TGI Staff Photographer Early-morning rain on Thursday could not dampen the warmth exuded by the flag attendant manning the Nawiliwili end of the one-laned section of the Rice Street improvement project. Garbed in a Goodfellow Brothers hard hat and safety
TGI Staff Photographer
Early-morning rain on Thursday could not dampen the warmth exuded by the flag attendant manning the Nawiliwili end of the one-laned section of the Rice Street improvement project.
Garbed in a Goodfellow Brothers hard hat and safety vest, Pat Lopes said she was hired through the labor union along with her fellow flagger, Lester Contrades, who was stationed uptown of the heavy equipment.
To the motorist who needs to navigate through the stops, gravel and hazards of construction work on the massive road improvement project that’s expected to last into next year, Lopes looks like another traffic attendant who needs to balance the needs of the construction crews with the flow of traffic.
But that is where the difference begins, as Lopes greets each motorist and pedestrian who passes her post.
“It’s the Lord in me,” Lopes said, pausing to make eye contact with a passing motorist and following it up with a deft wave of an empty hand.
“I go to church every day between 4 and 5 a.m.,” said Lopes, who lives in Lawai. “And I ask the Lord to have the angels to be there” on Rice Street.
The stop/slow sign laid quietly on the shoulder of the sidewalk because the closure begins at 8:30 a.m. That didn’t stop Lopes, who makes it a point of standing on the sidewalk and acknowledging the passing flow of traffic making its way into Lihu’e town.
Michael Lingaton, one of the supervisors on the project, told Lopes that Kaua’i County Mayor Maryanne Kusaka visited the construction office and offered her personal compliments on the way Lopes performs her task.
Lingaton said a motorist brought Lopes to the mayor’s attention, prompting the visit.
The angels Lopes alluded arrived as she picked up her sign and started directing the traffic into a single lane. She gets motorists involved by approaching the first car in the stopped line and giving any instructions the driver needs to navigate past the heavy equipment.
“Everyone wants to be a leader,” Lopes explained. “The first driver is very important, I tell them. What they do, the rest follow. And they feel good because they are leaders.”
From her vantage point, Lopes takes in a microcosm of Kauai’s drivers and pedestrians. Lopes said one day there was a car with three young people cruising through. None of the occupants had their seatbelts on, and following a short conversation with Lopes while they waited in the lead position, they all donned the required safety gear before moving on.
Cars picked their way through the torn-up pavement Thursday, their occupants sealed off from the din by rolled-up windows. But, despite the effective seal, Lopes’ smile and pleasant greeting was acknowledge with a wave and a smile, the misery of construction delays temporarily forgotten.
On the sidewalk, pedestrians often pause to watch the orange-jacketed angel in action.
“You need to treat people like human beings,” Lopes said, a smile as warm as the morning sun peeking from under the shadow of her hard hat. “It comes from the heart.”
Staff photographer Dennis Fujimoto can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) and mailto:dfujimoto@pulitzer.net
