Got ‘er Done! (With Aloha)

by Debra Ryll 28. May 2009 14:53

    Kauai residents were bummed—to say the least—when one of the island’s most spectacular beaches was closed “indefinitely” after damage from heavy winter rains made the road impassable.
Not only was Polihale State Park inaccessible, but the Department of Natural Resources had no money in its budget for repairs, period.
    No camping, no surfing, no fishing, and no kayaking on Hawaii’s longest beach? I don’t think so, was the response from Kauai’s close-knit community, who banded together in a grassroots effort to fix the road themselves instead of waiting for a government agency to solve the problem. Business owners and residents pulled together and completed repairs that some estimate would have cost the State millions of dollars… and they did it for free.
    Volunteers brought in machinery and manpower to repair roadways and a flood damaged bridge. They had to bring in water to mix concrete, generators to power welders, excavators, cranes, bobcats, cement mixers, dump trucks, graders, and other equipment in an eight-day long outpouring of aloha that generated national media attention.
    Waiting for a bureaucratic fix just wasn’t an option, according to Troy Martin of Martin Steel. “Something that took us eight days would have taken them years,” he said. “So we got together—the community—and we got it done.”
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