WAIPOULI — County officials will seek federal, state and private funding to establish as many as two residential drug-treatment facilities on the island, said Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste. His vision is to have one facility for youngsters, and another for
WAIPOULI — County officials will seek federal, state and private funding to establish as many as two residential drug-treatment facilities on the island, said Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste.
His vision is to have one facility for youngsters, and another for adults fresh out of prison.
Establishment of such facilities may be one of the first tasks of Roy Nishida, who yesterday spent his first day on the job as the county’s drug coordinator, Baptiste said.
Baptiste will meet next week with U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawai’i, and hopes Inouye will champion federal legislation similar to a law that helped Big Island officials get $4 million in federal funds to battle that island’s crystal methamphetamine (ice) problem.
Speaking before members and guests of the Kapa’a Rotary Club at the Kaua’i Coconut Beach Resort here yesterday, Baptiste said he may call on Rotarians to help build the facilities.
The one for Kaua’i youth may be the first priority, the mayor said.
The adult version Baptiste refers to as “punana,” a Hawaiian word meaning “nest,” as in a safe place away from drugs and criminal elements who helped those fresh out of prison get into prison in the first place.
The punana would provide ex-convicts a place to stay, access to a farm, opportunities to learn farming and entrepreneurial skills, and other help to allow their re-assimilation into society, Baptiste said.
To help keep youngsters away from drugs, he is proposing district transportation systems, where nonprofit organizations would take stewardship of 15-passenger vans used to deliver young people to sports fields and neighborhood centers.
Such a system would help families overcome transportation issues that sometimes keep young people from joining organized sports teams or engaging in other healthy neighborhood activities, he observed.
For his work in the war on drugs, and for his willingness to serve as mayor and continue to display Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self,” Baptiste had a Paul Harris Fellowship established in his name by the Kapa’a club.
The club donated $1,000 to Rotary International for Baptiste’s fellowship. Paul Harris was one of the founders of Rotary, in Chicago in 1905.
The fellowship was given in Baptiste’s name “in recognition of the high esteem the club holds you in,” said David Outcalt, club president. Baptiste becomes the club’s 50th Paul Harris Fellow.
Baptiste accepted the honor on behalf of the county.
Then, he returned the favor, declaring Sunday, June 1 as Taste of Hawai’i Day on Kaua’i, in recognition of the 15th-annual, food-and-beverage extravaganza hosted by the club that annually raises over $50,000 for Kaua’i community programs.
The mayor thanked the club for all they do for the Kawaihau district, and the island as a whole.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
