Kīlauea sounds off concerns at latest public meeting in run-up to county budget season

North Shore residents lobbied for action on their community’s most pressing issues Monday, at a meeting helmed by Kaua‘i County Councilmember Bernard Carvalho in the Kīlauea Neighborhood Center.

The public gathering was the second in an ongoing series of region-specific town halls, scheduled throughout the run-up to county budget deliberations beginning in late March.

“Tonight is all about Kīlauea … We want to hear your voice and see some of the areas of concern you have,” Carvalho told an audience of about 30 residents and county government officials. “We are going into budget sessions, and this will help us to understand what the needs are in this community.”

Trends quickly established themselves during the 90-minute town hall. Many residents listed lack of disaster preparedness, poor road infrastructure, lack of local beach access and expensive-yet-mandatory cesspool conversions among their chief concerns.

Other issues raised included – but were not limited to – affordable housing, water quality and problems surrounding operations at the Kaua‘i County Refuse Transfer Station in nearby Princeville.

“Emergency disaster relief … The tragedy in Lāhainā brings up so many things for our island because our climate and our environment are very similar,” said Michelle Gibson. “I would hope that we would actually take the time to look at what happened there and make sure it doesn’t happen here.”

Debra Drayton concurred.

“I’ve been through both hurricanes, Iniki [in 1992] and Iwa [in 1982],” she said. “I would like to ask all of you … Where would you go for shelter before or maybe after the hurricane or flooding? … If you think about it, we really don’t have any shelters on the North Shore.”

The solution, Drayton suggested, lies in the planned construction of three disaster-proof monolithic domes at Kīlauea’s Anaina Hou Community Park. Dubbed the Kaua‘i Resilience Center, the domes championed by Anaina Hou CEO Jill Lowry – who was present at Monday’s town hall – could shelter up to 1,500 individuals and would serve as community resources outside of disaster relief.

“One of those domes we’d like to designate for a fire station. Now, people say we have a fire station in Princeville,” Drayton said. “But if you really think about it, one fire station covering from the end of the road [in Hāʻena] all the way to I believe Kapa‘a, it’s not going to be sufficient. So if we have an auxiliary fire station as a backup, that would be great.”

Stefan Swanepoel – president of the Princeville II Community Association and the Kaua’i North Shore Community Foundation – proposed Kaua‘i County meet with North Shore residents regularly to ensure “accountability.”

“I think the general frustration is that things don’t always happen at the speed they should happen … Things do take longer here than anywhere else,” Swanepoel said. “We could have a bunch of homeowners here that liaise with you on a regular basis … Let’s make a list of what’s out there that needs to be done, and put some dates and times and budgets against those things.

“Let’s put them on a priority list and let’s see if we can, as a community, work together with the county to actually get some of these checked off in the next year or two or three.”

Carvalho – who was pinch-hitting for an absent County Council Chair Mel Rapozo, the town hall series’ advertised host – did not provide in-depth answers to residents’ comments and suggestions.

“I didn’t speak too much. I wanted to hear from the people,” he said after the meeting concluded.

As the town halls continue, Carvalho noted he and his fellow councilmembers will be on the lookout for repetitive issues “that rise to the top.”

“We can then say, ‘What do you mean? Hanalei, Kīlauea, Kapa‘a and Kōloa are all seeing the same thing and are all experiencing the same thing,'” Carvalho said. “We’ve got to make sure that we find a way [to address those problems]. The things today, the things tomorrow, gotta happen.”

The nonprofit Hōʻike – Kauaʻi Community Television is airing live or taped recordings of the ongoing town hall meetings. Channel schedules can be found here.