• Alleviating traffic bottleneck • Appalled by roadside trash • Suspicions confirmed • Democratic majority messing up • When will silly financial decisions stop? Alleviating traffic bottleneck As a tourist returning from Hanalei to Po‘ipu on Thursday, my wife and
• Alleviating traffic bottleneck • Appalled by roadside trash •
Suspicions confirmed • Democratic majority messing up • When will
silly financial decisions stop?
Alleviating traffic bottleneck
As a tourist returning from Hanalei to Po‘ipu on Thursday, my wife and I got caught in the 5 p.m. traffic jam on Kaumuali‘i Highway: it took me about 50 minutes to drive from Kukui Grove Center to its intersection with Hulemalu Road, yet no one was blowing their horn or otherwise complaining. I am sure traffic was backed up all the way to Kapa‘a!
As I inched along, I kept looking for the cause of this. It was when I approached Hulemalu Road that I realized what was happening: Hawai‘i drivers proceeding west on Kaumuali‘i Highway, being very polite, were stopping to permit drivers on Hulemalu Road to turn left in front of them so as to enter the single lane traffic stream going west on Kaumuali’I Highway. It was this stopping of nearly every car going west on Kaumuali‘i Highway that was causing this huge and wasteful backup of traffic.
To alleviate this, the traffic managers need to lay out this intersection so that traffic from Hulemalu Road can turn left without having the west bound traffic on Kaumuali‘i Highway to slow down. Such an intersection already exists for north bound traffic turning from Route 56 onto Kuhio Road at Hanama‘ulu.
It is interesting that while waiting in this interminable line of traffic, three police cars heading east bound passed me obviously unconcerned about why the traffic was at a near-standstill and with no apparent thought about taking appropriate action to clear the traffic jam!
Carlisle Martin Stickley, Winter Park, Fla.
Appalled by roadside trash
I have recently returned to Kaua‘i after 30 years on O‘ahu. Kaua‘i is my home island, and I’ve been shocked by the rubbish on the roadsides, especially driving from Kapa‘a to Lihu‘e.
What happened to Beautiful Kaua‘i? The trash on the roadsides is embarrassing. The littering communicates a disregard for our island, if you are local and doing it, and a lack of respect if you are tourists and doing it.
Mostly, I ask myself, does the County of Kaua‘i government officials, our Mayor Carvalho, or our County Council care!? Trash, litter should be priorities, and we must enforce the litter laws or educate everyone to raise consciousness about this, both locals and tourists, and the little ones and the adults of our community.
Otherwise we are accepting a form of desecration and that’s just sad. And embarrassing. Left alone, roadside trash will accumulate and cause of pain in our hearts. It’s already painful for me to see our island like this. Let’s not become known as the Trashy Island. Pick up, don’t throw your trash out of your cars, and let’s raise our level of care about this!
Stephanie Castillo, Kapa‘a
Suspicions confirmed
I always suspected Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative was someone’s cookie jar for jobs.
The Garden Island’s Sept. 12 story “PUC denies KIUC rate-hike increase” says that “incentive employee compensation and salary increases for managerial and other non-bargaining-unit employees … were unreasonable for rate-making purposes.”
Hey, when things are fat why not? Every public employer does.
But today your “cooperative” clients are hurting.
Ray Holmes, Kapa‘a
Democratic majority messing up
What’s the big deal? Burning or otherwise desecrating books that have high spiritual value to millions of people is a hate crime, pure and simple.
We have laws against people committing hate crimes. All those wimps that constitute our questionable government have to do is to enforce existing law. What’s so complicated about that? Come on Democratic majority, put your money where your mouth is..
I’m tired of the Washington D.C. Democrats taking my loyal support for granted. I once led a movement that resulted in the election of Republican Bill Quinn, governor of Hawai‘i. That was to free the party of International Longshore and Warehouse Union control.
The Democrat-controlled Senate’s destructive vote on health insurance still rankles me. It’s going to take a lot of good legislation for them to get back in my good graces. There must be other Democrats who feel the same way that I do. Speak up, folks. Let your voices be heard.
Harry Boranian, Lihu‘e
When will silly financial decisions stop?
First the state added fees to paying sewer and property-tax bills online, forcing us to mail a check rather than pay $3.50. Ridiculous since they now need someone to open an envelope and cash a check. Poor!
Now I understand they have drastically raised prices on driver licenses so many folks cannot afford it. Another very poor choice of the state to raise monies.
The second item will cause folks not to renew and drive without licenses. Hawai‘i, get with it and make good decisions on how to raise monies.
Oh, I forgot that they now force nonprofits and churches to pay excise tax on fundraising.
When does this stop?
Robert King, ‘Ele‘ele
