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FYI: (*Source - Occupy Hilo Site)
WED 10/15 Hawaii County Council meets in Kona at 9 am. Agenda items include $20 million dollars in bonds for Puna lava roads, coffee labeling, water well for Ocean View, increase recycling and implement zero waste policy of 2009, $ for coqui, $ for local radio programming, HSAC legislative package, $ for courthouse dog, $ for composting sites in Kohala, "Buy Hawaii Island Produce" in November reso, $17K from the DEA (and 3 other federal agencies?) to pay overtime in the Prosecutor's office, $19K for golf course equipment, foreclosing on property in 2 yrs instead of 3 and other changes to the real property tax laws, $4M for a new State park in Waimea, $12K to learn about fire safety for children in Oahu and Chicago, $5K for overtime at seatbelt checkpoints, $25K to reimburse United Way for Iselle cleanup, executive (closed) session to discuss County liability while repairing County assets, and many more agenda items
OFFICIAL AGENDA: http://records.co.hawaii.hi.us/Weblink8/DocView.aspx…
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$20 million dollars in bonds for Puna lava roads
What about the existing $56M in bonds for the park that isn't being built due to the lava?
Sure sounds like "pay twice now so you can pay a third time later".
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That $20M in bonds for "lava roads" would be lot less if the State had met its responsibility for restoring Chain of Craters. Am I the only one that thinks Mayor Billy and the county got weaseled when the state turned CoC over to them rather than fixing it with state funds? Screwed again by the politicians, as always. Note to the uneducated: Bond money isn't free. It's paid back, with interest, from our taxes.
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Chunkster, agreed, we got screwed by the State again. Gov. A is a real disappointment.
Pahoated, lol. It is an ambitious agenda, but it is an election year! [  ] We got roadwork happening all over Puna, and all that good stuff that comes with election time. Now a Council that has a pretty busy agenda for the "home stretch". Your "6 months" comment, lol!
Thank you for fixing the link.
JMO.
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Grant money for coqui control.
Courthouse dog program.
Establish composting sites.
...and $20M in new bond issue for the (illegal under existing Code) "lava roads" -- which implies that County is still going to build the Pahoa Park, or at least use that $56M for "something".
nobody is paying attention to the county government at all
Why bother? They're just going to do whatever they want, citizen input or no.
I'm curious about a new state park in Waimea. Where?
Did they get to the coffee labeling? My friend who is a long time coffee grower is so disgusted with the way that 10% Kona can be labeled as Kona coffee. Stop the misleading blends.
The water well in Ocean View, would that be County?
I feel bad for people in Ocean View living on catchment. The water gets heavy vog fallout and it simply doesn't rain enough over there.
Just mentioning a few of the minor issues.
$ for coqui
Wow, I am very opposed to giving coqui money. Is this like a reparation project for us trying to eradicate them? [:p]
Kathy
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Am I the only one that thinks Mayor Billy and the county got weaseled when the state turned CoC over to them rather than fixing it with state funds?
I think that should read "when County violated its own Code by accepting a substandard road". Especially ironic when that same regulation is cited as the reason County cannot accept any "private" subdivision roads.
Did they get to the coffee labeling? ... Stop the misleading blends.
This will turn into a Federal lawsuit about "interstate commerce". It would be simpler if the "real" producers simply labeled their product "100% Kona", and much cheaper than yet another court battle.
quote:
It would be simpler if the "real" producers simply labeled their product "100% Kona", and much cheaper than yet another court battle.
Yes well, they tried that a long time ago and hasn't worked. Tourists don't understand when they see a Kona coffee label that they should pass it by until they see a 100% label. They take the label at face value and don't read the fine print either.
For a long time there have brokers buying up the low quality beans and adding them to Latin American coffee and calling it Kona blend, but the Colombian beans overwhelm the delicate island bean flavor, so it's really a marketing scam.
Tourists are the consumer for a lot of our coffee, as they can afford the prices while on a vacation budget. No doubt internet marketing is also important. A lot of that is also to tourists who want to recreate a memory of their trip.
It's not that complicated what is wanted, but there is lobbying going on from the coffee brokers and I guess they have more money than the small independent producers who have pride in their product.
Kathy
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Tourists are the consumer for a lot of our coffee, as they can afford the prices while on a vacation budget.
Tourist dollars are automatically "interstate commerce".
Unfortunately, everyone involved would rather stage an expensive court battle.
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