Letters for Friday, February 23, 2007

• Kettle calling pot: Come in please….

• Kauai Springs should be allowed to operate

• Sustained applause for Dave Boynton

• Bike path is a wonder

• Yay! for Superferry

• Do something!

• Take another look at letter

• Happy birthday, Grandpa!

Kettle calling pot: Come in please….

Regarding Ann Leighton’s letter (“Hello pot? This is the kettle calling,” Letters, Feb. 18), I am hoping she must know that it is not just “complaining malihini with mega-houses” who are concerned about Kaua‘i’s growth.

Yes, we want our families to be able to find jobs (I’m looking for one right now myself and hope when I find it, I won’t have to drive through Kapa‘a to get there). I want them to be able to shop in a big box store to save some money, find affordable housing and enjoy all that Kaua‘i can offer to enrich their lives.

But I want them, and all of us, to be able to get from point A to B without a Honolulu-style freeway being built from the Wailua River to Kilauea. The very sad fact of the matter is we need it now but of course no one wants that. Someday we will have no other choice and who do you think will pay for it, the developers who have been and will be pocketing their mega profits? No, it will be the taxpayers of Kaua‘i. So let’s all get prepared. There has been growth with no planning and what will be next? Six lanes of solid cement and won’t that be beautiful? I’ll just try to remember when all we had was one red light on the whole island. And I’m sorry for those who haven’t lived long enough to know that difference. We are missing something here. It’s balance.

Kapa‘a

Kauai Springs should be allowed to operate

I fully support the Kauai Springs water company bottling operation. All of the water it bottles was formerly used for irrigation, it comes from a tunnel that was dug into the base of Mount Kahili in 1908.

This is a resource that has been going unused for years now, and I believe that the “other” bottled water supplier probably has something to do with the current problems Kauai Springs is having.

I completely agree with Mr. Coots, who recently mentioned how much water is used by the big hotels now, and how much more will be used by the new proposed developments in Waipouli.

The County Council and Planning Commission don’t give a damn about what is truly good for Kaua‘i, only for their own skewed agenda.

Kilauea

Sustained applause for Dave Boynton

Streets, buildings and programs get named for people for many reasons. (Sometimes, simply because they had a great deal of money and donated some of it.) But what better reason could there be than because someone donated his or her entire life to something?

The Koke‘e Discovery Center should most definitely be renamed to honor Dave Boynton’s life-long commitment to the education of Kaua‘i’s children, Koke‘e itself and the Discovery Center in particular.

Surely Shakespeare was referring to a human being like Dave when he said, “And the elements were so mixed in him that all of Nature might stand to say, this was a Man.”

Kekaha

Bike path is a wonder

Thank you, Betsy Rivers, for your comments on the pathway … I have been walking and biking the new stretch between Otsuka’s and Kealia almost every late afternoon this last week, and I must say — what a wonder!

Many families walking and smiling together, people walking their dogs, tourists admiring and asking questions … watching a fisherman throwing the net, a monk seal lazily going back to the sea, the amazing waves, the eastern Kaua‘i silhouette before the daylight fades.

Yes to the path! A win win for everybody…. Can’t wait to see it all ready… By the way, when will we be able to bike/walk all along the Kapa‘a coast?

Kapa‘a

Yay! for Superferry

Superferry, yay! Now I can visit my aunty in Kalaheo, thanks in part to the Superferry. So please, no complain, because I can remember when people from Kaua‘i and other island people had to come to O’ahu — yes, come here — just to shop for school clothing and other stuff at Sears in Ala Moana Shopping Center back in the 1950s and 1960s. We in Honolulu never complained about your coming here to shop or visit family and friends when you came here to do your business.

Thank you; now I get the chance to visit all relatives and friends from other islands, since I’m scared to fly but I can ride a boat. So please give me a break for wanting the Superferry and don’t tell me about the impact and other lame excuses. It will benefit all ages.

Honolulu

Do something!

The planners are responsible for the road system? Me thinks that the people who live there are also a responsible party.

If you don’t want to sit in traffic, then do something about it … either build more roads with more taxes or kick the planners out and stop unnecessary development.

When the next hurricane comes through, only then, will you understand.

Blessed are Kaua‘i’s children … protect them.

Lincoln, Ore.

Take another look at letter

Michael Mann, have you seen the letter in the Feb. 22 Forum, “Maybe not so absurd”? What a shut down, huh? I suggest you re-read my letter, “Small box bellyaching,” of Feb. 19.

Then, just maybe, you might read something different.

‘Ele‘ele

Happy birthday, Grandpa!

Just wanted to wish a very happy birthday to Mamo Kaneshiro, “our” Grandfather.

Hanapepe