Susan McGeachy Is Organizing Another Meeting Advocating Splitting Hawaii County,Sen. Green’s Letter To The State Librarian Regarding The Possible Closure Of Three Big Island Libraries

I received a e-mail last night about this upcoming meeting regarding splitting Hawaii County.

“Aloha Ladies and Gentlemen,

Are you interested in Splitting the County of Hawaii into two Counties?

We have a meeting set up for July 21st from 6-8pm at Hualalai Academy in Kailua Kona. Up Palani Rd. to Kealakekaa Street. Take the road to the end and watch for our signs.

We are asking for the public’s top three priorities and/ or any other ideas or suggestions you would like to see covered in this meeting.

Any responses should be submitted by July 18th to westhawaiicounty@gmail.com

Respectfully,
Susan McGeachy”

This is the second time that Susan McGeachy has attempted to organize a group advocating splitting the county. During the first go around 150 people showed up for the initial meeting.However interest in creating this group waned during future meetings. Thus it wouldn’t surprise me that the same thing happens again.

Hat tip to WHT for filing a lawsuit which will attempt to reverse the recent Hawaii County Council coup .

Hawaii County taxpayers will be the ultimate losers due the Kamakoa Workforce Housing project fiasco.The county floated bonds to build the infrastructure for this project (when it was ultimately the responsibility of the developer to do that).However as it stands now there won’t be any afforable housing built for the foreseeable future due to the fact the current developers inability to meet their contractual obligations.

I always thought raising the transient accommodations tax was not the right thing do in the current economic environment. For starters, the amount of tourists is steadily declining.Thus this means the amount of new revenue that the state anticipated with this tax increase won’t materialize.

The Honolulu Advertiser had a article today about more fallout from this tax increase. Evidently all the tour operators,hotels,etc will have to eat this added tax for the foreseeable future to avoid charging visitors after the fact for reservations to stay after July 1st.

Go Airlines is raising their one way airfare to Hilo $20.00 in response to the HDOT wanting to raise Hilo Airport’s passenger hold room fee.Nonetheless the latter fee increase is probably not going to happen.Thus I figure Go will end up getting egg on their face for jumping the gun.

Lastly, Sen. Josh Green e-mailed me this letter he sent to the State Librarian Richard Burns regarding the possible closure of three Big Island libraries.

Dear Library Director,

I have very serious concerns that three of the five library closures you have recommended occur on Big Island, two of which occur in my Senate District alone, and by the same token two occur in one House District, District 5.

Specifically, there are 25 statewide senate districts and 2/5 of the libraries being closed occur in District 3.

There are 51 statewide house districts and 2/5 occur in District 5. Rep. Herkes and I have conferred about this and we are both are very alarmed.

Surely there was a more equitable way to make this decision and to avoid such a cluster of closures.

I don’t recall being consulted prior to this decision, one which may have a far reaching impact on education in West Hawaii.

I understand the criteria you used from the press release/open letter this week, but you need to realize that people on Big Island do not have access to the number of the educational services that Oahu’s citizens are lucky enough to have. Many Big Island residents do not leave the island for months or years at a time, so closures as you recommend will have a much greater impact on them than closing or scaling back hours at one or two other larger facilities on Oahu. Moreover, the transit distances between sites is enormous, especially in Rep. Herkes’ district and this will create an huge hardship. I know Bob will be raising this point with you.

I hope you will revisit your decision before it is finalized. My community is very upset. I look forward to discussing this with you this Thursday.

Sincerely,

Sen. Josh Green

Josh Green M.D.
State Senate
District 3, West Hawaii