It's summer on Kauai: mostly sunny days and a little warmer than usual. We are in the middle of hurricane season and had a recent scare - although the Big Island was serious hit in places - and possibly more storms are brewing. Follow the latest here.
On a recent walk after a couple miles I was coming in to town, the sun was overhead, and I was quite thirsty … What more could one ask for than a homemade lemonade stand right there by the road: they even wrote the "D" backwards. If you look carefully at the sign you can see their business strategy is to sell to the high end customer (the price is 25 50 c). They didn't have change so I gave them a dollar. Good to see that some things like this that I remember from childhood have staying power.
Summer also means bon dance at the local Buddhist temples. Originating with the Japanese community here, bon dances are popular with locals of all backgrounds, inundating one of the temples every weekend through much of the summer. Bon dance is loosely based on Japanese bon odori where the dancers proceed with proscribed steps, circling a raised dais in the center of a circle. There are organized groups of dancers as well as lots of audience participation. Serious dancers go to practice sessions to learn the numerous varieties of dance but most people just watch the people near them and follow along.
Lots of people are at the beach and in the water. A friend who recently visited made a short video featuring lots of water sports.
Summer also means an extra plentiful supply of local fruit. The mango trees are starting to ripen - I just peeled several pounds for freezing and will back mango bread (with mac nuts). Soursop is also coming.
Kauaʻi county publishes an annual report summarizing the activities of each department for the past fiscal year. The 2012-2013 report is just out and can be found here.
The county fiscal year is from July to June, so that means it took nearly 13 months to get the report out this year. I wrote to the mayor's office asking why the delay and with persistence heard this year they took extra time without an explanation of why. Normally the report is out by late fall they said.
almost $500,000 over budget (apparently unplanned high cost of litigation)
the county is embroiled in lawsuits against it: well over 100 cases were pending at the start of the fiscal year (two years ago, July 1, 2012) and just over 100 were filed during FY2012-2013; since only 50-some cases closed that means the county had nearly 200 cases pending as of June 30, 2013.
We visited West Kauai Medical Center recently and this post is a small thank you for excellent medical
service. Everything went smoothly and the staff was uniformly friendly and competent.
While visitors don't think about this when considering the trip, we do read in the papers about visitors needing medical care unexpectedly while here. No Kauaʻi facility does complex major surgery (airlift to Honolulu for that) but the capabilities for here are hardly primitive either. Visitors with serious emergencies can get support from Visitor Aloha Society of Kauai - one of those things nobody wants to ever need, but nonetheless it's good to know it's there.
Living in Kauaʻi one often hears complaints about the level of medical care available. Many times I have heard this as the stated reason people move to the mainland or to Honolulu which has comparable facilities. No doubt regional healthcare is a major challenge in this country and being on an island makes it even harder. Certainly anyone with chronic health issues requiring specialized or intensive treatment will find it difficult if not impossible to live here.
Locally people are worried about plans to possibly close the Kalaheo Clinic and are taking action to keep the doors open. With a small population and everything being expensive here there are a number of clinics that rely on government grant subsidies, and this year money is tight.
UPDATE: The Kalaheo Clinic has just gotten a six-month extension to stay open but the battle for survival is far from over.
Healthcare is not a hypothetical issue for any of is. Coincidentally while writing this for the first time in this neighborhood we heard sirens and fire department and later ambulance arrived at a house a block away where they seem to be taking someone to the hospital. Annually 911 gets over 2000 calls for medical emergencies.
There has been interest in details I have been writing up here from folks in the community, so here are some more. I hope it is of interest.
Most of today water department trucks were gathered at the entrance to Kakela Makai around a hole in the road working on something.
Gauging the water level in the tank
Today I learned from a citizen in the Kakela Makai area how you can tell the level of water in the supply tanks, i.e. how close the community is to running out of water.
Along Puu Road on the makai side of the Kukuiolono golf course there is a big green water tank. The GPS location is approximately (21.912192,-159.523775) or see Google map.
Along the right side of the tank is a white vertical bar that has an indicator that goes up and down: see the yellow arrow in photo at left. This is attached to a pulley at the top, over, and down into the tank connected to a float to measure the water level. The further up this indicator goes the lower down the float is and vice versa. This shot (June 2, 3pm) shows the indicator about 1/4 from the top (dashed yellow line) which means the water lever is roughly 1/4 from empty (dashed blue line below). As the indicator moves lower it means there is more water in the tank (and if you look closely at the Google Street view at the link above, the indicator is down a few feet from ground level) showing normal very full supply.
Kalaheo's wells and water tanks
The two wells that have both failed causing this water shortage are mauka side uphill from the highway, approximately at (21.938187,-159.525099) according to the map provided at the water department meeting on Saturday. There is a water tank near the wells and another tank (100,000 gallon) further uphill on Puuwai Road.
On the other side of the highway to the south in addition to the Puu Road tank shown above, there is a (250,000 gallon) tank up near the northeast edge of the Kukuiolono golf course, roughly at (21.9180151,-159.5261859).
What about all the other water?
At the water department meeting one good question was about potentially using Alexander Reservoir (21.9570011,-159.5243735) which is just uphill from the highest mauka tank and presumably contains lots of water. Chief Engineer Saiki responded that the water treatment facility for the reservoir was damaged in Iniki (major hurricane) and have been abandoned. Restoring the treatment facility probably doesn't make sense as an interim measure since it would take considerable time and expense, probably repairing the wells is cheaper and faster. Additionally, since this isn't a department of water reservoir (it seems to be private) it isn't even part of the system as I understand it. This explanation makes sense to me.
Another question was about the nearby Kauai Coffee fields having water while the adjoining neighborhoods in Kalaheo don't. The coffee fields are supplied by private agricultural water system not part of the department of water and since it is non-potable water it isn't clear how they could even usefully share even if they wanted to. That said, so see all that water running in ditches when you have none in the tap is hard to ignore.
With the filing deadline a few days away here is an updated list of candidates (as of 30 May) vying to get on the primary ballot.
The council's latest appointment Mason K. Chock, Sr. has now filed so all incumbents should be on the ballot ... with the surprising exception of council chair J. Furfaro who has not yet filed nomination papers.
Question mark (?) indicates candidates who have not completed filing. Candidates file and receive papers that they must returned with voter signatures to get on the ballot. June 3 is the deadline to file nomination. Next step to getting on the ballot is for the nomination papers to be validated by election officials to ensure they have the requisite number of voter signatures.
I attended the community meeting about the water outage here: not a lot of new information but it was good to meet and get everyone together.
Repairs are expected to take about six weeks: most of that delay is time to get a replacement for the part that broke which must be custom made to order. Until repairs are completed all of Kalaheo is asked to voluntarily minimize water usage.
A lot of talk about people who do have water pressure being unaware of the restriction and over consuming. There are two holding tanks on each side of the highway and if you are near the bottom of the area served by a tank you have the best chance of getting water - on the high side if the tank goes empty you are first to lose service. Clearly the meeting was heavily attended by people who had lost water but it's the other folks who need to get the word.
"Connect-CTY" is the county's automated communications system they want everyone to sign up for. Lots of people who heard about it were unable to figure out the web site and it is hard to find and use. To sign up, click this and then click the "Add my contact info" button. You will have to fill out a form and go through another page (called CAPCHA). One problem I have had is that the system sends the same notice three times - by email, by recorded phone message, by SMS text - which is quite annoying.
While it is fine to ask people to signup for this notification service, this incident demonstrates it is not widely used. I would like to know how long this system has been deployed and how many signups they have. I suspect without more aggressively getting people to register it will be hard to reach everyone.
The unfortunate background of this problem came out a bit at the meeting that suggests that this may have been avoidable. January 29 the primary well failed and an emergency procurement request was prepared and approved by the water board in February but somehow work did not begin promptly. When questioned about the delay a county attorney responded explaining that "contract and bonding" issues resulted in a delay, and also mentioned that the contractor took "three weeks" to execute the contract and suggested the paperwork was not properly done. Nearly four months went by with no work on the well and then the backup well failed last week. Somehow once the second failure occurred the paperwork got sped up and within a couple days work on the primary well began. Exactly what happened was not revealed: possibly the months-old contracting delay just happened to resolve coincidentally or (what seems more likely to me) with increased urgency a fire was lit under whoever was slowing down the process. This meeting was not the time or place for investigating exactly what happened but in time we deserve to be told why nearly four months was insufficient to repair the primary while we still had backup, completely avoiding all of this.
There are voluntary restrictions being asked to limit water consumption to "essential uses" but I wonder how effective they are. Since they read meters monthly the department will get water usage numbers for Kalaheo residents and should be able to see on a customer basis. I would rather see a suggested amount of water rather than permitted and disallowed usages. If I use less water taking a short shower and washing some clothes that's better than using more water taking a bath. The county directive specifies "limiting" laundry but I don't know quite what that means. At the presentation they suggested using coin laundries in neighboring towns but I doubt they have the capacity for over a thousand households on top of the existing customer base.
What I was hoping to hear but did not was anything the department would do differently in future to avoid repetitions.
Faster procurement, approval, funding, contracting for emergency repairs.
Better information about water outage and restrictions on use to mitigate the problem.
It was very heartening to hear several citizens politely thank the department for their efforts and urge the community to "pull together" and overall a good spirit of aloha was in force.
The recent 48 hour water service failure has provided a window in the operation of the Kauai Department of Water in providing clean, safe drinking water - a service too easy to take for granted. Since yesterday afternoon water service has been working for me here so that's real progress.
This part of Kalaheo gets water from who wells near the golf course area at the top of the hill makai of the highway.
Four months ago on January 29 the main well failed and the department responded by requesting a contractor to perform necessary repairs[1]. The emergency procurement request states specifically that the contractor, Oasis Water System, commits to mobilize their rig "same day" the department orders the job. The next mention of this emergency request I could find was two months later[2] contract #581 was awarded as requested (the date of Notice to Proceed is not listed but presumably is before April 24). So repair on the primary well should have been underway at least a month ago.
Then the backup well failed last weekend. "The Department was executing a contract for the repairs to Well no. 1, but before the contractor got started, Well no. 2 was damaged on Sunday, May 25, 2014. "[3]
The latest timeline: "DOW estimates 4-6 weeks to fully restore Kalaheo well damage; Temporary measures should improve water service by early next week"[4] It's unclear if this means repairing the backup well or also the primary well. Temporary pipe was put in across the highway last night which I suppose allows water from the mauka reservoir to be shared with the rest of Kalaheo.
Open questions include:
Why did it take one to two months to approve an emergency repair request?
Did the contract indeed start work "same day" and what is the status of that work?
Currently the mainland is facing severe drought conditions in much of the southwest and south central regions. This is a much bigger problem than fixing a couple of broken wells. In the map below the black, red, and orange areas represent exceptional, extreme, and severe drought conditions, respectively. The past two days have demonstrated to me personally that running low on water very quickly impacts daily life. What we can do is raise awareness and act to address these challenges. What we mustn't do is ignore the situation and continue taking our water supply for granted.
The water has been off here in Kalaheo since yesterday afternoon. The Kauai Department of Water is providing non-potable water tanks for residents to use at these locations:
at the Kalaheo neighborhood center
opposite the Kukuiolono golf course entrance, at Papalina & Puu Road
Apparently this area is served by two wells and both are broken. There is no estimate how long it will take to restore service.
UPDATE (Thursday 5/29/14 AM): Still no water on third day - that's zero water. If we had any water pressure at any point the toilet tank would have filled to the shutoff and it has not.
This morning saw Department of Water truck working along the road just across the street. The word from neighbors is that there was a leaky valve apparently that someone reported when they saw water gushing out. So it seems that even though they have been trucking water to fill the holding tanks uphill only a little was reaching the most downhill homes here and most of it was being wasted. This would explain why we haven't seen even a drop.
The good news is that with people out to collect water and observe repairs, curious about what's being done to alleviate our shared problem, I've met more of the neighbors. It seems it takes something like this to get people out of the houses where you have a chance to commiserate.
Note to Department of Water: for safety please label the water tanks provided as potable or non-potable. From the updates, both types are being set out and since there has already been one correction as to location of which it would be reassuring to know without doubt whether it is safe to drink the water provided at a given location. Also, it would be good to have authoritative information on how to safely store and use potable water. Here's the CDC's advice for water storage and use ... it begins with washing containers with soap and (safe) water so if you didn't have that prepared ahead one is kind of stuck.
FINAL UPDATE (Thursday 5/29/14 AM): Water is back on after 48 hours!Pressure seems a little low but it's plenty. The Department of Water left a case of bottled water on the porch with a letter of apology. The letter states that they hope to have a plan and timeline for repair "by the end of this week".
I have never experienced long-term water outage before and I certainly learned how important fresh water is to comfortable everyday life and we totally take it for granted. Losing electricity is inconvenient, but I would gladly chose that over no running water.
Perhaps in a small way I can being to imagine how 780 million people live without access to fresh water. Unlike all these people I could drive in my car on paved roads to fetch water, get a shower at a friend's place, and borrow a washing machine, and still it was a big impact.
Geckos may be the nicest of the invasive species that have come to thrive in Hawaii. They like to hang around houses and eat bugs and usually stay out of the way. We see both bright green (at right) and more plain looking brown ones (below).
They seem to like hanging out on our lanai and so far they have stayed outside the house. Mid-morning we often see them running along the back edge of the lanai. Usually they are headed for a specific spot where they sit a while and then leap onto the nearby bush and disappear.
The males are very territorial (I have read) and will do little "pushup" routines where they go up and down and often inflate their throats. For some reason gecko seem to run in spurts going a few feet and then stopping often doing "pushup" display before continuing on.
In the day we tend to seem them on scurrying around on the ground and hiding. At night is when we see them using their Spiderman skills and crawl up high on walls or often walk upside down on the lanai ceiling. They especially like the corner between wall and ceiling. Again usually only at night we hear them vocalizing, a surprisingly loud for their size repeated screech.
Geckos feel a little like pets that you don't have to buy, feed, or take care of: they just show up and eat bugs.
While politics may be of little interest to many readers, the outcome of this process very much effects the future of this island.
In the USA I think we tend to take elections for granted, even after the 2000 election raised some very serious issues with the process. Kauaʻi is small enough that I wanted to look into the process behind the election itself.
Candidates are still filing for the primary election ballot for county council seats but here is an early look at the official uncertified preliminary status as of 9 May. The follow lists candidates who have applied for nomination papers to be returned with 15 (thatʻs all) signatures of voters to get on the ballot along with a filing fee. Until all papers are in and signatures checked we won't know the final list but the following is a reasonable approximation of who will be in the running for seven seats.
According to the candidate's manual, each candidate chooses whether or not to comply with campaign spending limits and if so a viable candidate can receive funding from the state (taken from state income tax revenue) for the campaign. The spending limit is $1.40 per registered voter (from the last election) or about $56,000. Candidates must independently collect at least $3,000 to be considered eligible for funding.
Candidates are listed alphabetically with their city of residence; incumbents marked "(i)". Link to best web link I found relevant to candidacy:
Arthur Brun - Kekaha, works for Syngenta (biotechnology corporation)
Tim L. Bynum (i) - Kapaʻa, recently won settlement to lawsuit against the county in court
Felicia E. Cowden - Kilauea, prominent local radio personality
J. Furfaro (i) - Princeville, current chair of the council
The only incumbent not listed is Mason K. Chock, Sr., recently appointed to fill an open seat.
While I don't want to overestimate the power of the internet, it's notable that only incumbents (and not all of them) have campaign web sites. Of those most are fairly barebones. A couple of new candidates got short interviews in the local paper which I did link to. That said, signs in people's yards may be more powerful that web sites, and I have seen several signs for candidates that don't have web sites, or at least sites I could find via searching.
This is an election year and in the past few weeks signs have been popping up along the road or in front of homes and businesses in support of candidates. Less than two months remain to register to vote.
Primary election is August 9, 2014
General election is November 4, 2014
County mayor, council, and prosecuting attorney will be on the ballot in addition to governor and state representative. The county council members are "at-large" meaning each serves the entire island rather than having regional seats. The top 14 vote getters in the primary vie for the 7 seats going to the top 7 vote getters in the general election.
By far the strongest early showing on the streets is our incumbent mayor Bernard Carvalho: not just signs but he has people waving his signs by the highway. Last election he won easily and I have heard folks here opine that he doesn't have any serious competition this year. It's too early to tell as there are a few weeks left for candidate filings so the process has just begun.
So many people I have asked about local government shake their heads and complain. There certainly have been reasons to worry, but one easy improvement that is very doable is better voter turnout. In 2012 general election voter turnout was 62.9% (25,617 of 40,738 registered voters).
For politics, I realize this is a rather bland opinion-free posting, but I am just beginning to learn about all this so will wait until I actually have some insight before sharing my critical thoughts on candidates.
Saturday I attended the 50th anniversary NTBG concert featuring a number of great Hawaiian musicians and guest headliner Jerry Douglas.
The event was on the lawn at NTBG south shore visitor center near Spouting Horn (Poipu). They said over 1,000 people attended, including both the governor and the mayor of Kauai county.
Lots of great musical performances and some hula as well, mostly Hawaiian style but also some country and a little jazz as well. The encore went on and on with more musicians joining in onstage for the finale.
It was a good event and I hope it becomes an annual tradition, or at least they don't want another fifty years.
In the Allerton Garden some renewal is in progress around the Allerton house down by the beach at Lawai Kai. In particular the Queen Emma cottage has a new roof and is freshly painted. This historic building dates back to the days when the queen maintained a residence here. Originally built up above the valley, after Alexander McBryde purchased the property he had the cottage moved down to its present location. Robert and John Allerton built their residence next to it, partly visible in the photo at left.
I never liked daylight savings or really saw the point, so it was nice to miss out on the time change this year since Hawaii stays on standard time all year. Since there are no neighboring states and we are more than one time zone away in any case it was easy for Hawaii to opt out of federal daylight savings from the start.
Currently sunrise is around 6:45AM and sunset 6:45PM which seems just right as we approach the spring equinox. Here in the tropics the length of a day only varies plus/minus 90 minutes at the solstices so the need to maximize daylight is much less. Plus all the islands are fairly close together in longitude.
As of last weekend now the time difference to mainland is:
+3 hours to west coast
+4 hours to mountain time
+5 hours to central time
+6 hours to east coast
Sunday morning I enjoyed not "losing an hour" and the sun rising and setting at unfamiliar times.
Daylight savings time as a topic is only relevant to Kauaʻi in that we don't have it here: one more nice appeal of living here. So if you are in the islands, the upcoming end of daylight savings just means having to adjust the time zone difference to your friends on the mainland.
I never really understood the point and it clearly seemed more trouble and confusing than any possible benefit. Having lived in the Seattle area - far northern US - where sunrise/sunset varies considerably with the seasons, no matter what you do in winter days are very short and in summer almost ridiculously long. Why playing games with the clock is supposed to help I have no idea. If schools, for instance, wanted to shift their hours with the seasons, they could just announce the new schedule and I think people could handle it.
Aside: As a software professional I am quite aware that simply changing computer time for daylight savings continues to frustrate programmers and we still have yet to reliably get it right. Just as one of many examples, Apple's latest iOS 7 recently had a daylight savings time adjustment bug.
But my real motivation for writing about this non-event topic here is that I just read of a brilliant fix to the status quo.
Here's how it would work:
Mountain time and Central time places would stop changing their clocks ever again;
At the end of daylight savings time, Eastern time places would "fall back" once only;
At the start of the next daylight savings time, Pacific time places would "spring forward" once only;
Today in the various time zones from west to east we have times:
After taking the maximum time allowed the mayor vetoed Kauaʻi Bill 2491 (PDF link) yesterday in a move that surprised many, releasing a 76 page report detailing the decision (PDF link) containing the mayorʻs statement for release, the transmittal from the council to the mayor upon passage of the bill, and the until now secret legal opinion on the bill from the county attorneyʻs office.
“I have always said I agree with the intent of this bill to provide for pesticide use disclosure, create meaningful buffer zones and conduct a study on the health and environmental issues relating to pesticide use on Kaua‘i,” stated the Mayor. “However, I believe strongly that this bill is legally flawed. That being the case, I had no choice but to veto.”
I am hardly qualified to assess the legal opinion but regardless of those details what I would very much like to understand is how the process broke down here. Specifically, since the bill was introduced four months ago (June 26) and from the beginning was clearly a major public issue for the county, why didn't the county attorney, the mayor, and the council work together to draft something that met the technical legal requirements of the intended goals which the mayor says he supports?
The council worked with attorneys as well as the mayor throughout the process so the possibilities seem to be:
The council was never advised how they might fix the supposed legal flaws.
The council was advised but refused to accept suggested changes for legal purposes.
It is impossible to achieve the goals of Bill 2491 at the county level.
The county attorney opinion consists of four sections - an Introduction, Legal Issues, Specific Challenges, and a short Conclusion. Why is there no Suggested Amendments section? Just as one example, there is an issue related to the bill assigning enforcement responsibility to the Office of Economic Development: surely the opinion could have recommended to the council a more suitable department to handle implementation.
The legal opinion released is stamped as confidential: what are the consequences of publicizing the opinion?
Does this effectively subvert the council overriding the veto because now the county is in a much compromised position should it enact the bill, having disclosed all the potential flaws and anticipated legal attacks it fears?
Did the mayor unilaterally leak the confidential document to support his veto, or consult with if not get approval of the county attorney and/or county council (who had already decided against disclosure)?
The mayor concludes: “I would like to state that, despite this veto, I absolutely believe that the spirit of 2491 will be implemented on Kauai in accordance with applicable federal, state and county laws and regulations,” he wrote to the council. “It would be my preference to achieve the goal through cooperation and understanding, instead of through adversarial legal action.” Isn't a veto adversarial?
Given the mayor's statement of agreement with intent I have to conclude that either county government is either incompetent to write legislation, so encumbered by state and federal law as to be completely disempowered, or both. Kauaʻi seems to have a record for bungling popularly supported initiatives and getting into legal hot water, possibly causing more damage than good. Another example would be management of vacation rentals (Transient Vacation Rental) as documented in the Abuse Chronicles also at Kauaʻi Eclectic which I believe has been through three iterations becoming increasingly dysfunctional.
I believe we have some good people on the council so is the problem that the system itself is broken, too many layers, too risk averse, with too much complexity?
Recently I chatted with a local merchant who runs a small store on the west side. I mentioned that I was in the process of moving here and he asked me what I thought of the prices the markets charge for things here. Prices of everything on Kaua'i are decidedly high, as I have blogged previously.
"So what do you think about prices here?" "Oh yes, every time I shop it's astonishing how much you pay things here." "Do you know why prices are high?" "Well, they say most everything in stores has to be shipped from the mainland. Plus, it must come through Honolulu and then shipped over here by Young Brothers or Matson on a second leg." "True, but then why are prices on the Big Island much better than here? Their stuff gets shipped in the same." "I didn't know that. I have no idea why that would be." "And did you know that prices weren't so high three years ago here?" "Really? That is about how long I have been coming here." "Yep, that's when Times market bought Big Save." "But on the island we have Safeway and Foodland, too." "Not on the west side we don't." "We do have Ishihara and Sueoka Markets." "Too small scale, they can't compete on prices." "So you are saying it's lack of competition?" "I'm saying thank goodness we have Costco now."
I think he has it right. Kaua'i is just too small to have very competition. Not only are there well under 100,000 people on the island, for the most part folks stay in the region they live or commute and wouldn't regularly venture too far from home for regular shopping. People living on the west side or north shore have nearly an hour's drive if they want to shop in another part of the island, so the few local stores are really the only practical choice the have. On the west side there are several Big Save markets but other than the small groceries mentioned above, you have to drive to Lihue or Kapa'a to reach another brand supermarket. So there are even tinier captive markets at the ends of the road of perhaps under ten thousand, and the merchants know they can get higher prices because people really have no alternative.
The stores do tend to run sales from time to time. I don't know but I imagine when they do overprice stock enough to discourage buying it builds up and then they have to drop prices to move it, so in a way it does balance out somewhat.
Best strategy here is not to make a shopping list of exactly what you want and then go buy that. Rather, walk the aisles and see what is marked down or doesn't seem eye-poppingly expensive and then creatively see how you can make meals around the lesser expensive things that are on sale. Also, it's good for many reasons to buy all the fresh local-grown produce you can at the Sunshine markets.
I do not mean to complain: this is capitalism and the local economy, both locals and visitors, has long since adjusted to the realities of high prices.
The bill passed in the middle of the night, earlier today after a marathon special council session. The controversy will undoubtedly continue, there may be lawsuits, enforcement issues, and so forth, but at least we should get some information disclosure and perhaps that will enable some clarity and transparency that seems much needed.
The video is quite instructive (I watched the last 45 minutes, see link below) as the long night meeting in the end brought out the very human side of the process. Following 17:55 there is a distinct turning point when the patience of many in the room suddenly runs thin, order is firmly but gently restored by the chair, and from that point there is a momentum to wrap up with thank-you's and move to a vote.
First off what's striking is how gut-wrenchingly emotional this entire process is. I have to say that objectively looking at this bill it requires what appears to be quite routine county oversight of five businesses yet the tone of the room is as if World War Three is hanging in the balance.
Overhanging the whole thing is a county attorney opinion about the bill that the council has chosen not to make public. As a result, there are references in the proceedings to unspecified legal concerns that they are unable to discuss publicly. It's difficult to have useful public debate when there are important concerns held in secret as part of the process. Why these legal issues were not mitigated through the amendment process I have no idea.
Another unfortunate circumstance surrounding the bill is that in theory the state of Hawaii should already have responsibility for this matter but in fact has been doing so little for so many years that the county was forced to take this on itself if anything was to be done at all. Yet for the county to act within the purview of state responsibility appears to require a Memorandum of Understanding. Whether the bill or the MOU comes first seems to be a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem but since the mayor has already started dialog with the state - and was urging delay as those discussions seem to take considerable time. With this bill in the works now for many months I would think a MOU could have been forged long ago, or perhaps an MOU of intent to produce an MOU. Again, this is all part of an opaque process so I won't speculate beyond remarking how clear-as-mud the whole thing is.
With the bill now destined to become county law (the mayor has pledged not to veto it) no doubt the county, the state, and of course the affected big ag companies here will doubtless be having many strategy meetings. By no means does passage mean the Bill 2491 story is over!
Coincidentally in Washington DC it seems that also after a lot of emotion the Congress finally agreed to fund the government and restore federal services that have been shutdown over their wrangling. This may be a week for reconciliation.
More details:
Special Council Meeting video can be found here: click the County Council section look for Special Council Meeting, 10/15/13, 18h 37m; click on Video link there.
It is good to be back to the island. I arrived a good hour late due to inter-island flight delay from Maui, then more delay renting a car but made it out of the airport before five. I swung by the storage locker where I stow things while off-island and grabbed nearly everything and with a fairly full Jeep headed for Kalaheo where I am staying right in town.
Wednesday
First day on the island I knew exactly what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go: the Allerton Garden (more info). It's a very special place in so many ways; entering the Lawai Kai valley it feels like you are being immersed in luscious tropical surroundings not quite of this world. Along the road I waved at gardeners I have worked with to say, "I'm back," and they seem genuinely glad to see me. (After all, in some small way I make their job easier.)
The familiar crew was there though reduced in numbers due to continuing budgetary constraints. That six gardeners can keep 83 acres of an elaborate tropical garden in shape is nothing short of a miracle, so I am happy to pitch in. We worked the stretch of road (not on the usual tours) that leads from the bamboo grove along the east bank of the river down toward the house and beach (shown above, right). That curvy coconut tree is just high enough for a truck to drive under it, though they said it gets weighed down when it bears fruit so they have to keep picking coconuts to keep access.
As you can see, their equipment is well used, and even this old truck they only had use of half of the day. Weeding and trimming took the whole day, but the work is peaceful and it's always a treat just to be there and spend time in that environment.
I met some of the other gardeners, got some starfruit at lunchtime, and the day went quickly. While up by the bamboo grove suddenly I heard a crash and looked just in time to see a twenty foot branch come crashing down inside the grove. It was easy to pull out and cut up for hauling to the compost pile.
Flower in the rocky area across from the curvy coconut
After work I met a friend for beer to catchup on things and watched the sun set (photo at top) at Glass Beach (in Eleele). A wonderful first day back.
Thursday
At 7am met the local breakfast group that has been kind enough to include me in their gatherings and caught up with everyone. It's remarkably easy to fall right back into the swing of island life even after two-plus months on the mainland.
Mid-morning I drove out to Waimea to visit my friends at the West Kauai visitor center and see how things are in the far west side. By then it was turning out to be quite a hot day. Lunch at Island Tacos: my usual, the Seared Ahi Wasabi taco. Read the paper at the Hanapepe library and picked up some books for reading, then back to Kalaheo.
A friend's ulu (breadfruit) tree is loaded and he prepared some for me - best I've ever had. He picked it fresh, set the sticky white sap drain out a few minutes, then peeled, cut into chunks, and boiled it until soft like a potato. It was very moist and delicious: the taste is something like a potato with a texture perhaps more like a yam. With salt and a little pepper it was tasty.
Upcoming Events
Orchid on that curvy coconut
This Saturday (October 12) is the Emalani festival up at Koke'e. There will be live music, hula, and a portrayal of Queen Emma in memory of her epic journey up the mountain and out across the Alaka'i Swamp (before the boardwalk was built, obviously) to the Kilohana Lookout (hike). It must have been a sight to see with the queen's entourage trudging through the muck and mud up there for miles: how many European royalty would do such a thing?
Next Saturday (October 19) is "Na Mele No Kaumuali`i" in Waimea featuring original music to honor the last great king of this island. See the web site for latest information and details.
Many drivers here actually do practice aloha spirit and thatʻs exactly what I recommend you do here. In practice this means being considerate, not rushing, and of course no aggressive driving, but I will give a few examples that I think go well above and beyond, and other regions would be wise to learn from.
But before that a few warnings about the realities of driving here are in order.
Traffic around Lihue and Kapaʻa can be heavy at commute times and during the day.
Kapaʻa is perhaps the worst (it can take an hour to go a few miles), consider the alternate route.
During commute times from Kapaʻa/Wailua to Lihue they set out cones for contra-flow, switching to two lanes inbound temporarily to handle the traffic volume.
A few drivers seem to insist on going well below the speed limit (tailgating them doesn't help).
People occasionally stop on the road and engage in talk story: try to be patient.
Rarely a major accident can shut down a main road, and on an island that can easily lead to a you-can't-get-there-from-here situation. Get to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Meeting people at the airport I go early and hang out at Nawiliwili just a few minutes from the airport.
Drivers here are very good at spotting pedestrians at crossings and stopping. The unspoken assumption is that the tourist gawking at the sights don't tend to see them and stop.
If you do get stuck in slow-moving traffic, here is a nice tactic I have seen often. Look for a car stopped on a side street trying to turn left - if you are moving slowly anyway and the other direction is open for them, brake and make an opening for them to pull out. Itʻs easy to catch up to the car ahead and gives you something to look for, not to mention good karma.
Saturday was an eclectic but interesting day of hiking, sushi, and a music concert. Originally I had more ambitious hiking plans (Powerline trail to be specific, going for the big views) but the sky looked more clouded than anticipated so I scaled back and did Nounou mountain (Sleeping Giant), from the ocean side trail head.
Sleeping Giant is the popular hike to do around Wailua, both locals and visitors. I met a lady on the trail who climbs it regularly three times a week. It's a good workout but not a big deal, just four miles round-trip and less than 1000 feet of altitude. The trail is a little tricky to follow and junctions are not signed but no worries getting too lost up there.
I have done this hike before, but not recently, and it was both shorter than I recalled (I must be in better shape now) as well as the views more spectacular than expected. From the east trail head, a few switchbacks take you up through forested level and the trail opens up and becomes more rocky. Further up the trail joins with those of other approaches and leads to a picnic area.
It was already a hot morning for the climb, but from here on the ridge there was a little breeze making it quite pleasant. The photo above right shows the trail leading to the summit. As I was taking this photo people up there (you can just make out a speck of the little girl's bright yellow shirt to the right side of the dark rock forming the peak, a ways down from the very top) started waving and shouting to take their picture. I met them up the trail, took a better shot at close range, and emailed it to them last night.
At the top it's fairly exposed and requires caution and getting there is a little rocky section best climbed using hands but not difficult at all. I felt rather foolish having taken numerous shots of the view on the way up that were nice but nothing like the view from the summit.
Panorama, to the east
Panorama, to the north
On the way back I stopped at the picnic tables for water and a snack and already there as if waiting for me was a fellow from the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) I had met at the Limahuli garden. Already I am starting to just get used to things like this on the island and stop being surprised how well things somehow just work out. He was hiking with his mother and we shared snacks and I learned that he already had plans to work with me as a volunteer on an upcoming new project. He manages the "reserve" - a large undeveloped area above the garden proper. The NTBG owns the entire Limahuli ahupua'a - a roughly pie shaped area from the mountain top down to the ocean - so its an extensive wild area they have been working for years to restore to native plans. Most of Kaua'i is overgrown extensively with invasive plants, including the many plants the original settlers brought with them. In brief, the volunteer work would be maintenance of these areas being restored, and a core challenge is correctly identifying the weeds from the native (some very rare) plants.
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I had dinner at "Katsu" - the Tip Top Motel cafe transformed into a sushi restaurant - and had heard that it was the best sushi on the island. I haven't done a thorough survey to judge that but I can say it was good. The ambience of the cafe is a little jarring to the sushi aesthetic (the green tea comes in coffee mugs) and there is a little Hawaiian hybridizing (the miso soup comes with a Chinese soup spoon).
The sushi was very good, fresh and well prepared. The Sushi Combination A ($24.95) was a large meal: 7 pieces of sushi, all with good sized tane (piece of fish or what have you); tekka maki (tuna roll) and California roll; with miso soup and green tea.
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I attended a fun concert of hula and Hawaiian music, An Evening with Na Kaholokula at the Kaua'i Community College. Na Kaholokula has been playing music on the local scene for many years, founded by the father of the two front men, Robbie and Kimo Kaholokula, and one son is now in the band. The music they played spanned from early days of the band up to new songs, all very Hawaiian style (hard to define that). Most music with lyrics was accompanied by hula, either individual or group performances. Several guest performances were interwoven throughout: Mike Young (slack key guitar), kumu hula Doric Yaris, and a group of west side kupuna (elders) performed hula seated on stage.
The entire show was filled with aloha spirit and evoked a strong feeling of community. As just one example, after opening with a couple of songs, Mike Young got such an ovation (hana ho) he did another song but in changing the tuning of his guitar one of the strings (new ones, he said) snapped. "Anybody have a guitar I can borrow?" he asked without missing a beat. Kimo Kaholokula marched right out and handed him one of his. Mike said he would play with the standard tuning already set up rather than risk breaking someone else's strings. Robbie, the younger of the Kaholokula brothers served as emcee and announcer throughout and was cleary having a wonderful time. As the kupuna were assembling on stage, clearly some of them needed assistance walking. Robbie offered, "You just take your time getting set, we have the room booked until ten."
It's summer on Kauai: mostly sunny days and a little warmer than usual. We are in the middle of hurricane season and had a recent scare - although the Big Island was serious hit in places - and possibly more storms are brewing. Follow the latest here.
Summer also means an extra plentiful supply of local fruit. The mango trees are starting to ripen - I just peeled several pounds for freezing and will back mango bread (with mac nuts). Soursop is also coming.
