• Myles cannot be replaced • Walks the talk • Revise Act 55 • Fact check Myles cannot be replaced Although my husband and I do not live on your beautiful island, we have been visiting it for 25 years.
• Myles cannot be replaced • Walks the talk • Revise Act 55 • Fact check
Myles cannot be replaced
Although my husband and I do not live on your beautiful island, we have been visiting it for 25 years. We are blessed to call it our second home.
We met Myles Emura many years ago and we count him as one of our closest friends on the island. His knowledge of the island and its sea, as well as the concern he has for them and the people who live and visit there are unequaled.
How can anyone who knows this man question his character or ethics? My husband and I have already made the decision that we would fly in should Myles need character references with “no dog in the fight.”
How tragic for the people who live on and visit your beautiful island! Myles is a resource that can never be replaced.
Lisa Gordon
Edmonds, Wash.
Walks the talk
Many archaeological sites on the South Shore (and possibility throughout Kaua‘i) have been destroyed by contractors who view them as impediments to expeditious completion of their projects. Homeowners oftentimes regard these “rockpiles” as free sources of pohaku (stones) to build stonewalls around their property and barbeque pits in their backyards.
Some stonewall-contractors steal the pohaku from wahi kapu (sacred sites) and wahi kupuna (historical sites) on private and state land, thereby dispensing with having to pay for pohaku and without hiring a cultural monitor as required by law.
Property owners don’t ask about the source of the pohaku for their stonewalls, thereby opening themselves to criminal charges of receiving stolen property.
There were three major rock theft incidents last summer in Koloa; at Hapa Trail, at an archaeological preserve located in the Kukui‘ula Development, and at Prince Kuhio Park.
To date, no action has been taken against the perpetrators or the landowners — who are charged with the protection of archaeological sites on their property — although each incident was witnessed, documented and reported to the authorities.
The irony is that everyone including the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority extols the importance of our culture and all efforts to protect and preserve it.
Enforcement of state historic preservation laws is virtually non-existent due to DOCARE’s budget cuts and understaffing. Most cases that are reported to the authorities seldom see the inside of a courtroom.
Fortunately, a fourth case of archaeological site destruction was referred to the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney. A contractor bulldozed/breached a portion of the Hapa Trail wall to grub a subdivision site in Po‘ipu. The construction company was cited by DOCARE and plead guilty in court.
County Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho told the citizens of Koloa that OPA would prosecute anyone charged with rock theft and destruction of archaeological sites to the full extent of the law.
She talked the talk and walked the walk. Not only did she successfully prosecute this case, but she obtained the largest fine levied on Kaua‘i for defiling a historic site. The defendant was fined 2,600 cubic yards of pohaku to be used to repair and restore all of Hapa Trail’s walls from Po‘ipu Road to St Raphael’s Church — 1.2 miles of stonewalls which had fallen to rock robbers since the late 1980s.
Mahalo nui loa, Shaylene, for taking a positive step to deter this nefarious activity and to protect and preserve our culture.
Ted Kawahinehelelani Blake
Koloa
Revise Act 55
Many people and organizations are calling for an immediate repeal of Act 55; however, they are not looking at the potential benefits that it can offer.
For example, the Public Land Development Corporation could build recreational centers for Kaua‘i’s youth. High school students in particular lack places where they can study, hang out with their friends, and have fun in safe, drug-free environments. These recreational centers may also be used for tutoring and college-prep programs. As a rural area, Kaua‘i’s students have limited resources for self-enrichment that would only be beneficial in later life.
Act 55 does not need to be repealed, but it does need to be revised. Its decision making process lacks the necessary checks and balances required for it to be effective and true to its purpose.
Without restrictions, it will be too easy for the PLDC to lose sight of the balance between land development for the people and the preservation of the state’s natural beauty.
Kellie Kurasaki
Koloa
Fact check
Aloha, Ms Zenger, you may be an “independent thinker,” but you’re no fact checker. The “news” about President Barack Obama sealing his education, travel and health records is completely false — a lie.
Well, there is a certain amount of security around personal health records. Aren’t yours protected from public viewing?
If you want facts, try www.FactCheck.org and search under “Obama’s ‘sealed’ records.” You will find this is false, misleading hogwash. Having an open mind is fine. Just be careful what you let it record as fact.
Really? It doesn’t bother you that Mitt Romney probably has millions of untaxed dollars hidden in the Caymans and elsewhere? You don’t think that’s tax evasion?
The IRS cannot do anything about money hidden in other countries. Actually, that money may be back in the U.S. by now, hidden in a newly formed foundation. Will we ever know? That hidden money sure piques my curiosity.
Christine Queen
Kapa’a
