Moloka'i has been down this road before.

A principal employer of its workforce issues pink slips. It happened in the early 1980s, when the Del Monte pineapple operations shut down.

This time, the economic anchor was Molokai Ranch. On Monday, the company shuttered its operations on the "Friendly Island," which has not been altogether friendly to its plans for development at La'au Point. Executives announced plans to lay off 120 employees, who are soon to be jobless in a stagnant economy.

The upheaval over the proposal for the upscale residential project has left the community divided and embittered. The Advertiser's Andrew Gomes took the pulse of the largely rural community and found many now lashing out at activists who opposed the project, although most were reluctant to attach their names to their complaints.

This estrangement within any community is difficult, but in a small-town environment such as Moloka'i, it's unworkable. The community must overcome its differences to reach practical compromises to improve its economic security and well-being.

It's plain how La'au Point became a focal point for so much anger. Molokai Ranch pitched it as a project necessary to enhance the return on investment and to ensure the survival of the existing ranch and resort. In return, the company offered a land trust comprising 85 percent of its 64,000 acres for conservation, open space and agriculture.

But many in the community who love the countrified lifestyle have seen the impact of development on neighboring Maui and feared La'au Point would push Moloka'i too close to that brink.

Debating whether it would have been wiser to accept the deal is pointless, because nobody can project what that future would have been; anyway, the issue is moot.

But the people of Moloka'i still have to reckon with the reality that economic opportunities are limited. Water constraints make a wholly agrarian economy unlikely. Tourism remains the most bankable industry in the short term. The people need to come to terms with that, and work together to shape the kind of tourism they can embrace.

This will take some pointed discussions among all sectors, with the aim of updating the Moloka'i Community Plan in light of recent developments. Deciding how much land could be open to conventional tourism, as well as finding ways of accommodating the niche markets of eco- and cultural tourism is key. The island may decide that enabling more home-based accommodations — a flash point in the vacation-rentals conflicts on other islands — may create an acceptable employment sector for parts of Moloka'i.

More long-range planning is essential, too, for the promotion of a broader economic base. One encouraging prospect may lie in renewable energy development on the island. Kaheawa Wind Power, currently based on Maui, has pledged $50 million toward the acquisition of ranch property, which has been valued at four times that amount. Assembling a hui of investors to purchase the land could ultimately make the community more of a partner in the use of the land. This would involve an immense fundraising drive that goes well beyond Moloka'i shores but involves the residents, too, and vests them in the process.

The existing resort operation may be sold or leased; but it should be part of the future economic base.

Gov. Linda Lingle, who has longstanding personal ties to this community, was right to dispatch help for people trying to chart a course beyond the final paycheck, and to make plans for a task force that will take a longer view.

That task force needs to involve all the stakeholders in devising a long-term strategy that will help the island thrive, rather than merely survive.

Ultimately, though, it will be the participation of those who call Moloka'i home that will spell success for the plan, and that's a tall order.

Standing in opposition to one possible outcome is easy. Creating a new future based on a clear-headed vision is arduous work.

Let the work begin.