• Response to Gair’s personal attack Response to Gair’s personal attack As far as the facts of the activities at Mr. Gair’s property is concerned, the photographs tell the story. As far as the actions, or the lack thereof, on
• Response to Gair’s personal attack
Response to Gair’s personal attack
As far as the facts of the activities at Mr. Gair’s property is concerned, the photographs tell the story.
As far as the actions, or the lack thereof, on the part of the County of Kauai, the facts again speak for themselves.
With respect to vocational rental. I realized by 1999 that vacation rental on the North Shore, especially in Haena, was detrimental to the neighborhood. Joining friends and neighbors we began to bring the crisis to the attention of the County Council, as the record will substantiate. At the same time I began to get out of the vacation rental business myself. The house Mr. Gair refers to is the property of the Retzloff family from Colorado.
With respect to sewage system. The two houses on Aku Road were built by a general contractor my family hired while we were still living in California in 1988. I was to learn much later that the requirement for septic tank, instead of cesspool, was not in force at the time these houses were built. Still later, in the late 1990’s, I was to learn that the entire town of Hanalei sits on fresh water barely inches below surface after any moderately heavy rain, such that all the sewage systems, except for the treatment plants of some of the commercial enterprises, are immersed in fresh water – which completely inactivates the intended operation of these systems. At low tide, a great deal of the untreated sewage drains into Hanalei Bay, causing the bacteria level to rise to hundreds of time higher than the EPA/Hawaii Standards. This is a problem common to all sea-level communities without a closed sewage treatment system. The Hanalei Watershed Hui has, among its principal objectives, the study and planning towards a community sewage system that would not contaminate the bay.
My main complaint is this whole affair is with the County, for not enforcing the rules that apply to grading and grubbing. The fact that Mr. Gair’s crew made some mistakes is probably understandable; and these could be corrected. What is not acceptable is the malfeasance of the County of Kauai in dealing with this matter. Such neglect of official responsibility is especially egregious against the background of the County’s own role in both its lawsuit against Mr. James Pflueger as well as its role in allowing the disaster at Pila‘a to happen in the first place.
Raymond L. Chuan,
Princeville
