Kau residents
win prison delay

Their pleas head off a bill to
bypass rules on environmental steps
in planning the facility

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Emotional pleas from Kau residents today forced three Senate committees to defer action on a measure that would have allowed the Cayetano administration to bypass county and environmental laws in building a proposed 2,300-bed prison on the Big Island.

Big Island Sen. Andrew Levin, who represents the Kau district, said that the residents "made a tremendous impression" during the hearing. And he promised them that their community will be heard from during the planning process.

The Senate Judiciary Committee also now plans to have a hearing in Kau before any recommendation is made this session on the prison site favored by Gov. Ben Cayetano.

The measure before the Senate Judiciary, Health and Transportation committees would have exempted the construction of the prison from any state or Big Island County approvals, permits or licenses.

Gordon Matsuoka, state public works administrator for the Department of Accounting and General Services, said if the bill is passed, the prison could be opened by March 2001.

Without the measure, Matsuoka predicted, it would take an additional six months to two years for the state to get the necessary permits and draft an environmental impact statement.

More than 60 Kau residents, however, used today's hearing to voice opposition to the project.

Stephanie Tabbada, whose husband was unable to find a job for four years after the Hamakua sugar plantations closed, said she turned over to the committees a petition signed by 1,300 Kau residents who oppose the prison there.

This contrasts to a petition last year which prison supporters say was signed by 800 residents who favor the project.

Tabbada said a prison "would drastically change Kau's rural lifestyle" and voiced concern that passage of the bill would mean Big Island residents wouldn't be given the opportunity to voice objections during the planning process.

Margaret Dancel, 70, said the money should be used to upgrade Kau High School and to pay for programs dealing with "drug and family problems."

Kau resident Bernard Keliikoa said the people don't want "a big gray monster" and said the community has bigger problems, such as proper health care, with its only hospital threatened with being shut down.

Keliikoa also questioned whether the promise of prison-related jobs would ever be fulfilled.