HILO, Hawai'i — Two former Big Island County Council members are attempting comebacks in Hamakua and Waimea in races where traffic, development and economic growth figure prominently.

In another contested race in Hilo, longtime economic development booster Paula Helfrich is running against lawyer J Yoshimoto for the right to replace outgoing council member and former council Chairman James Arakaki.

The nine Big Island council races are nonpartisan contests, and any candidate who wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the primary election next month wins the election outright.

If no candidate secures more than 50 percent of the votes in the primary, the two most popular candidates advance to a runoff in the November general election.

In Waimea, retired police captain and former County Councilman Leningrad Elarionoff is attempting a comeback against Councilman Pete Hoffmann, who unseated Elarionoff in 2004. Elarionoff represented the Waimea and North Kohala areas on the council from 1998 to 2004.

Elarionoff, 67, was born and raised in Ka'u, and was an officer with the Big Island Police Department from 1968 to 1994.

He said he is returning to politics because he is concerned about the split on the council between members from East Hawai'i and West Hawai'i. Elarionoff said the interests of Waimea and North Kohala are sometimes disregarded amid the disputes between the two sides.

"My feeling is, work with the east, work with the west. The fighting part doesn't get you anywhere," he said.

Waimea traffic congestion is the most pressing issue for the district, and Elarionoff said he wants to have a new road built paralleling Mamalahoa Highway in Waimea to relieve some of the local traffic.

He said he had $10 million appropriated for the project when he was on the council in 2004, but the only money spent on the effort so far has been on a consultant's study.

"The rest of the money is sitting in a pot while the people sit in traffic," Elarionoff said. He said he wants to get the project moving again.

Hoffmann, 65, is a Waikoloa resident who served as an Army intelligence officer in Vietnam and retired as a colonel. He has lived in Hawai'i for almost 10 years.

Hoffmann said the most important issue in the district is the rapid pace of growth. This is a particular concern in Waikoloa, where there are almost 5,500 new homes approved or under development, but only one road in and out of the community.

"We clearly have all the components of absolute traffic chaos in the Waikoloa area unless we start planning now for this type of development," Hoffmann said. He has worked to create a community facilities district to begin advance planning for a second road from Paniolo Drive to Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway.

Hoffmann said he wants his constituents to judge him on his record on a single issue, which is affordable housing. "If you don't believe that I have pushed or have succeeded in assisting the affordable-housing issue and have moved it forward, then you need to get rid of me and vote for someone else," he said.

Mayor Harry Kim's administration plans to build 800 to 1,200 affordable homes on county land in Waikoloa over the next decade, and Hoffmann said he hopes that effort will serve as a model for future large-scale, government-sponsored affordable-housing projects.

Hoffmann said his role has been making sure the necessary infrastructure is in place to support the affordable development, and to convince Waikoloa residents it is in their interest to have the project there.

Also in the race is Christopher Thomason, 25, who was raised in North Kona and South Kohala. Thomason, a freelance writer, said the leading issues in the race are traffic, affordable housing and Native Hawaiian cultural issues.

He said his most important initiative will be to advance the state, county and private plans for bypass roads to relieve traffic in Waimea. "They all need to get done now," he said. "They were planning in the '60s."

Thomason said he will accept no cash campaign contributions during the campaign.

HAMAKUA RACE

Hamakua Councilman Fred Holschuh is being challenged by former Councilman Dominic Yagong, 46. Yagong represented Hamakua on the Big Island council from 1996 to 2002, when he declined to run for re-election. Yagong also made an unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2004, losing to incumbent Kim.

Yagong, a Honoka'a resident, oversees 14 supermarkets and tourist retail shops on the Big Island as district manager for Food Pantry Ltd. and Kalama Beach Corp.

Yagong said he supports development of new types of agriculture along the Hamakua Coast, but said county leaders haven't given residents the information they need to properly debate the future of the area.

One example is forestry, he said. A recent proposal for a veneer mill at 'O'okala encountered community opposition, and plans for additional forestry operations are also in the works. Yagong said information needs to be shared with the community about those plans so the projects can be properly considered.

Yagong also cited a portion of the Hamakua Agriculture Plan that states there is a role for genetically modified crops in Hamakua. Few people know about that portion of the plan, so the community hasn't had a proper debate on the issue, he said.

"I've always felt strongly that the people need to have an opportunity to weigh in on the issue, and I don't think they have," he said.

Holschuh, 65, was an emergency physician for 30 years, and is a former chief of staff at Hilo Medical Center. He has served on the council since 2002, representing the 1st Council District, which includes the former sugar lands on the Hamakua Coast.

Holschuh said the key issue for the district is traffic, with commuters from Hamakua stuck daily in clogged roads in Waimea, a stretch of road Holschuh said has become a "nightmare."

Holschuh opposes the county plan for a Waimea reliever road, and would rather spend the $10 million in county money earmarked for the county project to assist the state with the larger state Waimea bypass road. That state project has been planned for decades, and would do more to solve the area's traffic congestion than the more modest county proposal, Holschuh said.

Holschuh said families in his district are also worried that escalating land values and property taxes are making it too expensive for them to hold property to pass land on to their children.

Holschuh said he wants to develop a way to waive some county requirements to make it easier for owners to subdivide property in cases where the land will stay in the family.

OPEN HILO SEAT

In Hilo, two former county Democratic Party chairmen are vying to replace outgoing councilman James Arakaki, who represents Waiakea and Kea'au. Arakaki cannot run for re-election because of term limits set by the County Charter.

Waiakea Uka resident Paula Helfrich is the former president of the Hawai'i Island Economic Development Board, and is now chief executive officer of the Economic Development Alliance of Hawai'i.

Helfrich, 59, has promoted diversified agriculture for many years and said her interest in steering the Big Island to self-sufficiency in food and fuel prompted her to enter the race for the council. She said she wants the Big Island to be energy self-sufficient within a decade.

She has also worked to advance geothermal development on the Big Island, wind energy development, recycling programs, the electrically powered irradiation facility to treat fruit for export, and improvements to Saddle Road that are expected to boost cross-island commerce.

Helfrich sees the biggest issue in the race as healing the rift between East and West Hawai'i. She believes the community has not reached out to newcomers and explained to them and to new developers the "ethos" of Hawai'i.

Among the newcomers "there is a general feeling of exclusion from Hawai'i's cultural matrix, and that manifests in gated subdivisions" and communities where neighbors don't know each other, she said.

Opposing Helfrich is J Yoshimoto, a Hilo lawyer and former deputy attorney general who also served as legal specialist for the Big Island County Council. Yoshimoto, 40, said he is running to make sure there is proper planning for growth in Hilo.

He said residents in the district want more activities for youths, particularly for youngsters in the 9-to-14-year-old range.

Residents are also talking about controlling the coqui frog infestation, and want to get another medical facility and long-term-care facility for the Hilo area, he said. Many residents regard the Hilo Medical Center as "overcrowded, overworked," and its long-term-care beds are full, he said.

"It makes sense because the population is growing so quickly, you would think we would have to start planning for that soon," he said. "For that to actually happen takes time, planning and money."

Although the Big Island hospitals are state facilities, Yoshimoto said, he wants to advance the discussion from the council.

OTHER RACES

In District 4, which includes Keaukaha, Pana'ewa and Waia-kea, Council Chairman Stacy Higa is being challenged by Justin Avery and Wendell Ka'ehu'ae'a. In District 5, which includes Lower Puna, Councilman Gary Safarik, is opposed by Roger Evans, Emily Naeole, Russell Ruderman and Kaniu Stocksdale.

In the District 6 race to represent Upper Puna, Councilman Bob Jacobson is being challenged by Gerald Holleman. In District 7, which includes Keauhou and Kealakekua, Councilwoman Virginia Isbell will face off with David Basque, Brenda Ford and Lei Kihoi.

Two Big Island council members are unopposed this year. They are Councilman Angel Pilago, who represents Kailua and North Kona, and Councilman Donald Ikeda, who represents Hilo and Kaumana.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.