RESIDENTIAL DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAM NEEDED ON KAUA'I, SAYS MAYOR

WAIPOULI -- County officials will seek federal, state and private funding to
establish as many as two residential drug-treatment facilities on the
island, said Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste.

His vision is to have one facility for youngsters, and another for adults
fresh out of prison.

Establishment of such facilities may be one of the first tasks of Roy
Nishida, who yesterday spent his first day on the job as the county's drug
coordinator, Baptiste said.

Baptiste will meet next week with U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawai'i, and
hopes Inouye will champion federal legislation similar to a law that helped
Big Island officials get $4 million in federal funds to battle that island's
crystal methamphetamine (ice) problem.

Speaking before members and guests of the Kapa'a Rotary Club at the Kaua'i
Coconut Beach Resort here yesterday, Baptiste said he may call on Rotarians
to help build the facilities.

The one for Kaua'i youth may be the first priority, the mayor said.

The adult version Baptiste refers to as "punana," a Hawaiian word meaning
"nest," as in a safe place away from drugs and criminal elements who helped
those fresh out of prison get into prison in the first place.

The punana would provide ex-convicts a place to stay, access to a farm,
opportunities to learn farming and entrepreneurial skills, and other help to
allow their re-assimilation into society, Baptiste said.

To help keep youngsters away from drugs, he is proposing district
transportation systems, where nonprofit organizations would take stewardship
of 15-passenger vans used to deliver young people to sports fields and
neighborhood centers.

Such a system would help families overcome transportation issues that
sometimes keep young people from joining organized sports teams or engaging
in other healthy neighborhood activities, he observed.

For his work in the war on drugs, and for his willingness to serve as mayor
and continue to display Rotary's motto of "Service Above Self," Baptiste had
a Paul Harris Fellowship established in his name by the Kapa'a club.

The club donated $1,000 to Rotary International for Baptiste's fellowship.
Paul Harris was one of the founders of Rotary, in Chicago in 1905.

The fellowship was given in Baptiste's name "in recognition of the high
esteem the club holds you in," said David Outcalt, club president. Baptiste
becomes the club's 50th Paul Harris Fellow.

Baptiste accepted the honor on behalf of the county.

Then, he returned the favor, declaring Sunday, June 1 as Taste of Hawai'i
Day on Kaua'i, in recognition of the 15th-annual, food-and-beverage
extravaganza hosted by the club that annually raises over $50,000 for Kaua'i
community programs.

The mayor thanked the club for all they do for the Kawaihau district, and
the island as a whole.