Mr. Clerk, can we have a roll call? Roll call, Councilmember Galimba. Councilmember Houston? Present. Councilmember Ynaba? Here. Councilmember Coguata? Here. Councilmember Connelly Kleinfelder? Yeah. Councilmember Kirkowitz? Councilmember Campbell? Here. Councilmember Villegas? Hello, Chair. Yep. the case and the case and the case and the case and the case and the case and the Heelow Chamber as well, sir. Okay, please proceed with your testifying. Testifying, then we have two testifiers here. And Kona will reserve them for after testimony as completed on Zoom and courtesy sites. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Chair, with that, your first two testifiers here in the Heelow Chamber are John Hamilton to be far away. Thank you. Thank you so much. Chair, with that, your first two testifiers here in the Heelow Chamber are John Hamilton to be followed by Janet Snyder, both testifying on Resolution 95. John, when you begin, if you could just reintroduce yourself, you'll have three minutes. You can turn that mic on by hitting that green button at the base. And again, begin if you could just reintroduce yourself. Oh okay I'm John Hamilton and hello everyone and fresh over there. I'm sorry I got my three minutes don't take away sorry. Anyway I'm here to testify in support of the pont for the co-inguing acquisition. I live very close to it and have enjoyed it ever since the 80s back when it was sugarcane production and during the current owners we've swam, fish, caught shrimp in the stream. We've brought university student groups down to have challenges and adventures. It's just a great place. And one of the things we fear is that we don't want it commercially developed or broken up into small residential lots, which definitely would not be low in Dunkin' at all, because people think Tom Kuakose is so big, there's plenty of things, but there's very few accesses down to the ocean that's safe. A good example of this, just less than a mile away, is the tropical botanical garden, which has taken that area by the old one in the arch and really commercialize it, restricted access and done a lot of, in my opinion, very heavy things. But it isn't against them we're talking about today. So, you know, and also I've seen Pepeco grow with a lot of gated communities, a lot of lack of access. You know, the the wooden bridge on the macaque side of this property, it's a huge recreational asset for the community. I see kids going there all the time to go swimming in the swimming pool and they go down the stream. It's a great place for them. It can be dangerous for people who jump off it. We've actually had a few fatalities over the decades, but generally most people are aware of that. And then preserving this area would really serve the entire coastline because it's not just for that community. It's the stream and its culture still forested, even though the flat area was in sugar cane production and then it was changed to civil culture by the current owners. I believe the plan is to try to log that off and it could be restored to a native. Seconds please. Okay, it could be restored to a native area. Anyway, I'm just saying that this would be a great place to preserve. It could be a wildlife refuge. And we need to preserve and conserve places like this for the future generations. Thank you. Thank you so much for your testimony. Chair, your next test of fire is Janet Snyder be followed by Arthur Roberts. Janet, again, when you begin, you'll have three minutes if you could just reintroduce yourself. Hi, I'm Janet Snyder. Thank you so much for what you do for us and the county council members. I'm a retired county worker, and this is the first time I've ever testified. I'm here to testify in favor of this resolution 9525 which would authorize the director of finance to enter into negotiations for this gem of a parcel on the Hamakua coast. I'm a Hamakua resident myself. This would be, this is on the north end of the scenic route. I agree with Mr. Hamilton who just testified. This would be such a wonderful thing for a gift for the public, for having access to our cakey, our grandchildren in perpetuity. This would be taking care of by, I believe, I understand the Fishing Community Association who would act as stewards of the property. This is an important thing that they would take care of it. And it's sacred trust. So I think hats off to the Fishing Community. Just for your information, you, I'm sure you all know. But this parcel was planted years ago in Mahagani, but it was never harvested. So it's in ag, technically. There's nothing on it as far as dwellings or anything like that. It would really be one of these beautiful, once these, and Mahagani is harvested, I assume. It would be a wonderful place and an easy place for people to access for recreation for just quiet enjoyment so I urge you please to join me in supporting this resolution thank you thank you so much for your testimony chair your last testify here in the Heelow Chamber is Arthur Roberts. Arthur, when you begin, you'll have three minutes. If you could just reintroduce yourself, please. Yes, my name is Arthur Roberts. I live in Hackellao and I support this resolution as well for the county to buy this land. Mr. Hamilton brought up that UH students have gone down to this area. And as a retired high school teacher, I would very much support our high school students going down to that area as well. I had not known about the Mahogany, but that's very interesting. And also right along there, it's just such a beautiful area. Mr. Hamilton also brought up access to the coastline. A very important point. We don't want to lose that to private developers. And really everything that Mr. Hamilton said, and my wife, Janet Snyder, said, I totally agree totally agree with so I'll keep this short thank you very much for your time and for listening. Thank you so much for that testimony. Chair at this time those are all the testifiers we have currently at your remote sites. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Rossellio, Chair Nishi and community, we have two test players here. First to provide testimony, Baython Keeney. And then to be followed by Dylan Crawford, and you just activate the microphone. There's a button at the base on the, there you go. And if you pull it closer to you so we can hear you and have you clearly for the record, please proceed. You'll have three minutes. Okay. Aloha, County Council and Chair Kimball. I appreciate you championing this resolution for us. We are just so appreciative of this opportunity to preserve land on our island and on the Hamakua North Helo coast in particular. It's a rare thing. There's only one other parcel that has been purchased on this coastline. And it's only a 1.5 acre over by Waipiul. And so all of those public access points are so treasured and especially along the sources of water such as Kavainui and we are just very excited to see the community involved in this process. It's currently the Makahana-Lawa Fishing Association which are already these stewards of this place and have in their private time and utilize it for feeding their families. And so we just really appreciate this opportunity. And yeah, thank you so much. Thank you for your testimony Mr. Crawford you may proceed do the same you could act like the microphone and just make sure you speak into it clearly for the record and they can hear your in kilo and everywhere else too. Thank you so much please proceed you live three minutes. Yeah my name is Dylan Crawford. I am on the board of the Makahana Lo fishing association and we are really good stewards of our community. We take care of the 23 flats which is inside of a gated community out there on Pepecale Point. We often have up to 40, sometimes 50 members show up for our Olawha Inaday's which are every other month. And we represent about 140 fishing families in the Hilo community and for the most part we have a lot of support within the community. So I have no doubt that if this resolution passes and we do enter into negotiations and purchase this property, we will be able to store it as the community would see fit. they would also have input as we have yearly meetings Our non-profit does You know we vote for board members, etc So everybody has a say and once once this goes through as far as client-newy itself goes It's a phenomenal place. I grew up on the East End of Molokai, but I did graduate from Heelahai and the University of Hawaii. I've been a fisherman my whole life, started on Muala Kai obviously, but poked around and found these places. And there's nothing like it on the coast. It's, if you're not familiar with the valley, it's kind of something that you would probably expect to see somewhere between Polalu and NYPO. It's actually really pretty native. There's very few, I mean, aside from the Gulch palms, very few African tulip, you know, Albeziah and the like. So a lot of LaHalla, a lot of, a lot of native. And actually there's a native damsel fly which lives in that water that they did a study on years ago. And if the water is at all polluted, this particular damsel fly is usually not present. So it's just, it just speaks to the biodiversity of the area as somebody who fishes dives Etc. It's it's a it's a beautiful Estuary that because it's it does have a beach, but it's also wide open to the ocean So the fish are constantly coming and going plenty of mallet plenty of moist plenty of holy holy We would like to use it as a fishery You know stock for the surrounding areas if we can properly promote its use and keep the illegal fishing out. We can definitely use it to keep the fishing stocks in the area up. And so I just appreciate all you guys, especially Heather, for working with our association. And yeah, everybody that's been involved and I appreciate all you listening to the testimony of us today. Mahalo. Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Crawford. I love that. I'll proceed to the data bin. Okay, Mr. Clerk, can you read in resolution 95? That's two five. Resolution 95, that is 25 authorized director of into negotiations with acquisition of all or a portion of the property identified as test map keys 2701-1001 and 27010027 situated in Opua of Kaibai, Nui and Onomia District of South Hilo utilizing the public access open space and natural resources preservation fund the county seeks to acquire approximately 81.19 acres of land to protect and preserve cultural natural resources and open-support search and areas of the property for educational gathering and cultural practices. Parsley listed as part number two and in 2024 and report of the public access open space and natural resources preservation commission introduced by councilmember Campbell. Ms. Kimball. Chair motion to approve resolution 95-25. There was a tie. No. So we have a Chair or Nishie before you announced the make her the motion. The second proper motion would be to forward to Council. The table recommendation committee cannot approve resolutions. So may I have a motion to forward to council with a positive recommendation? So moved Chair. Okay, so second by this relay guest and second by Miss Kimboa. Okay, any, do we have property management there in Hilo? Yes, we have finance here deputy director will be speaking to this matter. Okay. Please come forward And then miss Heather You can Kimbo. She's on her way up. She's she's bigger. You can run the this part. OK. Of course. Did you have specific questions for finance that you wanted to start with? No, but you can help. You can move forward on your discussion with working with finance on this resolution. OK. great. So just asking my colleagues for their support to move this forward to council. Hopefully some of you took the time to read the written testimony that was submitted and some of the beautiful descriptions of this particular area. We're looking at two parcels, roughly 40 acres each for a total of a little over 80 acres. They're currently on the market and that is part of the urgency with getting this resolution. As soon as the report was submitted, we have this resolution ready to go. The owners are willing to work with us at the county to move forward with a punk purchase. But they needed some sort of signal that we were serious about proceeding with that so that we can sort of stave off some of the private market offers that have been coming through. As mentioned, this is a unique property on the coastline on the east side here. We don't have a lot of beach areas open access to the ocean. Of course, it has this riparian area which has some unique biodiversity that is well worth preserving. And I do want to just highlight that Makahana Loa fishing association who have been identified as the stewards are uniquely qualified to store this area. They have, I believe, the expertise to develop a sound management plan, and they have really been excellent about demonstrating boots on the ground effort to Malama Aina in the Pipekio area. So I have every confidence that they will be excellent stewards of this area and making it available as an important public asset in this community. I'm happy to answer any additional questions about the property finance. I don't know if there's anything that you want to contribute to this discussion at this time With regard to your position on moving forward with the negotiation conversations No, nothing for the ad thank you With that I'll you'll chair. Thank you Sorry Miss Kimbo was talking to Miss Tinaina. So what was that again? Your question or? Oh, you yield my time. Thank you. And finance, do you have anything to say? No, nothing to add. We're ready to work on appraisals or whatever is necessary to move this forward. Okay. Good. Okay. Who wants to go first? Google with Ms. Cagduata. Thank you, Chair. I just want to thank Council Member Kimball for putting this forward and for the community for working on this land for so long. And as we move into a time of uncertainty around food security for Ireland, I think that the fishing aspect cannot be underscored enough. And so really do appreciate that. That we can have a place where people can go to the land, go to the sea, and feed their family. So I really do appreciate this. And very happy to support. It looks like a great project. I yield. So who's this? Thank you, Chair. And I think thank you, Councilman, for bringing this forward on behalf of the community. I'm not sure where this question would go. Maybe Ms. Campbell, you could speak to it or finance possibly. On one of the notes under the special opportunities for acquisition and or management, the last bullet point talks about the tropical hardwoods. So it's it's it's claiming that it's adding value to the property but can can any of the steward groups, stewardship groups, organizations. I'm a little unclear if they can sell out or sell any of the trees on the property for other uses if that's allowable under the conservation lines here under punk. I can answer that. For the charter, no. That is not allowable, but they can use the material. it cannot be sold commercially if that answers your question. So can be harvested, but it would not be a commercial industry. So be harvested for the purpose of use on the site then or out in the community. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for the clarification. Thanks, Chair. Thank you, Chair. Just in support. This is a nice, well beyond nice. This is a really beautiful piece of property with a lot of historic value. I think we've been touched on today. So to have our association in charge of stewardship and the C community of support and have the council member Kimball walking this in with finance department, it really is clean and I think will be tremendous as far as preserving properties in space like this for future generations. So perfect, perfect use for look forward to supporting thank you. Okay any other members? I mean I wanted to comment yeah sure it is Kimbo. Thank you I actually forgot to mention one of the most important points which is the fishing fishing association has already been able to secure through the land trust of million dollars towards the purchase of this property. So there's already one step ahead of the game in terms of funding support for this project. Okay, thank you. Okay, I just have a couple. This is for basically finance. And so what Mr. Hussis was mentioning, so if the community or nonprofits use the hardwood on this property, if they make a product, are they allowed to sell that products? Mollia Kekai, Deputy Director of Finance. I don't think they're allowed to sell anything from these. I think that basically what would need to be done is a measurement plan would need to be put forth that would create more of what would be done with these woods, how they would be handled, that sort of thing with the timber. I'm sorry, but yeah, I don't believe there would be, obviously we would look more into the deed and into the other language as we go through the purchase, but I don't believe any sale would be allowed. Okay, good. Because what we have in front of us is not real clear. That's why so just want to make it on the record. Okay. The second thing is, One, if the county does purchase this, then it gets turned over basically to parts and rack for their monitoring of this properties correct? No, finance is property management is in management of all punk. Okay, but not all properties purchased by P is under the finance correct Currently, they are all under finance. Okay, because I remember back before when we purchased cover is it covered the beach area down in Punalala? Yeah Parks and Rec were the ones that got the nonprofit to monitor or to maintain that property. Yeah, previously, Parks was part of the process, but that has been transferred back to Finance and Property Management. So I don't want to miss speak for every single parcel, but for my understanding, property management in finance is responsible for all punk and stuff. Okay. And so are you folks also in charge of providing the funding that I guess it's like 10% they take from punk to help maintain the properties correct? Yes, there's a punk win. It's fun. It's not 10%. It's an annual cruel up to $3 million that can get this first two stewardship and also used by the county to maintain the properties. Okay. Thank you. And the gentleman with the fishing, can you come forward with one question? And you can introduce yourself. Yeah, Dylan Crawford, Secretary of the Makhon O'Fish and Association. Okay. You know, I do have some friends that fish in Kornelab up in Mokaside and stuff like that And this couple guys, they're very involved with the, I guess, that fishing, the state advisory fishing. What are the? Yeah. Yeah. I have a senator here. What you get at where the community subsistence programs. And they mentioned, you know, like last year about how either the state or a federal wanted to, I guess, what, put a moratorium in certain areas. So, and they, like, taking away a lot of areas for fishermen to go and fish, correct? Yeah, I'm more familiar with what's actually been done on Molkai, just because I have family over there, the boy boys, and what they're doing on Molomomi. And I know it does create some divisions among families. And so yeah, it can be complicated, but as far as Mahanalo is concerned, we haven't started working with DLNR on any of these programs, but we are open to it because it is valuable to in my opinion to close off some of the season because as somebody who grew up in Hawaii dies, see what we're actually dealing with, you know, on the ground, in the reefs. We are losing a lot of species that are highly targeted. So yeah actually shutting some areas down but I think would be a good idea. Okay, you know and I just swear because if we can if they're allowable to purchase it and we do purchase it I'm hoping that does protect the fishermen right and have you guys being able to go and fish over there? That is, that is ideally what we want. We just want to be able to, I mean, I know of certain individuals who do break the rules, we have drug problems on this island. There are certain individuals that will go out of season to get mullet, moy, et cetera. So in a sense, having a presence there, identifying those individuals, and actually having the ability to just make contact with them and explain to them what our goals are. That should help with these problems, at least in that macro scale in our area. And then yeah, I just wanted to reiterate to that, so as far as the wood in the upland is concerned, we did go through and we measured some of the DBA to the trees and kind of we did bring in. We brought in a miller and we kind of figured out that the value of the trees is somewhere roughly around a half a million dollars for the 50 acres. So that is an issue. It's not something that we're looking to necessarily capitalize on, but as was discussed earlier with food security, we do want to use that Upland to plan Ulu's, avocados, various substituents, crops that can be gathered by the community, regardless of whether it's community gardens. Upl, that upland area is very, you know, Tomaco soil. We would be able to use it to grow food. Now, if the trees are just there, and we, you know, it's pretty densely forested with these hardwoods, they'd never thinned it out. So there is issues of the first thing we could do is thin some of this stuff out to grow up some of the rest of the trees to create more value. If it was worked out with the county that we could mill it and some of the money could go back towards PONC, we would be agreeable to that. I obviously don't know how this all works, but we're willing to, we did look into that and we are willing to work with the county to address the situation. And just the last thing, like if you folks do hear anything from like Dylan are doing, you know, what they, the country's very shy of all, you know, resources and so forth, let us know so that we can help support you guys. Okay, we appreciate it. Thank you. All right, Mark. Okay, any other questions? Anybody else? Okay. So all those in favor of approving resolution 95-25, we'll pause the recommendation to the full council. Say aye. On the post. We have six eyes and three excused. Oh, I'm sorry. Ms. Glimba, Ms. Carcowicz, and Mr. Kanye Lee Eve Kleinfelder. Okay. Okay, so meeting of your journey at 11 to 19. Oh, I'm sorry, 12, 18. Thank you.