Letters for Nov. 3, 2015 Firefighters, pilot did jobs well We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Fire Chief Robert Westerman and his well-trained Kauai County firefighters of the Koloa and Lihue stations for their rapid response to
Letters for Nov. 3, 2015
Firefighters, pilot did jobs well
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Fire Chief Robert Westerman and his well-trained Kauai County firefighters of the Koloa and Lihue stations for their rapid response to contain and extinguish a fire which occurred on Tuesday, Oct. 27, close to the boundary fence between Grove Farm and our ranch.
To date there has been no explanation as to how, or why, the fire occurred. We seldom go into that section of the ranch as we pasture no animals in that area.
Fortunately, there is a dirt road from the sugar plantation days that still provides access to vehicles with 4WD and off-road tires which allowed firefighters to reach the burning area.
We are especially grateful to helicopter pilot, Kurt Ventura, who drew admiration and attention from those who were able to watch the skillful maneuvering of his aircraft to fill and drop water with innumerable trips between the fire and Pia Mill Reservoir over a period of several hours.
Duke Wellington
Stuart Wellington
Rocking W Ranch
Koloa
Heading in wrong direction
A huge mahalo to John Humphrey for his excellent letter to the Forum Oct. 30, “County priorities are mixed up.”
While our elected officials and our U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx pound their chests about getting a $13 million TIGER grant (along with $2 million of our tax money) to beautify the Lihue Town Core, “the buffalo grass encroaches on all our roads, the pavement gets more potholes every month, the traffic gets worse by the day and people still sit in the rain and blazing sun to take the bus,” as Mr. Humphrey so well states.
Mr. Foxx said, “TIGER grants play an essential role in helping our country move more quickly, more safely and more reliably.”
Can he or any rational person really believe that adding bike lanes, more buses, wider sidewalks will alleviate our No. 1 traffic problem — vehicles? Only those who live in a dream world will ever believe that the mass of the public will ever get rid of their vehicles for one of those options. We need alternate and wider roads to help traffic flow.
Bikes are mainly used for recreation and exercise purposes — not for mass transportation. Before the feds or anyone else mandates that bike lanes are put on our roadways (for their 80 percent match) why not do a cost-usage survey to find out what is needed — the facts will show that bike lanes are not needed especially on a prioritized basis in our hurting economy.
As Mr. Humphrey again points out, the Rice Street debacle is yet another example of incompetent planning with no prioritization being used. I do remember in 2002 when Rice Street was widened to four lanes from two to create greater traffic flow.
Now in someone’s “wisdom” it is going to have bike lanes, landscaping and wider sidewalks installed so that the roadway will again be two lanes!
When traffic has increased in 13 years, why would any logical planners decide to increase congestion by doing away with vehicle space? And I love beautification projects for Kauai but without the budget and people for maintenance it should not be happening like on Hardy Street — those dividers will become weed patches plus the narrowing of the street will only worsen congestion.
We desperately need a 180-degree turn from the insane direction we are going — we need a county manager.
Glenn Mickens
Kapaa
