10-29-2007, 10:41 AM
My name is Tony, and I operate KapohoKine Adventures. We bring visitors to Champagne Pond in 7 passenger vehicles and spend about 45 minutes there, as noted in the newspaper. We've installed and pay for rent-a-luas at every stop on our itinerary, some are open to the public like the ones at the painted church in Kalapana. We do not intend to impact either public facilities or the bushes. We have asked the homeowner's association of Beach Lots if we could install and pay for at our expense rent-a-luas open 24/7 to the public at Champagne Pond. The only access for the pump truck would be across their private roads, but the homeowners have declined the offer. Our groups of visitors are thoroughly educated by both my guides and an onboard DVD we made talking about the overthrow, talking about natural disaster here and how these disasters affect lives. Our guests step out of our vehicles with a respect that a visitor in a rental car does not have. I feel that places should be open to visitors, but those visitors must be watched and educated, in other words guided. I am proud that we have been able to create 10 good paying jobs here in Kapoho and that 6 of those positions are filled by Native Hawaiians. When one of my guides says "This is where I grew up as a child, this is Kalapana. Kalapana no longer exists. Where you are stepping is where I played in my backyard, so please treat this place with respect", I guarantee that that visitor will have a deeper understanding of why something simple like discarding a cigarette butt on the ground is so offensive to us. Mr. Samelson, the President of Beach Lots board, said on the phone that locals were "lazy" as they could walk in to the Pond from the lighthouse or the gate at the entrance to Beach Lots. So, it doesn't feel like the sanitation issue is the real problem for homeowner's. Look at www.vrbo.com and you'll find more than 35 short-term vacation rentals available all touting Champagne Pond and swimming with the turtles as key selling points, so while they feel that my money-making?, commercial activity? should stop there is no mention of their profiteering from the Pond. And I label their activity profiteering as they have created no jobs or made any further contributions to the local community besides lining their pockets. It feels like property values and vacation rental businesses are the real motivations here. And, according to the County, every short-term vacation rental in Beach Lots is illegal. The homeowner's intend to keep Champagne Pond and Kapoho Bay all to themselves, their guests and their profit making vacation rentals which doesn't seem fair to me. We have the opportunity to use visitor-dollars to directly improve the local community by eliminating the, uh, elimination problem at Champagne Pond, but we need the cooperation of the Beach Lots homeowners. Instead of trying to erect gates, fences and dumping piles of boulders to keep everyone out, maybe pull down the gates and video surveillance equipment and use that money to contribute to creating a safe parking area with trash removal and rent-a-luas. Or wait for the state and county to pave the whole place over changing it forever.