WAIMEA — “Hey, I don’t want them building houses at Kalaheo Dam,” said Ryan Martin, a student at Waimea High School. “That’s what I heard. Where we supposed to keep our dogs? I don’t want the dogs getting into the neighbors. I go hunting up there.”
Martin was one of several students from the American Problems class taught by MaeLynn Rita who engaged in a lively discussion about some of the issues facing voters in the election coming up Nov. 6.
“We have about 50 students total in the American Problems class,” Rita said. “Unfortunately, this is not a Plan A schedule so the students had to be excused from other classes to meet. Friday, we have a person coming to help students who are 18 years old by Election Day get registered so they can vote. We also have people coming from the Westside development group to talk about Westside growth including the sports park and other things.”
The students have been researching candidates for the mayor’s seat.
“This is about smart voting,” Rita said. “It’s not about voting for someone you know, or a familiar name. It’s about voting for the candidate who is best qualified to get the job done. And the research goes home with the students so they can talk about this to their families and neighbors.”
Student Cade Tanaka said he speaks regularly to mayoral candidate Derek Kawakami.
“We need good planning and development,” Tanaka said. “I want to see more land open up for sustainable agriculture on the Westside. This has to happen before the area becomes more developed.”
Another student piped in that the island needs more agricultural opportunities like sustainable agriculture instead of having to work for the GMO companies.
“This has been an exciting journey to watch the passion developing in these future voters of Kauai,” Rita said. “Our most recent project has been to write letters to the editor to share their concerns about what they found and learned during this process of researching candidates.”
The students listed affordable housing, traffic and development as key issues facing the mayoral candidates.
“We didn’t go to the forum presented recently by the Family and Friends of Agriculture,” said Kayla Aleana. “But we watched it on television. We need affordable housing because the local families don’t have enough money to pay for a house — owned or rental. We have a lot of people sleeping on the beaches and in cars because they can’t afford a house.”
Another student, Maida Koetje, said the county doesn’t do enough to support people who need help.
“We do too much for tourists,” Koetje said. “Everything is about the tourist, not for the people who need the help.”
One of the issues caused by tourism is traffic.
“We have too much traffic, especially in Waimea,” one student said. “Look at the roads during the day — the cars parked in Waimea are all rental cars. Traffic, especially when school lets out, is a nightmare. You can’t get out. We have no room at the beaches because there are so many visitors. Our resources are being exploited.”
At least one student who is eligible to vote said he wasn’t going to vote.
But his teacher had other plans.
“This is about voting for the candidate best qualified to handle the issues,” Rita said. “Smart voting. We’re making sure he goes to vote on Election Day — not just register.”
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
