Hawaii County is following through on its plans to fence off the Hilo Municipal Golf Course from nearby residents, to the displeasure of at least some of the neighbors.
Numerous people have contacted the Hawaii Tribune-Herald since a March 12 article detailing the county’s plans, all of them in opposition. Almost all are senior citizens. Most wouldn’t go on the record or requested anonymity for speaking, fearing reprisals from the county.
One willing to speak on the record is David Freedman, a resident of Hoonanea Street on the southern boundary of the 18-hole county golf course. He received a Feb. 21 letter from Parks and Recreation Director Clayton Honma but was still surprised by how quickly construction started after the letter and a Feb. 23 walk-through of the neighborhood by Honma and Mayor Kimo Alameda.
“Two-and-a-half weeks ago, they started doing construction right outside my house. I live on Hoonanea, right on the golf course, and they didn’t let us know. They didn’t do any due diligence,” Freedman said. “There was no public hearing, nothing. And of course, it started right in front of my house.
“I have a huge gate right onto the golf course. Dump trucks full of gravel came in. I asked what they were doing, and they said, ‘We’re making a platform for all the heavy equipment to come in and put the fence in.’”
Freedman said he was told by County Councilman Dennis “Fresh” Onishi, who represents the district, that the fence project was an initiative of the previous administration of former Mayor Mitch Roth and Maurice Messina, then the parks and rec director.
Onishi told the Tribune- Herald the Roth administration initiated the 6-foot chain-link fence project “with no community meetings or personal contact.”
“After talking to P&R and golf course, the fence was planned to help with protecting the paying golfers on liability and (stop) illegal vehicles coming on to the course,” Onishi said Friday in an email. “Also, some of the neighbors who live along the 14th hole would like the fencing because it will stop golfers entering their properties to retrieve their golf balls and do other things.”
Onishi didn’t elaborate on what those other things might be.
Freedman said that, aside from the lack of community input, he thinks the dryness that has plagued the Big Island and has all of East Hawaii in moderate drought will one day spark a massive wildfire similar to the August 2023 fire on Maui or the recent destructive fires in Malibu and Pacific Palisades, near Los Angeles.
He thinks firetrucks brought in to fight such a conflagration will block the narrow streets abutting the golf course, and the only escape route would be through the golf course.
“It didn’t really hit me until I was talking to a friend of mine who had lost everything in the Palisades fire. And he said, ‘Putting up a fence is the stupidest thing in the world. If there’s a fire in your neighborhood and your street is cut off, you’ll burn to death. You won’t have any way out,’” Freedman said.
Freedman said he’s enlisted a contingent of neighbors who also want the county to stop building the fence. He’s calling the cadre Voters Against the Death Fence.
“I went to my neighbors, and they all said, ‘We have this giant ocean like they did in Lahaina that people could jump into when the fires were happening — a giant ocean of nonflammable grass,’” he added, referring to the golf course. “And suddenly, we get that cut off. All the houses in my neighborhood are 50 to 60 years old, with single-wall construction. How quickly do you think they’ll go up in a fire?
“I have a fire marshal friend who I spoke to in L.A., and he said, ‘It’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. It’s super insensitive considering what we’ve gone through here in L.A. and what they went through on Maui. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when your whole neighborhood catches fire.’”
Another person, who requested anonymity, said the ongoing construction is stressful for the golf course’s neighbors.
“Today the trucks and saws cutting the trees near my house, those trucks positioned on my neighbor’s yard although the neighbor is not home, is stressing,” that person said. “I definitely blame, not credit, the new mayor. There are little groups still of neighbors still to stop this, but we’re all afraid of the kickback from the powers that be.”
That person also mentioned contacting a Council member without naming the official.
Onishi said he’s mentioned to the administration the possibility of “reducing the height of the fence and having the fence painted in a ‘green-coated finish’ to blend into the environment.”
Freedman said his group still seeks a productive dialogue with administration officials that, so far, hasn’t occurred.
“Let me state that the action group that we have understands that this was created by the previous administration, that it was not this current administration. But we are asking for the current administration to do the right thing,” he said.
“They have an opportunity to be the heroes here.”
