Dear County Council: I attended the Paia-Haiku mtg on 4/2/2024 but comments are closed so I am entering here. I am a 29 year Haiku resident and homeowner residing at 711 Haiku Road since 2000. I am submitting my comments with respect to the Mayor's Proposed Budget and sharing my concerns about what is happening/not happening in my neighborhood. I am an active volunteer and steering committee member of the Maui Nui Food Alliance and the Hawaii Public Health Institute Healthy Eating Active Living Coalition. I am retired from paid employment and, in addition to volunteer work, I actively farm my 1/2 acre property.
My chief concerns are the following:
1 - the huge increase in houseless has endangered my community; the uptick since 2020 is significant. My property was burglarized 4 times in 2023 with the same burglar entering the home while folks were at home with a baby in July and returning in August. The suspect's image was captured on camera. MPD did arrive quickly for both those episodes with documented via police reports. Despite the perpetrator being a known houseless entity in the community (I recently saw him walking down the street and know he lives in the tree stand at the corner of Kauhikoa and Haiku Road) - THE POLICE have not pursued him.
- Drug Trafficking - My house is opposite Pokoa Road. There is ACTIVE DRUG TRAFFICKING at the end of the street with endless cars briefly stopping to pick up/pay for drugs - I have witnessed many transactions with the same guy on a motorcycle/bike running the drug transactions. The police MUST be aware as there is also LONG STANDING drug transactions occurring just a block away at the Haiku Cannery. The MPD ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOB to keep our community safe. EVERY HOME in my neighborhood has resorted to installing security cameras and installing security fencing. Many talk about getting their own guns - which would be terrible. Enough is enough!
- HOLOMUA Road is another example of MPD not doing their job. As Maui Fire Department testified on 4/2/2024, they responded to > 35 fires and multiple medical emergencies in this houseless encampment and chop shop. The uptick in stolen vehicles AND the fire danger is tantamount to neglect and another Lahaina disaster. Their presence endangers the MISC team as they need to go by that area on a daily basis.
- MISC - I FULLY support their work and without more financial support to MISC, the community will be overwhelmed - as the Big Island is - with coqui and all the rest of the invasive species. MISC is ESSENTIAL to our community and have been doing exceptional work!!!
- Tied to these situations is the lack of affordability of rental properties. As a landlord, I've rented to local families since 2001 and have always kept rent at well below inflated market levels. Eliminating Short Term Rental ownership by off island folks who have second & third properties should be a priority! Increased enforcement of illegal rental properties also needs to be a priority. Next door to my house at 727 Haiku Road are multiple illegal rentals - it's hard to ignore the different rental cars arriving and departing most days. Whatever efforts the County initiated to eliminate illegal rentals - IT'S NOT WORKING!!! These illegal rentals used to be rented under HUD and would serve the community.
- BUY that property along Hana Highway in the Pauwela Lighthouse area. Testifiers provided the TMKs to the County Council. There should be someway to collaborate with land preserving organizations and the County to keep these lands in the hands of the community - perhaps to use for a new Haiku Community Center in the future so that the Haiku School can expand as it desperately needs to but also to support the expansion of AGRICULTURAL LANDS for new and beginning farmers. The new County Ag Department could be involved with demonstration projects and collaboration with Maui College Ag Department, GoFarm, Grow Some Good, HFUU, and other non-profit and for-profit organizations (Mahi Pono?) to support Farm to School programs and growing the possibility of getting local produce into the schools and/or collaborate with the Maui Hub to sell commercially with profits going back into the programs.
- Noisy Neighborhoods! There are incredibly loud mufflers on cars and motorcycles operating at all hours of the day and night. MPD KNOWS that folks are speeding through all the Haiku Roads - especially from midnight to 3-4 am with screeching tires doing doughnuts on the streets and in the Haiku Cannery parking lot with commercially enhanced loud mufflers. While I understand that a louder muffler on a motorcycle may be a safety feature, the incessant noise of high speed cars with loud mufflers has exacerbated in the past 3 years. I personally don't mind and speed tables on Kokomo as that helps.
- Related to above, there have been 4 vehicle crashes in my neighborhood - between the Haiku Post Office and 727 Hai'ku Road - in the past 6 months. Each of those accidents requires MPD and MFD to respond. Speed is a key issue. I contacted the County to formally request that a speed table be installed at the Roots School at 740 Ha'iku Road to perhaps slow traffic in this area. There is a posted 20 MPH sign, a School Crossing sign, and painted stripes at the crossing sign. When I cross the street to collect my mail, cars routinely whiz by at 40+ MPH. When I contacted the proper department in January, they said that a raised speed table was in the Planning Phase. When I asked WHEN it would be installed, I was told not until 2025. I then asked how I could track the progress of the Planning to Construction department and was informed that there is no way to track, that I would have to call Construction. In 2024, how can this process NOT be automated and WHY would it take almost a year or more to install a raised speed table at an existing School Crossing likely using a speed table design that has repeatedly be designed and installed in countless other locations throughout the County? Boggles the mind that it would take a year or more for an established design to be approved and installed in a residential area with multiple vehicle crashes AND a school zone.
- On a positive note, I used the See, Click, Fix app to alert the County to an electric pole that was heavily leaning over Makawao Avenue. I sent a photo and imagine my surprise when a week later, the pole was fixed! Mahalo for that!
I would be happy to provide any additional input on the above issues.
Thank you for the work that you do to make this a better community
Suzanne Fields
(808) 866-6347
Our names are Frank & Maryann Eppelheimer. We are writing to request that you add $285,000 to the Lāna'i Feral Animal Control line item in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget and award it to the Lanai Cat Sanctuary so they can continue to provide feral cat services on the island.
The Lanai Cat Sanctuary has not only reduced the feral cat population on Lāna'i, but they are a leader in the industry for their progressive approach to saving endangered birds by providing humane solutions for cats predating in protected areas.
Unsterilized female cats in Hawaii that are 6 months or older can have up to 3 litters a year, with 3-5 kittens per litter. Without the Lanai Cat Sanctuary, feral cats would overrun the island of Lāna'i.
If the Lanai Cat Sanctuary does not receive the funding needed to continue accepting all feral and unwanted cats, it will severely impact the progress the island of Lāna'i has made in controlling the feral cat population and protecting the native and endangered birds on the island.
Dear County Council: I attended the Paia-Haiku mtg on 4/2/2024 but comments are closed so I am entering here. I am a 29 year Haiku resident and homeowner residing at 711 Haiku Road since 2000. I am submitting my comments with respect to the Mayor's Proposed Budget and sharing my concerns about what is happening/not happening in my neighborhood. I am an active volunteer and steering committee member of the Maui Nui Food Alliance and the Hawaii Public Health Institute Healthy Eating Active Living Coalition. I am retired from paid employment and, in addition to volunteer work, I actively farm my 1/2 acre property.
My chief concerns are the following:
1 - the huge increase in houseless has endangered my community; the uptick since 2020 is significant. My property was burglarized 4 times in 2023 with the same burglar entering the home while folks were at home with a baby in July and returning in August. The suspect's image was captured on camera. MPD did arrive quickly for both those episodes with documented via police reports. Despite the perpetrator being a known houseless entity in the community (I recently saw him walking down the street and know he lives in the tree stand at the corner of Kauhikoa and Haiku Road) - THE POLICE have not pursued him.
- Drug Trafficking - My house is opposite Pokoa Road. There is ACTIVE DRUG TRAFFICKING at the end of the street with endless cars briefly stopping to pick up/pay for drugs - I have witnessed many transactions with the same guy on a motorcycle/bike running the drug transactions. The police MUST be aware as there is also LONG STANDING drug transactions occurring just a block away at the Haiku Cannery. The MPD ARE NOT DOING THEIR JOB to keep our community safe. EVERY HOME in my neighborhood has resorted to installing security cameras and installing security fencing. Many talk about getting their own guns - which would be terrible. Enough is enough!
- HOLOMUA Road is another example of MPD not doing their job. As Maui Fire Department testified on 4/2/2024, they responded to > 35 fires and multiple medical emergencies in this houseless encampment and chop shop. The uptick in stolen vehicles AND the fire danger is tantamount to neglect and another Lahaina disaster. Their presence endangers the MISC team as they need to go by that area on a daily basis.
- MISC - I FULLY support their work and without more financial support to MISC, the community will be overwhelmed - as the Big Island is - with coqui and all the rest of the invasive species. MISC is ESSENTIAL to our community and have been doing exceptional work!!!
- Tied to these situations is the lack of affordability of rental properties. As a landlord, I've rented to local families since 2001 and have always kept rent at well below inflated market levels. Eliminating Short Term Rental ownership by off island folks who have second & third properties should be a priority! Increased enforcement of illegal rental properties also needs to be a priority. Next door to my house at 727 Haiku Road are multiple illegal rentals - it's hard to ignore the different rental cars arriving and departing most days. Whatever efforts the County initiated to eliminate illegal rentals - IT'S NOT WORKING!!! These illegal rentals used to be rented under HUD and would serve the community.
- BUY that property along Hana Highway in the Pauwela Lighthouse area. Testifiers provided the TMKs to the County Council. There should be someway to collaborate with land preserving organizations and the County to keep these lands in the hands of the community - perhaps to use for a new Haiku Community Center in the future so that the Haiku School can expand as it desperately needs to but also to support the expansion of AGRICULTURAL LANDS for new and beginning farmers. The new County Ag Department could be involved with demonstration projects and collaboration with Maui College Ag Department, GoFarm, Grow Some Good, HFUU, and other non-profit and for-profit organizations (Mahi Pono?) to support Farm to School programs and growing the possibility of getting local produce into the schools and/or collaborate with the Maui Hub to sell commercially with profits going back into the programs.
- Noisy Neighborhoods! There are incredibly loud mufflers on cars and motorcycles operating at all hours of the day and night. MPD KNOWS that folks are speeding through all the Haiku Roads - especially from midnight to 3-4 am with screeching tires doing doughnuts on the streets and in the Haiku Cannery parking lot with commercially enhanced loud mufflers. While I understand that a louder muffler on a motorcycle may be a safety feature, the incessant noise of high speed cars with loud mufflers has exacerbated in the past 3 years. I personally don't mind and speed tables on Kokomo as that helps.
- Related to above, there have been 4 vehicle crashes in my neighborhood - between the Haiku Post Office and 727 Hai'ku Road - in the past 6 months. Each of those accidents requires MPD and MFD to respond. Speed is a key issue. I contacted the County to formally request that a speed table be installed at the Roots School at 740 Ha'iku Road to perhaps slow traffic in this area. There is a posted 20 MPH sign, a School Crossing sign, and painted stripes at the crossing sign. When I cross the street to collect my mail, cars routinely whiz by at 40+ MPH. When I contacted the proper department in January, they said that a raised speed table was in the Planning Phase. When I asked WHEN it would be installed, I was told not until 2025. I then asked how I could track the progress of the Planning to Construction department and was informed that there is no way to track, that I would have to call Construction. In 2024, how can this process NOT be automated and WHY would it take almost a year or more to install a raised speed table at an existing School Crossing likely using a speed table design that has repeatedly be designed and installed in countless other locations throughout the County? Boggles the mind that it would take a year or more for an established design to be approved and installed in a residential area with multiple vehicle crashes AND a school zone.
- On a positive note, I used the See, Click, Fix app to alert the County to an electric pole that was heavily leaning over Makawao Avenue. I sent a photo and imagine my surprise when a week later, the pole was fixed! Mahalo for that!
I would be happy to provide any additional input on the above issues.
Thank you for the work that you do to make this a better community
Suzanne Fields
(808) 866-6347
Dear BFED Committee,
Our names are Frank & Maryann Eppelheimer. We are writing to request that you add $285,000 to the Lāna'i Feral Animal Control line item in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget and award it to the Lanai Cat Sanctuary so they can continue to provide feral cat services on the island.
The Lanai Cat Sanctuary has not only reduced the feral cat population on Lāna'i, but they are a leader in the industry for their progressive approach to saving endangered birds by providing humane solutions for cats predating in protected areas.
Unsterilized female cats in Hawaii that are 6 months or older can have up to 3 litters a year, with 3-5 kittens per litter. Without the Lanai Cat Sanctuary, feral cats would overrun the island of Lāna'i.
If the Lanai Cat Sanctuary does not receive the funding needed to continue accepting all feral and unwanted cats, it will severely impact the progress the island of Lāna'i has made in controlling the feral cat population and protecting the native and endangered birds on the island.
Thank you,
Frank & Maryann Eppelheimer