Can Puna have clout? Friends of Puna's Future

[Rob Tucker]

A meeting location for the start up meeting is being set up at this time.

[Thunderfoot]

Have you gotten the excise tax license and FEIN yet ? I am willing to donate my knowledge of non-profits to help.Just letting you know there are people who are interested and are willing to help.Look forward to the meeting soon.

[Rob Tucker]

Thank you Thunderfoot.

The information you provided us is useful. We are moving forward and gaining momentum.

There are a number of interests in discussion here on Punaweb which could use district wide support.

[Rob Tucker]

There are a bunch of issues being discussed from illegal grading, dumping, crime, ocean access, lava threats, medical facilities, etc and our district generally gets placed last in the county and state list of priorities.

We need to put our money where our mouths are. Friends of Puna's Future is forming to do just that.

Please consider joining or donating to this group. I believe that it is only when Puna is self organized enough to field some lawyers that we will begin to get government attention to our issues. It's not that we want to file a bunch of lawsuits it's more that until they realize we are actually able to do so we will be ignored.

email: Friends of Puna's Future <friendsofpuna1@mail.com>

[mgeary]

What are the requirements for membership? I'm still just a wannabee, but I would like to help out if that is possible.

There are some conscience issues on my own part against sticking my nose where it doesn't belong. Visiting and chatting on a website are benign activities, even if I haven't conformed to everyone's liking, yet. Signing a petition, as a non-citizen, that goes to local government is over the line, to me, and I refused to do that elsewhere, not on political but on citizenship grounds.

Is this group a somewhere-in-between thing that I could actually be helpful or productive in some way, without infringing upon the rights of the citizens of the State of Hawaii? As I said on another thread, community advocacy groups which affect planning decisions with local legislature or governmental agencies are the real way to accomplish things, I believe. Isn't there an attorney on PW who's been chiming in occasionally? Can you help out with this?

How do I know?

[Rob Tucker]

I do not believe that, legally, we can restrict membership to only people we might or might not approve of (on any basis). Our expectation is that people living in Puna or owning property in Puna or operating businesses in Puna would be interested.

Voting membership costs $100 per year and a willingness to participate on gaining membership, developing consensus projects and other efforts which are determined by the BoD.

Donating funds will not be restricted.

There will be a Board of Advisors from throughout the district which requires, at this time, no dues or fees just an interest in pursuing the varied interests of the district.

There is an intention to raise, by membership dues and fundraising, sufficient funds to retain legal representation on a lobbying basis.

There is an intention to seek capacity building grants to help grow the organization into a broadly representative group.

There is an intention to seek grants and fundings to gather consensus on district issues by, if necessary, going door to door to survey citizen's positions.

[mgeary]

Rob Tucker said:

quote:

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Donating funds will not be restricted.

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That's something I can do with a clean conscience.

How do I know?

[JayJay]

Rob,
'It's not that we want ...actually able to do so we will be ignored.'
You're absolutely correct with this premise. Looking back now, what would, despite all it glaring deficiencies, Puna be like now had not the highway been re-configured? (eventhough it took nine years to do so.) That was simply a stroke of luck since when the decision to redesign came through in '93 Puna had no clout what-so-ever and we can thank old Ben for it.

The point is, the demographics now indicate that Puna will continue to develope dispite an overall economy which will continute to suffer more from inflation.

More individuals from the mainland and elsewhere will arrive here fleeing what they view as a potential socialogical convulsion in the making, and, in my viewpoint, the population of Puna will continue to rally while services and amenities lag. These are simple facts.

Puna's population base is expanding exponentially (like the Albezia). My daily trips into the Township to the hardware or Subway or some other business convince me we are under the gun demographically. There really is no comparison I can recall. Here we have a mostly rural community which is seized by growth at the opening bell of an obvious recession and quite disimilar to major growth cycles in the past elsewhere, where the suburbanization accompanied an expanding economy ... and here's the catch, despite the down-sizing being anticipated on the mainland as the reality of recession is finally realized, it may come to pass that this Island's unique location may become the linch-pin which continues to attract the population base from elsewhere while the economy retracts.

And here I see a potential hazzard in Puna... and one I feel we need to internalize in terms of probability. The potential of more immigration coupled with a falling rate of exchange, eventual $100/barrel (and, according to Hugo Chevez, who predicted $100.00 dollar, at some point even higher is comming), and the broader inflation which must soon follow will increase not only homelessness but overall discretionary spending. (This may, to some degree be offset by the depths of the pockets of those who relocate here in the future, yet I feel it's safe to assume that their overall discretionary income will retract at some point also.)

The potential exists where we could enter a senerio whereby we were, to a greater or lesser extent, left adrift with a higher population base dependent upon services which even now are at a dearth to be provided adequately. Cases in point are, of course, simply one small clinic to handle Pahoa and eviorns and a highway which took nearly a decade from start to it's 'supposed' finished date, yet I might add it is far from completed and any group looking to better the lives of the average Punatic should count as one of it's primary araes of concern and focus, that of requiring the state and county to complete construction rather than, as was done, mounting a campaign which attempted to convince the citizenry that the highway had actually been completed.

Let's look at the highway ... since it's the lifeline to Puna. The public transportation available is abysmal. Two or three buses per day simply doesn't cut it when one tabulates even a cursory estimation of the amount of property taxes the Department of Revenue is collecting. Various cities have shown that the more buses available the more citizens are apt to ride them. And, we need dedicated bus 'pull-offs' where school buses and public busses can load and unload school chldren and passangers safely (and out of the rain), without impeding traffic on the highway.

Also, and to me this is paramount, is the pressing need for traffic lights at the more dangerous intersections (it's so obvious), i.e., Orchidland and Makuu and the developing need for a light at the Makuu Market is becomming obvious also since the market shows every indication that it is going to continue to expand, hence the volumne of traffic going in and out of that business will increase.

This cross section, while the Makuu Market is open, is a lethal accident waiting to happen. People are just going to have to realize that the days of being able to zoom from Kalapana to Keaau are over and the county must install traffic lights in the name of public safety.

Within a few days after the terrible car-bus accident on the highway at the intersection which leads toward Nanawale,in which a mother and her children perished, I noticed an engineering crew out surveying, and the light was quickly installed. Is this what it's going to take at Orchidland or Makuu or the Market to have a light installed? And what does this say for effectiveness and, I might add, the morality of the county? Are we presently experiencing a policy of "Multiple Deaths Required Before Installation?" It seems that way.

As far as the money goes ... as a taxpayer, I don't want to hear how terribly expensive these systems are. I just want them installed and raise my taxes if necessary to accomplish it, afterall, that's how the system works.

The challange seems to be as much getting elected officials and departments to perform their mandate as it is anything else, and it's time to bring our beloved backwater of Puna into the Twenty First Century before we become swamped by a combination of inflation, demographics, and for the most part, bureaucratic inefficiency and oversight which has treated Puna more like a territory than as part of the whole.

What I need to hear is what are your proposed group's goals and policies. If you want to help Puna, then help Puna how ... in what ways?


JayJay

Edited by - JayJay on 11/20/2007 17:59:16

Edited by - JayJay on 11/20/2007 18:16:09

Edited by - JayJay on 11/20/2007 18:42:02

[Rob Tucker]

Well put Jayjay. I have taken the liberty of spacing your posting for easier reading.

All the points you mention are real and pending. Your concerns are all shared by others in the district.

You ask:

What I need to hear is what are your proposed group's goals and policies. If you want to help Puna, then help Puna how ... in what ways?

My reply:

To start with our group is intent on taking the cumulative two year effort of the Puna Community Development Plan (PCDP) and see that it does not collect dust on a self. For the expressed goals of the community to be realized there will need to be a watchful and effective effort made. For clearer information on the PCDP you can read up on:

http://www.hawaiiislandplan.com

Secondly there is a need for Puna to gather itself and overcome the traditional approach government has taken to Puna. This is described (by a state official to me) as "divide and ignore". The interests of Volcano need to be joined at the hip with the interests of Kapoho. The primary reason to organize and raise capital is that together we can accomplish more than we can alone.

Thirdly I am not satisfied with the general level of community input. The county will spend $250,000 on an outside consultant but when it comes to gathering direct input from the residents a copy machine and a notice in the paper seem sufficient. I intend for our group to seek funding sufficient for house to house surveys to be taken. I would like to confront federal, state or county offices with 70%+ responses from the population. Numbers have power.

Fourthly the establishment of a district wide Board of Advisors with committees based in each subdivision can help create and prioritize the agendas and issues du jour. The Board of Directors is designed to expand as the organization grows so that it can be representative.

For my part, personally, I want to see Puna self-realized and self-empowered. I do not want us to be defined by others and I do not want our futures defined by outside consultants. So the Friends of Puna's Future has been formed and specifically asks YOU to get onboard.

Thanks for the question. Feel free to ask more. You can join our voting Charter Members for $100 per year and a committment to work on the overall effort.

Punaweb moderator

(PS Jayjay - each of your specific points, bus transport, highway safety, etc have been addressed in the PCDP by the ten working groups. The reports are on record.)

[oink]

Are donations to Friends of Puna's Future and/or the Pahoa Holiday Parade, tax deductible?

I also might be interested in joining, if you would like any nonresident property owners as members. I certainly have an interest in Puna's future.

Pua`a
S. FL
Big Islander to be.

Edited by - oink on 11/20/2007 19:28:20