Ka`u News Briefs Sunday, Jan. 15, 2017

The Police Ocean View Mini Station is not used enough to keep the police around the neighborhood, according to Ocean View residents who have launched a petition drive for a larger station next to the fire station. Photo by Ann Bosted

LOCALIZED POLICING FOR OCEAN VIEW is the goal of a group of residents who have launched a petition signing campaign. The petition asks Mayor Harry Kim for “Localized Policing” to include round-the-clock police presence so that the high crime rate can be reduced. 

     Although the county pays to rent a store in the Pahoe Plaza shopping center, this sub-station is not used by the police as an office as they claim that the internet lines are not secure, so their reports cannot be electronically filed there. Instead they drive about 20 miles to the Na’alehu police stateion to do their paperwork, reducing their time in Ocean View.

      According to the 2010 census, Ocean View has the largest population of any town in the Ka’u District. This, petition organizers point out, is a strong argument for having a fully functional police station in their town. They have suggested that the police station be located next to the fire station, which has the secure lines that the sub-station lacks.

The Mini Station is in Pohue Plaza but not used much because of its lack of secure communication for police to file reports. Photo by Ann Bosted

      “The criminals can see the cops leaving town – one blue light following the other – so they know they can do what they like,” explained Mike DuBois, who drafted the petition.

      The petition reads in part: “We call upon the government to provide a permanent, around-the-clock Police Station in Ocean View, replacing the out dated and seldom used substation. This petition is in response to the area’s consistent excessive crime rate, and slow police response time in emergencies and the lack of full-time police presence.

     “In order to reduce crime and effectively quicken police response and more immediate police interaction with the criminally minded, we need a localized police station in Ocean View.

      “We, the undersigned, petition our Mayor, Police Chief and County Council to provide public safety and protection of our property for Ocean View residents by expeditiously establishing a 24-hour Police Station in Ocean View”, concludes the petition. 

      DuBois explained that at recent Ocean View community meetings, residents have asked that “a permanent operational station be established” next to the town’s fire station, “which has a secure communication system already in place. 

    “Signing this petition shows mutual support for a localized policing approach to reduce crime.  This is an important grassroots effort to show the island government that our town of 7,000 people knows what is needed to protect itself from the consistently extreme levels of crime,” explained Dubois.

      Debbie DuBois said, “We hope that Mayor Kim will take a fresh look at this situation. The petition has got people talking and thinking.  We have had community meetings with various people, like Prosecutor Mitch Roth and Assistant Chief Kealoha, and they have listened to our concerns."  
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MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY IS MONDAY, JAN 16, with a celebration at the Mo`oheau Bandstad in Hilo from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. with speeches, artists and performers.
     The commemoration reminds some old timers of King's speech before the Hawai`i legislature in 1959. King said: "I come to you with a great deal of appreciation and great feeling of appreciation, I should say, for what has been accomplished in this beautiful setting and in this beautiful state of our Union.

Martin Luther King in Hawai`i in 1959.

     "As I think of the struggle that we are engaged in, in the South land, we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice, what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country, and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man's inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice.
     "We have coma a long, long way. We have a long, long way to go. I close, if you will permit me, by quoting the words of an old Negro slave pereacher. He didn't quite have his grammar right, but he uttered some words in the form of a prayer with great symbolic profundity and these are the words he said: 'Lord, we ain't what we want to be; we ain't what we ought to be; we ain't what we gonna be, but thank God, we ain't what we was.' Thank you."
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Vince Mina, statewide President of Hawai`i Farmers Union United

THE HAWAI`I FARMERS UNION UNITED has reached 1,020 members across ten chapters, its president Vince Mina announced on Sunday. 
     "This accomplishment is reflective of the tireless work of leaders within the HFUU who continuously focus on serving our growing membership along with those expanding our impact and effectiveness through grants, donations and sponsorships, said Mina.
     "Day after day, HFUU's mandate is to provide education and solutions for our family of farmers so that they are supported in growing the agriculture sector for Hawai`i.
     "Our preferred methods are ecologically oriented, economical and enfironmentally sustainable (regenerative) - to the farmer, rancher, fisherman and the consumer. While this is no easy task, we are continually inspired by those who have shown their commitment to the local regenerative food movement," said Mina.
     President for the Ka`u Chapter is Greg Smith from Earth Matters Farms and Vice President is Richard Creagan, a physician and chair of the agriculture committee in the state House of Representatives. Creagan lives on a Ka`u farm.
      Mina will represent the Hawai`i Farmers Union United at the National Farmers Union Convention in San Diego March 5-8. He formed and heads the National Farmers Union's Regenerative Agriculture Local food Committee, which will host talks by Jen Kuchera of the soil health division of the USDA and Mark McAffee, owner/operator of Raw Milk Dairy, Organic Pastures, in California.
     See more at hfuuhi.org.
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TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF HALEMA`UMA`U CRATER is the topic of After Dark in the Park at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at Kilauea Theater Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Don Swanson, a geologist with USGS makes the rpesntation with hitosry and personal anecdotes about his encounter with the crater. Free. Park entrance fees apply.\