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Residents resolve to move on
By CHRIS HAMILTON, Staff Writer
MAUNALOA, Molokai — A day after this rural island’s largest private employer announced it would terminate its entire work force, residents and business owners expressed shock and then resolve to continue on.
At a mandatory meeting Monday morning at the Maunaloa Town Cinemas, Molokai Ranch President Peter Nicholas read from a brief statement, said 42-year-ranch employee, Jimmy Duvauchelle. Nicholas told the audience that as a result of millions in lost revenue over the past several years and community and state resistance to the company’s controversial plans to develop Laau Point, that all 120 ranch employees would lose their jobs and all the ranch operations would be shuttered, Duvauchelle said.
The Community-Based Master Land Use Plan for Molokai Ranch proposed to set aside more than 50,000 acres for preservation and agricultural easements in perpetuity. In return, MPL wanted 200, 2-acre lots to sell to homeowners.
Gov. Linda Lingle compared the loss of 120 jobs on Molokai, a community of about 7,500, to losing 23,000 jobs on Oahu.
“It’s so sad. It’s devastating,” said Duvauchelle, a fourth-generation cowboy and current livestock manager. “We lose some and we win some, but I think yesterday was the biggest hit that we’ve ever taken. It’s about family, it’s about people, it’s about a legacy.”
Maui County Council Member Danny Mateo, who holds the Molokai residency seat, was among those who compared the closing of the ranch to the loss of the pineapple plantations in the 1980s and closing of the Kaluakoi Hotel in 2001.
But Molokai has a rich tradition of subsistence farming, fishing and hunting, Mateo said. Residents have endured those bleak times and will survive this crisis as well, Mateo said.
“We’re not the vulnerable economic basket case that developers often like to make us out to be,” said Karen Holt, executive director of the Molokai Community Services Council.
She noted that state statistics show that unemployment on Molokai was once almost 20 percent in the 1980s. It was about 6 percent last year, Holt said.
Ray Miller, principal broker for Molokai Resorts Vacation Rental Center, said that there will still be sufficient places for tourists to stay with the loss of about 60 ranch rental units.
“I think the people that want to come to Molokai will still come to Molokai,” the 50-year resident said. “I think right now people are trying to come to grips with what may happen and if they’ll lose their homes if they can’t keep up with the monthly mortgage payments. It doesn’t look like there’s much hope, but we’ll be fine.”
Several tourism-related business owners also said they believed that the industry would survive the ranch’s demise.
Still, the ranch jobs are among the few on the island with health care benefits, said Abel Kahoohanohano, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union business agent for MPL’s 78 bargaining-unit employees.
“We had no idea this was going to happen,” Kahoohanohano said. “As far as how we took the news, it was only shock. We knew Laau was critical, but we had no idea they would make a decision this soon.”
Laau has been hanging over peoples’ heads and tearing the community apart, so in way, it’s good if it’s over, Kahoohanohano said.
The union is now focused on “damage control” and meetings scheduled for Thursday for employees to connect with ILWU, MPL, county and state officials to get information on unemployment benefits, job searches and work force training.
A Rapid Response Team from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations accompanied by officials from the Department of Human Services will hold two meetings, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Maunaloa theater.
The governor is also putting together a Molokai Action Team of state, county and community representatives to assist displaced workers and look for ways to rebuild the island’s economic base, said Lingle spokesman Russell Pang.
Mateo said it’s time to move forward.
“It’s no longer about the ranch, it’s about our people and what we can do to prepare for our future,” he said.
• Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.
At a mandatory meeting Monday morning at the Maunaloa Town Cinemas, Molokai Ranch President Peter Nicholas read from a brief statement, said 42-year-ranch employee, Jimmy Duvauchelle. Nicholas told the audience that as a result of millions in lost revenue over the past several years and community and state resistance to the company’s controversial plans to develop Laau Point, that all 120 ranch employees would lose their jobs and all the ranch operations would be shuttered, Duvauchelle said.
The Community-Based Master Land Use Plan for Molokai Ranch proposed to set aside more than 50,000 acres for preservation and agricultural easements in perpetuity. In return, MPL wanted 200, 2-acre lots to sell to homeowners.
Gov. Linda Lingle compared the loss of 120 jobs on Molokai, a community of about 7,500, to losing 23,000 jobs on Oahu.
“It’s so sad. It’s devastating,” said Duvauchelle, a fourth-generation cowboy and current livestock manager. “We lose some and we win some, but I think yesterday was the biggest hit that we’ve ever taken. It’s about family, it’s about people, it’s about a legacy.”
Maui County Council Member Danny Mateo, who holds the Molokai residency seat, was among those who compared the closing of the ranch to the loss of the pineapple plantations in the 1980s and closing of the Kaluakoi Hotel in 2001.
But Molokai has a rich tradition of subsistence farming, fishing and hunting, Mateo said. Residents have endured those bleak times and will survive this crisis as well, Mateo said.
“We’re not the vulnerable economic basket case that developers often like to make us out to be,” said Karen Holt, executive director of the Molokai Community Services Council.
She noted that state statistics show that unemployment on Molokai was once almost 20 percent in the 1980s. It was about 6 percent last year, Holt said.
Ray Miller, principal broker for Molokai Resorts Vacation Rental Center, said that there will still be sufficient places for tourists to stay with the loss of about 60 ranch rental units.
“I think the people that want to come to Molokai will still come to Molokai,” the 50-year resident said. “I think right now people are trying to come to grips with what may happen and if they’ll lose their homes if they can’t keep up with the monthly mortgage payments. It doesn’t look like there’s much hope, but we’ll be fine.”
Several tourism-related business owners also said they believed that the industry would survive the ranch’s demise.
Still, the ranch jobs are among the few on the island with health care benefits, said Abel Kahoohanohano, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union business agent for MPL’s 78 bargaining-unit employees.
“We had no idea this was going to happen,” Kahoohanohano said. “As far as how we took the news, it was only shock. We knew Laau was critical, but we had no idea they would make a decision this soon.”
Laau has been hanging over peoples’ heads and tearing the community apart, so in way, it’s good if it’s over, Kahoohanohano said.
The union is now focused on “damage control” and meetings scheduled for Thursday for employees to connect with ILWU, MPL, county and state officials to get information on unemployment benefits, job searches and work force training.
A Rapid Response Team from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations accompanied by officials from the Department of Human Services will hold two meetings, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Maunaloa theater.
The governor is also putting together a Molokai Action Team of state, county and community representatives to assist displaced workers and look for ways to rebuild the island’s economic base, said Lingle spokesman Russell Pang.
Mateo said it’s time to move forward.
“It’s no longer about the ranch, it’s about our people and what we can do to prepare for our future,” he said.
• Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.
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