Governor’s “Community Connection” public forum at UHMC draws a large turnout Wednesday evening.

10/6/16 Last evening, a large representation for the concerned community gathered with Governor David Ige in the Piana building at UHMC beginning at 5:00 PM for a public forum.

Our interpretation of the attendees’ reaction was overall initial enthusiasm and encouragement to concluding overall disappointment. To clarify, meeting went to breakout groups in four varied room locations with leaders of HDOT, DLNR, AG and DOH, and we chose Department of Health,with two Deputy Directors, Danette (Dani) Wong Tomiyasu and Keith Kawaoka, so that is our focus here. In our observation,ths three major topics brought forth by the community, cannabis, impaired marine near shore water quality and the MMMC situation left all displeased with the answers from the Department reps (our specific question, submitted in writing on card as requested, on safety of R-1 water was not addressed), and with the governor on the health and welfare of Maui residents with the dire hospital situation. We can only hope there were more positive outcomes in the other areas.

Look for a professional report in the Maui News (probably Friday) as well as a video report on Akaku.