POIPU —When Kekaha resident April Yoakum went to Mahaulepu Beach recently to soak up the sun, she knew she had to be out by 6 p.m. Coming in, she saw the signs and had no intention of staying after hours.
POIPU —When Kekaha resident April Yoakum went to Mahaulepu Beach recently to soak up the sun, she knew she had to be out by 6 p.m. Coming in, she saw the signs and had no intention of staying after hours.
Signs on the Grove Farm property clearly state that violators of the rules face a $200 fee and could have their car towed away.
No problem, thought Yoakum — until she was trying to exit the property at 4:30 p.m., when she backed up and got her tire stuck in the sand. She couldn’t get her SUV out.
That’s when her troubles began.
Three passers-by were unable to help. Yoakum dug with a shovel and on her hands and knees until two men on their way out helped pull her vehicle free, she said.
By that time, it was after 5:30 p.m. and a security guard had pulled up in a vehicle. The guard watched the men pull the SUV out, but did not approach, Yoakum said.
Then she turned around and saw the gigantic hole where her SUV had been stuck and decided “it would disrespectful to leave it there,” so she filled it. That took more than 20 minutes.
The entire time, the security guard watched, she said.
At one point, she turned around and noticed that the guard had left.
“I thought ‘Oh my gosh, I got to go,’” Yoakum said. “The road there is bad with huge potholes, but the security guard knew I was stuck. He saw the guys pull me out.”
She thought she would be given some leniency after the ordeal, but when she arrived at the first gate on the road that leads toward the entrance, it was locked and no one was around. Yoakum looked at her phone; it was 6:08 p.m.
She drove around and tried to find another way out. When that didn’t work, she figured she’d spend the night. Eventually, she ran into Suzette Medeiros Kane and her husband, Bill, of C&D Maintenance, hired by Grove Farm to monitor vehicles after hours at the property. They said she would have to pay the fine.
Yoakum, though, didn’t have the money on her.
“The only way I could get out is if I gave her my credit card,” she said. “They were going to tow my car.”
The entrance to Mahaulepu Beach boasts several signs that warn the public of the 6 p.m. closing time and the $200 fee, said Grove Farm Vice President Marissa Sandblom.
“Grove Farm has provided the community with access to the area for many years,” Sandblom said. “Back in 2010, it became necessary to not only lock the gate at 6 p.m., but to ensure that the area was cleared for the night as well. This resulted due to the increasing frequency of instances where large parties were taking place on the beach, folks were camping illegally, people would leave behind trash and human waste, etc. Also, when people got locked in, they sometimes rammed and broke the gate and locks in order to get out, which resulted in substantial property damage.”
Sandblom said C&D Maintenance is only called in if there are vehicles on the property after 6 p.m. If people are not around, then it becomes a towing situation, she said.
There is a 10-minute grace period given to folks trying to leave the premises, both Sandblom and Kane said.
Yoakum is sure Kane and her husband guided her toward another gate where they eventually let her out, but argued with her over what time she arrived at the first gate.
Yoakum said she arrived at 6:08 p.m. According to Sandblom, a Grove Farm security report said a call came in at 6:12 p.m., saying Yoakum’s vehicle was still on the property. C&D Maintenance told Yoakum that Grove Farm security had locked the gate promptly at 6:10 p.m., then called C&D.
Yoakum ended up paying the $200, despite some resistance, but was adamant that she arrived two minutes before the grace period had ended and did not see a security guard at the gate.
Sandblom said the grace period is a “slippery slope,” and one Grove Farm doesn’t advertise because it wants the public to respect the signs.
Kane said the Grove Farm security guard and C&D Maintenance knew Yoakum had car trouble, but said it was over by 5:40 p.m. She could have easily driven off the property after getting her car out of the sand, Kane said.
After C&D got the call, they had to drive inside the beach area to find Yoakum because she wasn’t at the gate, Kane said. Ninety percent of the time, people are waiting at the gate and admit it’s their fault and pay the fee, she said.
“My husband goes and looks for people,” Kane said. “They don’t read the fee. We charge them the fee. I do a report and send the report to Grove Farm.”
In this case, Yoakum was at the beach and they had to pull her away and out of the gate, Kane said. Yoakum and Kane disagree about the details of how the events at the beach unfolded, each saying the other was disrespectful to the other.
The $200 fee is necessary because of liabilities incurred, Kane said. It covers the cost of damages to their vehicles, security and gas, she said.
“We rarely ever get calls down there,” she said. “But we still have costs to incur. We can’t schedule anything in our lives between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m.”
Kane said people are fortunate the landowner opens up private roads to the public between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. and that they cover the cost of security and trash cleanup.
Yoakum is planning to file a report with the Better Business Bureau and send a letter to the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
