• ‘Bottle Bill’ • Grants vs. tax dollars • Happy ending ‘Bottle Bill’ With the bottle deposit bill in effect, a little adjustment is needed to make it work. We need more convenient ways to recycle. Right now, with limited
• ‘Bottle Bill’
• Grants vs. tax dollars
• Happy ending
‘Bottle Bill’
With the bottle deposit bill in effect, a little adjustment is needed to make it work. We need more convenient ways to recycle. Right now, with limited locations and hours, the public is not motivated enough to accept the system after the initial run to cash in.
We also penalize businesses too for we will not be buying goods in deposit-required containers – the trend will be to purchase larger paper packaging (no deposit) resulting in more problems with our landfills.
Some of us have taken other alternative – we have installed kitchen water faucet filters like the POUR system. This is working very well – no deposits! We hardly buy soft drinks anymore – health! Suggestion: Along with the 5 cent deposit the extra 1 cent charged earlier should be returned to stir the public into recycling. This penny will be well spent for the public will accept this to compensate for gas and inconvenience caused and act as volunteer janitors will cash in.
Government with its attitude and actions are widening the gap between it and the public – one obvious action being “lower taxes – but raise fines and fees”! The old saying goes “one bad move negates five good ones.”
The state’s treasury is full with all the good reports and optimism on a rosy economy thereby increasing revenues. It only takes a proper management of these funds to accomplish most of the goals of a well-run government.
Is anybody listening?
Yasu Nakamatsu
Kapa‘a
Grants vs. tax dollars
The Morning Briefing section, dated January 27, reported the State of Hawai‘i will receive about $5.7 million dollars in federal “grants” for its homeless programs. I believe that there are no so called federal “grants”. This money allocated by HUD is either our tax dollars or the federal government employees are working over time to print the $1.4 billion dollar bills to dole out for “homeless” programs through-out the United States. The wording should be federal “tax” dollars, not federal grants.
Frank J. Barich
Canby, Oregon
Happy ending
Last week on a visit “home” to Kaua‘i, my husband and I stopped to look at Opaeka‘a Falls. While we were across the street taking photos of the Wailua River, a thief was breaking our rental car window and making off with my purse.
Lucky for us, a tenacious tourist couple followed the thief in their car police apprehended the thief and were able to get him to admit to throwing the purse into the bushes. It was eventually located, and returned to me later that evening. Not a single item was missing.
I wanted to thank everyone involved in recovering my purse and catching the thief. Without my ID, plane tickets, checkbook, etc., I would have spent the last few days of our vacation really stressed out! Officers Cataluna and Tavares, and Detective Stem of the Kaua‘i Police Department did excellent work and were very professional. Mr. Rob Green of Wailua was very kind and helpful at Opaeka‘a. And, thank you so much to the tourist couple, whose names I don’t know, for taking time out of their vacation to chase down the thief. We left the island feeling that the Spirit of Aloha is alive and well on Kaua‘i!
Amanda Welsh
Ketchikan, Alaska
