1 week Ago By None
“I got to tell you, best start ever. You heard it. Best start ever.
” This was the overarching theme of Mayor Kimo Alameda’s first State of the County Address, which he delivered Tuesday to an audience of his Cabinet and prominent supporters at Nani Mau Gardens in Hilo. While there was an old-school wired microphone at a lectern onstage, the only person using that time-tested political tool was county Managing Director Bill Brilhante, who warmed up the crowd of perhaps 200 before introducing the mayor. Alameda bounced in over music, armed with a wireless mic, and delivered an address that was more multimedia presentation than speech, with rear-projected videos, slides and visual aids for his oration, which was peppered with pidgin and poetry.
It was as much “MC Kimo” as Mayor Alameda. “The opposition said it’s so hard for a new administration, they’re not going to get off the ground running — oh my goodness, we’ve done so much in four months, more than some administrations have done in four years,” Alameda said, and the music started again, momentarily. “That’s one of my favorite tracks,” Alameda quipped, with the audience laughing.
“But it’s, like, the little things, right? And that’s what we’ve done, the little things.” “Like Kawamoto swimming pool. That pool was out for a year before we started,” he continued.
“And it was like, ‘Hey, how come we neva like fix um?’” According to Alameda, his Parks and Recreation maintenance crew quickly got the hot water fixed at the county pool. “It was, like, freezin’ coming out of the shower and going to something that’s super cold. And that was, like, right off the bat.
” The mayor rattled off a list of purported accomplishments in his first four months on the job, after being sworn in Dec. 2. They included: >> Finding housing for 14 individuals at the Kuawa Street shelter and 20 at the Country Club on Banyan Drive.
>> Settling the lawsuit with Earth Justice for the Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant. >> Addressing hazard pay with all of the unions. >> Starting Phase 1 of the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant rehabilitation project with an emergency proclamation in place.
“And after four years of no lights, here comes the lights at Kamehameha Park in Kohala. And we fixed the pool,” Alameda said. “You no can play baseball in the dark.
...
We got the lights in Kohala, now we’ll light up Pahala — that rhymes.” Alameda said two more items on his to-do list are to finish building the Hilo skate park and paving the Big Island’s pock-marked and pot-holed county roads. “We’re paving roads all over the place,” he said.
“We’ve done more paving in four months than has been done in a year. And we’re paving places that has really been neglected. Like, take us down to (Old Airport Park) in Kona.
So Makaeo (Pavilion) hasn’t had paving in that area for years. West Hawaii is so happy now.” Alameda mentioned Milolii in South Kona, saying, “There have been promises made to the Hawaiians down there, and too long, those promises have been unfulfilled.
” “So, we gon’ fix their park, gon’ fix their bathrooms, gon’ give them a playground and gon’ give them a brand-new pavilion because they deserve it,” he added. The mayor praised all of his departments but saved the most special kudos for Hawaii County Civil Defense and its administrator, Talmadge Magno, calling the county’s emergency managers “best in the nation, best in the nation.” “Hey, it could be wind, rain, volcano, you know, tsunami, fire, we all report to the (Emergency Operations Center),” Alameda said.
“Not one or two. All departments. I give a little intro, Talmadge takes the lead.
And we’re working together. And to witness that is amazing.” Noting a possible downturn in federal grants to the states and counties, Alameda said, “We’ve got to find other sources of revenue.
” “Tourism is our biggest economic driver, but we got to look elsewhere, right?” he said. “So, we got alternative energy options. OK, we can generate revenues there.
Right? ...
We can generate revenues from (Thirty Meter Telescope), when they build on that Big Island mountain, some of that has to come back to the county. OK? Hey, Pohakuloa (Training Area), you like extend your lease? Some of that comes back to the county. “Yeah, gotta leave some of that for the state, but we can share.
We can share.” Alameda said since tourism is still “the biggest economic driver, let’s make sure that we don’t break that bridge.” Before leaving the stage to a standing ovation over Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” — which starts, “Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing is gonna be all right” — Alameda closed with a quote from the late George Santayana, a Spanish American philosopher, essayist, poet and novelist: “The past is over for all of us.
The future is promised to none of us. All we have is today, so make every single day the best you can.”.
