• Surfrider deserves more recognition • Dear Kauai Councilmembers, • Time to clean up Nawiliwili Beach Park Surfrider deserves more recognition Too bad The Garden Island on Aug. 17, aka Sunday’s paper, doesn’t cover the immense work by the Surfrider Foundation half as
• Surfrider deserves more recognition • Dear Kauai Councilmembers, • Time to clean up Nawiliwili Beach Park
Surfrider deserves more recognition
Too bad The Garden Island on Aug. 17, aka Sunday’s paper, doesn’t cover the immense work by the Surfrider Foundation half as much as the coral reef disease reported by Mr.Terry Lilley, which is of great importance, interesting and depressing with no solutions in sight.
All the volunteers give so generously their precious time off, weekends, vacations etc.
The tons of garbage collected (plastic tub, heavy nets etc.) and hauled away as often as once a month deserve so much more gratitude that it’s received by all of us, including TGI. This is the beginning of a solution to that senseless pollution.
This letter was by no means solicited but written by one of the proud members of Surfrider.
Sincerely,
Leonie Dabancourt
Kapaa
Dear Kauai Councilmembers,
The people expressed their wishes when we approved a charter amendment to limit home owner/occupant property tax increases to 2 percent.
The council sued itself to avoid the installment of this amendment but did the noble and correct act of passing the council bill to limit annual homeowner tax increases to 2 percent. We, the voters, were very pleased with that action.
I cannot believe that you felt the 2 percent cap was no longer needed or was no longer popular with voters and were surprised by the negative reaction to repeal the 2 percent cap. Please reinstate it and roll back this year’s tax hike (in my case 30, percent increase).
We, the home-owning taxpayers, were not informed in our assessments that our taxes would increase so dramatically. Letters could have been sent with our assessments stating that the 2 percent cap was repealed. Many of us do not follow day-to-day council votes and actions, that’s when the trust comes in. We’re busy and we trust you.
This should be a major election issue. Candidates should state their position on why they repealed the 2 percent cap or if they would support reinstatement of the cap. We trusted you to keep that 2 percent cap in place just like a charter amendment would have done. You can accuse me and many others of not getting involved with county government and not finding out about this repeal of the tax cap before you repealed it.
We did get involved. We did gather signatures for a charter amendment and voted to approve the amendment.
The council avoided enacting the amendment but created a bill to do exactly what the amendment would have done with the exception that a charter amendment could not have been repealed by a council vote. If you, the present members of the council who are so concerned about the Kauai residents’ welfare, can suddenly eliminate this homeowner tax safeguard, how can we ever trust that our taxes will not continue to increase dramatically at the whim of future councils until we can no longer afford to live in our homes?
This is exactly the scenario that this 2 percent legislation was intended to avoid.
John Wooten
Anahola
Time to clean up Nawiliwili Beach Park
What’s wrong with Nawiliwili Beach Park?
In a word … everything. One description on the Internet says, “Nawiliwili is not considered a beautiful beach (park).”
Located on the west side of Kalapaki Bay is 6.27 acres, which could be an idyllic park. Instead, this park is an eyesore, probably the worst looking and maintained park on the island. There are a number of issues. 1) Some of the picnic tables have been placed on the unpaved, rough/rocky road/parking area adjacent to the beach. The mix of people, cars and tables is unsightly and dangerous.
Solution: Grade/pave the area that would be used for parking and clearly identify it as well as the picnic table area. 2) On a recent Sunday, when I visited this park at about 2 p.m., there were more chickens in the park area than people. I counted almost 100 chickens. Their presence was worsened by the fact that some of the park visitors were feeding these critters. Solution: OK, you county government folks who were elected to serve, it’s past time to be doing something about the chickens. They aren’t cute, quaint or attractive. Be gone from this park and Kauai, you noisy, nasty, foul creatures!
Michael Diamant
Kalaheo
