Letters for July 12, 2016

Letters for July 12, 2016

Hanapepe town celebration is a hit

Every Friday night, the businesses or vendors get together and make a grill out for the town and all the passerby people have a warmth of a welcome into this town. This past Friday I saw many vendors there setting up shop outside their business and cooking some food. This was about 3:15 p.m. in the afternoon. By the time we came back from Lihue, we saw about 200 people already in town. All the cars were parked along the side of the road from highway 50 westbound, looking to your right into Hanapepe town, just across Hanapepe library.

I never saw Hanapepe town so packed with cars and people walking into town for this event. I think it is great for visitors from other towns to come in and join the fun, also for Hanapepe town residents too, this is a great idea. I do hope they keep it up.

There are a lot of new businesses, too, around the area, so I think this should help getting the funds. There are more people in town to reach, as customers. Fun for the whole family during the summer. Besides, I think the other option would be Lihue or going to the beach, but that would be too much heat in one summer for anyone to take.

I am here every summer. I actually work in Oahu. But I spend the vacation here to relax and unwind. I do not see myself getting involved in this type of community event, but just to be part of as a customer is enough. Here on the Westside and relaxing. What else are they doing on a summer’s schedule? This would be comparable to Kekaha town celebration, this past July 4.

Dean Sabado

Honolulu

Highway construction is needed

I’m deeply concerned about the Hawaii Department of Transportation’s decision to focus entirely on system preservation, and deferring new highway projects for the next 20 years. This decision will have a negative impact on traffic congestion, and the health of Hawaii’s construction industry.

There is several highway improvement projects on both sides of the Big Island that are slated for deferral as a result of this decision.

The decision to focus solely on system preservation projects will likely employ less construction workers, and won’t help mitigate traffic congestion.

This is an extremely shortsighted decision, as a balance between system preservation and adding capacity needs to be found. HDOT asserts they need more funding to do their mission. They need to sell this to the public at large.

I also propose HDOT do away with the weight tax, and replace it with a vehicle registration tax, which would be based upon how old the vehicle is. In addition, they need to increase the gasoline tax, and find a way to assess a fee on hybrid/electric vehicles that use less gasoline. These vehicles are not paying their fair share to use our highways.

HDOT’s decision to arbitrarily reallocate more money to the system preservation over more capacity is extremely unwise. The population of our state will continue to increase over the next 20 years, so new highways will have to be constructed improve our transportation infrastructure.

Aaron Stene

Kailua-Kona

Peace not so easy to attain

Regarding TGI letter on July 2, “Voters should give peace a chance,” author Gordon LaBedz.

Gordon, maybe you and your group should have a conversation in peace with all these terrorists who don’t give a damn for their lives (suicide bombers) and other countries.

Also, have you heard of the expression, “The smaller the package the louder the pop!” Are you really sure that (your quote) “Little North Korea” can do no harm? Again, you and your groupies should go to North Korea and make peace.

Howard Tolbe

Eleele