Kaua‘i County Councilwoman Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho and 13 residents have criticized Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s administration for not attending a council committee meeting to give an update on the island’s first residential drug treatment center for youths in Hanapepe. The council had
Kaua‘i County Councilwoman Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho and 13 residents have criticized Mayor Bryan Baptiste’s administration for not attending a council committee meeting to give an update on the island’s first residential drug treatment center for youths in Hanapepe.
The council had asked Baptiste or his representative to attend a meeting of the council’s Community Assistance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee at the historic County Building Wednesday.
Iseri-Carvalho, who heads that committee, said she, the council and the residents became agitated when neither Baptiste nor any other official showed up, even though they had been informed of the request at least six days before the meeting.
“They didn’t even send anybody,” Iseri-Carvalho said. “People from Kapa‘a and Hanapepe and a lot of other people took off from work to come (to the meeting). It was just inexcusable.”
Bernadette Vea, a salt-maker, voiced outrage.
“What’s with the mayor and his administration?” she asked in an e-mail. “He has been playing these games with us from the start. He had hoped we would have disappeared. We are not going anywhere.”
Baptiste said he is sympathetic to the concerns of residents, but said he had requested the deferral in a timely manner, and that the council never got back to his staff on it.
The dispute partly has its roots in concerns by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and saltmakers that runoff from the treatment center could cause irreparable harm to the salt pans, which are by the treatment center.
The salt pans are deemed unique in Hawai‘i because the salt from them is created from the evaporation of ocean water.
Administrative Assistant Gary Heu said the administration asked for the deferral until it could get feedback from OHA on the matter.
“We recognize there is a high level of community sensitivity related to the cultural significance of Puolo Point and the Hanapepe salt pans, and that in order to move forward with this proposed project, we will need to work collaboratively with community members and cultural practitioners, as well as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and government agencies,” Heu said in an e-mail.
Baptiste said his administration became aware of the council’s request on July 27, when the council agenda was posted..
Baptiste said Heu asked for a deferral when he met with Iseri-Carvalho on July 31, and then sent a formal communication to the council on the same matter on Wednesday, the day of the meeting.
Iseri-Carvalho said she wasn’t going to grant the deferral because “many community residents had numerous concerns that went unanswered for a year.”
Heu said the county is attempting to work with OHA to address such concerns, Heu said.
“In early December of 2006, we received a letter from OHA Administrator Clyde Namu‘o. The communication contained numerous questions, concerns and conditions related to the development of the county’s proposed residential treatment center. A correspondence from the administration that responded to Mr. Namu‘o’s communication was sent to OHA on July 9, 2007,” Heu said.
Iseri-Carvalho said residents have numerous concerns about the drug treatment project, including the mission of the project, surveys, drainage studies, subsurface water testing and water toxicity.
She said while county officials have worked on 18 questions from OHA, the agency has found some of the answers inadequate.
“Kalani Kagawa (the OHA representative on Kaua‘i) said OHA was very dissatisfied with answers to several of the questions,” Iseri-Carvalho said.
Some of the questions dealt with lee from the sewer system at the facility and runoff onto the salt beds, Iseri-Carvalho said.
She also said the council is still waiting for answers to 16 questions it posed to the county.
The questions dealt with sub-surface testing, water toxicity, archeological surveys and compensation to the contractor for work stoppage nearly a year ago, Iseri-Carvalho said.
One question dealt with finding an alternative site for the facility, she said.
Hanapepe residents are not opposed to having the facility built, but just not at the site of the old Kaua‘i Humane Society complex, which is being converted for the center, Iseri-Cavalho said.
“They just think it is the wrong location, she said. Residents said the facility, because it will offer drug and alcohol rehabilitation, could increase drug use and sales in the Hanapepe area.
Residents also are concerned about youths undergoing treatment leaving the facility, thereby creating safety problems in the neighborhood.
County officials said they are cognizant of such concerns and that the problems can be mitigated with good planning, sufficient planning and wise use of manpower and resources.
The project is being built with $3 million in federal, state and county funds, Iseri-Carvalho said.
Through a money bill, the county administration asked the council for an additional $600,000 to complete the work. With no action on the bill by the council, the legislation expired June 30.
Whether the administration will make another request for the funding is not known.
Kauai Builders won the bid for the first phase of the contract, which involved grubbing and grading of the old Kaua‘i Humane Society site, and some minor demolition.
The county issued to the contractor a notice on Oct. 2, 2006 to proceed with the work, but work was stopped two weeks later so that testing could be done to ensure the preservation of the salt beds.
