Letters for June 18, 2015

• Hokua Place will help Kauau meet growth • Homeless have enough troubles • Sims made a difference for family

Hokua Place will help Kauau meet growth

This might sound odd to kick off a letter of support, but I am not big on development and generally favor beautiful vast fields of wild growth, especially when developments have already overwhelmed an area. And yet, after reviewing the plans for HoKua Place and evaluating some of the issues that this project hopes to alleviate and lives it anticipates improving, I add my voice of support to this endeavor.

First of all, I really appreciate the effort Hokua Place makes to strengthen the community through diversity, both socioeconomically and developmentally in terms of the types of housing and the uses of extra space. The solar farm and large open spaces built into the design are progressive and will enhance the area.

Another element of this project I appreciate is the acknowledgment and response by the planners to concerns about traffic. Rather than ignoring this issue and trying to eclipse it with an agenda or push beyond it with platitudes, the developers have addressed it with detailed plans that will prevent those problems from ever arising. I especially like the proposed bike and pedestrian overpass!

While we all like to imagine living in a blissfully underpopulated, pristine place, it is important to face the reality that growth is inevitable. To accommodate this growth, the HoKua Place project has created a solid, thorough, thoughtful, informed, forward-looking vision of how to address this issue and is ready to make it happen for the island.

I hope this project is approved

Kelli Isakson, Albuquerque

Homeless have enough troubles

I was listening to NPR yesterday morning on the way to Hilo. Some public representative wants to make islandwide law against homeless people living in Oahu, since if they just ban it incertain areas, the homeless will move to other places. The bill(s) are coming up to a vote soon.

So, this is my advice to all elected officials in regards to this bill: Before you vote on it, take a night or two away from your cushy homes, go out into the city, or the beach, or somewhereand spend some nights. Do not take any comfort items with you, and do not sit or lie down anywhere.

Sara Steiner, Pahoa

Sims made a difference for family

Amazing Dr. Scott Sims, Mahalo Nui for your acts of compassion, dedication, love and overall aloha for Kauai’s pet ohana and those abroad. You have an incredible heart for those you serve and the talent is clear. Listen to this!

Our 7-year-old Chihuahua terrier, Kaya, was unexpectedly diagnosed with Pyometra, a sickness which if you don’t spay/neuter or breed your dog, the uterus then becomes infected by bacteria during heat cycles, of this I have never heard of and was completely dumbfounded. Vet’s option was to immediately pay between $1,500-$1,700 for a 50/50 chance of life/death surgery, or euthanization.

We were completely heartbroken and literally on the verge of taking her back to the vet who diagnosed, to put our baby down so she wouldn’t have to suffer. If my father hadn’t told me to find a second opinion, and if my family hadn’t discovered Sims years ago, when we brought a love bird and Sims fixed her right up in no time, we would have made the biggest mistake of our lives.

Upon finally reaching Sims before calling the wrong number several times, I was thankful to hear him say, “Bring her now!”

He then discovered it was not pyometra at all, but she had now been diagnosed by Sims with anemia. Imagine that! During the ordeal her heart rate quickly dropped and Sims shouted we will lose her now if I don’t breath into the tube connected in her little mouth. In the end, I walked away with a private vet lesson from the man himself and the gratitude for such effort under all circumstances.

Emi Nollar, Kalaheo