+- Punaweb Forum (http://punaweb.org/forum)
+-- Forum: Punaweb Forums (http://punaweb.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: Punatalk (http://punaweb.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=10)
+--- Thread: Private company plans Puna lava viewing (/showthread.php?tid=20430)
Private company plans Puna lava viewing - Chunkster - 11-30-2018
This morning's Star-Advertiser has an interesting article about lava viewing:
http://www.staradvertiser.com/2018/11/30/hawaii-news/private-company-plans-lava-viewing-area-in-puna/?HSA=33bd8124d2922233dbd6e4c40334eeab4db1696f
The location (intersection of 130 and 132) is given, but no company name or operators. Harry Kim provides his usual vague utterances while the Leilani Estates HOA prez gets more specific, saying, "Seeing fissure eight from Highway 132 is kind of like looking at Mars without a telescope." As usual, this could go behind the pay wall at any time, if it isn't already.
RE: Private company plans Puna lava viewing - HereOnThePrimalEdge - 11-30-2018
Chunkster,
Thanks for posting the article.
It certainly brings up more questions than it offers specific details concerning the information provided:
Private lava viewing “and a shuttle service to take people around the lava field.” Where around the lava field?
A view of Fissure 8 from Pohoiki? From the road? Or a presumably illegal hike through the new lava field?
And then there’s the question, how did the proposed County lava viewing site go from public to private hands? Without any information to go on I certainly wouldn’t accuse the County of impropriety, but might I suggest that some hands sound like they were busy? Perhaps more than a handshake deal? More than the sound of one hand clapping? I just hope the new private company doesn’t show up with a fleet of gently used Jack’s Tour Company vans and busses.
"I want great climate, we’re going to have that.” President Donald J. Trump, while viewing the massive wildfire devastation 11/17/18. (The J stands for Jenius)
RE: Private company plans Puna lava viewing - kalakoa - 11-30-2018
At the same time, an unidentified private company wants to create a Big Island lava viewing area at the intersection of Highways 130 and 132 in Lower Puna, Kim told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser on Thursday.
Because the effort to establish public viewing is now moving into private hands, Kim declined to provide many of the key details -- such as when the lava viewing area might open and who would operate it.
The parties are applying for a permit to operate "a commercial enterprise in that corner," Kim said.
"The government viewing area is put on hold, and it may not even go forward," Kim said. "We've approached the private sector for their involvement to make it permanent."
Color me cynical, but for some reason this sounds like "hooking up my buddies with some permits", plus "rescinding the public offering so there's no competition".
I wonder how much the "private hands" will be charging to see the "privately owned" fissure...
RE: Private company plans Puna lava viewing - Chunkster - 11-30-2018
Thank you, kalakoa, for summarizing my own cynical opinion.
RE: Private company plans Puna lava viewing - leilanidude - 11-30-2018
The area is all private land where this is going. I know of the plans involved. They are doing this correctly. They had been getting a lot of "no, you can't" from the County, even being told they would be refused building permits. The County is lying by saying they approached the private party. It was the other way around. Lawyers had to get involved... That is all I can say.
RE: Private company plans Puna lava viewing - Chunkster - 11-30-2018
"The County is lying by saying they approached the private party." - - leilanidude
Imagine that! In spite of the completely predictable delays, obfuscation, and outright dishonesty of the Kim administration, at some point permits and licenses will have to be issued. Maybe then we will know what is going on here or at least who is doing it. Or maybe not, depending on how good the applicants' lawyers . . . or how well connected they are.
RE: Private company plans Puna lava viewing - kalakoa - 11-30-2018
at some point permits and licenses will have to be issued
In that case ... I look forward to visiting the lava viewing area when it opens in 2020.
RE: Private company plans Puna lava viewing - kalakoa - 11-30-2018
https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2018/11/30/hawaii-news/lava-checkpoints-nixed-last-two-manned-barriers-will-be-removed-next-week/
"I can understand their concerns," Kim said. "Ours is based on the threat and hazards of the lava and fumes. Once that is gone, our responsibility is over."
Does that mean the "emergency declaration" will also be curtailed? Or is it still a $5000 fine to set foot on the lava, even though "our responsibility is over"?
RE: Private company plans Puna lava viewing - ElysianWort - 11-30-2018
I wonder if the said "private company" that will be doing the tours are "local"?
I say this because I have heard first hand incidents in the past of mafia thug type coercion by young locals in the Kalapana area threatening people who used to do these tours by foot and advertise online.
Such incidents as aggressive verbal warnings followed by driving them off to the side of the road by passing them in their big trucks then braking, requiring the lava tourers to stop their vehicle then confrontation. "This is our business. You better stop the tours or else!"
RE: Private company plans Puna lava viewing - MarkD - 11-30-2018
"Seeing fissure eight from Highway 132 is kind of like looking at Mars without a telescope."
Hook, line and sinker. I hope to attract the same tourists who pay to look at a dry lava field and a dead fissure from a distance. I'm offering tours of Bayfront Beach.