• Good luck to new directors • Fuzzy math • Bothered by Crips decals • Visitors extend sympathy • Time to reconsider the central roadway plan Good luck to new directors Congratulations to the new members elected to the KIUC
• Good luck to new directors
• Fuzzy math
• Bothered by Crips decals
• Visitors extend sympathy
• Time to reconsider the central roadway plan
Good luck to new directors
Congratulations to the new members elected to the KIUC Board of Directors. I hope that you all have a clear understanding of the urgency of our current energy situation.
These days, no one in the energy business refutes the fact that fuel prices will continue to climb over the coming years. The only winning strategy for our community is to vigorously embrace a conversion to renewable energy sources through our Cooperative. However unpopular, this should include rate hikes and any other means available to expedite adoption of much needed wind, hydro, biomass, and photovoltaic energy projects. The longer we delay these projects, the more they will cost our community to implement them. Good luck, and thank you for volunteering to serve us all via the CO-OP Board of Directors.
- Ben Sullivan
Vice Chairman
Apollo Kauai
www.apollokauai.org
Fuzzy math
Not to quibble, but when I add up the figures provided for the winners of the KIUC board election, I come up with a total of 8,031 votes, not 5,651 as reported by KIUC officials in The Garden Island on 3/19/2006. The figure of 5,651 also does not include results for the other candidates who must have received a vote or two. Where did the rest of the votes go? I hope this is not the same sort of fuzzy math KIUC uses to determine our electricity rates.
Bothered by Crips decals
Lately I’ve seen a couple of vehicles sporting decals that should make anyone’s blood run cold. The decals read: “Da Crips in Da Islands.”
The Crips, as most people know, is one of the most violent and dangerous gangs the country’s ever known. Each year they and their colleagues, like the Bloods, kill hundreds of people in Los Angeles alone — and these gangs are national in scope.
Their main source of income is cheap and highly addictive and destructive drugs, primarily crack cocaine and crystal meth.
And some people on Kaua’i think this is cool? One truck is regularly parked outside King Auto; I saw another in the theater parking lot this week.
I have to wonder what kind of minds think it’s Kaua’i-style to advertise their fondness for a gang of murderers and drug dealers. Are they trying to scare their fellow citizens? Is it a “don’t mess with me” warning? Are they announcing that they carry ice and guns in their vehicles? Or are they just posers? Hey Kaua’i “Crips” — how long do you think you’d last on the streets of South Central LA?
Whatever their rationale — if you can call their behavior rational — the only conclusion I can come to is that these admirers of the Crips have dismal judgment in their choice of heroes. I wonder if they realize that the Kaua’i Police Department is always on the lookout for gang activity.
Visitors extend sympathy
Dear Kaua’i, I am sitting here in my little house, on an island very much like Kaua’i, though in the north Pacific, remembering our past two weeks visiting your beautiful island. We have visited and loved Kaua’i for many years and are heart-broken for you at this time.
While we as tourists experienced discomfort and disappointment as our vacation burst into storm last week, we realize that our experience was nothing in comparison to that of Kaua’i’s peoples’ and wish to extend to you our deepest sympathy. We wish also to communicate to you how impressed we were with your disaster response — especially that of your civil defense radio broadcasters and those hams operators of the Kauai Amateur Radio Club who kept an emergency net going throughout the terrible days of the storm — there was nothing amateur about their disaster vigil. I felt safe knowing that there were so many eyes and ears out there keeping watch over the constantly developing situation.
Please let your island know that the people of the world are thinking about them and know that we wait anxiously until we can see your beautiful and brave island once again. Aloha and mahalo.
- Suzanne Steele, Fred and Ella Speckeen
Victoria, British Columbia
Time to reconsider the central roadway plan
As a former long-term resident of Kaua’i (President and GM of the cable TV system from 1987-2002), I feel compelled to address the current situation on Kaua’i.
In 1987 I learned of a proposal that was submitted to the County in 1962 to build a central roadway system following the existing power line maintenance roads from the South Shore to the North Shore, with spurs into Lihu’e, Kapa’a, etc., which would allow an alternate and more efficient route to travel the island. This never happened because the environmentalists complained about the obvious intrusion into the interior of Kaua’i, and I suspect that businesses along the current route also had a say.
I say it is time to reconsider. Look at your current situation and ask yourselves how much easier would it be to deal with natural disasters if you had such a highway. To the environmentalists I say that the air pollution spewing from miles of cars backed up on the highways — waiting to advance a few feet at a time — wasting your time and your gas money — and also giving the tourists a negative perception of traveling on Kaua’i — could be virtually eliminated.
This highway should not be commercialized — no businesses — just a way to get from point A to point B — maybe put in a few scenic lookouts. It would not be just for convenience, it would be a way for the police, fire department, and rescue/ambulance services to be able to save lives that they currently are hindered to do. Federal funding for this project should be applied for immediately.
I saw on the Internet where the governor and a state senator were in Kilauea viewing the devastation from the flooding. I say to all leaders of Kaua’i, it is time to take appropriate action now so that in the future it will be possible to alleviate the unnecessary suffering and potential deaths that such disasters inflict on your people.
You all know it is not a matter of if the next disaster will happen — it is only a matter of when.
Mary Ellen and I wish to send our sincere Aloha and prayers to all who have suffered and have lost loved ones in this terrible disaster.
- Bill Harkins
Hyde Park, VT
