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• Make sure the scoreboard works •

Temper future criticism • Goodbye Borders,

hello Barnes and Noble? • Couldn’t

hurt

Make sure the scoreboard works

On Saturday, the best and most important KIF Baseball game of the 2011 season was played at Vidinha Stadium.

Two well coached, evenly matched teams played their hearts out to see who would go to the Division 2 state tournament on O‘ahu in May.

As in most hard fought sports events someone must win and someone must lose and in this final game the Kaua‘i Red Raiders came out on top 6 to 2.

Both Coach Rita and his Menehunes and coach Ibia with his Red Raiders did a fine job of preparing their clubs for this final event and even thought Waimea lost, neither coach Rita nor his battling players need to hand their heads in defeat. As my friend the immortal John Wooden said, “be the best you can be” and I know that his Menehunes were just that.

And congratulations to Coach Ibia and his players for a fine, hard fought season and we hope that they bring back a championship from O‘ahu.

Being the official scorer and arbitrator for the KIF I want to thank all the coaches and players for the way they conducted themselves throughout the heat of battles — their respect for the umpires decisions and no one ever getting ejected from a game.

My only caveat that I would be remiss for not mentioning is the County’s failure to fix the non operative scoreboard at Vidinha Stadium for this major even.

This scoreboard has not been working for a long period of time and the parents, grandparents, and fans of these players have a right to know why they cannot see the hits, the errors, the balls and strikes, the outs and the score being recorded as the game progresses. The Administration plus Parks and Recreation Department has known of this problem for a long time so when this county can spend an unappropriated surplus of $43 million on a launder list of projects, it is unpardonable that they cannot make sure that a scoreboard is working for the biggest baseball game of the year!

Hank Ibia and his volunteers even went above and beyond their “pay grade” to install an irrigation system at Vidinha (so well needed!) so why no county support to fix a scoreboard that should have been a big part of his winning the championship game?

Glenn Mickens, Kapa‘a

Temper future criticism

In his April 18 letter to TGI, Mr. Dittler was pretty tough on the letter writer from April 14 for spreading “left wing” disinformation that had nothing to do with the actual bills cited.

He wrote that the Senate bill was about contractors, the House bill was about therapists and neither bill was about the health insurance concerns of the writer. He implied the writer was deliberate; thinking no one would check. He implored the writer to stop “wasting our time.”

Mr. Dittler, you transposed the numbers of the Senate bill; it was 1274 that was written about not 1247. Then you looked at the wrong House bill. Both companion bills written about last Thursday have to do with Health Insurance External Review Procedures.

Some people, like the writer you chastised, honestly fear that these bills are depriving Medicaid members their rights to external review and retroactively repealing these rights to the beginning of calendar year 2011 in order to remove some current appeals. Mr. Dittler,

I hope this will serve to temper your future criticism until you make sure the error isn’t yours. Mr. Dittler, you wasted our time.

Pete Antonson, Kalaheo

Goodbye Borders, hello Barnes and Noble?

I believe everyone is mourning the loss of Borders on the island. After talking to the staff, it is clear that the closure was not due to a lack of revenues but rather due to some miscalculations business-wise.

Barnes and Noble is the only major chain who could open another store in Lihue and they have looked at locations before. Rather than wait on something to happen, I am suggesting we make something happen.

A letter mailed is usually more powerful than an email. I have done the research and the person in the position to move the ball down the field like this at Barnes and Noble is Mitchell Klipper, the new CEO of the retail division. I am suggesting a letter writing campaign of at least 1000 letters to him, asking him to bring Barnes and Noble to Kauai. My letter will go in the mail on Monday. I am challenging everyone to write their letters and share this with anyone who could “get the word out.” The address is:

Mitchell Klipper CEO, Retail Division, Barnes and Noble, 122 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10011.

Jason Blake, Kapa‘a

Couldn’t hurt

When I was growing up one of the names we used for law enforcement was patrolman. The theory was that the random appearance of patrolmen in commercial and residential neighborhoods might be a deterrent to crime. And, occasionally, they might actually catch an evildoer in the act.

Our KPD officers seem to be responders rather than policing officers.

Perhaps if our men and women of law enforcement were seen more out and about we might actually see a drop in crime and motor vehicle violations.

Dale Winters, Wailua Homesteads