• County better plan, prepare for the future • Carwash will benefit children’s services • Kiss rural lifestyle goodbye County better plan, prepare for the future I’m getting too old to be waiting around for a Kauai government that’s affordable and competent. That’s
• County better plan, prepare for the future • Carwash will benefit children’s services • Kiss rural lifestyle goodbye
County better plan, prepare for the future
I’m getting too old to be waiting around for a Kauai government that’s affordable and competent. That’s why I’m back in my other hometown, now, after several decades of trying to help make this one better.
Still, I care deeply about Kauai, and I wonder where Mayor Carvalho will lead this deeply troubled governance apparatus, now that he has nothing left to lose or win.
And I do urge the mayor and council to finally turn and deal head-on with the island’s true challenges in sustainability and community resilience.
I’ve heard for so many years that the county “can’t afford” sustainability initiatives, and now I’m wondering if these efforts might well be funded by simply reducing the expense of incompetence (heh) … or not.
Either way, it sure is agonizing to observe the flailing management of certain departments … which is what we truly can’t afford!
I still hope the mayor cares about his legacy, especially during these crucial next four years when we need to be turning away from unsustainability and preparing for the rough patch ahead.
Ken Stokes
Portland, Ore.
Carwash will benefit children’s services
The St. Theresa School fourth- and fifth-grade class will be holding a fundraising carwash to benefit children’s recovery services at Wilcox Memorial Hospital. Proceeds from the car wash will be used to purchase a TV and Xbox system. We will set up the system on a rolling cart and donate it as a Christmas present to Wilcox’s third and fourth floors.
Many children are hospitalized each year, and an extended hospital stay is difficult and often depressing for young patients.
We want to provide an outlet for entertainment, and an opportunity to lift the spirits of sick or injured youth. Kapiolani Children’s Hospital on Oahu has several portable Xbox carts, and they are an important distraction for patients. We’d like to provide the same for our young Kauai patients. We are very grateful for the health of our students, and we want to help all children and families get through hospital stays as smoothly as possible.
We hope to raise enough money ($400) for these purchases, and we are asking for donations of new or gently used DVDs and Xbox games to include with our gift.
How to help?
Come down to St. Theresa School and get your car washed from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13.
Contact fourth/fifth grade teacher Wendy Castillo at 337-1351 (755-5216) for more info or to make a donation.
We truly appreciate all of your support in this project!
Ms. Castillo and the fourth/fifth grade class
Kiss rural lifestyle goodbye
Anyone who lives on the Eastside knows how miserable the traffic can be. Just today, on my way home from Lihue, Kuhio Highway was backed up from Kuamoo Road to Waipouli and we have seen worse. But guess what? We will remember the current situation as the “ good old days” when traffic was mellow, because there are three more pre-approved condos and hotels going up in the Wailua corridor that will soon expand traffic exponentially.
No. 1. The Coconut Beach Resort (next to Marriott Courtyards) with four stories, 326 condos, six hotel rooms and 565 parking spaces is to be built next year. And that’s just the beginning of gridlock mayhem.
No. 2. Now visualize even more traffic in the Wailua corridor by adding the proposed Coco Palms Hotel with 350 rooms, several bungalows, 400 guest and 550 employee parking spaces, pouring out onto Kuamoo Road and Haleilio Road (no room for ingress or egress from Kuhio Highway) making access to and from the House Lots and Homesteads a nightmare.
No. 3. To top it off, is a piece of land with a permit already in place for another gigantic resort near the proposed Coconut Beach Resort. It’s currently for sale. Let’s see which developer wants to cash in on the next big tourist onslaught that our Planning Department and county are promoting with their scary speculations for future growth.
Besides hideous traffic, consider the impact of these resorts on our water supply, the over-burdened landfill, sewage processing, irrigation/ fertilizer runoff into ocean as well as blocking our view planes. What could our planning commissioners be thinking? Shouldn’t our quality of life be a higher priority than raging development on this beautiful island?
Will Kauai be another Maui? Please speak up for our community. A Planning Commission meeting and hearing is scheduled for the design review of Coconut Beach Resort (TMK 4-3-2:14.15,16 &20) Tuesday, Dec. 9, at 9 a.m. at the County Civic Center (near the DMV). If you can’t testify in person, please mail written testimony or deliver by this Friday, at the latest, to: Kauai County Planning Commission, 444 Rice St. Suite A-473 Lihue, Hi 96766 or email testimony to jgalinato@kauai.gov ASAP.
Gabriela Taylor
Keapana Valley
