‘Mixed Plate’ Menu To Be Served @ Virtual Town Meeting
Please Join Us Thurs., Feb. 3 @ 5:30 PM
We’re living in a “mixed plate” world – or so it seems with all that’s happening around us as we wade more deeply into 2022 and the pandemic lingers on.
Soooo…“mixed plate” is a perfect description of this week’s WCA Virtual Town Meeting from 5:30-7 p.m., Thurs., Feb. 3, 2022 when the agenda will share a diverse sampling of community news, challenges and opportunities, including:
· A COVID-19 update about what the community and island is experiencing and availability of walk-in testing, home test kits, vaccinations, boosters, hospital capacities, quarantine and isolation guidelines, group gathering rules, etc.
· A Legislative Update by Sen. Lorraine Inouye about several hot topics at the 2022 Legislature including the Senate’s fast action push to increase in the State’s minimum wage law, from the current $10.10/hour to $18/hour by 2026.
· Updates by County Council Members Heather Kimball (Dist. 1) and Dr. Tim Richards (Dist. 9) including continuing issues with the Department of Motor Vehicles.
· A quick glimpse of good things happening at Kahilu Theatre and with Kahilu.TV by their Executive Director Sara Nealy. Kahilu Theatre Foundation is WCA’s spotlighted not-for-profit for February and community members are encouraged to consider supporting the theatre with a financial contribution this month.
· An invitation to become a volunteer mentor for Waimea Middle School’s 6th to 8th grade students. The school’s new Mentoring Coordinator Ilene Grossman will explain how the program is now restarting with strict Covid safety guidelines in place, how mentoring works, and why it’s such a win-win for both students and mentors.
· News regarding AARP’s free tax prep service, which is provided annually in partnership with the IRS for kupuna and low income individuals and families. The pandemic has changed how this program operates to ensure everyone’s safety so procedures for taking advantage of the service will be reviewed.
· Wrapping up the meeting will be a briefing about the County of Hawai’i’s recent major “win” of securing a $500,000 Phase 1 federal grant award from the US Economic Development Administration (EDA) Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC). Heavily focused on helping expand Hawai’i Island agriculture and food production, and reducing food imports, the Phase 1 grant is enabling the County to develop an agricultural cluster of businesses, ranchers, farmers and other food producers and services to refine a plan that becomes a Phase 2 application for a much larger EDA grant in the range of $25-$75 million over a five-year period. Dennis Flemming, Executive Director of the Hamakua Institute, who is part of the County-organized collaboration that applied for the grant, will explain what’s envisioned including serious data collection to drive decision making as well as to engage partners from across the island’s ag industry.
· Also on the virtual town meeting agenda will be an update by Waimea Community Policing representatives.
As usual, WCA's virtual town meeting will be streamed “live” on WCA’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/WaimeaCommunityAssociation) and everyone is welcome to log on. The meeting will be saved to Facebook and YouTube for on-demand viewing thereafter. Also, as always, questions welcome preferably in advance – please email: WaimeaCommunityAssociation@gmail.com. Questions can also be typed into the Facebook “chat” during the meeting and will be addressed as time permits.