DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Poamoho Camp resident Millie Tyrell yesterday watched her great-grandkids, Marvin Esdicul Jr., 16 months, and Chandler, 3. She and her husband have lived there for 43 years.
Plantation residents
face possible evictionDel Monte plans to let its lease
expire and close Poamoho Camp
Vaeleti Tyrell has lived in Poamoho Camp outside Wahiawa since he arrived here from American Samoa and started working for Del Monte in 1961. He retired last year, but continues to live in company housing with his family even though that means paying higher rent.
"If we retire, we can live in the place, same rent. But after one year we pay triple. But we can live in the camp," Tyrell said.
The rent for his four-bedroom unit last month was $248. This month the rent goes up to $776.
Tyrell said he is happy to pay the higher rent because Poamoho has been a good place to live and raise children, where the 60 families know each other and everyone is close.
But the camp soon may not be anybody's home.
Del Monte's lease with landowner George Galbraith Trust for 2,200 acres of agricultural land, including the camp, expires June 30. Last month, the company informed Local 142 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the pineapple workers' union, that it does not intend to extend the lease, so tenants will have to move out before then.
"A lot of people were upset. There wasn't a lot of notice," said Tracy Takano, ILWU international representative. "We thought it (the camp) was going to be closed in 2007 when the Galbraith Trust shuts down."
Galbraith Estate trustee Bank of Hawaii also received notice of Del Monte's decision not to extend its lease just recently, said George Fillion, executive vice president of the bank's trust and private banking division. He said the bank made no other plans for the property until the trust is liquidated in April 2007.
The union asked Del Monte not to issue residents any notices to vacate as it looks for ways for the families to remain there, Takano said. The union and residents contacted lawmakers. The residents also wrote a letter to Bank of Hawaii to discuss possible ways for the families to remain, Takano said.
Del Monte officials did not return a call seeking comment.
About 300 people live in the camp. Ninety-five percent are Del Monte employees who will be re-deployed to other company operations in Kunia, Takano said. The rest of the residents are retirees.
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Longtime Poamoho Camp neighbors shared a laugh yesterday despite the possibility that they may be evicted from the Del Monte housing site. Alfonso Pasco, left, has lived at the camp for 25 years, Vaeleti Tyrell for 43 years and Boyd Isnec for his entire life of 47 years.
"Everybody living in here, they don't have a place to go. It's really hard for us retirees. We have only one paycheck. We cannot afford to live with outside rent," Tyrell said.
State Reps. Marcus Oshiro (D, Wahiawa-Poamoho), Michael Magaoay (D, Schofield-Kahuku) and Marilyn Lee (D, Mililani-Mililani Mauka) introduced legislation to direct the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to negotiate with the Galbraith Estate a land exchange for part or all of the 2,200 acres of trust land surrounding the camp.
The property is bounded by Schofield Barracks and Wahiawa Reservoir (Lake Wilson) to the south, Kaukonahua Gulch to the east and Poamoho Gulch to the north. Kamehameha Highway and Wilikina Drive pass through the property.
At a legislative hearing on the proposal Friday, the department said when it attempted a land exchange with the Galbraith Estate in 1994, the state did not have lands of interest to the trust.
The lawmakers are also exploring ways for a new entity, perhaps the Poamoho Community Association, to assume the lease for the camp property at least until 2007, Magaoay said. But he knows time is short for any kind of solution.
Del Monte built the camp, and when it returns the property to Galbraith Estate, the land needs to be in the same condition it received it, Fillion said. That means the camp has to be razed.
If Del Monte intends to meet this obligation, it needs to give the residents a 120-day notice to vacate, according to the landlord-tenant code, Oshiro said.
"We're in crisis mode," he said.
For Oshiro, saving the camp has special meaning.
"These are family friends and neighbors I grew up with," he said.
