I was throughly angry when I read that the county council delayed voting on 112 million bond float until public hearings can be held.I think these three council members did something extremely shortsighted yesterday. In their quest of torpedoing the West Hawaii Civic Center,it will submarine some important public safety projects, like a new Hilo Central Fire Station/administrative complex,Makalei Fire Station that this bond float would fund also.
In my view, the council should’ve placed conditions on the funding for the West Hawaii Civic Center instead of delaying floating this bond. The council could force DPW to get rid of the unneeded fluff in this project if they did the latter. Then there wouldn’t be all this collateral damage.
Below is a e-mail I sent to the Hawaii County Council.
Aloha,
When I read in WHT today that the council has delayed voting on 112 million bond float I was extremely angry.The overall council should be ashamed of their actions yesterday. Especially the three
council members who voted to hold public hearings before voting on this bond float.
If these certain council members have issues with building the West Hawaii Civic Center they are taking the wrong approach in trying to stop it. It is my understanding this bond float is supposed to fund 50 projects island wide. Most notably, it was supposed to fund the construction of the future Makalei Fire Station, a new Hilo Central Fire Station/administrative complex. So overall their short sighted actions yesterday submarined the after mentioned projects also. Which are needed much more than the West Hawaii Civic Center.
As for the funding of the West Hawaii Civic Center, the council should move forward and fund this project with conditions tied to it. Those conditions would require DPW to down size this project and remove the unneeded fluff. If the latter doesn’t appease these three holdout council members,then I would urge someone to bust out a calculator.The county is spending God knows how much in lease rent to all these landlords for office space all around West Hawaii. It would be more fiscally prudent to centralize all these county services in one location.
I urge you to approve this 112 million bond float.
Aloha,
Aaron Stene
