Any opposed? All right. The approval of the February board minutes has been approved. Thank you, board. Madam President, I move that we treat action items 4.8 through 4.14 as consent agenda. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. All right. Properly moved, Ms. Puckett, and seconded, Dr. Mulholland, to treat action item Yeah, action items 4.8 to 4.14 as consent agenda. All in favor, I. I.
I think the client certainly uh it wasn't 40B came to be. Uh there's been changes in the design. It's taken a lot longer than originally anticipated. Um, but there's been a lot of work that's occurred during that time. Uh, just uh if you could just please understand that. Uh, and uh the other thing I can say just big picture is uh you know this is an old milk complex. There's absolutely historical fill. Uh there's going to be really quite a bit of cleanup if this project goes forward. They'll certainly improve surface water quality. Um so just keep that in mind. Um this is really a green cleanup. Uh you're going to be improving soil and groundwater quality. There'll be soil removal, proper soil removal under the MCP and also dewatering, treating groundwater. So this is really a good thing. It's environmental cleanup. So just please keep that in mind.
Is it related to the rhinoceros beetle? It is not related closely related, but unfortunately it may have just as much impact or more because of the breadth and the width of the numbers of species that it is currently being found to impact. So, if we can get a handle of it, uh this would be something that that we should try and do as soon as we can. So, >> Okay, thank you. Um for Hawaii Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity. Did not get a name. Oh. Good afternoon, Chair, and uh members of the committee. Hanalei Han Pest Control Branch Manager. The department stands on our written testimony uh in support of the bill. Okay, thank you. Uh Brian Miyamoto for the Hawaii Farm Bureau in opposition. See, that's going to stay with you now, Brian. Thank you, Chair, members of the committee. Brian Miyamoto here on behalf of the Hawaii Farm Bureau.
In the freshman sophomore level, you'll see that we have like career exploration lessons. our counseling and advising team go in to our core classes and meet with all of our freshmen and all of our sophomore. They do a 90minute lesson specifically on what career pathways could be for them. So that's kind of like that first career exploration activity at the high school level. So um as we've continued going through this continuum, the team based challenges are focused in our career and technical education courses. We're doing a lot of team based challenges inviting business partners in. We're doing um specifically our employability skills and there's 10 of those. that's at the very bottom of your jargon sheet. We'll talk more about those 10 essential employability skills and technical competencies as well when we continue on through this. So, in our career and technical education courses, we work on the 10 essential employability skills.
So, uh it's uh something we're monitoring, uh but we haven't received anything from from this year, and uh I I I hope I hope when I stand up here next month, I can say, "Hey, we got it all." So. Have you heard about any delays? Cuz I paid my tax bill online, and it was actually rejected, and I'm still waiting for it to repopulate to repay it. And I don't know if it's just something I did. I feel like I looked it over, or if it's something within their system. >> I I I uh I I I can't answer that for you, Mrs. Garrett. I'm old school. I go to the bank to pay my property tax bill, so I I don't I don't know. But like have you heard of any of this? I have not heard of that, no. But that that's not to say it's not happening, so if it's happened to you, I assume it'd happen to other people.
>> Plus cuz we brought these up. Oh, yeah. >> [laughter] >> All right. At this point, we're going to Well, I need a motion and a second required to adjourn open session and move to a closed session um for the following exceptions. I'll read those in [clears throat] a minute. So, can I get a motion and a second to a go into closed session? Do you want me to repeat those now you do it? I thought I'd do that after we get the motion and a second. You can do it too, I guess. Do it now or after? Motion and a second, got it now. You can go. >> [laughter] >> The appointment, employment, resignation, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the public body 5 ILCS 120-2c1, collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives, or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees 5 ILCS 120-2c2.
Any opposed? Okay. Second. Properly moved, Ms. Puckett, and seconded, Ms. Lawrence, for the approval of the consent agenda. All in favor, say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? All right. Action items 4.8 to 4.14 have been approved as consent agenda. Thank you, board. Moving to our administrator and board comments. Do we have a volunteer to go first? It's been a busy month, I know. I just wanted to um it is kind of tied to this since we have a lengthy agenda today, but it's something that I use that I find in this climate that we're in now is super helpful. Does anybody do brain dumps? I highly recommend a brain dump. Brain dump. It's basically when you take everything that's in your head and you just like write it out. It's not like journaling. It's like just a freelance, just get what's in here onto here.
I understand your question and I can appreciate that. It took a long time. The permitting took a long time. It's still not complete. It's still probably going to take a lot longer than we originally anticipated. So, that's why there was a delay. And I understand your question. I totally appreciate where you're coming from, but it's taken a long time. >> Okay. Mr. Campbell, before you sit down and and to Mr. Lucas as well, this is a big deal in this town. You know, you're in a 21E site. You know you're in the plume of a super fun site and you know you're in the shadow of a factory that's been there for 200 years. Uh we have lived here in Ashland in the shadow of Nyanza for 50 years. It's a big deal to the people in this town and it's a big deal that we get this right.
You have our written testimony in support. This is a bad one. LFA >> right? CRB, CBB, CLF, MFC, RRP. We're getting too used to to these abbreviations for pests. This one is bad. You heard Mr. Chee talk about the breadth that can impact ulu, cacao, avocado, citrus, hibiscus, kukui, just to name some. Agriculturally and culturally important crops in Hawaii. It was found in Puna. There's presence in Honoka'a. We've seen it with other pests, where it starts somewhere, we don't put enough attention and resources to it, and then it spreads island-wide, and then it spreads statewide. We can't afford to keep combating pests. We don't want to come back to you folks in 5 years and hey, can we get some funding to try to mitigate or control some of this? Let's control it now as soon as we can. Let's put some resources there and see if we can eradicate this thing.
We had guest speakers in. We do team based challenges, career exploration events. Um, all of our freshmen went to uh Wanty Community College this fall to do a career exploration event as well. We had tons of vendors from the local area. Super cool event to go to. So, we're doing a lot of these really cool pieces of the workbased learning continuum throughout our our pathway throughout K12. Um, but we're really focused on the red box. Click it. Yeah, it's going to look good. So, the workbased learning continuum focused. Did I not push the right button? Which button? >> Oh, thank you. >> There should be like should be like advance. It's all good. There we go. Perfect. Oh, transition, man. All right. Good, good, good. Okay. Good thing I wasn't walking and talking. >> It's good. So, our big focus today. Sorry for the, you know, jargon.
I called, they said yeah, I'll do it again. But you know, if it happens again, I'm just going to say yeah. So, one other item, uh if you've been following the um world events, or if you've driven by a gas station, you've noticed gas for your car has gotten a lot more expensive. Uh energy uh as a whole is getting more expensive. And our current contract for natural gas expires um the end of May of this year. So, uh but I I've been very forward-thinking, and I've been working with the department, remember uh Becky Thompson, who was here a few years ago when we signed up with Nania. Uh and I've been working with her for over a month. Um what can we do? Uh let's get ahead of this. Um and last week she sent me some bids, uh some quotes, uh and they were fresh off the uh the report, um and I was able to lock in for 5 years um a reduction of 17.8% of our natural gas bill.
Roll call, please. Hurst? Yes. Marika? Yes. Matthis? Yes. Ward? Yes. Dugan? Yes. Gorman? Yes. Ward? I wasn't. Yes. And I don't believe we have any action items. We have a quorum.
You write down everything that's on your mind, but there's a process. Circle what actually needs your attention now. Cross off what you don't need or don't need to carry for the day, and then focus only what's focus on what's important to you at that moment. The reason why I say that is there's so much going on, but I found that that's something that I use. And with mental health, as we've been talking about today, it's a tool that's in my toolbox that has been helping me out a lot. And I did a little research on it. When you write, your brain moves from amygdala, stress emotion, to prefrontal cortex, which helps your clarity, decision-making, and leadership. So, I just wanted to pass that along cuz I've been dumping a lot, and the dumps have felt great. >> [laughter] >> That's my comment. I will remember that.
So we have to know what's there. We have to know where it is. We have to know where it's going to be during your construction and where it's going to be after the construction. That's our jurisdiction. It's all in a flood plane. We need to know that stuff. So, this stuff is not going to uh um be discussed in one hearing. This is going to be a lengthy process and we have to discuss that aspect of this process before we get into historic mill complex discussions or flood plane storage. Having said that, if we have a fundamental difference as to what's included in the flood plane, we need to flesh that out before we start having a hearing so that we're not uh standing here, you know, playing tennis at these hearings. We need real figures and real evidence that this is going to be a green site when it's finished.
This is a bad one. And this is just another one. And just for the information, LFA, little fire ant. CRB, coconut rhinoceros beetle. CBB, coffee berry borer. CLF, coffee leaf rust. MFC, macadamia felted coccid. And RRP, rose-ringed parakeet. This is another one. This is a nasty one. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. Okay, thank you. Stephanie Easley. Stephanie, go ahead. Hello, chair Kim, members of the committee. My name is Stephanie Easley with the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species. You have our written testimony. We want to thank you for hearing HB 2139 today. Echoing the comments made by previous testifiers, this is a bad pest. There's over 20 identified host species of agricultural and cultural importance. We hope you'll move this one forward. Try to get some techniques to control this pest and hopefully eradicate it from Hawaii Island, but certainly from prevent it from spreading statewide.
Um, is that red box, the career development experience. That's our field experience course that we're really going to dive deeper in, um, and talk more about that specifically. So, you'll see in the junior senior year that field experience. We're going to talk a lot about what that field experience course looks like, but also that bottom part is the CTE courses. Our freshman, sophomore level, we want our kid, if you're interested in going into business, you should be taking our CTE business classes, our accounting classes, maybe our incubator course, maybe refine it more, do if you're interested in engineering, taking our engineering courses, transition in, and we're going to talk a whole lot about what our field experience looks like from here. The last two boxes I did want to touch on would be the youth pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs. not something we're going to offer.
So, we're going to drop from 56 a little over 56 6 cents a therm down to 46 cents a therm, um and that's going to save us $31,000 a year, um or $155,000 over 5 years, so it is part of the conversation that we want to reduce our expenses. Uh and if we can do that in ways that don't affect our kids, that's even better. Um and this in essence was I'd say low-hanging fruit, um because I think we got in at the right moment, because I don't think we're going to get these prices a week from now. Um and uh it's something that's deeply concerning, so locking it in gives us budget certainty, and having done this for a long time, I can say the amount we'll be paying um starting May 1st, uh or June 1st actually, excuse me, is about what I was paying when I started this business 20 years ago.
Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Ms. Lawrence. I just wanted to wish everyone a happy spring break. I know the Lawrence family will be availing ourselves of some time away with the family, which is going to be really welcome. Because of me being adult, I don't do enough dumping, but it will be very good to have that moment with the family, and I wish everyone everyone the same. Thank you. Well said. Ms. Dunn. I would like to wish everybody a happy Women's History Month. Also, Josh, congratulations on your honor. Much very well deserved. And thank you to Lawrence Township for acknowledging the fabulous women. I feel very fortunate to work among some of the brightest females that I know. So, happy Women's Day to us or Women's Month to us. Um And then also, you know, it's we have an opportunity to read just things that the superintendent is telling us that you all are doing.
and what's going to happen between now and then to make it a green site, where that stuff's going to be, uh, how it's going to be removed. We have to know all of that stuff. And if it can't be in a RAM plan, because we we expected to approve a RAM plan before we had any further discussion. If the ramp plan is not going to be uh um submitted to D until all your permits are in place, this being one of them, then we're going to have to have some kind of a soil management plan that lays out what's there and a plan that people can understand what's there, where is it, where's it going to be during construction, and where's it going to be post construction. We need all that information. I I can appreciate your questions. I I believe a lot of those were answered in the most recent RAM status report.