Letter for Sunday, September 8, 2019

North Shore bathrooms are stellar

I want to take this time to thank the county and mayor and our Parks Department for a wonderful job keeping up the North Shore parks. I visit the bathrooms frequently at Pine Trees park and Hanalei Pavilion. Before this new administration took over, these bathrooms were a shambles — they were messy, unsafe and embarrassing. In the last nine months, I have noticed and greatly appreciated that there is toilet paper constantly stocked and that they are clean. One day there was a problem with a stuffed toilet at Pine Trees. The Parks Department came right out within a couple of hours of the call to make the toilet functional again. I am GREATLY appreciative for the big change!

Also, speaking of Pine Trees, I really believe that adding parking to the grassy lot will be VERY advantageous! Everyone who visits Hanalei can see that parking on Weke Road is crowded and overparked. We have the beautiful grass space north of the lifeguard tower where there is plenty of room for both MORE parking AND for events. It’s a win-win. It won’t be taking away from being able to still use the community space. It’ll lighten the load on Weke Road, which has gotten very unsafe, and make the road more passable and give EVERYONE more ease and accessibility to the beach. Look how well parking worked out for the He‘e Nalu No Ka Mauna Event and Paddle Out on Sunday, Aug 25. There were probably more than 100 cars parked PLUS plenty of room for the event of more than 300 people.

Kimberly McLaughlin, Hanalei