good afternoon the housing human services and transportation committee will come to order it is about one thirty one p m on thursday march seventeenth twenty sixt before we begin may i please request that we all turn off our silence our cell phones or other noise making devices at this time to introduce our voting committee members have committee secretary tammy frias and legislative analyst michelle your members we have two items on the agenda today so we'll get started it would public testimony and i will make contact first of all regarding in regards to our interactive communications assisting us this afternoon from the honda district is done alo as in regards to our public testimony for individuals who will be testifying in the chamber please sign up at the desk located in the eighth floor lobby just outside the chamber door if you will be testifying from the remote testimony locations specified on the meeting agenda please sign up with council staff at that location testimony will be limited to the item listed on the agenda today pursuant to the rules of the council each testifier will be allowed to testify for up to three minutes per item with one minute to conclude if requested when testifying please state your name and the name of any organization you are representing at this time i'd like to call our first testifier john thank each member of the council for your continued support of the college and for this opportunity to testify let me begin by sharing that the purpose of the heart of the hospitality academy of maui renovation to four former student housing units is to provide an educational and training facility for hospitality and target students tourism students at u h mally college the renovated units will provide students with a simulated or hands on experience running a hotel further several other u h m see degree programs such as calling air arts and our business programs are looking forward to initiating an active learning project for students at the renovated facility this project has strong local and state wide support the first phase of this project has around addition of two of the former of the four former student housing buildings on the site upon completion of this phase it will not be economical for the college to provide transit accommodations to the general public we plan to use the two renovated buildings to only educate and train students without offering any accommodations to the general public the second phase of the project will be the renovation of the remaining two former student housing buildings which could take a number of years into the future to complete the college in partnership with a local hospitality industry is currently engaged in pfizer fundraising activities towards us and it will not be economically viable to consider transit commendations until the second phase of the project has been completed and all four or four of the former student housing buildings are renovated and ready for occupancy once the second phase has been completed the have no objections i'll ask my that member is there anyone wishing to provide testimony from the milk a district office is there anyone wishing to provide testimony from the district office thank you ladies is there anyone in the gallery or at the district office is sort of like to testify district offices we've just concluded that there are no testifiers it appears as though we've completed testimony as there are no further individuals in the concert chamber or district offices wishing to testify without objection i will close public testimony thank you members in receipt of county communication sixteen dash thirty six from the director of housing and human concerns transmitting our proposed resolution and title authorizing the first amendment to the university of hawaii college student housing lease the purpose of the proposed resolution is to authorize the university of hawaii to transition the use of to property identified for real property tax purposes as tax map key to three dash eight dash zero zero seven one one seven from soli student housing to administrat educational and student and faculty housing purposes the committee may consider whether to recommend adoption of the proposed resolution with or without revisions the committee may also consider the filing of county communication sixteen dash thirty six and other related action at this time i guess we would have comments from the department of housing and human concerns and we have our deputy director jan she don't good afternoon and thank you chair cavallo and good afternoon council members and thank you vice chancellor mchugh for being here as well we are seeking an amendment to the county's lease with the university of hawaii minoa cop college excuse me for their property located at the corner of why he made point peel and call home on new tax map key to dash three dash eight zero zero seven one seventeen currently the lease allows only for student housing and u h m c plans to transform the facility into a teaching lab hotel for their hospitality program  acquired state funding to begin the project as tourism is the major driver for maui county's economy the creation of the college's hospitality academy of maui is a natural fit this facility will be and support this facility will will support our vibrant tourism industry and more importantly will allow students to gain hands on experience right here therefore department of housing and human concern seeks council approval to amend the use to include administrative education student faculty housing and the management and operation of a hospitality training center and or a visitor industry learning lab which may provide transience combinations to the general public thank you thank you director members will open up for discussion and any questions allowed at yes correct but there it is not to have housing in the beginning but to have it as a classroom  for our students primarily our hospitality and tourism students but also some other programs might have an interest in using that lab for their for other purposes that are related to the hospitality and tourism industry that's what i thought you had said but i'm getting a a hospitality land an education ministry if you want to in all those buildings into debt classroom type setting that is correct ok ok all right i guess amount of figure out what what the difference what is your time frame what is the timeframe that you have allotted for this to become because it's been seeing their fund number of years begin and it's pretty rundown sometimes very tacky looking you  know i know you guys have gone in to try to clean it up and we shape that but it's still to me you know really an eyesore so i would like to see it you know cleaned up as soon as possible what is the timeframe that you as the university of hawaii college has you know all that three point five million i was going to getting different appropriations running through my head this one is three point five million dollars very good well that's certainly substantial i thought if we were we had to be looking at quite a bit of money here because of looks like the job is a big deal i found out since i've been here that the smallest things to close so much that you wouldn't even think about it but two and a half million is probably a good start along those lines you mention fund raising can you elaborate yeah according to the last one who had star foundation office at the college is working with the hospitality industry and or the faculty members and the hospitality and tourism program and they're looking at a variety of options including but it's all private fundraisers we we've made a pledge to the state that we wouldn't be back to ask for more state funding for those projects we want to complete the rest with other money non state resources well that's good because we certainly don't need any more competition for money i mean it's just getting so hard hard for the nonprofits and it's hard for everybody to try to raise money these days i know this is been going on for a long time i can't remember how long ago but it seems like many years that i've been hearing about this plan so i appreciate mr victory no question about the timeline i do think that it needs to be accelerated you know recently we've been dealing with the issue of homelessness and of course these buildings were mentioned because they're there and you're sitting there and i think unless something happens the community is going to press for you so i think you know right now or do you even provide student and i know you were supposed to have it right we are sister we've we've been the only community college it's had student housing and i was always you that these units are aware that at one point in time we had a private contractor that built housing near the college that it's but that contractors not related to the college it's a separate business and we constantly try to work with our students to find adequate housing nearby but it's not housing that we honor we manage and you're talking about you know you the buildings are going to be a hospitality training center and visitor industry learning lab and ultimately you're going to have some transients very gas there so is the intent to surround it like a hotel yeah  you know i mean we've we've done this with our current program right and we want to do a similar sort of thing with the that this facility eventually but we we won't be able to do that with two of two units were really need off or to make that work ok and if you do it if you do run it like old how they're going to make you do g t n t eighty seventy one you would have to comply with all the same rules that anyone else would have to apply with including getting all the approvals from the county that  start to do that in the first place we've already been using the two buildings that are going to be remodeled for the hospitality program so this money well this really increase the quality of that experience for our students by making those facilities much more up to date and modern ok manager one last question for him and then i don't think having a more you know like mr by some brought up the affordable housing shortage and you're dropping essentially what used to be student housing have done a while does it make sense to to drop that in favor of a hotel training thing when there's a lot of hotels that have internship programs and why would it be better for there for you to put your students there and have them actually work in a hotel that's yes that's as opposed to you know student housing which were affordable housing shortage right that's a that's a really good question and the difference is that we would want to do both and let me explain it's a two year program and we want the two year the first the first year year and a half of the program to be very hands on so that when the students are ready to go into those industry internships prior to graduation where they test everything they've been learning along the way they're much better prepared and and you know there's just been a lot of research that shows that active learning pedagogy hands on getting in and doing the learning rather than just sitting in a classroom learning from a book is a superior way to learn so we want to put them in a simulated environment when they first start start at the college and when they first at the college we don't think they're ready to go out into the internship with industry we'd like them to have some base of experience and knowledge before we do that yeah that was half of the question  smaller college and and as they wanted to disrespect the college continue to grow and i think if there was a way to provide student housing for a large number of our students that would be affordable we would somebody want to look and explore how to do that that's such a small number of units number of us it was and for the cost of maintaining it it just wasn't and then to get everything up to speed we would rather invest in a you know a better solution than that for student housing regrets we have thirty five hundred students so that's all i have for him for now i thank goosing oh i think that you're right i had similar questions that mr couch had and at this place i'm not quite understanding why you wouldn't want to at least you know have plans in the future for housing is it my understanding that you're here and you're not going to even address that portion of the college well no i let me rephrase that we we do work closely with you both the apartment owners near the college to try to carve out spaces for students the former unit that was built for that purpose they're still housing our students and then we have a couple of other providers of housing here by that are also doing that and we would love to be able to have a  nice housing and and i i think that the chancellor isn't here to speak for the college and so i'm thrilled that reluctant to to to speak for the college but i don't know what his position is on that but i do know that he's very student center of student oriented and he would like to do whatever we can to serve the students so we're in the process of looking at a long range plan we have we have we have bill but you know there's the a lot of the housing at universities now that they're around a lot of housing projects and universities are run by private enterprises it's sometimes as a public private partnership sometimes it's just working with the public that the private groups in the area to provide that housing but that apartment complex that i think you know about this you know the college  that actually when i first started to work for my college i lived there for six months so i know about it very very intimately so how does a lot of our students as do other housing complexes around the area but would we would also like to try to make it so that our access to our college is more ubiquitous so that it's not completely with the requirement that students come to our campus for everything that we try to bring the campus to them as much as possible through technology you know other kinds to have to stay someplace so we try our best to work with all the students to try to figure something out for them and you know but the amount of money that it would take to build the quite a bit more than the amount of money we had to remodel  the two buildings right i say and then yeah i just saw a big concern because once you expand campus and you have a crate program eventually you're going to have more student housing crisis as we have right now and trying to look at other solutions that would help absorb that burden would be capped this i guess state of hawaii funding for their own student population because every student that comes here from outside the county to attend your school or takes away a unit from those who are seeking residence here in the county so that i understand your position and i hope you would understand our positions in looking at the bigger picture and i'm requesting that the university really take a good hard look at you know really the future planning of student housing and so that's that's all i have to set this point but it is a concern chair t you just yes i don't want to respond to the whole homelessness piece and this is just personal life i've i've actually been or someone of my family's been involved with habitat for humanity for over twenty years i was  once i took a break from doing this kind of work and i spent some time as a director of a habitat you know manatee affiliate my stepson's been to seven different countries working on homes for homeless for people that are in need of a place to live lived my wife has been on the board at one point time of the maui habitat for humanity affiliate i'm very aware of the challenges facing the homeless population we've also been involved with helping to set up some soup chip soup kitchens so it's not just putting the people in the houses trying to figure out how to feed people and then of course at the college our dental programs and early health programs roy trying to figure out ways to fight it dental and and some in health services to those folks that fall through the cracks and unfortunately there's way too many of them so you know we're we're sympathetic to that and we would love to be involved in a conversation about how we can that type of category but for those that are seeking units right now that are of that income that can afford it because we do have a rental shortage and so that's what i was referring to yet we do have this you know the underlying home less to deal with but the added population in the future for students coming to your program as more burden on the shortage that we have on rental units here so if you could be part of the with the solution or that's you know and providing some state you know monies to build on your own campus student housing that would lessen the burden vices comment but i i i think we made a pledge that we wouldn't go back to the state us from our need for more money for this piece but we would certainly like to be involved with the conversation to address the issue you just raised you were you around i wasn't around but what i've been told us that they went into disrepair and they weren't there they've been condemned they're not suitable for i don't think they would be approved of this as a housing unit so you had a demand for them students so i i totally agree that there is a need for another solution ok but i'm still a little troubled by the hotel thing i mean are you going to yeah i know there's not you what kind of rates you have any idea what kind of rates you're doing you're going to be charging or you know if we think that that's down the road a way it's ok so i don't think we know that yet that would probably be on the lower end and not a higher ok and and i don't understand you know the hotel and lodging association been very involved with this project and supports it ok so they would be very sensitive or whatever they feel would be appropriate perfect thank you yes thank you dear and thank you so much for coming today to talk about this with us because it's important this is been on the table for a while so it's good to kind of figure out where we are a couple  comments one is i want to say that i've had a student my son in the waterfront apartments and they do an excellent job there and i'm very very grateful that he's had that opportunity because it's a very nice apartment convenient and i think it's very well run they have good security and they do a good job for the kids and it's not that and of course he's a student but they do a good job and the price is affordable so that thank you for having that partnership that's really important and the second thing i want to comment on is i cannot tell you how many times i have heard in this chamber that we won't come back everybody says ok but they do come back because stuff happens and you have to go back and of course you have to begin from it but you've got to do what you've got to do to make sure that needs are met so i don't worry too much about you having never going back if you need to go back you go back and have the facilities to prepare our youngsters you know there's other global and there's other opportunities as you get into these large corporations like starwood mary out and others but at least if they want to stay here this opportunity here and the r brought up i guess still has to stay in there because if eventually there is hotel rooms then this would have to be a part of the lease and so but i think i'd like to see guys move as quickly as possible to get this started so that those buildings do not continue to look rundown i know you've made some cleanup and you know i've seen it but still you know what i remember it as in it the way it is now it's kind of an eyesore and a lot of people drive by it within myself and i like to see it really meet so that people can be proud of what we're trying to accomplish with the hospitality industry column there and whatever else may be be a part of as far as the hotel i've stayed at some of these what they call educational allotting facilities they kind of meet in if you have a good chance to stay one of their kind of a neat place to stay because you actually have people trained training and being and they do all the services but it's a little much lower rate because you don't you don't get all the ambiance as you get at a regular hotel so i look forward to that and i think that would be a nice little plus for the industry and demise for administrative education educational and student and faculty housing purposes including without limitation the management and operation of hospitality that's kind of usually we say but including but not limited to without limitation can mean some other things that can kind of mess it up so any problem with changing that without but not limited to chair i believe the intention was they don't want to come back to you guys either you know leave it a little broad as to the use for hospital for educational use it'll be subject to the first four and that without limitation for the operation of the hospitality training center i think the idea was just leave it a little broad so they wouldn't be pigeonholed into so but not limited to is is too much of a pigeonhole without limitation kind of throws it will really wide open and that's a little scary for me but if you think you're ok with that i'm fine with it it's including without limitation so it's languages including and they can do that property allow for the uses that they want to do for transit thank you chair the deputy planning director michel mclean and the community planned as a nation as public  educational neighborhood or community centers and facilities etc etc as well as other similar businesses or commercial enterprises or activities that are not detrimental to the welfare of the surrounding area so under those two right permitted uses we would say that the uses described would be allowed by the zoning ok we just wanted to make sure that we were clear on that one because there had been some questions on that what about as a mayor there in the us a may and if so are they required to do those renovations are they going to be required to get an estimate permit yes they are located within the estimate and depending on what the application looks like it could either be considered exempt or it would be a major or minor permit to pending on the value which i thank you for any further question or further discussion of the matter thank you department maybe any further entitled authorizing the first amendment to the university of hawaii college student housing lease and filing of county communication sixteen days thirty six and also to expiration of the original term of this lease the lease shall be renewable for two periods up to ten years in duration so if the if the school wanted to wanted to do it but we didn't want to for whatever reason allow for the reno this kind of looks like they get it regardless whether we want it or not that right for the ren lease if you guys want to modify the original lease that's the council's praga of course i would recommend leaving it alone but this was u h's request so they did not wan my question is is that what was i interpret it correctly in that they get the call make the call whether or not they want to renew we have no say not a whole lot of say in it on the extension por missing thank you chair it appears to be working that work that way lessee shall notify less or i haven't looked at this lease in a long time not sure terminations provides and if the county has an out but yes it does appear that the extension is that the lessees option i just have a little bit of concern with rather change that shell to maybe there would be another hole where as in the  can be addressed not necessarily need to be addressed then you cherry it's up to this body of course it's always the council's decision on those types of matters if you want you could pass this out today and we could start working on a second amendment to change that language at a later date that way you could at least get this out you each could get moving on getting their funding but practically speaking if they're going to be doing a large capital improvement project in the year tw sixteen and they would only be guaranteed the property for another one thousand years i'm not sure what the life expectancy of these improvements are but with the two ten year extension periods from now it would end in two thousand and fifty five if their exercise both of them that's was  thirty nine years so i'm not sure it's but again it's the council's praga to thank you yeah i'm just wondering if you know things change at the college and something happens in the let it run down again and we don't have the option to other than maybe in the terminations phase but if they say we want to renew it that they have to review it we would have to re the way it's worded now if they notify us that they would like to renew for the extra ten years as well as do it yeah just as a aside it's easier that way than having to go through the whole bea process again with college if i change it to may and where we we decide that we have an issue with making the renewal i doubt we will but there's there might be something that comes up and if somebody in in twenty years says what the heck are they doing with this they shout what were they thinking thank you ciara i guess my only request to be if you do change it a me make it clear what the process will be and we don't really know what the process is it will be in twenty thirty five but when it says me on the county's part does that mean that director of housing human concerns can make the call does me mean we need to come to council to starts jumping all over the place i'd like to know what the state thinks if we start putting in me that we can that they want to put in you know three hundred three million something right now and some of the improvements i agree with you mis thinks we're here but i think further here i don't want to see us lose this whole idea if that's what they want and they need so i would like to know from the state if we were to change it would they continue on this trip or would they decide to go do something else i think that's important so before we i mean i know my passion out the way it is but before we move on we need to sit down with the state and make sure that they're comfortable with that change that they were agreed to it because if they say no  train because i find myself that people graduate with degrees but have no idea what the job how do you any cases i remember my first job as an accountant i had never seen a real ledger and it was kind of a shock so i do like say thing and big people don't get to be interested in those kinds of things i think this is good i do have a concern and my concern is time you know lately we've been looking at our developers and we've been saying ok we're going to give you all these passes but you better you better do it and we recently dealt with one that was very difficult for us to make that this usually about whether to extend it or not extend it and i want to see this project move i don't want to hear about it for the next ten years so i don't have a problem with the extension but i think we might want to put some timelines and go through this thank you thank you so  members i'm going to take a very short recess so you can get the next agenda item people to set up their presentation presentation on resources and services provided by co nor senior services program department of housing and human concerns pursuant to rules seven berggren be paren the rules of the council the committee intends to receive a presentation from the kono a senior services program department of housing and human concerns on topics such as resources and services available through the county to is senior population the committee may receive a presentation from kono's senior services and discuss related matters no legislative action will be taken at this time we have with us jan's deputy director of housing and human concerns ruth griffith program administrators senior services dana acosta program specialist retired and senior volunteer program or what we call r s v p luann program specialist meals on wheels and cecilia suzuki program specialist leisure slash wellness members i have requested that the department of housing and human concerns provide the committee and the public wouldn't information  presentation on its kano a senior services program pursuant to rule seven per and be of the rules of the council specifically i thought it would be helpful for us to hear what county resources and services are available to assist our immigrant population and invite the public to contact the county to take advantage of these resources at this time ms griffith would proceed with her presentation and you should have copies of the presentation distributed i'm sorry you will just need to pay attention what's on the screen thank you so thank you mr griffith and members of the services for being here we all know that your services are very popular with our community as well as with your council members so go ahead thank you for being here thank you thank you members of the county council we are very honored to be here today and thank you for the opportunity to allow us to share some of the services at co no i think you most are f us or you're familiar with what we do what we'd like to do today though is kind of not not so much talk about the statistics and all those kinds of things but i actually show you what the services do show you some of the faces of the people that we serve informational all of our services as well you will be following the presentation be given some handouts so that you will have some more detailed information in case your constituents do ask you questions following the presentation ok so first of all before we begin i would like to think on behalf of the countless staff all sixty plus of us and the seniors that we serve as well as their families we would like to express our deep gratitude to the mali county council and the administration for support for all these years and our committee and your commitment to the seniors of molly county because of your support we have an extraordinary senior service program on my we perhaps the best in the country that would be arguable maybe if you're not from ma presentation here so if i forget to click a slide please wait you've let me call noise very unique in that we serve the population senior population between the ages of fifty five on three hundred five hundred fifteen one hundred twenty five most places around the country senior service programs are directed more at one segment of that population so seniors would have to go from maybe one nonprofit to another here county you can move fluidly from one program to another through countless senior services and this is what makes the county very very unique and very effective at what we do our goal is to reach as many seniors as we can to provide them with the support that they would need to remain healthy for as long as possible to live longer but also more healthy lives so that they can remain productive and independent and live at home for as long as possible and avoid institutionalization so that that is the heart of common or that is what we do what we are known for is our extraordinary service to the seniors our staff at common law provides what we call legendary service which is service that is above and beyond the normal and we are very very proud of that so this is why and how we provide legendary service this is the counter mission the every employee at co noise committed to our mission it is what drives us to provide exemplary service to our seniors a cow nor are we constantly strive to be the best at what we do because the seniors are molly county deserve no less our goal is to provide outstanding support services to the seniors amole county which will enable them to remain healthy independent contributing members of our communities for the rest of their lives this is the heart of our service our three major focus areas at conemaugh the first is to increase a person's health span the period of life that is free of disease and significant disability to enable people to live longer more healthy independent lives through the provision of educational and socialization programs which improve physical and mental health and reduce isolation and to prevent the need for institutionalization we know that medical science has enabled people to live longer lives but this can result in living from longer period of time with illness and disability and this is no way to age goal is to improve our seniors quality of life to slow down the aging process and increase the person's health span focus area number two is to enable many of our senior participants to become volunteers and utilize their talents and experiences to remain connected to and contributing members of their communities people want to feel valued and valuable to their families and friends everyone even the homebound can remain connected to their greater community through volunteerism or works with communities to create these opportunities for our seniors our third focus area would be to help the frail and homebound elderly to age with dignity in their own homes to provide meaningful and enjoyable experiences for the hometown which reduces isolation and promotes a sense of security independence and a positive outlook on life feeding the spirit is a vital part of what can or does although we cannot take away our clients frailty we can provide experiences which raise their self esteem and outlook on life to despair growing old makes people grow old faster therefore we are committed to providing experiences and opportunities to our clients that will show them that they still matter and people still care about them these focus areas were actually determined years ago at the beginning when color first started under robin tanaka and this focus area remains the same today we are very committed to it does not change what we do maybe how we do changes but not what we do so what come no we do serve fifty five and above fifty what we say is fifty five and better this is the proper terminology at this point in time our seniors are not like the seniors that we knew not like our grandparents very very active very engaged and we would like to keep them that way so the first part of the aging process during the aging process they go through our leisure wellness program then sort of progress p which is a volunteer program then to the congregate nutrition program and then finally to the homebound programs which is a sister transportation and meals on wheels and that would cover the spectrum of the aging process for our seniors and this is why we are so special so i'm going to kind of take you through that process so you can see the aging process on my county and what we offer and how lucky you are so our citizens are first program is the loser wellness program carlos leisure wellness program is designed to meet the fitness social and wellness needs of adults fifty five and better be sure wellness promotes continuous learning mental sharpness physical conditioning good nutrition creativity self expression and social interaction leisure wellness helps retirees find their new beginning and puts them on a path to enjoy a long healthy and independent life with hundreds of classes and activities offered each month including a wide variety of short term classes events speakers and excursions connaught has one of the most diverse innovative progressive senior center programs in the country these are your grandparents fitness classes this is judy real for you know she's one of our instructors with some very happy and energetic students carlos fitness classes are tailored for seniors and individuals determine how much they can safely do but cannot physical exercise programs encourage students to improve their skills and fitness levels in order to remain strong so they are challenging depending on your skill level and we do we do take that into consideration with an emphasis on improving balance physical strength flexibility and durrance fitness classes play a critical role in keeping molly county seniors active and healthy and helps to slow down and prevent the negative effects of aging special padded flooring this is our wellness center special padded flooring and specialized instruction for seniors helps to prevent exercise injuries working out with peers instead of in an open each class reduces feelings of self consciousness and encourages participation socialization and mutual support i believe this is a class and you see that the floors on the floors are padded and this particular facility has wall to wall mirrors so they can see and check their form so the floors are actually very easy on the knees on the ankles fun class very vigorous in fact and there are various levels  that you included mirror some examples of condiments physical fitness and wellness classes include aerobic soccer fit body tone cardio open fitness slow robotics strength training stretching condition  she meditation and those are just some of the classes that we offer on a daily weekly monthly yearly basis at conemaugh just some of those classes we also offer various levels so you can be a beginner to intermediate you can be advanced and advanced let me tell you is advanced so the next light i want you to see is what happens when you do attend con or classes this is not just rhetoric classes are real they produce real results they produce healthy strong people like this lady holding the exercise ball on your left that is  that is a result of a strength training a weight training class that i believe participants use different different weights depending on their ability level from three pounds twenty five is what i've heard lee apparently can lift quite a bit that is a real muscle she is that strong leader has been attending connaught classes since one thousand nine hundred eighty for the past eighteen years she is coming to kano are not only broadens her physical abilities but her social activities are also directly attached to call on these are least words attending weekly exercise and academic classes as a regular routine helps keep lee mobile and active if it wasn't for their activities and their staff she says she would not be outgoing and active whatley enjoys the most is the people who come to come and the friends she has reunited with and the new friends she has may lead as many activities outside kono with the friends she has made there is a strong and vibrant seventy six year old drawing digital art painting oil acrylic crafting jory making sewing photography ceramics and much more music and dance classes are some of the most popular ways of staying fit music and dance students like these from countless top class as well as several line dance and hula classes perform for the public regularly so they do have an opportunity to share their talents with others have some time to for everyone to see what they've accomplished this is molokai is dance class performing at the annual r s v p recognition this is a very vigorous class that i would and many seniors take more than one type of class or one type of more than one instructor many seniors also take more than one type of dance so that that's what makes it exciting we don't just offer who we offer all kinds of debts so these are some of the lovely ladies from believe this was just taken a few days ago japanese obama's stance student showing off what they've learned a condo is on bond dance which kicks off maui's summer blend that season they take classes  condos multiple pool instructors so the different ladies different color costumes are with different instructors award winning hula students are our students from our dance classes they do compete against others in the state as well as in the nation this is a leak on the core clark who recently won first place in the will beautiful dancer wonderful lady this is one of the most popular usual nice activities we have a con or this is cooking demonstrations this particular one is a  hands on computer class where you do get to meet new people you sit with new people and learn how to cook shop shop or whatever we have going on that day this is our own john she deputy director enjoying a cooking class this is an hour yes this is an evening class we do have evening classes as well she was not at work at the time we do provide evening classes for those of you who do work instructor and this is the quality of the food that we serve another call now our favorite this is also an evening program this is club fifty five this is this will rival any private club that you could go to we have live d j and well to more music for three straight hours no break and everybody dances during that time hav proposed this color lights which you cannot see in this picture and as you can see a huge turnout every time these dances are also themed so for halloween there's a dance and valentines there's a dance so we do we do have a lot of fun with this is our one of our newer programs very very popular also bring in live bands again this is a dance and live band performance we've done several of those just you know we're going to continue to do that to support local musicians as well ok i'm going to attracted a whole new crowd of people who don't normally come to some of our classes maybe because they're working but they do enjoy dancing and it is nonstop three hours and the go for it so do behind the scenes for example when you each colony arts program opened we were able to get in there and see all the behind the scenes before they opened up for the students we've also done ma electric power plant and a lso at restaurants and the hotel operations at various hotels and we've also done of course as you know meals are very popular so maybe do a luncheon dinners we we do go to we also do entertainment type of things we went recently went to the sunday brunch friends that's his new program at the king come here and we also it's not just entertainment and we also do heights and hikes also range we try to provide hikes that are just walking so maybe people want to get out and walk with others so it's pretty not too strenuous all the way up to strenuous hikes them on a force reserve trails so there are a range of programs to for people at different levels of their walking abilities we've also been concentrating on doing some day trips because we've been all over the island now we're going to expand out to the different islands and we've gone to a wahoo and we've done our mana poor hunt so they went to chinatown for a couple days to check out who had the best man a poo r they've also recently gone to pro harbor and battleship missouri we've gone to london to spend a day at the beach and interact with the e c in years as well as a town tour that was pretty new an event so when they're there doing that as well ok so the state this is a picture of our line dance we host with other islands right now it's just all wahoo and the big island have a lot of line dancers we get over two hundred seniors and we take turns hosting this get together where they learn they struck there's put on workshops where the seniors learn new dances and then the next day all the senior dance groups get to perform and show off their dancing skills this is one what they call a mass dance this particular photo where you participates in something that everybody will know and also what they had learned that they before at the workshop the next one when we love this one because we've got a lot of men participating in this particular one is a state we have this picture is our state senior softball tournament it happens on each of the four islands this is the year we hosted back in two thousand and fourteen we have over sixty sixty plus teams participating with over eight hundred seniors as you can see that's our wonderful i am i hire a baseball stadium there for the opening ceremonies so last year it was the big island and this year it's going to koichi and then oahu and then it comes back to mali where we host so we're looking forward to the new fields coming out hopefully we'll be able to use those  eight to ten fields so yes so those are a couple of the state programs that we partner with other counties come also produces a leisure wellness program the ares v p the retired senior volunteer program also produces community events like this one this is blossoms for the brave which we do every year for memorial day  and this is held on the front lawn of the county building this is where we make lee for so that every grave at the veterans cemetery  for that week in preparation takes place weeks in advance as you can see we get donations of tons and tons of tealeaf which have to be cleaned by volunteers iron stripped this is even before the event him active instead of sedentary at home masaru is a vital veteran of the united states army signal corps he is proud to have played a big part in blossom for the brave the sorrow is eighty six years y here's boston for the brave this is a large turnout you can see the number of seniors who are who participated there was also a large number of visitors who attended who sat with the seniors and then the seniors are able to share their knowledge and their skills with them  carroll sewing his leg mrs our car again we brought in seniors from hala from west ma we we bussed them in so that everybody could participate they were also clients from seabed and this is us reaching the twenty nine hundred mark reaching the goal with the help of hundreds of hands and that would be i believe warren ishita was a wonderful e so this is just one of kano was volunteer and leisure kind of cool events so at this point we're going to have let down our cost but i just need to mention that this particular event was also coordinating partnership with the office of the mayor this point we're going to be talking about the retired senior volunteer program the opportunities that are there with programs specialist and acosta thank you ruth and thank you madam chair and council members it's a pleasure to be able to present back to you all today are is the p stands for retired and senior volunteer program you don't have to be retired and so long as you're fifty five or better you qualify to be a volunteer so our first side shows gives you an example of some volunteers that many of you are probably already familiar with and the information desk down on the second floor of this is very this very building and every year they get together for a special recognition event celebrating the number of people that they help throughout the year ours to be volunteers serve throughout the community at any number of places the next slide you'll see is our volunteer corps at  museum and cultural center and these are just a few of the volunteers that we could tear away the band on the left is very active his name is john warden he also serves for a r p and he serves have for quite some time doing all types of activities one of the most valuable experiences that i've heard from these ladies is the gratification that they feel when they can help a family member who's waiting for one of their loved ones in surgery and they have the information for the family as they're coming up to check and see what's happening and it's really gratifying for the volunteers and and so that's and they keep on doing everything that they're doing at the hospital this group and target gents is our korean war veteran volunteers and they help us out with all types of activities they do they choose what they like to help on this particular event they were helping us park for one of our large events on property conemaugh and so they help us keep the traffic flowing and keep everybody where they're supposed to be our ladies and gentleman who served for the blood bank of hawaii also put in a number of hours and facilitate blood collection and blood drives throughout the year they do reminder calls they will do appointments of course they've tried a little bit into a an electronic appointment system now but they do help us to with reminder calls and with the canteens as they call them for the blood drives and several of the other things that  p is we do special projects throughout the year and this is one of them and this is last year's spring food drive and we collected food to provide the show for the summer time when children are out of school and not having access to extra food and resources through the deal we and the next slide you'll see is another project we do c excuse me angel tree where we put up a tree in our offices with the needs and wishes of our assisted transportation meals on wheels and congregate nutrition volunteer senior citizens it's pretty it's a pretty amazing program we've done it this is going to be our fourth year this man is a donor one of the people who picked a gift off the tree and supplied it but we've had people come up to us two and three months after christmas who received a gift anonymously and said you know i don't i can't tell you how much that meant to me during christmas that was a gift certificate for a grocery store and she wrote you know she's just say you know i just was perfect it meant so much to me to have that extra resource during the holidays and so that's just a couple of the community service projects that we involve r s v p volunteers and one of the new programs that we've started three years ago was called is called civic adventures and this is geared towards new retirees or retirees who don't want to make a commitment to every week i'm volunteering they want to check out an agency or they want to check out things that they might be interested in so civic adventures provides an opportunity to go on to a organization or an agency and visit and learn about that agency and organization and then do some work some needed work for the project  started with the overall cultural reserve and we've just branched out to a number of different agencies throughout the three years that we've been doing it this is an example of all the trash that one person found that they've been asking us to come back again it's nesting season for the native homeland birds there and so we've been asked to go back and help them clean up and get ready for this season one of the other very important things that we do is our volunteer recognition which each of you is very familiar with and without your help and support in helping us to thank the volunteers every year well with that support it makes the volunteers feel so special that you noticed the council members noticed them ministration takes note of what they're doing and you've heard us throughout the years with various things that we've asked you to do up on stage to participate in our programs and i hear you have there was  win lose or draw competition up on stage and many of you participated in a few years ago we did a read rolled out the red carpet and had a very special what's yeah this is a walk back in time what's really special is that you folks not only just get up and help us entertain but you dress the part you play along with you really make the volunteers feel special for their volunteer efforts and here we have there we go go and down the red carpet and our volunteers get to play along with you o come up with one of our esteemed longest running volunteers and she's a very special lady to us and she's states it's another one of the things we do is we try to do something different every year so the ball in tears don't go ok it's just another r s v p luncheon and so you really help us to provide that is a volunteer and also very helpful in providing entertainment and people participate in all sorts of classes and acts and volunteer activities so i just like  say thank you because volunteering is such an important part of retirement and it's proven that it helps to delay illness and it keeps you active in the community and we thank you for your support of the artist p p program thank you donna next congregate nutrition program this group of seniors very active they do participate in leisure wallace activities but more but more than not they prefer to participate in activities at a nutrition site which is located throughout the community so much more about spending time with friends within their own communities to congregate nutrition program provides senior sixty and better with a healthy meal tradition education physical activities volunteer opportunities and socialization just probably the key aspect of that program it is to reduce isolation to keep people connected twelve congregate sites in communities throughout my county is a performance by a colleague that came for the day and brought whole bunch of sites together socialization is a critical part of the congregant nutrition program in a recent client survey many participants said that they would be home alone if not for the program others prefer the company of their peers and friends even if they do not live alone so this is an important part of their lives large events throughout the year bring many sites together to enhance the socialization experience of participants these are beautiful ladies and gentleman from hama regularly attend these big events were old friends separated by distance can me and reconnect honna seniors are some of the most active seniors that we have they will think nothing of getting on a bus and coming and having a great time with their friends from central and west m being able to give back to and remain connected with their communities is important to congregate participants who take every opportunity to volunteer for community service projects like this food bank drive on molokai which i believe was just a couple days ago physical exercises tailored to accommodate the congregate participants needs chairs stretch and touchy help to maintain flexibility strength and balance without being too strenuous a lot of our instructors tailor this so that they can tailor these exercises that can be done from a chair and sitting position congregates favorite activities include bingo this is a bingo win right here and we bowling which  probably the most competitive bowling you will ever see they are all very talented at that bingo is a very serious game for congregate seniors if you go to a congregate senior doing a bingo game i suggest you not speak to and interrupt the games between you and interrupt the game they will give you stink eye it is so quiet because they concentrate so hard that you can hear a pin drop it is that serious but it is the most fun fun time for them to get together this is council member mike white sponsored bingo game where he donated prizes and serves as game color so and again this is very competitive you are welcome to c and call just you know please mind the competitive nature of the congress participants love to have fun with friends and their site korda nater so you can guess which one is the psych ordinator although they all look like they're having fun the one with the atlas is the site corner site coordinators can be found printing out puzzles which they love of puzzles printing out puzzles decorating for events setting up games cooking demos exercise programs volunteer projects planning excursions and arranging for transportation for each senior are have time employees and they do agree i'm out for the seniors dressing up entertaining serving as dance partners in cheerleaders are just part of the job for these amazing kahlua staff members this is for these staff members it's like being on stage when they enter the the nutrition site so no matter what they feel like no matter how bad their day is been or how challenge they might feel when they enter a nutrition site with the seniors they will transform themselves into the the greatest performer you ever see and give the senior everything that they have they are key to the congregants sites dances with multiple sites participating are a big draw i believe this is our holiday celebration we love to dance the program helps to keep people together as well this is a go was on the left her mother hilda camaro and uncle richard camaro who attend the a copy nutrition program daily donna says she has made many new friends since joining the program in two thousand and thirteen and enjoys time spent with her family donna is also valuable a cocky volunteer who regularly on arrives to the lunch program early to help her psych ward nadir set up coffee service for the day and those are cool as we have a lot of cool is it all the site these are fun bunch of people  who get to spend a lot of time together and great activities that we provide for them so at this time what we're going to do is read a couple of models these are hundreds of models from the from some of the seniors at the congregate site so that you can hear from them directly i think donna's going to read i love coming to the hall each day for one thing nancy is so nice and always helpful the lunches are very good best of all i like this is with all the people everyone is so nice and friendly djimi is so sweet she's speaking of the state manager there and loving also and all we have and we have puzzles for those who want to do them also there is bowling to play if you can  want to play it's lots of fun now and now and then we have different programs who come in to teach us things that are very interesting i think we are blessed and lucky to have all of this better than sitting at home alone my deepest love and good wishes to all love teresa and judy car he lunch program is my favorite place to be i enjoy the exercise days when we make crafts and cut ok days we always have a great guest speakers and programs always something to do i like to keep busy and get out of the house i enjoy coming to the lunch program i love talking story with my friends and aaron the site manager is always so helpful and nice and i depend on the hot meal i cannot cook and i don't drive anymore thank you for the lunch program donna all congregate attention arlin to most so we recently took a survey of what we think about kona as nutrition program i want to personally thank you and your staff for a wonderful program i look forward to every tuesday and fridays to attend the nutrition count always wake up proust center excursions lunch activities guest speakers at cetera have made my retirement years full of fun and enjoyment care we do have to read this one because i believe she is expecting it to be read no nutrition program is a vital part of my daily life it enables me to talk story with friends and keep up with what is going on in the neighborhood i enjoy the activities nancy  excursions to other nutrition states and special places can forget to mention the very affordable nutritious lunch especially since we get it from halim a whole new kitchen for a donation of two dollars without the nutrition program to come to i'd be at home watching t v most more likely napping in front of it i don't drive so i can't go to visit friends or attend activities on my own in the now this is the assisted transportation program now we we are looking at services that assist the the homebound the frail elderly these are our most vulnerable seniors so we are not going to show you pictures of their faces of our current clients but we will talk to you about the programs assisted transportation provides door to door assistance to persons age sixty and better with physical or mental limitations and limited means of transportation eighty clients are referred to us from the maui county office on aging following a needs based assessment eighty provide services throughout maori county takes clients to medical appointments adult day care day he business related appointments shopping for necessities and other locations if available we do take people sometimes to visit graves sometimes to visit their families ahead of macaw so we do try to make those connections for them eighty drivers are trained senior service providers who provide more than just a ride these are these drivers people think that they are just driving a car and begin people up and dropping them off and that's not the case they're highly trained risk management program as well as to carlos programs itself so these are these are actually service providers are not just drivers eighty workers are often the only person who will see a frail senior in a given day the to recognize signs of distress provide reassurance and referrals for additional services when needed eighty clients as a group continues to become older and more frail and more isolated both socially and geographically our drivers know are going to more remote areas than ever before and require more one on one on systems eighty staff charles strives to provide more than just a right but organizing group activities for clients to help reduce isolation and loneliness this is one of the group activities this is the special farraday at the maui fair this is one of our clients having a bumper car ride with one of our staff members their other pictures of him eating cotton candy and having a on the ferris wheel the eighty stop provides senior clients with much more than a right they go the extra mile to make clients feel special and valued and provide them with the support they need to remain independent and able to age at home with dignity for as year almost completed and i just want to express my appreciation for your caring and service i feel like you are all my guardian angels thank you for always being there when i need you may you be blessed for your serves happy thanksgiving surf and see all all of you have been a wonderful gift to me and my family i love the candy to have a wonderful year of safe driving angel team to the lucky gods ski helping hands of all the beautiful kono and to me a bit of paradise on earth wow thank you for your kindness smiles humor laughter brightening everybody's day sending many blessings best wishes this is a beautiful one day by day minute by minute breath by breath heart beat by heart beat my life is indeed more enjoyable because of your generous gift your giving spirit yes indeed the pain is less the sun shines brighter my thoughts are cheerier my heart is grateful all the day long just know we knew you were in my life each encounter transporting me listening to my concerns laughing with me sighing with me gives me hope and a resolve to find ways to build on what you've given me to pass on to those around me and awareness that someone me them it is christmas all year long because it is christmas all year long being a part of connor family i live each and every i love each and every one of you i pray god's blessings on you and yours thank you so those are some of our eighty clients our sister translation very grateful people very lovely people so at this time we're going to close with our final final section which is the meals on wheels section would be the most frail of our homebound clients and this part will be presented by good afternoon madam chair members of the council thank you for giving us the opportunity to present to you about cannolis services cow noise meals on wheels program serves nutritious meals to frail homebound seniors age sixty and better who do not drive and need assistance with daily living meals are delivered by very caring staff who provide more than just a meal they provide a safety check to ensure the senior is ok and they provide an opportunity for socialization for the homebound senior and we'd like to present you with two or three examples me till the kind i and by the way these examples that we're presenting for  seniors who have passed for reasons mentioned previously we do not want to disclose our current meals on wheels clients we had the privilege of serving hilda for about five years  wait outside of her house for staff to bring her lunch she was a feisty lady who offered to teach the staff to cook even when maui county banned the plastic bags she asked staff to bring plastic bags from honolulu so she could line her trash cans sorry she had a really mean dog to point out arriving at her residence staff would stamp their feet before leaving their car to just check with the dog was she also had staff take her mail to her mailbox and she would always remind them to put up the flag now hilda loved to tell the staff stories about how she was as a supervisor for the telephone company in honolulu she wanted her milk on the side of her lunch plate never on top of the lunch and as a safety concern staff always brought in her her daughter was always so grateful for the healthy meals and the daily check by staff toward the end of her life hilda became more frail and she would sit inside her house and have staff put her meal on a cart she would also the staff would also open her milk carton and undo the cellophane on her meal for her and set it up for her so she could eat it and during her last months hilda moved in with her daughter and passed at the age of ninety eight with the help of hospice so thank you for allowing her to to live at home till her ending home in my look he had been in a car accident paralyzed on his left side with a speech impairment and he was prone to falls so when we met him he used an electric scooter or because of his speech impairment from the accident he was extremely difficult to understand but the staff and time understood him though they found him to be a very loving gentle man who loved t h warriors he must be so proud of our u h men's and women's basketball team right now it wasn't unusual for the staff to give him hugs they saw how much he loved the socialization of the people contact we were so happy when he told us that he was moving from his home and why to holly my whole it cool colu where he could be around more people more often the night before he passed he went to a party and he passed the next day quite unexpectedly his sister told us that he died of a heart attack he never even told them he had a heart condition he passed at sixty nine years old a few weeks shy of his seventieth birthday and by the way his sisters were his emergency contacts one sister lived and still lives in cola a second sister lived and still lives on the mainland so with admin living and why look who the distance made it really tough for the caregivers so they were very appreciative of the nutritious meals provided the last and final slide is of she gail yamashita she gail when we met him he lived alone he is his wife had recently passed and his his beloved dog had recently passed as well they had no  children he lived at parkside he was a very lonesome frail man who couldn't drive and was very unsteady on his feet staff would escort him to retrieve his when they delivered the meal they would escort him to his mailbox so that he could get some exercise and get his mail and then walk him back staff also took him on more than just a meal activity to his old home by the river look cool and to his wife's grave to put flowers they took him to rice park in kula he said he and his wife had picnics there he was a very social person  he would cry whenever they take him to the grave he did not get he did not get that at home by himself staff knew he would eat only simon for dinner so they would sometimes take dinner for him after work he asked his niece who was his caregiver his only caregiver why are they so nice to me she said that meals on wheels showed her uncle that he was still a very valuable person even though his wife had passed he's still valuable his niece promised him that she would do everything possible to ensure he can stay at home he can remain at home until his death so staff deliver the mo news to him it came from a friend who happened to be a client of ours and lived in the same complex so we'd go deliver her meal pick up her newspaper after she's read it and then take his meal and give him the newspaper and then go pick up his mail at the mailbox and you know he can get his exercise mr y a she to died at home at the age of ninety four under hospice care thereby fulfilling his niece's promise promise to him at cullen no we strive all strive toward the same mission we accomplish it in different different ways at meals on wheels we served seniors toward their later years and we strive to make those years the best years by allowing them the ability to age in their own homes with dignity and grace thank you that's all that we have for today and we would like to we thank you for your patience and for your interest and for giving us opportunity to speak to the community to tell the community about what we do account again thank you for your support we but it's very comprehensive and it certainly helps everybody understand a little bit of what's going on at kano and i say a little bit because i get your newsletter every month and i sit there and it takes me quite a while to go through the whole thing to see all of the activities and i'm so jealous because i want to get on the bus and go to the latest restaurant or the latest nightclub or whatever and see what's going on i mean our seniors in our country are very very lucky and was i had the opportunity when i was chair of the council to sit with folks they came here from in washington and also folks who came from the officer in egypt and they both made it very clear they acknowledge he has the best senior program they say in the country so i think we should be very very proud of it and i'm very proud that the county  continues to put and poor lots and lots of money into senior services and all of that we have just about everything and that's why we have a lot of people moving to maui to take advantage of our programs because they're hearing about them but i want to say  you to all of a you because i'm not that far away from being able to go to call noah hopefully in nine months i can enjoy some of the stuff i've been drooling over for a long time and also i want to thank you for your love and dedication  seniors because it means a lot in this story is that you share that's where it really gets you when you see people dying in their late ninety's or i know many of them even live into their hundreds you can take you know take that home you know this is not work that pays you well you probably could learn a lot more doing something else but think of the rich mean what they do have for the rest of your life and you take that home and say i made a difference so thank you and thank you chair thank you very very small for what you provide you know as i saw those faces and those who have left us it really brought tears to my eyes because i knew most of them i remembered them i seen them and talked to them and and to see that they're not here anymore which i knew were really bring something out to say you know we face a lot of challenges but our seniors can rest assured that they're not one of them so long as we have the strength and the financial where all they will be always taking care of we need to on a dam just like we need to take care of our youngsters who'll be our future i mean that's the two dichotomies that we live with yeah but to say just thank you seems so little but i guess that's the only words i can think of everything you do you know heaven's gates will open up for most of you because you are just part of what love is all about what have in me and why we county has always been and it's always good to know that i progress towards death and the younger i like mr goodman has a while to get there but he'll get there but his parents and others to enjoy and that much i know you know a lot of our parents were able to enjoy my never because mine are on the big island and they have nothing close to this fact when my mom was she if she'd go with some of my aunts and and friends and go to the services and she would say we don't have anything like this back when or why i wake county and our other colleagues do they do envy what we do they don't even understand how we can afford to do it but it's not a matter of affordability is a matter of honor those who have given us what we have and we giving back to them so i've been proud in the last nine and a half years to be on this council to always to always make sure all our funding that was necessary for senior programs from whatever which ever program was taking care of but i think this really makes the public understand how important the services you provide i think it's really really great so thank you for that presentation today i think it's well over you know long overdue and now at least now the public can understand that when we put money forward to our seniors it's just not an excursion it's just not a trip it's just not going to the store but really a sense of work for them to continue to be a part of this community so take you ladies and gentlemen and wherever else is involved you don't want to just you know because all of you do a great job hanging in there keep up the good work i don't have much money we can i also would like to concur with mr make sure you know and all the accolades that he has mentioned you have a great career and when i grow up i want to work for you guys yeah and that being said employees that you do have the over there have such great by have such great admiration for hearts that they have such wonder for all moral i did well i guess when i got into office i took a tour and i actually met a lot of the employees there and i met one person who had just started i can't remember her name and all along everywhere you go they have this mission statement that they put up on the walls it and it was like whoa you don't get that anymore it's such a bonding type of i would say ritual but it really inspires the in the the unity within that that  organization or the department but i'd like to hear that just for the people to hear that mission statement it's a great mission see i can ask any one of you guys to do it could you please cherokee say that mission and having seen the other side of it trying to deal with some issues that my mom has on the mainland trying to find services like this i was expecting ok if we do it this way and now it and other places might even do it colleagues on the big island and other islands ask us how we can afford to do it my question my response would be how can we not afford to do it so good job y doing members i believe our discussion is completed and i want to thank you again for being near members without objections the chair would defer this matter members who have completed today's agenda like to thank the representatives from the administration the department of corporation council for their participation and with that the march seventeenth twenty sixteen meeting of the housing human services  transportation committee is adjourned with thanksgiving to say to michelle and demi thank you for your help thank you meeting is a