• Being run over not exactly aloha • Developers seem to be getting their way • Smart meters and me • Time to take action on feral cat problem Being run over not exactly aloha An article printed on Jan. 21
• Being run over not exactly aloha • Developers seem to be getting their way • Smart meters and me • Time to take action on feral cat problem
Being run over not exactly aloha
An article printed on Jan. 21 in The Garden Island describes a sad incident in which a visiting tourist was run over on the beach near Waimea Pier, last Dec. 29. Fortunately, there was a Good Samaritan around, because the driver who ran him over just kept driving.
What made me feel better, though, was the TGI’s lead article on Jan. 20 reporting that no hate crimes had been recorded on the island in the last 11 years.
I’m sure it would make Tim Sender of Chicago feel better to know that he wasn’t the victim of a hate crime. Maybe he’ll even get a chance to read some of the sympathetic online comments made regarding the article.
Hopefully Mr. Sender will realize that the guy in the pickup was simply exercising his own kind of aloha. No problem, brah!
Doug Clark
Kalaheo
Developers seem to be getting their way
Has there ever been a time Mainland corporatist development interests on Kauai did not have at least one leg up and over the best interests of Kauai’s citizens, especially around Princeville? Was the Jan. 14 (TGI, Jan. 16) Kauai Planning Commission unanimous approval of Vitus Group’s Kolopua Princeville project just another victory for such developers? Answers, no and yes, respectively.
Now, with no small thanks to Ohana Real Estate Investors, who owns Hanalei Plantation Road (but not the 200 feet of Honu Road where Plantation Road shortcuts to Kuhio Highway) and Kauai taxpayers’ subsidizing both Vitus Group’s Princeville shopping center housing development and OREI’s Kuhio Highway entrance to their project site at the mouth of the Hanalei River, Princeville residents and visitors can be assured they will never have a safe, up to Department of Transportation highway standards, west entrance intersection with Kuhio Highway/Route 560.
At the end of the Jan. 14 commissioners’ meeting, our Kauai Planning Department revealed that neither the state’s DOT nor our Kauai Public Works department understands the long overdue necessity for completion of OREI’s Hanalei Plantation Road to Kuhio Highway east of Hanalei Fire Station with an up to DOT standards left turn lane off of the eastbound lane of Kuhio Highway, which Princeville Corporation failed to complete during the 40 years it owned Plantation Road.
Greg Goodwin
Hanalei
Smart meters and me
Unfortunately, as I finally decide to write, I am late since the vote is Saturday. My decision to opt out of the smart meter installation was based on two reasons.
No. 1 and most important, the meter on my house is only one foot from my stepdaughter’s bedroom window, the side that opens, and only a few feet from her bed.
No. 2, when I built my garage/workshop, KIUC forced me to install a second meter and listed it as a commercial connect, thereby charging me a more expensive rate. All my pleading did me no good. When the economy collapsed and after many years renting a shop in Kapahi for my business, I moved to my garage/workshop.
I work only part time anyway mostly during the day but some evenings. I was and still am very concerned that they (KIUC) would start charging higher rates for electrical usage at peak hours with their smart meter ammunition.
Now I will have to pay these opt-out charges for two meters each month, or if I had let them change my meters, have my usage information used against me in the form of higher usage rates. I just can’t win with the electric company I own.
Ben Caliari
Kapaa
Time to take action on feral cat problem
If you haven’t noticed, Kauai’s feral cat population is rivaled only by our chicken population. Licensing alone is not enough to change that.
There is not a day that I drive to Lihue without seeing dead cats on the highway. Or, just drive through the Walmart parking lot at night and see the hundreds of cats foraging for survival.
We have created this problem — not the innocent cats. It is our obligation to rectify it. We must begin a trap, neuter, release (TNR) program similar to those that are effective in other communities. Maui was granted $32,330 by PetSmart Charities to address their feral cat situation. Bill 2517 will bring in an estimated $23,000. Would it not make sense to apply for a grant instead?
Councilman Gary Hooser is correct in being concerned about the cost of this program versus the gain. If the bill is enacted, a small minority of responsible citizens will abide by the law.
The large majority will not. How much do we pay to police those that do not? What do we do about the feral cats that no one will take responsibility for?
Good Samaritans on Kauai have spayed, neutered and released many cats at their own expense. Are they now expected to license those cats each year as a reward for that selfless act?
As for the Feral Cat Task Force, please do better. You meet in February after a four-month hiatus? Statistics say one unsterilized male and female cat can be responsible for birthing 2,000 cats in four years.
How many of those have been born in the last four months? At the rate you are meeting to resolve this problem, you may need nine lives.
Kathleen Cooney
Princeville
