Mayor attends conference, meets with officials in D.C.
Mayor Kenoi was in Washington, D.C. in January for the 80th Winter Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a forum for mayors to discuss issues impacting cities nationwide. While in Washington, the Mayor also met with members of our congressional delegation and federal officials – including President Barack Obama – about projects and issues concerning Hawai‘i Island, and also sharing some aloha from our people.
Expanding access to broadband Internet connections has been a topic of much discussion, from President Barack Obama down to Governor Neil Abercrombie. The unique challenge of linking up communities spread across the 4,028 square miles of Hawai‘i County has attracted federal attention as a test bed.
FCC Chair Genachowski chats with Mayor Kenoi at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting.
Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, met with Mayor Kenoi to discuss progress on expanding rural broadband on Hawai‘i Island. Chairman Genachowski – who has called broadband “society’s great equalizer” – last visited Hawai‘i in 2010, when he was taken on a helicopter tour to show the unique challenges facing the island.
Mayor Kenoi also met with Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and his Chief Information Officer Chris Smith. In addition to talking about agriculture development, the Secretary was updated on a public safety wireless broadband pilot project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Hawai‘i Island. Read more about that project in the November 2011 edition of Holomua.
Mayor Kenoi and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.
Infrastructure issues were the topic of a meeting with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. The majority of the $250 million spent since the mid-1990s to improve Saddle Road, the cross-island artery that links Hilo and Kona, came from federal sources. The last increment to be completed, an eight mile stretch, was blessed in October 2011. That $32.8 million project was completed on time and on budget. The next increment, 9.6 miles from Pōhakuloa to Māmalahoa Highway south of Waikoloa, is currently under construction and expected to open in mid-2013.
Although running our public schools the job of the state Department of Education, educating our youth is ultimately the community’s kuleana. To that end, Mayor Kenoi met with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to discuss the status of Hawai‘i’s Race to the Top funding and other federal programs that could benefit Hawai‘i Island schools.
While in Washington, Mayor Kenoi also took the opportunity to visit members of Hawai‘i’s congressional delegation, meeting with Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa and Senator Daniel K. Inouye to discuss the progress of federal projects in the county. And at a reception for the nation’s mayors held at the White House, Mayor Kenoi got the opportunity to speak briefly with President Obama. He invited the president and his ‘ohana to visit Hawai‘i Island.
In addition to representing the county at the national level, Mayor Kenoi is one of ten members of the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ advisory board.
Mayor Kenoi met with President Obama again during the 2012 U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting, as he did in this photo from the 2011 meeting.