• Coco Palms park? • Mayhem on roadways • Save the pedestrians • Kekaha impacts • Threat reactions • Work well done Coco Palms park? Like a lot of people, I drive past the old Coco Palms Hotel site. What
• Coco Palms park?
• Mayhem on roadways
• Save the pedestrians
• Kekaha impacts
• Threat reactions
• Work well done
Coco Palms park?
Like a lot of people, I drive past the old Coco Palms Hotel site. What about turning this area into a county or state park. Let’s face it, we don’t need another hotel or rich man’s getaway anywhere — especially in the Wailua area. How about it, politicians? Condemnation for a good cause — our ‘ohana? It truly is time to give back some, a new park once in decades? Give us a reason for believing in our system.
Sherwood Conant
Kilauea
Mayhem on roadways
Why in the world are drivers overtaking on the right at a crosswalk, intersection or anywhere else via the shoulder of the roadway? Isn’t it illegal? Why are they so in a rush? They will most likely run into more traffic up ahead.
I see people always taking over on the right at the intersection of Menehune Road and Kaumuali‘i Highway in Waimea town at almost any time of the day. One day I was making a right turn at the intersection by Ishihara Market (I was heading south to turn west to Ishihara) and almost drove into a speeding tourist in a Jeep, who took over on the right of me. Needless to say there was a crosswalk there, too.
Nowadays, to stop drivers from taking over on the right of me when waiting for the vehicle ahead of me to make its turn, I position my vehicle to the back right of the turning vehicle ahead of me to stop vehicles behind me from taking over on the right of the shoulder of the roadway.
Drivers, just a reminder: You can never fully see what’s ahead of you if there is another obstacle (vehicle) in front of you. So be safe rather than sorry. You don’t need to be the cause of a senseless accident.
Howard Tolbe
‘Ele‘ele
Save the pedestrians
So far, automobiles have killed more people on Kaua‘i this month than whales being hit by the Superferry.
Where are the protesters demanding a halt to all automobiles on Kaua‘i? Surely the environmentalists can’t hold whales as more important than human life, can they?
What if the driver of the car who killed the 81-year-old Kalaheo pedestrian was a Superferry protester, concerned about the safety of the whales? Wouldn’t that be ironic?
Paul Staples
Kailua, O‘ahu
Kekaha impacts
It seems the poor, neglected, oppressed and suffering people of Kekaha should qualify under the “disproportionate impacts” of the unsafe environments they live in: brownfields, landfills, water and ground contamination, hazardous ditches in their backyards, overwhelming waste products, speeding trucks, pesticides, herbicides and the unwanted development depleting the simplicity and innocence of the culture. Our conscience and our actions should dictate the way we pursue justice for the less fortunate and those who cannot care for themselves.
Genara Buza Campos
Kapolei, O‘ahu
Threat reactions
In his letter (“Ain’t we nice guys,” Letters, Jan. 17) Janos Samu seems to think that the United States should attack anybody who uses harsh language against us. He wonders why different actions would be taken in Hawaiian waters for perceived threats than for similar actions in international waters. Apparently he doesn’t see that he just answered his own question. Perceived threats made in international waters must be treated differently from similar threats in U.S. territorial waters.
Consider this analogy: If you are walking down the sidewalk and somebody across the street starts yelling at you, saying he is going to kill you, would you grab a brick, run across the street and beat his brains out? Not likely. The best response is to ignore him, move away from the confrontation, and report it to the proper authorities. However, if that same person enters your home and threatens to kill you, then you could pull out your shotgun and shoot him in justifiable self-defense.
Personally, I’m quite pleased with the restraint shown by the U.S. Navy in the incident mentioned by Samu. We, meaning the United States, cannot travel the world killing everybody who gives us dirty looks. However, once these same thugs enter our own home waters then the response must be strong and swift.
Brian Christensen
Lihu‘e
Work well done
The Hanalei Roads Committee would like to thank Hawaiian Dredging Company for its work over the past month to install the temporary Acrow bridges across the Wainiha bridges No. 1 and No. 3. HDC accomplished the difficult engineering process of assembling and placing the Acrows with minimal disruption to the community, while still keeping the traffic moving and only one 24-hour closure. The project planners should be commended for their organizational skills in accomplishing the complex installation. And we very much appreciated the hardworking and friendly HDC team who worked for many days in pouring rain.
We also thank our long-time historic preservation partner DOT district engineer from highways, Steve Kyono, and our new Highways Deputy Ray McCormick. The Roads Committee is looking forward to resuming the planning process for the design of permanent bridges for Wainiha that meet the standards for historic preservation.
The Roads Committee was formed in the mid-1970s to keep the Hanalei Bridge a one-lane structure. In 2003, the Committee nominated, and was successful in placing, Kuhio Highway Route 560, from Princeville to Ke‘e, on the State and National Register of Historic Places.
Barbara Robeson and Brian Hennessy
Co-chairs, Hanalei Roads Committee
