Letters for Sunday, August 9, 2009

• Help needed in Hanapepe

• Money well spent?

• Increasing revenue

Help needed in Hanapepe

A few months ago I contacted one of our county engineers about a situation in Hanapepe. My problem was the county need to repair the Seto Market bridge.

The bridge is deteriorating and nothing is done about it. I voiced my concerns that in case there is an accident near the western motor bridge, that there would be a major problem.

Well, like always it was pushed under the rug. Guess what? An accident on the western motor bridge last month screwed up traffic. Traffic was diverted to the Seto market one-lane bridge because the county chose not to pay attention to my concerns.

The county’s way of repairing the bridge was to block off the walking path on the bridge with wooden pallets, which get thrown in the river by the kids and fishermen that use the bridge to throw their nets.

Another thing they did was to block off one lane and make a walking path on the bridge itself. They use so much of our county money going there and trying to glue these dividers which are also being thrown in the river or on the banks.

There could have been another accident that night on the Seto bridge. People were getting irritated and at one time both west- and east-bound traffic was on the bridge at the same time, until someone reversed.

Someone needs to start looking into this problem.

Maybe if the bridge was located in the main town where the tourists are, the bridge would have been fixed. They spend a lot of money beautifying the upper portion of the town, where the tourists are.

The Seto bridge is just an accident waiting to happen, with just the deteriorating condition of the bridge. I suggest that the county strongly work on this situation right now. Or do we have to wait for another accident that the county might get sued over?

It seems that’s the only time things get done, if there is a lawsuit pending. Fix the important things, never mind the beautification of the town. Work on the river banks, it’s also deteriorating and eroding into the river. Hopefully the banks survive the next winter season.

There will be a lawsuit, that I can promise you. You took out all the vegetation, which is why the banks are eroding, and now the valley people are sitting ducks waiting for the next big flood.

Hopefully that three feet of bank holds up in the next flood.

Bernadette Vea, Hanapepe

Money well spent?

I’m asking Mayor Carvalho and the County Council to rethink the intention of spending some $6 million for Waimea expansion and upgrade of the Waimea Wastewater Treatment Plant (that was in the request to the state for matching funds).

I suggest this because neither the Waimea or the Hanapepe levees have passed certification inspection this year. They require major upgrades. I would think they would have funding priority over the above-mentioned project because lives and property are at stake.

I was told by the county engineer that they may not have or be able to procure enough money to bring the levees up to revised national standards of safety for future certification.

Last month, the council considered a loan with the Hawai‘i Department of Health from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to expand the Waimea Wastewater Treatment Plant. Seems to me we need to be asking for money for levee repair first.

This county engineer will be calling a meeting to talk about insurance and safety issues in August after getting all the facts and some figures together regarding the levees issue.

It was the Army Corps of Engineers that talked the county into building the levees and because the county built them to the specifications required back in the ‘60s (when standards were different) we have been granted provisional status for the time being.

The county has to draw up a plan of how to shore up the levees and do the work required to get them certified in the future. Although the Corps of Engineers has given the county a grace period to come up with a plan, coming up with the funding required seems to be one of the big problems not yet faced.

The wastewater treatment plant is primary for future development in the Waimea area. But why would we want to do more development in a place that is unsafe without an upgraded levee?

We can’t be assured there will be money available in the future for levee repairs. Certainly property taxes won’t bring in as much revenue as in the past and the state is hard hit as well.

I bring this matter up now before the county gets started proposing spending money on the Waimea Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion when community safety has not been assured for Waimea and Hanapepe.

Linda Harmon, Hanapepe

Increasing revenue

Currently, the Lingle/Aiona Administration’s plan is to lay off state employees. Now these people could lose their homes, lose their cars and many other problems could be incurred as a result of not being able to implement intelligent strategies to help Hawai‘i.

This is not looking to the future of Hawai‘i. I think we can come up with long-term solutions. Plans that could benefit all of the citizens of Hawai‘i.

According to William C. Thompson Jr., the comptroller of New York City, an examination by his office determined that N.Y. could gain between $50 million and $75 million per year in revenue from same-sex marriages performed in N.Y.

Let’s be honest. If you had the choice of being married in Iowa, New Jersey or Hawai‘i, which would you prefer?

There would be a huge increase in revenue because people would come from other continents as well to get married here in Hawai‘i. They would stay in hotels, dine in restaurants, rent cars, shop, use inter-island flights and use the services of photographers, caterers, etc.

Let’s show the world that aloha is not just a word we like to repeat, but rather an emotion that we all feel and live. Let’s be smart about this as well.

Dennis Chaquette, Kapa‘a