Letters for Tuesday, October 6, 2009

•Good government

• Use free speech wisely

• Alternatives to closing school

• Pasion a positive move

• Grandfather vacation rentals

Good government

In your Sept. 17 edition, you reported: “Marathon generates $1.7M in visitor spending; $1.1M for hotels.” This means that as a direct result of the Kaua‘i Marathon the state and county brought in more than $150K in revenue through their sales and room taxes in addition to the benefit to the Kaua‘i businesses, employees and residents who gained directly, and indirectly, from marathon visitor spending.

Taxpayer tab for police? Less than $5K. Money well spent during tough times.

Kudos to Mayor Carvalho for making this wise investment. That’s good government.

David Poppe, Lafayette, Ind., Kalaheo landowner

Use free speech wisely

I am disappointed the media, television, newspapers, radio and national magazines continue to support the hate messages spewing forth from the far right’s imagination in the United States. 

I understand that freedom of speech is one of our most precious rights but to inflame and conspire to do harm to the president of the United States is using a precious freedom to inflame and encourage hate and retaliation and not productive discourse.

Marilyn  Pollock, Hanalei

Alternatives to closing school

Take a deep breath, folks! The teachers have ratified a new contract indicating a “sacrifice” of giving up 8 percent of their annual income, and the way to justify that payroll deduction is to mandate 17 additional furlough days.

Concerns have emerged about how learning will be negatively impacted and wondering what can and should be done with the students who are left at their own whim, unsupervised. The chaos that might ensue is nerve-racking.

Perhaps, the school schedule can remain “as is” with some slight adjustments:

1. Reduce the class instructional time by 10 minutes per class period to allow for one “leisure hour on campus” at the end of the day before the students go home. Recommended activities could include physical activity (walking, dancing, organized play like volleyball and dodge ball) to promote good health and well-being; creative dramatics and/or a myriad of extra-curricular activities.

2. By “volunteering” their time, teachers can take turns to “supervise” the students when and where necessary and/or have additional prep time to plan, focus and concentrate on instructional needs.

3. Support campus personnel may consider the possibility of “donating” what would be equivalent to an agreed-upon wage adjustment to reflect their “contribution” to address the budget deficit. 

This way, the contact time with students would be only slightly modified. Long weekends of unsupervised “idle time” could be avoided. Parents scrambling to arrange for reliable and affordable plans for supervision of children would be unnecessary.

This might be the better way to go.

Jose Bulatao Jr., Kekaha

Pasion a positive move

I have worked with Ernie Pasion many times and found him to be efficient, responsive and professional.

There is no reason to believe that he will not take those same working characteristics to his new position as county auditor.

I think that knowing your way around county government should be considered as an asset, not a handicap.

Linda Estes, Koloa

Grandfather vacation rentals

Economic cost of vacation rental closures on the Westside.

My condo alone generates annually $3,500 in income for a cleaner; $200 for pest control; $500 for sewing; $1,000 in repair services; $800 local advertising; and $40,000 in local spending by guests.

Now multiply the above by the number of vacation rentals on the Westside that are closing and the devastating economic impact becomes clear. An economic tsunami for small businesses located in Kekaha, Waimea and Hanapepe.

Please ask yourselves, is this what you want?

I get it. You want to preserve communities free of vacation rentals.

However, it is a pleasant thought to think that people living in the small towns on the Westside might be able to find satisfactory work in their hometown as they once did in the sugar mills. Not add to the existing gridlock.

Please ask yourselves, is this what you want?

The solution is to preserve the economic benefits from the vacation rentals that exist while working toward the goal of neighborhoods completely free of vacation rentals. People operating rental units that violate building codes or not paying taxes should be closed. All people who have been running their vacation rental businesses in good faith compliance should be grandfathered.

Additionally, both in Waimea and in Kekaha, VDAs should be established along the beach fronts and strictly enforced going forward. These communities need the jobs and the business generated from vacation rentals.

Please ask yourselves, is this what you want?

Henry Lantzy, Waimea