• Princeville developments • GOP voters • Yes to smart meters • Money better spent Princeville developments Jeff Stone is no friend to the residents of Princeville. Who is he trying to kid with his glossy March 5 press release? Apparently
• Princeville developments • GOP voters • Yes to smart meters • Money better spent
Princeville developments
Jeff Stone is no friend to the residents of Princeville.
Who is he trying to kid with his glossy March 5 press release?
Apparently he believes he has the right to do whatever he wants for profit since he “owns” but selling off the pieces and devising more development with little regard to resident impact continues to undermine the original Princeville vision of a cohesive community.
He boasts of all the money he has spent to improve Princeville, but for whom? The Princeville Hotel, once welcoming to all, is now only accessed via valet parking.
The shopping center still has limited grocery store parking with pot-holed, crumbling roads to get there. The Princeville Clubhouse, once a valued whole-community exercise center, is now closed to residents.
The Makai Clubhouse, which he implies is an alternative, is only available to a handful of residents.
From his viewpoint, if his plan impresses the investors, then the rest of us who live here don’t count. For example, the present Phase II legal documents restrict rentals to a 30 day minimum which guarantees less transient neighborhoods.
But Jeff Stone ignores that intent with his “vision for Phase II,” which proposes The Villas “for people who buy them and rent them out for vacation use.”
I have written to Jeff Stone in the past asking him to accept resident input but have never received a response.
Instead, these glowing reports with dollar signs rolling in his eyes continue to be released.
Martha Hodges, Princeville
GOP voters
The official results for Hawai‘i’s first Republican Presidential Caucus are in — 10,228 votes were cast against an anticipated 5,000 or so.
The Neighbor Islands really came through.
Congressional District 2 (which has all the Neighbor Islands and rural O‘ahu) had 6,221 votes versus the 4,568 cast by urban Honolulu.
And you who voted and who volunteered made it possible.
As with any first time effort, there were a few snafus, but they were relatively few.
These are already being addressed for the next presidential caucus in 2016.
The results?
Mitt Romney will receive nine delegates, Rick Santorum will receive five and Ron Paul will receive three.
Each will receive as many alternates as delegates.
A minimum total of six delegates (and as many alternates) must be from the Neighbor Islands.
Mahalo nui loa to all who helped and/or voted.
William Georgi, ‘Ele‘ele
Yes to smart meters
I support the KIUC installation of smart meters. I understand that the demand for power varies throughout the day so that sometimes our utility has to use more expensive power sources.
I understand that if the only measurement the utility has is the monthly reading of kilowatts, that there is no way of knowing if the power used by a given consumer was the cheaper power or the more expensive power.
This results in those using cheaper power subsidizing those who use more expensive power.
I support the deployment of “green” power and believe that this will be encouraged only if people pay the true cost of the power they use — not some artificial average.
Those opposed to smart meters and who are always complaining about how we liberals want “free stuff” need to get their message straight. I’m tired of people denigrating the KIUC board for trying to do the “right thing.”
Yes, sometimes the board makes a mistake (perhaps free-flow power), but at least they are trying to bring us cheaper (well, at least “cheapest possible”) power rather than listening to Newt Gingrich’s false promise of $2.50 gas.
John Zwiebel, Kalaheo
Money better spent
Our government lightens me up by about 38 percent of my gross income, and I’m thankful.
Dragging around all that extra money would hurt my mileage, and at $4.70 a gallon, I can’t afford any extra weight. I simply have a quick analogy, and then a question; My truck gets 17 miles to the gallon. A helicopter gets “gallons to the minute.” While those are not two equations inversely opposed, it doesn’t take a genius to grasp the correlation. That’s the analogy.
The question is, when I struggle to afford fuel to get to work, our government takes my money and buzzes my house with a helicopter at 9 a.m. Friday morning looking for pot. Maybe it’s just me, but last time I ran into someone high on pot it was at the (convenience store) buying Milky Ways.
So, to summarize, at a very “lenient” calculation our government spends $600 an hour, not counting agent, pilot, and a/p mechanic salaries, to keep those birds in the air. Couldn’t we spend that money on our teachers’ salaries? Give them the resources to teach kids avenues of prosperity other than illegal drug cultivation?
Joseph Lavery, Kapa‘a
