OCTOBER 1, 2014 - VOLUME 30, ISSUE 40
The
Molokai Dispatch T H E I S L A N D ’S N E W S S O U R C E S I N C E 1985
Putting in Their Two Cents
Community Center Renovations Almost Done
By Bianca Moragne | Staff Writer
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aui County mixed things up at this year’s community budget meetings with a new format that allowed residents, organizations and community leaders more focused opportunities to add input to the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2015-2016. The new format rotated community members through tables of staff from each county department. County directors and staff members listened to concerns, addressed budget needs and answered questions about departmentspecific county-related issues. Attendees were given a form to write down their comments. All concerns were submitted to Budget Director for the Mayor’s Office Sandy Baz at the end of the meeting. “This new format is being very well received from the community,” Baz said. “For 20 years, we’ve been doing it with this idea of somebody standing in front of a microphone for three minutes and providing one-way testimony. We wanted to bring public engagement to the 21st century.” Testimony from residents was the most received at a Molokai community budget meeting, Baz said. Mayor Alan Arakawa said it’s important for the government to evaluate community concerns on major issues and address them in the budget. “From renovating Mitchell Pauole Center to the fire station that has been built, all of that came from public testimony from the people on this island,” said Arakawa. “It’s your tax dollars that we’re going to be redistributing to pay for services that will best support your community.”
Parks and Rec Several large projects such as the Mitchell Pauole Center and the parking lot expansion and light installation at Duke Maliu Regional Park are being tackled by the Dept. of Parks and Recreation this year, according to Deputy Director Brianne Savage. “We have a lot of overdue maintenance projects that have not been taken care of for many years because there hasn’t been funding for them,” she said. In this year’s budget, County Council provided additional capital expenditure improvement monies for each of the eight districts. Molokai received $6.9 million, or 6.3 percent, for Fiscal Year 2015. The budget allocated $50.11 million, or 45.3 percent, for countywide projects. Now, Molokai has the money to catch up on repairs on corroding chainlink fencing at youth sports fields and restroom renovations at Papohaku Beach Park, Savage said. She said several of the maintenance projects will take place in 2015. “Our goal is to try to get all of our specifications and projects scheduled and organized in the next couple of months so that hopefully as soon as we hit 2015 we can actually start executing the work, Sav-
Budget Continued pg. 2
By Catherine Cluett | Editor-In-Chief
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Six-year-old Kia`i Ching takes a flying leap into the sunset at Papohaku Beach.
Photo by Catherine Cluett
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his spectacular photo of Papohaku Beach’s skyscape made NASA’s website as photo of the day last month. Taken by Spanish-American astrophotographer Rogelio Bernal Andreo, this shot captures a night rainbow on the western horizon during his visit to Molokai in June, with Oahu’s glow in the background. The moonbow, Andreo explained, is produced as raindrops reflect moonlight from the direction opposite the moon, meaning the moon is directly behind the photographer. The photo will be included in his upcoming book, “Hawaii Nights.”
“I had Papohaku Beach in my list of places to visit for the book, and when I entered that immaculate beach, I knew I was in one of the most amazing places on Earth,” said Andreo, via email. “While I was taking this panorama, suddenly the moonbow appeared. It was amazing.” Andreo’s photography of the night sky has appeared in magazines like National Geographic, as well as television networks such as the BBC, the Discovery Channel series “Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking” and “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” series. For more of his photography, visit deepskycolors.com.
A Look Into Kalaupapa Life
aunakakai’s community facility, the Mitchell Pauole Center, remains closed for renovations but its completion is near. “The bulk of the work is done,” said Brianne Savage, interim parks director for the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation, which is in charge of the project. “We’re pushing [for reopening] as soon as we can.” Construction began at the end of March, and was slated to be finished this December. Savage said she hopes the facility will be ready ahead of schedule. No official completion date has yet been set. The renovations -- which include an additional freestanding covered lanai, kitchen and restroom improvements, and wheelchair accessibility upgrades to current Americans with Disabilities (ADA) standards – are budgeted at over $1 million. Those smaller improvements still left to be completed include finishing the restrooms and making adjustments to the drainage system, Savage said. Since construction has been going on, the Mitchell Pauole Center – the largest and one of the only community facilities in Kaunakakai -- has been closed to community events and public use. Meetings and events normally scheduled for the space have been shifted in the meantime to various other facilities around the island. The discussion for the need for improvements began several years ago, according to community leaders who testi-
Center Continued pg. 2
THIS WEEK’S
Dispatch
Honoring County Employees
Pg. 2
Football Sweeps St. Anthony
Pg. 3
Photo by Catherine Cluett
By Catherine Cluett | Editor-In-Chief
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hen many people think of Kalaupapa, images of exile, suffering and disfigurement come to mind – stories from history books that tell a horrific tale from outside eyes. A photo exhibit that opened at the Molokai Museum and Cultural Center in Kalae last Saturday seeks to depict the people of Kalaupapa in a
new light. “So much of [Kalaupapa’s] history is based on other people’s accounts and often sensationalized and just not true,” said Valerie Monson, coordinator for Ka `Ohana O Kalaupapa, the organization sponsoring the exhibit. “[The exhibit’s goal] is to capture history in their own words and the images they chose. We hope people will come away with a completely different image of
Exhibit continued pg. 6
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The
Molokai Dispatch
P.O. Box 482219 Kaunakakai, HI 96748
Kalei Davis Molokai Born & Raised