Host Community Benefits survey conducted in Kekaha

KEKAHA — Kekaha residents are urged to participate in a survey that’s being conducted by the Citizens Advisory Committee for the Kekaha Host Community Benefits program, a county news release states.

The survey will be used to develop recommendations for the expenditure of the $650,000 appropriated last year by the County Council as a form of compensation for the upcoming expansion of the Kekaha Landfill.

Residents and property owners can expect to receive the survey sometime this month either by mail or house-to-house distribution.

One survey per household will be accepted.

CAC Vice Chair Jose Bulatao has volunteered to lead the house-to-house distribution and is inviting Kekaha residents to join in this effort by attending an organizational meeting.

The meeting, which includes a potluck dinner, will be held on Wednesday, June 10, 6 p.m., at the Kekaha Neighborhood Center, just prior to a regularly scheduled E Ola Mau Na Leo O Kekaha meeting.

Mary Jean Buza-Sims, president of E Ola Mau Na Leo O Kekaha, said, “This is our way to be proactively involved in serving our community’s interests.”

She noted that Kekaha is a town that has transitioned from being an insular plantation town where everyone knew one another to a town that’s in search of a new identity.

Kekaha is also the fourth largest community on Kaua‘i with 1,200 residences including: old-timers; newcomers; apartments; affordable housing units; and Department of Hawaiian Home Lands’ housing.

The Kekaha Landfill has been in existence since 1953, and became the island’s only landfill in January 1991.

 A lateral expansion on the northwestern side of the landfill is in the last stages of the regulatory approval process.

 The remaining life of the landfill including current and future expansion areas and airspace is estimated at 6.5 years.

For more information, contact Beth Tokioka at 241-4900 or via e-mail at btokioka@kauai.gov.