Greggor Illagan, Puna Town Hall in Seaview

Story and Photos by Raydiance Joy Grace

  

SEAVIEW TOWN HALL MEETING AT SPACE 

Greggor opened with, “I want to encourage you to think about what you want to see Hawaii look like in the next 5 years, and I need to know what you need from me as your State Representative on how I could be your voice at the state and local level.”

Illagan was spot on during his presentation to us in Seaview. After 8 previous town hall meetings in December, he had informative answers to all our questions, maintaining a lively interaction between the audience and himself.

The question most asked was,  “What about the Puna Makai and Puna Mauka alternate routes, which are top priorities for the community’s safety and mobility. Greggor elaborated, “Hawaii County has selected a consultant to determine the specific alignments for those routes. The State Department of Transportation will supplement County funding totaling 3.5 million to do the study. Once a preferred route is determined, we will work with State and County partners to secure construction funding. Phased construction will begin, delivering long-term improvements for Puna step- by-step. My big concern is that the Hawaii homeland property is non-negotiable to be considered as part of the alternate routes. Safety improvements on Highway 130 are moving forward, including the widening of the Ainaloa roundabout first and planned roundabouts at Orchidland, after there is a traffic study to determine if this has improved the traffic flow, then Maku’u.”

“What happened to the 9.2 million dollars allocated to open a boat harbor at Po’hoiki?” was the question on everybody’s mind.

Greggor explained that the community wanted this project to move; Po‘hoiki Boat Harbor became the #1 issue in 2022, and so he went with the option that would move the project forward, which was the final dredging bid of 9.2 million. Greggor compared the costs of the Hilo dredging project to those of Po’hoiki Bay and realized they were comparable. Rather than investigate where the funds exactly went with a state audit, which would be costly, take a long time, and possibly find nothing, he has decided that the best use of his time and the taxpayers’ money is to raise funds for the next attempt to open the Bay. The following discussion revealed that a rushed construction project caused failure and that a long-term solution that is more permanent for future community projects was chosen. Greggor proposed using jetties (cost is approximately $40million) that are designed to shore up the base of the Bay so that it doesn’t happen again, so the jetties are a permanent solution that will last for generations. The first step is to secure 1 million dollars for the passive design of this project, which Greggor is currently working on. It would take 2 years to create the designs and then he would advocate for Phase one, which is the installation of the first jetty. The whole process could take years. Good news for the swimmers as Po’hoiki would remain a swimming pond, bad news for the fishermen of Puna wanting to reclaim their boat harbor.

Other questions discussed: our representative is addressing the inadequate facilities at the Pahoa post office to the postmaster’s DC office by drafting a letter to initiate the process of obtaining a better post office.

Next issue: how to help seniors create money to live here with more social services and more choices of activities. 

The last most important issue was how to expand economic opportunities here. All of these issues are currently being considered for future action when new proposals are presented.

Next issue: how to help seniors create money to live here with more social services and more choices of activities. 

The last most important issue was how to expand economic opportunities here. All of these issues are currently being considered for future action when new proposals are presented.

Greggor was a clear, detailed speaker able to maintain the educated audience’s attention for 2 hours. He shared specific details on his thought process for governing in an authentic, vulnerable manner with sincerity in wanting to serve his constituents to the best of his ability. I appreciate what he wants to do in his role as our State Representative and plan to support him in everyway I can.