Newsmaker
Monday, September 1, 1997
Name: Maeda Timson
Age: 46
Position: Makakilo-Kapolei-Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board chairwoman
Education: UH, Chaminade
Pastime: Collecting angels
Maeda Timson was a townie when, as a new bride 26 years ago, she and her husband first moved to Makakilo. Building the second city
"I had no idea where the hell it was," Timson says. "It was the only place on the island you could move into a brand-new house with $500 down."
She recalls that when the kids were younger, one of the family's biggest thrills was driving down the hill to Farrington Highway to watch Campbell Estate's sugar cane burnings.
Today, the Kapolei plains are covered with houses, and no one of sound mind would park along the shoulder of Farrington Highway for anything.
And Timson is chairwoman of the neighborhood board for the area that's been decreed Oahu's second city.
Working on the neighborhood board comes naturally to Timson, who has been immersed in community activities from volleyball coaching to the Makakilo Community Association.
Despite her civic loyalty, the normally mild-mannered Timson caused jaws to drop at a City Council meeting last month when she chastised those attempting to stall approval of the Ewa Development Plan.
Several weeks later, Timson was still indignant.
"There were connotations that we didn't know what was going on or what was good for us," Timson says.
What people from outside the community didn't realize was that without the development plan, needed progress for the area was being stifled, she says.
"For 26 years, I've lived in that community and paid my taxes and watched other communities grow. And guess what, guys? It's our turn for us to see our tax dollars spent for us in Kapolei."
One key area being scrutinized by Timson and other area leaders is the future of the Barbers Point Naval Air Station after the Navy leaves.
Timson, who is on the reuse commission, says there is a much greater need for parks than for a commuter airport.
And while she's not entirely happy with the final location selected for the University of Hawaii-West Oahu campus, she strongly supports a regional campus.
"It will boost the level of education along the Leeward Coast," she says.
Timson says she's sold on the idea of a "quality future" for the second-city region of Makakilo and Kapolei.
"In 20 years, we're going to be a real strong, economic-based city where people live and work," she says. "Where people don't even know what a bedroom community is like."
Gordon Y.K. Pang, Star-Bulletin
