• Trying to find an old friend • Bad start to Kauai vacation • Sen. Schatz, please offer help that would actually help Kauai Trying to find old friend I have been trying to contact an old friend of mine,
• Trying to find an old friend • Bad start to Kauai vacation • Sen. Schatz, please offer help that would actually help Kauai
Trying to find old friend
I have been trying to contact an old friend of mine, named Geoffrey Otey.
You ran an article (“7-year sojourn on Wailua Beach comes to happy ending for Otey”) about him being homeless in 1999. Geoff and I grew up together. He was from Urbana, Ohio, and I was from Bellefontaine, Ohio. I have been trying to contact him for over 50 years.
Can you please email me, tomanderson33@icloud.com, and let me know if you can help me locate him? I appreciate any help you can give me.
Tom Anderson, Forest, Ohio
Bad start to Kauai vacation
The people of Kauai need to be made aware of the awful start most tourists are having to their stay at the beautiful island ofKauai.
Those working a rental car business are the rudest people I have ever come across. A man held us there for over half an hourdemanding we take the upgrade that we didn’t want. When we refused he looked at me and said, “I won’t speak to you. I’llonly speak to the man,” even though I had booked and paid for the car. (I’m a female.)
Looking at their reviews, a lot of others had a similar experience. This company ruined our first day on Kauai and left theimpression that that is what all those living on the island are like!
Frances Daniel, Alabama
Sen. Schatz, please offer help that would actually help Kauai
In his interview with TGI (June 2) Sen. Brian Schatz states, “I have a lot of things I want to accomplish on the behalf of Kauai,”and he cites “Lihue Town Core, traffic and PMRF” as priorities.
First, to equate this $13.8 million TIGER grant with the revitalization of the Lihue Town Core is, at best, a white elephant. Thebusinesses that left Lihue long ago left for a reason — to relocate and better their operations.
The “core” of this area is used for county and state operations and that is how it will remain. When Big Save was there it was amagnet for other businesses and people from the neighborhood to conveniently buy their groceries. But when Big Save left, itbecame a government operational area. The few businesses that remain in Lihue seem happy with their current MO and willcontinue as such.
But when you talk about revitalization you visualize malls, parks and recreational areas, zoos and things like the trains atKilohana that will attract people. The Lihue area has none of these and the people who made their decision to relocate will notbe coming back to Lihue proper.
Yes, senator, we need and appreciate your help in obtaining funds for our infrastructure, our low income housing, our solidwaste program, our homeless and so many other problems facing us. But we do not need a TIGER grant that is so restrictive,it is basically useless to our real needs.
And, our senator cites his support for solving our traffic woes by using the TIGER grant to “condense the four-lane traffic intothree lanes creating bicycle lanes on Rice Street and creating 90 new parking spaces.”
This plan is a huge contradiction since Rice Street was once two lanes and wisely made into four lanes to keep traffic flowing.To now make it two lanes with an “arrow” lane in the middle (like Kapaa) and put bike lanes on each side would onlyexacerbate the problem and make traffic worse.
Again, Sen. Schatz, we citizens of Kauai greatly appreciate any help you can get us but, please, make sure it is the type of helpthat we need. Getting our fair share of the TAT tax back would certainly be a step in the right direction.
Glenn Mickens, Kapaa
