Letters to the Editor for Thursday — October 16, 2003

• Kudos for KHS

• People deserve better than this

• Assessing fairly

Kudos for KHS

Three cheers for Kaua‘i High School!!! This is my first year as a substitute teacher at Kaua‘i High School and I am constantly impressed by the ambiance of the school.

I have yet to be assigned a classroom that wasn’t neat and clean with great lesson plans left by the teacher. Ninety-five percent of the students are polite and cooperative and the office staff friendly and considerate. Also, the school grounds are meticulously kept with very little litter. Thank you maintenance personnel and custodians. Thank you students. Thank you teachers and office personnel.

Irma Ekno,

Lihu‘e

People deserve better than this

I have been critical of our Justice system for some time, for various reasons but one of the main reasons is delay in the conclusion of justice. Recently your paper had an article of a woman on Oahu who poisoned her baby because her breast milk was contaminated with ice. My problem with this is it happened two years ago. It doesn’t take two years to do an autopsy and present the evidence to a grand jury. Now it will probably be 5 years before this trial and it’s appeals will be heard or longer. In states where they have the death penalty it often take 15-20 years before a convicted criminal will be executed. Justice delayed is justice denied. We the people deserve better than this.

Bob Yount

Koloa

Assessing fairly

The only fair way to tax residential property is to assess each property as it is sold and bought. As it is now, realtors are taking advantage of Kaua‘i’s low property tax rate which is assessed only periodically. They buy and sell million dollar properties over and over between assessment periods, for themselves and their off-island clients, paying the same rate as those that live have lived in the same house for years, or who trace their ancestry to the original Hawaiians. To use their own words in the real estate magazines, Kauai island is their “portfolio”. There needs to be various tax structures to address the different residential circumstances in a vacation destination which also has a large indigenous population.

Susan Eisenhut

Laguna Niguel, CA.