• R.I.P. Waimea Rick • Thanks for helping with missing chicken statue • Farmers markets or Costco? • Mahalo for your support • Drinking is legal, but don’t make the same mistake twice • Disclosing what KIUC pays to A&B
• R.I.P. Waimea Rick • Thanks for helping with missing chicken statue • Farmers markets or Costco? • Mahalo for your support • Drinking is legal, but don’t make the same mistake twice • Disclosing what KIUC pays to A&B
R.I.P. Waimea Rick
The loss of an icon so unlikely with a life so rich in history and published on the front page (“Proczka’s final wave,” Feb. 17) is the best reminder for all that Kaua‘i waters have their own names on waves.
Leo Azambuja’s well-written piece and accompanying photos by Jane Vogel were very moving and touched everyone who read it.
Surfers deserve respect for their love of God and ocean. Many genuflect before entering the ocean in a private moment with one’s maker.
For charger Rick Proczka, it was time to go home.
Sandra J. Abrajano
Chicago, Ill.
Thanks for helping with missing chicken statue
After arriving at my store to open up for business, at Jungle Chicks in the Roxy Square in Kapa’a, I noticed that one of the four chickens sculptures that were bolted down was missing.
I thought to call the police, but in contemplating what to do, I realized the police would have more pressing things to do, knowing that Ron Wylie was busy for the lost and found show.
So, instead, I contacted KKCR — our community radio station —and reported my lost chicken. The DJ thought I was joking. He told me to buy more chicken at the grocery store. I then told him in more detail about the fact that it was a stolen chicken statue.
He then got on the airwaves and described the details.
I was also getting ready to post pictures around Kapa’a for the lost chicken statue.
My wife was taking a walk along the bike path and met a friend who was walking her dog.
She said, “Are you missing your chicken statue from your shop?”
“Yes,” my wife explained. She said she had seen it at the Kapa’a Beach Park next to some rubbish in a shopping cart.
The chicken was found with broken feet and tail feathers from the struggle of getting it off the post that can be repaired.
Thank you, Beth, for having a good eye, and KKCR for caring.
Oba Davis
Kapa‘a
Farmers markets or Costco?
Papayas are not as easy to come by at the local farmers markets in the winter months, and when you do come across a nice papaya you can pay upwards of $2 per papaya whereas in the summertime when they are plentiful you can buy them 3 for $1.
I noticed at the Kapa’a farmers market that many of the vendors have the same looking medium-sized uniformed shaped papaya and others have really nice pineapples.
I ask the vendors did you buy these at Costco? They all respond, “no, we’re not allowed to do that,” however when I pointed out a label hanging off one of the pineapples a woman finally broke and admitted she bought it at Costco.
I can recognize a Costco papaya and Costco pineapple a mile away. I have no problem with people making an honest buck, in fact the free enterprise system is what America is all about.
I do not want to go to a farmers market and buy inflated Costco produce, it’s not fair to the vendors that are actually farmers selling their own products, which is what the farmers market is all about.
My elder friend gets very confused while shopping at the farmers market, she thinks she’s at Costco.
James “Kimo” Rosen
Kapa’a
Mahalo for your support
Thank you very much for supporting your local food banks and food pantry’s on Kaua‘i.
The Saint Catherine Food Pantry would like to acknowledge all the people and organizations that helped us feed an average of 350 people a week last year.
We are 100 percent self-funded and are blessed to have 35 active and passionate volunteers who work only for the joy of helping others.
Monetary grants were provided by Friends of Hawai‘i, Emergency Feeding Hawai‘i, Kaua‘i United Way and the Tenney Castle foundation.
In addition, the Kaua‘i Rotary club and many people made financial contributions. We get 90 percent of our food from the Hawai‘i Food Bank-Kaua‘i Branch, which supplied us with 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of food a week to feed our ‘ohana. The food pantries on our island could not operate without all your support.
Our Food Pantry’s mission is to provide food, basic hygiene items and clothing to those in our community that are less fortunate. We deliver food and items to five beaches in Kapa‘a and run a food pantry one day a week out of our church.
We serve anyone who requests help that qualifies with the USDA financial guidelines (for low income). Many of our clients are elderly, unemployed, have children, homeless or just down on their luck..
Mahalo Kaua‘i for supporting both the food banks and all the food pantries on our island. Your continued support will help us with our Lord’s directive: “Feed my Sheep”.
May you be blessed for your thoughtful sharing with the less fortunate in our community. You truly embody the aloha spirit.
Mark Whitson
Operations Manager
Saint Catherine Food Pantry
Drinking is legal, but don’t make the same mistake twice
You are 100 percent correct, Mr. Martin in your letter “Drinking is a ‘legal crime’” printed in The Garden Island Feb. 13 regarding the use of alcohol.
We couldn’t be more on the same page when you say “It’s mind-boggling to think we have lawmakers that would continually allow the legal use of alcohol showing the statistics of terrible losses to society.”
Having been a teetotaler all my life the ban of this drug would be fine but, as you know, prohibition was tried and regretfully stopped because its use is a multi-billion or trillion dollar industry and it will probably never be banned again.
But, because this drug has had such a devastating effect on millions of people throughout the world and has been “stupidly” legalized doesn’t mean that we should legalize marijuana or any other substance that alters the way our body and mind work.
Tobacco use was once touted as being good for you but after years of proof from all medical sources it has proven to be one of the leading causes of preventable death. The tobacco companies lied and pumped millions of dollars fighting truthful facts but slowly society is moving into the right direction to limit its use.
Using marijuana only compounds the smoking problem by not only harming the lungs, the heart and respiratory system but has the mind altering effect on the brain. And if you, or any other proponents of legalizing this drug think that it isn’t harmful, please Google it and you will see how wrong you are.
As you point out, society and the booze industry made a huge mistake legalizing alcoholic beverages but let us not make the same mistake (even prostituting it “to make ends meet”) with any other drugs.
Glenn Mickens
Kapa‘a
Disclosing what KIUC pays to A&B
Regarding the Feb. 19 letter from John Hoff, Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative pays 20 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity generated by the Alexander & Baldwin solar array at Port Allen.
This is well below the 25 cents KIUC is currently paying for diesel. It’s a rate that’s locked in, reducing the impact of oil price spikes over the next 20 years.
The amount KIUC pays A&B is a matter of public record on the website of the Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission.
Jim Kelly
Communications manager
Kaua‘i Island Utility
Cooperative
