Please take a moment to respond to the poll over to the left. I’m asking for feedback on what things I should focus on while in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. It’s the first time I’ve tried to post a poll, so I just have to trust that it’s going to work! Thanks for responding.

This was the view yesterday morning when we got down to Swanzy Beach Park.

This morning seems to be different.

It’s 5:30 a.m. and it is wet in Kaaawa. Rain and wind outside. Cats now inside. Only Ms. Kili arrived wet. Once we get a little light outside, I’ll be able to make a guess about whether the weather is going to let up a bit.

In response to requests from several people who apparently have trouble imagining what a black Land’s End shirt with Star-Bulletin logo looks like, here’s a quick photo. It makes me appreciate the product photos in the catalogs. How do they do that?! In any case, high bidder takes this, with all (perhaps I should say “any”) proceeds going to the fund set up to benefit the 54 staffers who were laid off by the Advertiser as of Friday.

I took a few pictures of the shirt.

Just click on this one for several more. Then email a bid to me (ian@ilind.net).

MidWeek’s editors fell victim to an old joke early this month when a partyer in one of its “scene@night” photos gave his name as “Heywood Jablome”. Okay, spend a few seconds thinking about it. The thinly disguised gag made it through MidWeek’s editors and into print, much to the delight of folks over at HawaiiThreads. The photo caption has since been edited to remove last names, with the offender now simply known as “Heywood J.”

Remember the March 2006 flood in Kaaawa when Makaua Stream went wild? That’s a picture of the stream in its manic mode.

Now the planned flood mitigation project is in trouble because several parties, including Kualoa Ranch, have declined to sign an agreement required by the state for the project. The agreement requires landowners along the stream to maintain perpetual insurance naming the State as an additional insured, and indemnify and defend the state against any and all future claims stemming from the project.

According to an August 8 email sent by Eric Hirano, chief engineer for the Dept. of Land and Natural Recources, and John Morgan of Kualoa Ranch, the state will make a decision on August 18 between several options.

Option 1: Cancel entire project except for work within Department of Transportation’s (DOT) rights of way (ROW) and if access/workspace permits, conduct work along Kaaawa Park Condominium Association (KPCA) streambank. Essentially remove all accumulated debris under the bridge and construct 2 sections of embankment protection along KPCA steambank. The rest of the work will be left up to the individual stream owners.

Option 2: If Makaua Shores agrees to Construction Agreement, project would be expanded to include all work in DOT’s ROW and makai of DOT’s bridge down to the ocean, and if access/workspace permits, conduct work along KPCA streambank.

Option 3: Delete all work in its entirety from this area (along Huamalani Street). Essentially, this would be a deletion of Eroded Bank Area #3 work. Kualoa Ranch, Kaaawa Beach Owners Association, and affected properties would need to pursue their own plans and construction to remedy the situation.

As of the end of last week, agreement had not been reached with Kualoa Ranch, Kaaawa Beach Owners Association (which owns the interior roads in our section of Kaaawa), the Makaua Shores owners association on the Makai side of Kamehameha Highway below the bridge, and two homeowners on Huamalani.

Kualoa Ranch’s attorney advised against agreeing to defend against future claims.

The State never gives anyone an indemnity, and it should not expect to receive indemnities. The real clinker in the paragraph is in obliging you to “defend” against claims. “Indemnify” means that you will pay any actual loss or damages. “Defend” means that you will defend at your expense against all claims, no matter how bogus or minimal. Defense costs can exceed the worth of whatever the fight is about.

Carty Chang, from DLNR’s Engineering Division, traced the history of this provision.

This originally was initiated by State Civil Defense (SCD) and they asked if DLNR could at least make the initial request to NRCS for assistance just to preserve the chance of securing federal funding. In the mean time, DLNR had told SCD that they should seek an agency to be the “local sponsor” for this project which must be a governmental agency such as the State or City and County. Apparently, SCD was not successful in finding another local sponsor and by verbal request from both SCD and Senator Dan Inouye’s office, DLNR reluctantly accepted to be the local sponsor for the project under the condition that the private property owners would need to execute these agreements with the State.

Further, Chang wrote:

Once again, I’m no attorney but the State is “voluntarily” taking on this project for the benefit of the Kaaawa Community therefore, the State needs to protect itself from liablity in protection of the taxpayers. Just like you and I who are both taxpayers, we do not want to commit the State in implementing this project if it’s going to expose the State (taxpayers) to unnecssary risks. All the taxpayers in the end will be paying for it.

Lack of full community participation is only one of the hurdles facing the project. Money is also a problem. According to DLNR:

As you may recall, initially, we had $1 M of Federal money which needed to be matched by $334K in State monies for a total project cost of $1.334 M. I spent $270K on design and had also reserved the needed $334K to maximize our construction monies. Our current consultant’s estimate for construction is $2 M leaving us approximately $670K short. In order to make up the difference, State Civil Defense is helping out and I was successful in getting additional monies appropriated this past legislative session but even then, these new monies must be shared by several projects so it’s unclear how much I can truly allocate for Makaua.