August 12, 2024 Shocking arrival of bulldozer

On the morning of August 12, neighbors were shocked by the sounds of bulldozing coming from the lush jungle lot adjacent to them, abutting Robinson-owned preserve land.

After months of silence from AT&T following the May County Council Meeting where unanimous objections were presented, three PCSI (Pacific Consulting Services, Inc) employees arrived at the Kuhio Highway property and began operating heavy machinery, grubbing and clearing plants with no explanation.

A call went out to community members to mobilize to the site to stop the activity until they could find out what was going on. It was clear that these employees had been told to expect community resistance as evidenced by AT&T letterhead documents observed on the dashboard of their truck instructing them on how to respond, including only to say "we are conducting archaeological inventory survey work over the next few days for AT&T" and "our work has been approved by the State Historic Preservation Division," and not to speak to the media.

A kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiian) community leader sat on their machine and asked for PCSI to stop work until they presented permits to show they actually had permission to be there. No permit was presented, instead directing her to contact David Buckley, lead archaeologist at SHPD (State Historic Preservation Division). Over the phone, Buckley told her he did get a letter of intent to conduct archaeological survey for an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement), but that he "didn't know they were starting today" and "didn't expect they would be using machines, but rather hand tools," and asked for the PCSI project manager to call him. Following that call, the crew said they were packing up and securing their machine in place for the night. Later that evening a porta-potty was delivered to the site, and a security guard was deployed. The security guard (who incidentally happened to be of Native American descent) believed he was coming to the site to guard an archaeological site, and had presumed he would be protecting a newly discovered burial. When he found out what was actually going on at the site, and that he was actually sent to protect machinery that was being used in work that could potentially disrupt iwi kupuna (ancestral remains), he told his employer that he would remain for that night as agreed, but would refuse to participate on any further jobs with the company. He shared with a community member that he was deeply upset by what was happening on the site and apologized for being sent there.

On August 13, PCSI returned with four employees, and a pile of token hand tools that remained unused while they started up the machine and continued their disruption of the ground. Community members quickly rallied once again and arrived at the site to stop the work on this ground that may contain burials.

It was reported by the immediate neighbor that in the intervening hours between when the official PCSI employees left on Aug 12 and returned on Aug 13, an unknown person in a red Jeep Cherokee parked, snuck into the property to operate a chainsaw to clear additional foliage, and left quickly again, appearing to be trying to avoid discovery of more unpermitted work. The community made it clear that no work would be allowed take place. PCSI called the property tenant, AT&T, who instructed them to call Kauai Police. KPD came to the site, observed the non-violent resistance taking place, and took no action against the protesters. After KPD left, PCSI finally drove the bulldozer out to the highway to be picked up again. Unfortunately a great deal of clearing did take place in their brief unauthorized work periods over two days. Video footage of the bulldozer driving out shows the cleared ground, and the areas of foliage and roots crushed by their forced access of the property.

There is no doubt that AT&T will be back, and the community remains vigilant.