• Kapa‘a Library donations no more • Bike lanes or bike route? • Pay cuts for elected officials • Council mandating solar? • Big brother Ben Bernanke • Racial ignorance Kapa‘a Library donations no more Having missed the Princeville library
• Kapa‘a Library donations no more •
Bike lanes or bike route? • Pay cuts for
elected officials • Council mandating solar?
• Big brother Ben Bernanke •
Racial ignorance
Kapa‘a Library donations no more
Having missed the Princeville library book sale, I packed up four boxes of treasured books and drove them into the Kapa‘a branch from Haena to donate them to their weekend book sale.
After carrying four heavy boxes into the library, the head librarian picked one book off the top of one box and, without looking at the rest of the books, I was informed this was all they were interested in.
I was shocked, disappointed and insulted they refused to look at the rest of these books all in excellent condition. I was instructed to remove all the rest of the books as if I had dumped a load of trash off. I will not be donating to the Kapa‘a branch of our public library system again.
Freddie Kaufman, Haena
Bike lanes or bike route?
The only bike lane I’ve seen is by the new courthouse. The Department of Transportation usually allocates two feet on either side of the white sideline on the highways. That’s about handlebar width or shoulder width.
A bike lane should be four to six feet wide and well marked and maintained. But the DOT does not want to incur that expense or liability.
The bicycle routes are not for the bike rider but for the motorist, to alert him that there might be a cyclist on the road. The new signs have “share the road,” too.
To compare Lord Howe Island to Kaua‘i is as stupid as paving the Powerline Trail or a path up Waimea Canyon Road. Obviously, Glenn and Howard have never been on the Powerline, the bike path or up Waimea Heights.
Miles of rural roads? Where? Everything now has been fenced off.
Here’s the good news or bad, depending what camp you fall in: Obama’s new transportation/work bill will allocate $28 billion over the next six years for bicycle and pedestrian hubs and infrastructure for bike access; also, laws mandating drivers give at least three feet of space when passing cyclists on the road.
Tap these funds and then you’ll see bike paths. Remember to follow da money, whether it is 80 percent funded or that 10 percent executive director’s fee.
Bobby Ritch, Kaua‘i Bicycle Club, ‘Ele‘ele
Pay cuts for elected officials
I would like to respond to the recent article in The Garden Island, “Stalemate ends in salary resolution becoming law.”
Ironically, all of the county council members are overpaid at $56,000 (an additional $7,0000 for the chair) a year for a part-time job, with the only requirement to attend meetings — some do more, some do less — along with a $500 a month car allowance, great health insurance and being able to ride the bus for free as county employees. And these people are concerned about freezing wages so other county elected officials are not overpaid? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
I’ll tell you what I think the council is concerned with: They want wages frozen so their salary is not changed. Freezing salaries for elected officials means they just voted to keep there overpaid salaries in these recessed times when many are taking pay cuts.
The article points out that there was a huge discussion on the word “shall.” This reminds me of the famous Bill Clinton line, “It all depends on what your definition “is” is.”
Straight across 20 percent pay cuts for all elected officials, then we “shall” see what “is.” However, not before having another council meeting, where most repeat themselves numerous times and lack any public speaking skills. No joke, I watched this on TV. Actually, it was a joke.
James “Kimo” Rosen, Kapa‘a
Council mandating solar?
Council is mandating solar systems in new home projects?
I question the County Council’s wisdom in this type of measure. If this had pass about 20 years ago, would the county be potentially sued by all the individuals that lost their solar panels from Hurricane Iniki?
Offer incentives to individuals, but please do not make a mandate.
Vikki Secretario, Kapa‘a
Big brother Ben Bernanke
A Sept. 25 article in ZeroHedge.com entitled “Here comes FIATtackWatch” says the Federal Reserve Bank (a private bank) has filed request for proposals on a massive eavesdropping campaign to “gather data from various social media outlets and news sources… to monitor billions of conversations and generate text analysis based on predefined criteria.”
This constitutes the Fed entering into counterespionage by monitoring everything written about it in the world.
A communist-style witch hunt paid for by whom?
Rolf Bieber, Kapa‘a
Racial ignorance
The Garden Island front-page story “Craigslist postings deliver hate massage” shows racism is everywhere. Some are just not educated enough to know better.
Yes, living here some of us use a lot of racial slurs and don’t really know how much it hurts — until it has been used against them. It’s the small-minded people who post their ignorance in public places such as Craigslist.
Howard Tolbe, ‘Ele‘ele
