Aloha First gets time
to acquire insurance
A state board has given a group of native Hawaiians living on state agricultural land in Waimanalo two more months to get required liability insurance.
Aloha First was informed March 17 that it was in default of its Department of Land and Natural Resources lease without the insurance. When it had not gotten insurance by May 18, the state announced that Aloha First would lose the lease.
Aloha First founder Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele told the Star-Bulletin yesterday that the group has sought a $1 million liability policy from all local carriers and on the West Coast. He said the group would keep looking for insurers.
Some companies have not been willing to give quotes on the insurance, he said. The last liability insurance policy cost Aloha First $2,400 a year, he said.
Kanahele emphasized that he will keep searching for insurance but also said, "No matter what happens, we're not going to move."
Kanahele said it is possible that insurance is hard to get because "we came about getting this land in not the normal procedure."
Aloha First is the nonprofit successor to the Save a Nation Foundation, the group that originally was given the Waimanalo lease "for general agriculture and to promote the cultural and educational betterment and well-being of the indigenous people of Hawaii" in 1993.
The Waimanalo land was offered as a place to live for about 80 Hawaiian sovereignty activists who occupied Makapuu Beach Park in 1993.
Peter Young, chairman of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, said yesterday that the board gave Aloha First the same two-month extension that it would have given any tenant.
Aloha First is up to date on its $3,000-a-year rent for 45 acres of agricultural land and has a cash performance bond, as required, but has not completed a required soil and water conservation plan for the land, a DLNR staff report said.
Though activists have lived on the land since 1994, the lease with the state was not executed until March 2001. In February 2002, Aloha First paid the state $3,000 in back rent and penalties and a $6,000 performance bond.
Aloha First
www.alohafirst.com