Letters for Tuesday, July 17, 2012
• Smart meters, not dumb rumors • KPD cash in but ignore commercial speeders • Kilauea development a ‘nightmare’ • People’s actions matter, not birthplace • Aloha from Willy Wonka • No burn please
Change in online commenting policy
Starting July 1, The Garden Island has changed how it monitors the online commenting portion of thegardenisland.com. All comments will go through an approval process. Not all comments will be approved. Priority will be given to those that are topical, remain within our comment policies and contain the author’s full name and hometown.
We encourage continued use of our online comment feature as well as the Letters to the Editor in our print edition. The Garden Island values reader input and encourages thoughtful debate.
Smart meters, not dumb rumors
I have become infuriated by the number of ridiculous rumors I have heard about people on a witch hunt to stop the installation of the electric company’s smart meters.
I have a degree in electronics engineering and a career of working with hardware similar to smart meters. The FCC would not approve a device whose function is not safe for humans, it’s as simple as that.
If you are looking for more dangerous forms of radiation than the type the smart meter emits, which is simple broadcast similar to a cell phone, look no further than broadcast TV, broadcast radio, weather radar, and all the radar devices mounted on planes an other vehicles.
However, it’s unlikely you will be able to make a difference in that arena, as they have become so ingrained in civil defense and military use they are untouchable.
If you decide not to accept a smart meter, do so for another reason than it being unsafe. The FCC approval mark on each meter guarantees they are, in fact, safe.
Finally, don’t fall for dumb rumors and silly Internet lies.
Barney Blankenship
Kapa‘a
KPD cash in but ignore commercial speeders
There has been much talk and at least two letters regarding the traffic safety check in Waimea town after the PMRF Fourth of July celebration.
However, there was also a traffic jam created that evening, prior to the start of the festivities. On July 3, I had a 5:30 meeting in Hanapepe that ended at 6:30. After I left it, the traffic was backed up from Waimea all the way beyond Pakala surf spot. I was certain that there must have been an accident.
It took me a half-hour to get from west of Pakala to Waimea. It soon became evident that the police department decided to set up a seatbelt checkpoint across from Subway in the middle of Waimea. Traffic in town was forced to a halt as they pulled over vehicles to write the citation which caused the traffic to back up.
It was a strategic move on the police department’s part to take advantage of the influx of vehicles visiting the Westside. I am sure they need the money. I am also certain that they will tell us that they were doing that because they are concerned for our safety.
I have lived on the highway in Kekaha for over 20 years. In all that time I have never seen a commercial vehicle pulled over and cited for speeding.
I have spent countless hours of my time trying to contact somebody in the police department to bring this to their attention. I have spent countless hours talking to the various trucking companies (with Garden Isle Disposal being the most consistent but not the only offender) trying to get them to respect the 35 mph speed limit we have out here.
The Kaua‘i Police Department has never returned my calls and the trucking company representatives are in complete denial and seem incapable of controlling their own employees.
If the Kaua‘i Police Department is so concerned about our safety they would do more to enforce the speed limit for commercial vehicles traveling on the highway between Waimea to the Mana plain. It is 35 mph. I have clocked trucks doing 40-45 regularly and in some instances as high as 55 mph.
Safety is important all year long. Not just on specific days of the year when they have the opportunity to cash in on an unusually high number of visitors to the Westside.
That type of action reeks of harassment to me as it is obvious the police department turns a blind eye to commercial speeders on a regular basis.
John Clayton
Waimea
Kilauea development a ‘nightmare’
I agree with David Dinner’s letter on July 9 about the Kilauea Lighthouse Village Shopping Center. It appears that no developer or amount of over-development shall be denied.
By approving the Hunt Group’s permit, the Kaua‘i Planning Commission has agreed to allow an outside developer who has no cares or concerns for Kilauea other than a profit source to turn this peaceful country town into a tourist center.
The Hunt Group made it clear from the beginning that the lighthouse visitor traffic was a wasted source of income while promoting the center as “for Kilauea.” This center is way too large for Kilauea and must depend on outside traffic to survive. The Hunt Group’s own traffic study projected up to a 20 percent increase in traffic on the only road through town that leads to the popular attraction, Kilauea Lighthouse.
This will be a nightmare for everyone, especially those poor souls that must back directly out onto Kilauea Road when they leave their homes. A proposed “new entry” into the heart of Kilauea which would have at least eased the traffic nightmare seems to have vanished in the wind due to disinterest, lack of funds and a backwards approach to planning.
Kilauea loses again and no one seems to care.
Robert Wolaver
Kilauea
People’s actions matter, not birthplace
It’s time to end the rampant ignorance that pervades the mentality of many people on this island. A recent letter by Masa Shirai stated that big box stores and the corporate mentality that has negatively impacted her perspective of the “Kaua‘i lifestyle of old” is the fault of “transplants” who want to turn Kaua‘i into a “mini Mainland” because they are lesser than those born here.
From my personal experience, the vast majority of “transplants” are usually the most vibrant, enlightened beings I’ve encountered and relocated to Kaua‘i in an attempt to escape the lifestyle of the Mainland and are adamantly opposed to the corporatization of the island and are vocal voices against what she claims they are for.
Being born here doesn’t give you an automatic claim to being more righteous or special compared to someone who wasn’t born here. We are all culpable for our day-to-day and moment-to-moment actions, for better or for worse, and that has absolutely nothing to do with where we were born and raised.
There are transplants and locals who are exactly the way she negatively described them in her perspective. And there are transplants and locals who are in complete agreement with her views on how Kaua‘i is changing for the worse. But her view on blaming transplants as the sole reason for Kaua‘i becoming more like the Mainland is a negative stereotype that needs to be put to rest once and for all.
Jason Nichols
Koloa
Aloha from Willy Wonka
Aloha, Kaua‘i. Thanks for coming to see my Chocolate Factory with the five Golden Ticket winners last November. Felt like we were all Golden Ticket winners.
Fantastic to see so many smiling faces and big hearts at the Festival of Lights parade, too.
Happy summer! Right now, I am crafting a few chocolate waterfalls in Australia and New Zealand, and visiting with the Great Chocolate Phoenix Dragon of Mt. Wollumbin. Delightful and delicious … but it is winter down here. How funny!
Imagine: Summer there and winter here, and at the same time. Incredible!
Aloha and Chocolate Blessings.
Willy Wonka
(a.k.a. William McGovern)
Kilauea
No burn please
Please stop burning wood pallets at the beach. All the black ash (why would you burn where we walk and lay?), all the nails and worst yet, beer bottles and more in them too.
Businesses with extra pallets, stop giving them out for firewood.
Friends of those who do, scold your friends, have them clean up the rusty nails. Tell to tell them how easy to get driftwood off the beach or from the next beach (no nails). Better yet no burn or burn akamai.
I am tired of cleaning up your opala.
Please do not add comments to this. Just do what is right, scold those who do it, or call KPD, they will come for it’s now against the law to burn on the beach.
Is it so wrong to ask such a simple thing for all of us to respect the ‘aina? Do what is pono and live here as a steward of the land.
Mahalo for letting me be a extended kama‘aina to the land.
Eric Senkus
Kalaheo
