Letters for Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012

• In praise of Dean Abben, KFD • Bike path needs to have community-wide support • Helped by smart meter’s in-home display  • Honoring Sen. Daniel Inouye

In praise of Dean Abben, KFD

Dean Abben and Hanama‘ulu Trading Company — Kaua‘i lost part of its history when the Hanama’ulu Trading Company building was taken by fire.

Several businesses were destroyed and their owners now face the challenge of loss and rebuilding.

Dean Abben, the long-time owner of this great building, took pride in maintaining an old vestige of Kaua‘i.

This building personified structures of the past.

Dean also offered fair rent, and over the years many businesses who incubated at Hanama’ulu flourished, enhanced by Dean’s kindness and care.

Hanama’ulu Trading Company will be missed and hopefully will come back soon, stronger than ever.

Thank you to Kaua‘i’s Fire Department for containing the fire and stopping damage to neighbors.

Ed MacDowell

Kapa‘a

Bike path needs to have community-wide support

Glenn Mickens had better be sitting down when he reads this. In his Dec. 15 letter, he cited costs of the multi-use path at over $5 million per mile. But the “removable” concrete path on the sand at Wailua Beach, a little more than 1/10th mile, is a projected $1.9 million. That extrapolates to over $15 million/mile!

This all may have seemed a good idea 10 years ago, but with the 2008 economic collapse, a problematic recovery and growing state and federal deficits, it is an idea whose time has come and gone.

With these new realities have come new solutions. In regards to the Wailua corridor, at the Nov. 28 County Council meeting, Council Chair Furfaro shared that Coco Palms permits expire in January. An opportunity to obtain a strip of land for the path to go mauka, or for the highway to shift mauka, could arise in the ensuing planning process.

Council member Dickie Chang proposed a crushed coral path makai the highway that can be walked in seven minutes, connecting multi-use paths at the north and south ends of the beach.

Information signs would describe Kaua‘i’s aloha for Wailuanuiaho‘ano and commitment to preserving Kaua‘i’s fragile shore.

There was a proposal to narrow the traffic lanes, as was done on the H1 in Honolulu, so highway and path can all go on the existing asphalt.

These are sensible, far less expensive alternatives. Mayor Carvalho, who must be evaluating the potential environmental and social risks attendant to this concrete on sand path already, should be encouraged to delay the Jan. 2 project start-up, then plug in fresh data and new ideas for a plan that has community-wide support.

Kip Goodwin

Kapa‘a

Helped by smart meter’s in-home display

I am a KIUC customer who has a smart meter plus the in-home display.

My wife and I have always been very conscious of our electricity usage with our monthly bill rarely exceeding $100. We have a solar water heater and all lighting in our home is fluorescent.

Clothes are line dried or in a gas dryer. We are not TV fans but listen to radio and/or stereo music.  

With an already low monthly bill, what could the in-home possibly teach me?

The first thing was “phantom load” or electricity consumed by appliances that are supposedly “turned off.”

While stand-by modes may be convenient, not all are necessary; for example, a paper shredder or a battery charger not in use.

The most glaring thing it pointed to was my refrigerator. Though only 10 years old it was a power hog! I ordered a new one — same size — and added a 5 cubic-foot chest freezer which we’d needed for some time.

My most recent electric bill, which reflects only a two-week use period with the new refrigerator and the chest freezer, dropped by slightly over $10.

My in-home display clearly showed me that though I thought I was doing all I could to control my electrical usage, I was not.

Now, a quick glance at the monitor tells me things such as: you didn’t turn the coffee maker off, the exterior house lights may be on,  etc.

I love having it and will continue to use it.

I would highly recommend one to all KIUC members who are interested in reducing their monthly bill.

Leon Osowski

Kalaheo

Honoring Sen. Daniel Inouye

Within the past 45 minutes, I received a flash announcement that our Hawai‘i Sen. Daniel Inouye had just passed away.

Within 10 minutes, I had the thought that we (Kaua’i government and private sectors) could have the opportunity to honor our great senator.

I don’t know how the following will be accomplished; suffice to say that there are folks on Kaua’i who can make the following happen:

Could we re-name the “West Kaua’i Technology & Visitors Center” at Waimea: “The Daniel Inouye Technology & Visitor Center”? Maybe there could be a better name. It just makes major sense to honor our great senator!

I had only one opportunity to meet our famous senator, and that was the day we had our grand opening in 1999 for the first tech center building.

The senator was there and I said to him: “Senator, with your money and our land, we have created a super opportunity for technology job growth here in Waimea.” “Our land” meant an acre of our old sugar cane Field 14 (Kikiaola Land Co.) that we were “donating to the benefit of the community.”

The senator put his arm over my shoulder and said: “Son, you haven’t seen anything yet! Your acre next door will someday be another tech building.” I said: “YES!”

With the senator standing there, I had to recollect just how this whole high-tech development project came to be. A year or more before any “project” would be approved; I was approached to do a “hurry-up write-up” of a “technical justification” for its use.

Also, we had to present a “hurry-up” architectural rendition of what the building could look like.

It turned out that in the last minutes before the deadline on a Monday morning, I had my needed write-up and my architect friend, Steve Long, had enough of a building drawing that cinched the final approval.

We barely made the deadline!

The actual architecture as built, was revised when the construction contract was signed.

Alan Fayé

Princeville