a human face to the situation.
Another participant asked if there could be funding from the federal level and pressure be put on the Army to clean up Pohakuloa Training Area. She said the Army did their own tests for depleted uranium at the training site and asked for an independent study. She also thanked the congresswoman for voting against sending billions of dollars to Israel, but was disappointed that money was sent to Ukraine and Taiwan.
Tokuda said she will take a look at what has been done to initiate an independent test at PTA. As for voting against the aid package, she said it was difficult to vote no, even though it had humanitarian aid in it.
“But I had no confidence that humanitarian aid would get to where it is necessary and needed. When it came to the Indo-Pacific, I was thinking about our back yard. It is absolutely necessary. Do we need to put more money into human services in our own backyard? Absolutely, that’s what I fight for so we can have access to healthcare, we can improve our transportation infrastructure,” said Tokuda. “I know a lot of times I come to these meetings hopefully agreeing on a majority of topics, but sometimes will disagree, but that’s why we all serve and advocate in different capacities.”