KRCA Board of Directors
Homeowners Annual Meeting:
August 31, 2021 on Zoom

KRCA has contracted with Hawaiiana Management Company who has a Kalihiwai Ridge website access code of:
hmcmgt.com/39484

Agendas and meeting minutes will be posted on this new site along with all our documents that can now be reviewed by the public.




My Impressions

In my previous newsletter I asked some questions about the future of the Kalihiwai Reservoir.  These last six weeks have revealed some answers.  But to give some perspective before the answers I feel the last three years since the April 15, 2018 storm have changed our community somewhat.  We were cut off from part of Phase 1 where the road closed and for almost a year had to drive the gravel road through Common Ground.  A pandemic descended on the world and partly due to our divided politics it has not been purely dealt with as a health crisis and therefore we are seeing increased community spread like never before and continued division in how to live with this community spread virus.  It has kept us home, more isolated, and concerned about the future.  At least that has how it has been for me to some degree.

This new state of being has changed how we work and play, think and feel about our lives and what kind of future we want.  Many people have sold their homes and land on the Ridge to move elsewhere or have decided not to come back here at all.  New owners have arrived and new building projects started or completed on the few available lots left up and down Kahiliholo Road, so it feels a bit more like we are islands living on an island and no longer feel connected to a common ground or common area with so many new neighbors.  The realities of costs to repair our KR common area as a recreational lake site have sunk in now and alternative sources of government funding difficult to secure without the support and cooperation of our two easement holders, who only want to remove the dam.  Their stop payment on any shared costs hasn’t help our situation either.

So clarity is coming and removing the dam now seems the best practical option.  I make no apology for making every effort to explore possible ways to secure outside funding these last weeks, but see little community support for this and so will bow to what feels like the majority in our association.  We all want this 15 year saga to come to an end following the March 14, 2006 Ka Loko tragedy, including perhaps shutting down the KRCA altogether since the Phase 1 and 2 developments are now nearly all built out.  The dam removal option will still take several years for completion as there will be the DLNR Dam Inspection results from August 4, 2021 coming in two months, redesigning for the Dam Safety Permit application partly based on that, cost estimates for this specific dam removal design, submission of a signed DSP application by all three owners with a 2% fee for all costs, about 9 months of review by DLNR and permit approval to construct, construction bids, local permits obtained, inspections, and final approval to remove the KR from the DLNR inventory of regulatory dams, and then possible distribution of Lot 3 land ownership to the lake front lot owners to maintain as compensation for their loss in property values.  At that point without a common area there would likely be no reason to have the KRCA continue as a HOA and our yearly Assessment Fees could be discontinued.  

These are my thoughts for now and I would think at our Annual Meeting on August 31st others running for the new KRCA Board of Directors will have more of their own.  I will not be running for another term as though I see this as the practical path forward I do not want to be a part of implementing all these steps necessary, to be reimbursed what is owed us by the EHs, plus removing the dam and our association.  It is my hope the first order of business would be to have the two new easement holders begin to cooperate fully, pay us what is currently owed for engineering expenses, and then their 1/3 shares for construction costs going forward.  It has been a long three years, but we do have all we need from Gannett Fleming Engineering now to change course and get this all done in a timely manner.  I will keep this website up for awhile longer as a way to communicate with our community as events unfold.  When the Kalihiwai Reservoir is no more, I will take it down.

Until we meet again.

Aloha,
Maggie Lea