Gate-gate I: Recently, access over land controlled by the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i Authority (NELHA) has become a cause celèbre. In July, NELHA director Ron Baird announced that at the end of the month, he would be closing the main gate into the facility after business hours on weekdays and throughout the weekend, citing the lapse of NELHA’s contract with a private security service. The road, which joins Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway about a mile south of the Kona airport turnoff, provides the only access to a state beach park and (until August) to a popular surf area known as Pine Trees.
At the July 28 meeting of the NELHA board of directors, board members asked Baird to explain his actions. Baird responded by blaming a number of factors, including the contemplated switch in NELHA’s administrative parent from the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism to the Department of Accounting and General Services, which slowed the contract renewal process, and concerns over the security of NELHA facilities. Baird insisted the closure would not deny anyone access to the shoreline, since people were welcome to walk (the beach park is approximately two miles from the highway, down a hot, treeless road).
When the initial draft minutes of the meeting were distributed to board members, there was no mention of the discussion. At least one board member protested, resulting in a greatly abridged summary of the exchanges.
But this version also did not capture the discussion at the meeting adequately, in the view of Russell Tsuji, who represents the Department of Land and Natural Resources on the NELHA board. Tsuji reprimanded Baird, accusing him of instructing his staff to “defy my request” to have the minutes revised “to truly reflect what transpired at the last meeting.” Baird’s actions in this matter, Tsuji wrote in an email to Baird, were “reprehensible and insubordinate.”
Gate-gate II: Tsuji’s words were mild compared to the tongue-lashings administered to an absent Baird at a meeting a month later, called to discuss Baird’s abrupt closure of the jeep trail to Pine Trees. According to published reports, Soli Niheu of Waimea said Baird “needs to put his right hand on his left ear and his left hand on his right ear and pull his head out” of …. – to the cheers of a crowd estimated at between 400 and 700 residents from across the Big Island. Many others called for Baird’s resignation – or firing.
Chairing the August 21 meeting were area legislators Sen. Josh Green, Rep. Cindy Evans, and Rep. Denny Coffman. They listened as one after another witness testified to the dangers created by Baird’s unilateral closure of the Pine Trees gate. What had sparked Baird’s action was the opening of a road through the Kohanaiki area (now being developed into a residential neighborhood) to the shore. With that access open, Baird evidently reasoned, the NELHA access could be shut down.
But the Kohanaiki road, which branches off Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway, has no acceleration or deceleration lanes and no turn lanes, which makes it far less safe for cars entering and leaving than access via the NELHA intersection, which does have ample provision for turning traffic. Many of those testifying voiced concerns for their safety in using the new road.
Within three days, the gate blocking the jeep road to Pine Trees had been quietly lifted.
A Correction: Our September article, “Marine, Native Forest Bird and Plant Habitats Will All Suffer Under Climate Change Scenarios,” erroneously identified the chlorophyll concentrations in dead zones found in the Pacific Ocean. The correct figure should have been less than 0.07 mg of carbon per cubic meter, not 0.7 as stated in the article.
Online Only: The state Environmental Council has gone on strike. This exclusive story is available only in the EH-Xtra column of our website, [url=http://www.environment-hawaii.org]www.environment-hawaii.org[/url] Access is free.
Volume 20, Number 4 October 2009
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