With all the recent crime reported in the Garden Island police blotter one might wonder how our Mayor can justify her jaunts around the world. While these trips may be in good faith, the expense and timing are inappropriate. It
With all the recent crime reported in the Garden Island police blotter one might wonder how our Mayor can justify her jaunts around the world. While these trips may be in good faith, the expense and timing are inappropriate. It seems to me that the monies spent on travel expenses could be better spent.
Certainly we could use more park areas, police officers, road maintenance, skate parks, bikepaths, libraries, volleyball and basketball courts, racketball and handball courts, public pools, hiking trails and new roads, just to mention a few.
I know that the money the mayor spends on her trips is just a drop in the bucket towards many of these things but it is taxpayer money, not her personnel travel account. Maybe if she used that travel money to go to Honolulu and Washington to lobby for funding for some of these things we`d be better off.
It seems as if our tax dollars are spent on making things better for the tourists that come here than for the taxpayers that live here. The monies spent luring the tourists here could also be better spent on the resident population to improve the quality of life here for many.
Make it a safe and exciting place for the residents first, the tourists will still come. Many said Hanalei would be a ghost town if boating was to be eliminated, but try to find a parking spot in Hanalei these days.
Preserve the natural beauty of the island, this is what the tourists come for. The people in the tourist business should be the ones to foot the bill for advertising as they are the ones to gain the most from more tourist influx.
I think we are all in agreement that we need more for our children to do than just hang out and get into trouble. How about a water park ? It seems to work on Oahu and would do well here. An Ice skate rink would be another good idea, Maybe our mayor can find some wealthy people in her travels that would be interested in investing in the future of our youth. Perhaps the incentive would be some help in getting through the lengthy permitting process that just got worse with the passing of a new bill that says you need a noise permit to build. But that`s another story altogether… To sum things up, I`d have to say I hope the next election provides us with a Mayor that will stay home and take care of business and keep track with the desires of the resident population who pay taxes and love Kauai.
Mike Iddings, Hanalei
