Letters for Sunday, July 1, 2012

Change in online commenting policy

Starting July 1, The Garden Island has changed how it monitors the online commenting portion of thegardenisland.com. All comments will go through an approval process. Not all comments will be approved. Priority will be given to those that are topical, remain within our comment policies and contain the author’s full name and hometown. 

We encourage continued use of our online comment feature as well as the Letters to the Editor in our print edition. The Garden Island values reader input and encourages thoughtful debate.

Kilauea youth saddened by Lighthouse Village

I saw the article about Lighthouse Village getting the green light. I was saddened, to say the least. I am 12, and I live right behind the field they are planning on using.

Ever since I was little, I can remember clearly using that field to play baseball and football. I will be 13 when it finally comes in. Thirteen years I have known and grown that field.

My personal feelings aside, we will have to put up with massive traffic amounts and construction noise and disturbance.

I am extremely disappointed and saddened that Kilauea is starting to become a copy of Lihu‘e, and not the classic small Kilauea Town we knew and loved.

Hunt Group, did you ever consider the fact that the reason we live so remote is because we want to stay away from that? That if we wanted that, we would just live by it?

I know it is much too late to reconsider this, but my opinion stands strong. Maybe it will be a change for the better, offering more jobs for those needed. But still, anyway, it is taking a lot from this town … and a lot from its people.

Violet Asuncion

Kilauea

Just say yes to Kaua‘i’s races

Marathon events are still happening and that is a great sport event for many, including long-distance runners who have aged.

The first Kaua‘i Marathon held on Oct. 8, 1978, was sponsored by the Garden Island Roadrunners club. It was inspired and organized by Sherwood Hara who had started a weekly running clinic at Lihu‘e stadium.

When he suggested that we could have the first marathon, all members agreed to train and volunteer to do all they could to make it safe and successful.

On Oct. 8, 1978, about 240 runners, even from outer islands, made it happen.  Other island’s runners were hosted by Kaua‘i members and the entry fee was $15. It started and ended at Lihu‘e stadium and the $15 included the T-shirt.

Awards for fast finishers were donated, and cones along the 26-mile, 385-yard distance were borrowed from a phone company, County of Kaua‘i and volunteer owners.

Aid stations along the route were handing out water from volunteer clubs, Scouts and friends.

Then again on Oct. 12, 1980, the G.I.R.R.A. planned the second marathon which was safe and successful.

The goal of all runners was to get the real prize, the finish line.

Kaua‘i had one council member and mayor to train and finish a marathon: Joanne Yukimura.

The recent Ha‘ena to Hanalei race drew 620 runners of all ages, sponsored by Hanalei Canoe Club. It was started in 1980.

On Nov. 17, Koloa will have a 5k run, 5k walk, 10k run and a 10 mile event sponsored by Lihu‘e Rotary Club.

In February will be the Westside, Captain Cook Caper at Waimea.

In January, the East Kaua‘i YMCA Men’s Club and YMCA of Kaua‘i will hold the 30th year of the Keiki Fun Run at Kilohana for ages 2 to 16. The club is now 62 years old and it began in 1983. Parents of the young runners ran it long ago as keikis. Fee is $7.

I have started and finished nine marathons and a total of 218 races.

My time in 1989 was 7 hours, 23 minutes, 14 seconds. The finish line has always been there, eventually — now I am 88 years old.

Donna Schulze

Kilauea

with Sherwood Hara

Hanapepe

Finally, clay target busting on Kaua‘i!

Mr. Ben Ellsworth, put me down as a perennial customer for your new clay pigeon shooting range near KIUC’s Kapaia Power Plant.

As one of the original founders of the Kaua‘i Shooting Club (circa mid-1970s), establishing a shooting range of any kind was always a goal we were never able to achieve. After the club lost its proposed shooting range to KPD, shooting in Mana and Princeville was always fun, but a logistical nightmare absent any creature comforts.

I (and many of the original old timers still breathing) look forward to a time when members of organized shooting clubs statewide, residents and tourists alike, can participate in hunter safety training programs and shooting sports.

I’m pulling for you, Mr. Ellsworth, and already chomping at the bit to place that first round in my brand-new Remington 1100 to bust some clay targets on Kaua‘i at last!

Vince Cosner

Lihu‘e

Smart meter battle starting to look like a war

I am not as smart as these people on here, but I have common sense and I think I am a pretty fair person, or so I’ve been told.  

I think I am beginning to see KIUC as the people trying to always figure ways to get around people’s rights ’cause they’re like all business kind of people who don’t think most people who live here are very smart.

And I see the people who are always talking against KIUC as the people fighting for their rights ’cause they’re not business people and aren’t making any money on this whole smart meter thing.

 Kinda like a war, like how American soldiers go to fight a war against a bad country who doesn’t like our rights because the Americans get in their way.

Anyway, I always hope the Americans win. That’s all I have to say.

Osmond Portefore

Hanama‘ulu