Still, residents are nervous, Shea said. While the Four Seasons is set to open again Friday to those who can produce a negative Covid test, new outbreaks are possible. If hotels close again, it’s unclear if Ellison will keep employees on the payroll. Unlike in most U.S. towns where frustrated residents can hold local officials accountable, there is little transparency about plans for the island, which is largely run by Pulama Lanai. (In Hawaiian, Pulama means to treasure or cherish.)
“The people who are laid off, they’re terminated and it’s harder for them to go to other jobs because there are no other jobs on the island,” said Alberta de Jetley, a longtime resident who founded Lanai Today, a monthly newspaper that she sold to Pulama Lanai in 2019.
Ellison has gained residents’ favor by investing in the island, said Gabe Johnson, a farmer who was recently elected as Lanai’s member of the Maui County Council. Prior owner David Murdock—who took control of the former pineapple plantation through his purchase of Castle & Cooke, once part of what is now Dole Food Co.—put little money into the island, Johnson said. Calls to Dole requesting comment from Murdock, who is on the board, weren’t returned.
Since purchasing Lanai, Ellison has remodeled the hotel and opened his wellness retreat alongside a hydroponic farming venture, Sensei Farms. He also owns the island’s main grocery store, Richard’s Market, as well as much of the housing stock. That means keeping Lanaians financially secure is in his best interest.
For now, Lanai is tentatively getting employees back to work. Victorino, the mayor, said he’s grateful to Ellison for all he’s done, including paying full wages to the Four Seasons’s employees for months. Maui County has one of the country’s highest unemployment rates, but Lanai has largely been shielded from that pain.
“We welcome help from the outside,” Victorino said. “They’re there to make our working class better off for what we have to go through being so isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.”
After the initial outbreak, Lanai has had no new coronavirus cases since Nov. 5. The island will be the test site of a new application called AlohaSafe that will alert people if someone they’ve been in contact with tested positive for Covid-19. If it works there, it will be launched state-wide, Victorino said.
The island was chosen as a pilot site, he said, after a request from an important entity: Pulama Lanai.
--With assistance from Nico Grant.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.