MONDAY, JUNE 18, 2018 WESTHAWAIITODAY.COM 75¢
THE LOGISTICS OF REGROWTH
HILO — The ongoing eruption
on Kilauea’s lower East Rift Zone
has displaced a few thousand people
and altered the landscape.
For farmers and ranchers in
the area, it’s also taken away their
livelihood.
Jan Anderson said lava buried
her palm nursery and her husband’s
orchid nursery in Kapoho,
along with their vacation rental.
Their home is still standing but
inaccessible.
With an uncertain future, she’s
now faced with selling the last
of the palms she relocated to
a friend’s nursery in Hawaiian
Paradise Park when volcanic fissures
started disrupting water
supply to the area.
At the time, she didn’t think
lava was going to make it to
Kapoho, at least not so quickly.
“We thought at the very least
long term, maybe it would be
coming,” Anderson said, of the
lava. “Nothing like what just
happened. I don’t think anybody
expected that.”
Eric Tanouye, president of the
Hawaii Floriculture and Nursery
Association, said at least a dozen
nurseries are “seriously impacted,”
whether by lava inundation
or from sulfur dioxide emissions.
“A lot of orchids down here
have such unique growing conditions,”
he said. “A lot of the
lower elevation orchids are being
grown there.”
Tanouye said growers had
been recovering from Tropical
Storm Iselle in 2014 and the lava
flow that threatened Pahoa that
same year.
“We’re definitely going to be
feeling the impact for the immediate
or intermediate few years,”
he said.
Much of the state’s papaya also
is grown in the area.
Ross Sibucao, a papaya farmer
and former Hawaii Papaya
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HI 85 LO 74 WEATHER, PAGE 6A
VOL. 50, NO. 169 20 PAGES
Change
of venue
WITH NEW COURTHOUSE,
PROSECUTOR OFFICES COMING,
PUBLIC DEFENDERS STILL
LOOKING FOR PLACE TO GO
BY TIFFANY DEMASTERS
WEST HAWAII TODAY
tdemasters@westhawaiitoday.com
KAILUA-KONA — Prosecutors, public
defenders and the Department of
Public Safety are working to establish
roots in Kailua-Kona as construction of
the Kona Judiciary Complex comes into
its final stages.
Offices will be making the move from
Kealakekua, where the current courthouse
is located. While the Hawaii
County Office of the Prosecuting Attorney
has found a new home in a building
being erected at the West Hawaii Civic
Center, the Office of the Public Defender
is searching for a new space in town.
“It totally makes sense for everybody
to be moving,” said Mitch Roth, Hawaii
County prosecuting attorney.
Also making their way to north are
Intake Services, Sheriff’s Division and
Paroling Authority, where they have a
tentative space near the Old Industrial
Area, Roth said. Probation services will
be located in the new courthouse.
Construction of the new courthouse,
located on Makala Boulevard, began in
October 2016. Jan M. Kagehiro, spokeswoman
for the state Judiciary, said the
$90 million courthouse is on schedule to
be complete by late spring 2019 with a
planned opening in late summer.
Currently, there are four different
courtrooms in three different locations in
North and South Kona. The new courthouse
will be a three-story facility with
five courtrooms and a law library and
self-help center open to the community.
There will also be conference rooms,
attorney interview rooms, holding cells,
witness rooms, and a grand jury meeting
room. The courthouse represents a neutral
location, accessible to all parties.
Deputy Public Defender Wendy
DeWeese said she made efforts to contact
her bosses on Oahu in November 2016
when former 3rd Circuit Court Judge
Ronald Ibarra informed her the new
courthouse was on track to be completed
in 2019. At the time, she was concerned
about the state renewing the lease in the
office at their current office.
“I’ve been rattling cages for two years,”
DeWeese said.
DeWeese added the future of their
office has caused some anxiety.
“Everyone’s asking and I don’t have the
answer,” she said.
Earlier this week, DeWeese was given
the go-ahead to look at office space closer
to the new courthouse. Currently, the
public defenders office is 1,742 square
feet — however, the attorney said they
need 3,000 square feet to function more
efficiently.
“I know what we need; whether people
two islands away agree is another story,”
she said.
DeWeese said public defenders get
called to the courthouse on a moment’s
notice to stand in on cases. The current
office off Halekii Street is about 11 miles
KILAUEA ERUPTION
Ways to rebuild
after eruption
Along with providing us with a demonstration
of the Earth’s creative energy, the current Kilauea
eruption has destroyed homes, fouled the air,
and generally disrupted the economy of the Big
Island. When the lava cools, families can rebuild
if possible, the air will clear back to our former
level of intermittent vog – we hope, and the tourists
will return to see what Pele has wrought.
But how do the many businesses that have been
impacted by the eruption rebuild and re-establish
themselves?
There is the obvious impact on businesses that
have burned up or, in the case of farms, where
the volcanic gases have killed crops and essentially
put them out of business. There is the less
direct impact on those
tourism-based businesses
that have closed or
laid off workers due to a
lack of customers. While
not as dramatic as being
burnt down, it can certainly
feel as dramatic to affected businesses,
and that impact extends outward to an extended
area that has been affected by vog and tourist
cancellations.
So, what do the options for recovery assistance
look like to those impacted by this event?
For both individuals and businesses, the first
source of recovery funding comes from insurance.
For homeowners impacted by the eruption,
an important player is Hawaii Property
Insurance Association, a nonprofit insurance
pool that functions as an insurer of last resort for
homeowners otherwise unable to obtain coverage,
which would be most of those in Lava Zones
1 and 2. Coverage limits go up to $350,000, but it
is important to note that this insurance provides
only residential and not business coverage.
Businesses, depending on their individual
SEE BOYD PAGE 8A
FARMERS WITH DESTROYED LIVELIHOODS
SEEK OPTIONS AND ANSWERS
BY TOM CALLIS
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
Jan
Anderson
of Kapoho
Kai Nursery
stands
amongst
a group
of licuala
grandis
Thursday
during her
plant sale
at Rozett’s
Nursery in
Hawaiian
Paradise
Park. PHOTOS
BY HOLLYN
JOHNSON/
TRIBUNE-HERALD
SEE FARMERS PAGE 6A
Allen Frenzel, Hawaii director of U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s farm service agency speaks about FSA
programs for disasters Friday. The event was held at the
SEE MOVING PAGE 3A Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo.
INSIDE
More Hawaii business
news, Page 7A
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