Makaua Stream flood mitigation project could be cut back or cancelled
By ilind | August 10, 2008
Remember the March 2006 flood in Kaaawa when Makaua Stream went wild? That’s a picture of the stream back in its manic mode.
Now the planned flood mitigation project is in trouble because several parties, including Kualoa Ranch, have declined to sign an agreement required by the state for the project. The agreement requires landowners along the stream to maintain perpetual insurance naming the State as an additional insured, and indemnify and defend the state against any and all future claims stemming from the project.
According to an August 8 email sent by Eric Hirano, chief engineer for the Dept. of Land and Natural Recources, and John Morgan of Kualoa Ranch, the state will make a decision on August 18 between several options.
Option 1: Cancel entire project except for work within Department of Transportation’s (DOT) rights of way (ROW) and if access/workspace permits, conduct work along Kaaawa Park Condominium Association (KPCA) streambank. Essentially remove all accumulated debris under the bridge and construct 2 sections of embankment protection along KPCA steambank. The rest of the work will be left up to the individual stream owners.
Option 2: If Makaua Shores agrees to Construction Agreement, project would be expanded to include all work in DOT’s ROW and makai of DOT’s bridge down to the ocean, and if access/workspace permits, conduct work along KPCA streambank.
Option 3: Delete all work in its entirety from this area (along Huamalani Street). Essentially, this would be a deletion of Eroded Bank Area #3 work. Kualoa Ranch, Kaaawa Beach Owners Association, and affected properties would need to pursue their own plans and construction to remedy the situation.
As of the end of last week, agreement had not been reached with Kualoa Ranch, Kaaawa Beach Owners Association (which owns the interior roads in our section of Kaaawa), the Makaua Shores owners association on the Makai side of Kamehameha Highway below the bridge, and two homeowners on Huamalani.
Kualoa Ranch’s attorney advised against agreeing to defend against future claims.
The State never gives anyone an indemnity, and it should not expect to receive indemnities. The real clinker in the paragraph is in obliging you to “defend” against claims. “Indemnify” means that you will pay any actual loss or damages. “Defend” means that you will defend at your expense against all claims, no matter how bogus or minimal. Defense costs can exceed the worth of whatever the fight is about.
Carty Chang, from DLNR’s Engineering Division, traced the history of this provision.
This originally was initiated by State Civil Defense (SCD) and they asked if DLNR could at least make the initial request to NRCS for assistance just to preserve the chance of securing federal funding. In the mean time, DLNR had told SCD that they should seek an agency to be the “local sponsor” for this project which must be a governmental agency such as the State or City and County. Apparently, SCD was not successful in finding another local sponsor and by verbal request from both SCD and Senator Dan Inouye’s office, DLNR reluctantly accepted to be the local sponsor for the project under the condition that the private property owners would need to execute these agreements with the State.
Further, Chang wrote:
Once again, I’m no attorney but the State is “voluntarily” taking on this project for the benefit of the Kaaawa Community therefore, the State needs to protect itself from liablity in protection of the taxpayers. Just like you and I who are both taxpayers, we do not want to commit the State in implementing this project if it’s going to expose the State (taxpayers) to unnecssary risks. All the taxpayers in the end will be paying for it.
Lack of full community participation is only one of the hurdles facing the project. Money is also a problem. According to DLNR:
As you may recall, initially, we had $1 M of Federal money which needed to be matched by $334K in State monies for a total project cost of $1.334 M. I spent $270K on design and had also reserved the needed $334K to maximize our construction monies. Our current consultant’s estimate for construction is $2 M leaving us approximately $670K short. In order to make up the difference, State Civil Defense is helping out and I was successful in getting additional monies appropriated this past legislative session but even then, these new monies must be shared by several projects so it’s unclear how much I can truly allocate for Makaua.
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Catching up on photos
By ilind | August 7, 2008
I’m a little late on some of this. But here are the early morning photo galleries from July and June 2008.
July is at the top, June below.
Just click on either photo for the full month’s gallery of favorites.
I’m still missing the month of May, complicated because of a hard disk error. But I’ll pull it off the backup drive “any day now”.
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Have you seen Kaaawa’s sign?
By ilind | June 23, 2008
Kaaawa’s sign has gone missing again, perhaps a victim of the June 2 accident that knocked down a pole and power lines in the same location.
Photos following the accident show that the sign was no longer visible in its spot in front of the bridge at the entrance to Kaaawa.
If you know who took the sign or where it is now, please contact Kaaawa.net (email ian@ilind.net).
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Crouching Lion hit with big EPA fine
By ilind | June 19, 2008
The former owners of Kaaawa’s Crouching Lion Inn have been fined $42,000 for failing to close the old cesspool that served the restaurant, according to a recent report in Pacific Business News.
Meanwhile, the grand reopening of the Crouching Lion under new ownership is scheduled for Saturday afternoon, June 21, and the news reports say it will open to the public a week later.
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April mornings in Kaaawa
By ilind | June 12, 2008
For another month’s favorite photos from our early morning walks through the community, just click on the photo below.
Enjoy!
Oh–you can also meet the various dogs we meet while walking, as well as get familiar with our cats at home.
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Catching up on Kaaawa mornings in February and March
By ilind | May 8, 2008
I’ve fallen behind in sharing photos taken as the sun rises in Kaaawa, so here are two recent monthly collections. Click on the photos for the monthly galleries.
February 2008
March 2008
Topics: Photos, Uncategorized, Windward | No Comments »
An April sunrise
By ilind | May 8, 2008
Just a reminder of Kaaawa’s beauty. It’s sunrise seen from Swanzy Beach Park on the morning of April 5, 2008.
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Last two weeks of school before summer break
By ilind | May 8, 2008
There are only two weeks left before school is out for summer break (although no longer the long summer vacation we enjoyed as kids).
We crossed paths with this clump of students heading for Kaaawa Elementary, just a few blocks down the road, at about 7 a.m. on recent morning.
As one friend said about the photo: “It does my heart good to see children riding bikes to school as I and my children did–wouldn’t dare do it in my higher income area or most other places on the mainland-we have lost so much in the way of safety, trust and freedom.”
Just click on the photo for a larger version.
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Former banana patch gives way to speculative development
By ilind | April 20, 2008
For all you former Kaaawa residents, remember the corner on Lihimauna Road where the old banana patch was? The banana patch is long gone, the victim first of bunchy top virus and now by speculative development. The developer who has already built two houses next door has now excavated the hillside and has a steel framed, largely pre-fab home going up. This is a photo taken from above, looking down towards the ocean.
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Manager’s Ridge reports dwindling cash while U.S. Trustee pushes for liquidation
By ilind | April 1, 2008
Manager’s Ridge LLC, which has proposed a 140-home project on 58 acres of former-Campbell Estate land in Kahuku remains mired in bankruptcy and its last round of cash quickly running out.
According to a reort filed by bankruptcy attorney Jerrold K. Guben, Manager’s Ridge had no income during the month of February while it spent $33,434.24 to keep current on its property taxes and monthly payment promised to its primary lender. As of the end of February, the company had just $1,007.05 left of the $100,000 cash infusion received late last year.
The glum financial news came after the U.S. Bankruptcy Trustee assigned to the case moved to force the company to move the case from a Chapter 11 bankruptcy to a liquidation under Chapter 7 in which all the company’s assets would be sold off to pay creditors.
In a motion filed in federal bankruptcy court on March 20, the Office of the US Trustee said it had requested but never received the company’s bank statements for the six-month period leading up to the bankruptcy filing, “a projection of income and expenses for six months, financial statements, and its last filed income tax returns for 2006.”
Those documents were requested on September 19, 2007, and have not been received, the motion states. In addition, according to the Trustee’s Office, Manager’s Ridge failed to file its monthly operating reports for September through November 2007, and January 2008.
The company’s January and February reports showing rapidly dwindling cash were filed on March 31, the records show.
The company continues to owe more than $200,000 to creditors, the latest accounting shows.
A court hearing is scheduled for April 14 to consider whether the company should be forced to liquidate its remaining assets.
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