• Fearing freight delays • On expensive, stale bread • Superferry not for cargo • Dismayed, no change Fearing freight delays Just read (late Wednesday) that Tuesday’s shipment of Love’s Bakery baked goods “is still sitting in Los Angeles” because
• Fearing freight delays
• On expensive, stale bread
• Superferry not for cargo
• Dismayed, no change
Fearing freight delays
Just read (late Wednesday) that Tuesday’s shipment of Love’s Bakery baked goods “is still sitting in Los Angeles” because their freight forwarder used United, which stopped flying cargo to Lihu‘e Airport.
Seems United used Aloha Airlines’ cargo-handling, which is no longer available.
On a positive note, Kaua‘i is the only outer island to have had its mail shipped from Honolulu by someone other than Aloha Airlines, so we can eat junk mail instead of bread.
Seriously, it is definitely time for our County Council to immediately pass a resolution welcoming the restart of Superferry service to Kaua‘i as soon as possible.
Our small growers need it.
Our people need it.
William and JoAnne Georgi
‘Ele‘ele
On expensive, stale bread
I hope that our Kaua‘i residents like stale bread and are willing to pay more to get it.
Another 1,000 people lost their jobs and inter-island air freight has virtually stopped, leading not only to higher prices on the Neighbor Islands but severe damage to small local businesses that rely on air transportation. Aloha had a couple of potential buyers but the strike threat by the Airline Pilots Association ended that process in a hurry. That seems indicative of what unions wind up doing — driving companies out of business. Look at the U.S. auto industry as a classic example of how high union wages and benefits have opened the door to foreign competition.
I feel sorry for the Aloha pilots who lost their jobs, but why did they have to retaliate by causing more lost jobs? Greed?
And now the state Legislature is considering a plan to override Gov. Linda Lingle’s justifiable veto of the “card check bill” that would make it much easier for the unions to invade private companies and leverage the state’s closed shop laws. I wonder what industry they will drive out of business next?
I doubt if writing letters to our state senator and representatives would do much good. They are all dyed-in-the-wool Democrats who long ago sold out to the unions. Perhaps we can retaliate at the ballot box.
The island of Maui is lucky. Their goons and thugs were less monstrous than ours so that their island can ride out the loss of air cargo with daily shipments on the Superferry. Now we all on Kaua‘i suffer because of their intransigence. I wonder how many of those protesters were union members trying to protect the monopolies of their employers (Young Brothers; local trucking companies; Aloha air freight; etc.) or dupes of the money spent by those companies on ecological pretexts?
Stan Godes
Hanalei
Superferry not for cargo
A common rant on this forum is “after a hurricane the Superferry will be needed to move emergency people and cargo.”
But the truth is, after a hurricane, Superferry will likely be grounded for several reasons.
First, the ocean will be filled with floating debris from logs and branches to wood building material. This flotsam could easily damage Superferry’s relatively thin aluminum hull and also get sucked into its waterjets.
Second, pier facilities for docking and unloading will most certainly be damaged if not washed away completely.
The primary method for moving emergency supplies and personnel after a natural disaster is by air.
It is only necessary to clear the runway of debris and if that cannot be done, the military has perfected methods of pushing cargo on skids out the back of airplanes while flying low. Large cargo helicopters are also plentiful on Hawai‘i.
Day-to-day moving of relatively small and lightweight cargo is most efficiently done by air. Large or heavy items are most efficiently moved by slow-moving barge. Superferry is designed for high-speed trafficking of people and vehicles, it is not designed for moving cargo cheaply.
One carrier that moved 85 percent of the cargo is out of business. Aloha’s void will soon be filled. Superferry is not a long-term solution.
Homeless, drugs, criminals, frogs, snakes, bugs and weeds aside, Superferry is only running at about 1/4 capacity and this reader does not understand how it can remain a viable business for much longer.
T.L. Cameron
Boulder Creek, Calif.
Dismayed, no change
“Process of change,” was the front page headline in The Garden Island April 29 regarding the potential position of county manager, currently under study by the Charter Review Commission.
Reading on down, one learns that, due to a “procedural error” the matter was deferred until the next meeting.
Further, according to commission chair Jonathan Chun, it was unlikely to appear on the November ballot.
Process of change? Or no change?
Maria Snyder
Kapa‘a
