• Chickens are good • Expired license should be enough • Grass at bus stops needs to be mowed • Cemetery question • There are better ideas Chickens are good As a visitor, albeit frequent visitor to Kauai, I take
• Chickens are good • Expired license should be enough • Grass at bus stops needs to be mowed • Cemetery question • There are better ideas
Chickens are good
As a visitor, albeit frequent visitor to Kauai, I take issue with Anahola transplant Dorothy Kulik’s observation that the main issue with Kauai’s chicken population is noise. Noise, indeed. How about the incessant drone of helicopters or the endless roar of traffic?
While “cha’king” may be the sound of commerce, crowing is the affirmation of life itself. Give chicks a chance — they are fun, interesting and money makers in their own right. Having raised fowl for nearly 20 years, I can appreciate their assets. Chicken poop returns much depleted nitrogen into the soil, bugs are terrified of hens and who does not appreciate a home grown egg?
Give it up Dorothy, Kansas is a long way off.
Odette Tanner-Holmyard, Longmont
Expired license should be enough
Always enjoy reading the column by Ms. Dux. Wanted to comment on one (TGI, Oct. 16) entitled, “I know who I am, but ID helps.”
I know she’s not alone when encountering the required rigorous documentation by the Kauai Department of Motor Vehicles. I was told during my visit that a baptismal certificate that I’ve used since birth was not a acceptable form of identification.
The reason I’m writing is because after just returning from Sedona, Ariz., on Oct. 16, where I had recently returned a family member, I had reason to bring them to their Department of Motor Vehicles in Cottonwood . And even though their license had been expired for over a month, there was absolutely no problem or hassle with renewing their driver’s license. Nothing was required except an expired driver’s license, which, I found surprising because Arizona seems to have been in the news for controversial decisions requiring citizenship documentation.
Why would it be so simple in one state and in another completely different? Aren’t we the United States?
I can guess that there are those people out there who are saying they’re happy that the Kauai DMV is thorough, but really, if you’ve had a driver’s license here for numerous renewals, is it necessary to be so strict that someone has to drive without a license and risk getting a ticket or not having current ID?
Guess you can always present your Costco ID to the officer who might have stopped you until your ID house is in order.
Delpha Menor, Kapahi
Grass at bus stops needs to be mowed
It’s good that these Kauai bus stops are finally going to get shelter over them soon!
However, some of these bus stop, such as the one on the corner of Kaumualii Highway and Laulea Street in Eleele, are so overgrown with tall grass, it poses as an accident waiting to happen. The people at the bus stop look like wild cats in the wild kingdom crouching in the grass. Drivers can not really see them until they are at least four feet away.
Why is it taking the state or county so long to keep grassy areas mowed?
Howard Tolbe, Eleele
Cemetery question
Our first visits to the cemetery were in the early 70s. Glass Beach was a lot more beautiful then, shards were bigger.
We have always wondered why there are so many baby gravestones, like 2 years and older. Anybody know?
John Love, Kapaa
There are better ideas
KIUC seems to think that the only solution to a problem is to throw money at it. One thing I’ve never seen them use is crowd sourcing.
I’m sure KIUC has a database of email addresses for its customers. Crowd sourcing submits a problem via email to every party available. Within the many experts in different fields on this island, multiple ideas on how to solve the problem may be submitted. We don’t need expensive “experts” to come up with them.
Here are a few suggestions on the question of $10 fees to those who do not want smart meters.
First, KIUC has an investment in a smart meter. Putting money in this investment costs a certain amount. People who do not have smart meters should be credited with this amount.
Second, KIUC thinks that meters have to be read every month. From my bills in the past, I can assure you that they haven’t been doing this. Often bills seem to be estimated from previous year’s usage plus a small amount more. Then, when the meter is read, the next bill has a large correction. Certainly, following this procedure regularly would cut the number of readings needed to three or four per year, not every month.
Third, customers can read their own meters. I can remember when this was the acceptable way of getting the readings. Postcards were included with each bill and the homeowner would go out and copy the information from the meter, write the date on the card and mail it to the electric company. Today, this information could be submitted by email or an automated system could receive it by telephone. KIUC could even have a station where people could enter their own readings, much as the person who comes out and reads meters does.
Fourth, some electric companies look over a previous year’s usage and contract with individual homeowners for a set amount to be paid each month with the understanding that a periodic reading will be made and an adjusting bill will be sent.
Fifth, I have known a case where a local resident jimmied his meter so that it sent erroneous data each month. In order to avoid such a problem, a physical inspection will still have to be made periodically even of a “smart” meter.
Personally, I see no reason to read a meter more than once a year. I certainly see no reason to charge people without smart meters monthly to have someone read their meter.
Marjorie Gifford, Princeville
