A Roundabout thank you
Mahalo to Larry Dill and the State of Hawaii Department of Transportation as well as Hawaiian Dredging for opening up the new Kealia roundabout.
Very well executed and nice upgrade to our island.
Jimmy Johnson, Kapaa
Open Letter to Derek Kawakami
We are writing to thank Mayor Kawakami and Kaua‘i County Council for their remarkable leadership through the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, but their leadership has kept Kauai safe and now has provided vaccination against this disease.
We are sorry that many of our small businesses suffered so our island could be safe. We are sorry that some of our friends and neighbors felt they had to leave the island. We are sorry that children missed school. We all suffered in some way…and it is the nature of pandemics that we may suffer some more. But the worst is over. Our hospitals never filled up with dying patients. Our economy withstood the loss of a year’s tourist trade. We all adapted and we are stronger from the experience.
We have always been grateful to be a part of the Kaua‘i community. We have even more gratitude since the COVID-19 pandemic. Mahalo Nui Loa to all our friends, neighbors and fellow islanders for your kindness. Thank you to the people who kept Kauai’s services, stores and take-away restaurants open during the Covid-19 epidemic. Thank you to the resorts that afforded a place to exercise safely. Thank you to all the municipal workers for your pragmatism through the difficult times. Thank you to our medical professionals for the personal risk each of you bore to keep our island’s health-care system running. And again, thank you, Mayor Kawakami, for your exceptional leadership.
You faced some very difficult decisions over the last year. We know that sleepless nights come with grave responsibility. Thank you for accepting this responsibility. Your wisdom, your grace and your courage in making these difficult decisions with the guidance of our Kauai County Council kept us and our island safe until vaccination became available.
Brian and Molly McKenzie, Lihue
Reduce theft, lock your mailbox
I live on Kahiliholo Road in the postal district of Kilauea. The road is about 3 1/2 miles long. This morning (7/1) I went to get the Garden Island paper and the mail. We have a key locked mailbox. I noticed that my neighbor’s mailboxes were mostly open, and there was paper mail strewn all over the street. Our mail thief had struck again! A couple of years ago a credit card was taken from our mailbox, and used to buy over $500 in groceries.
We reported this to the police and the post office, and bought a locked mailbox. We have never heard back from the post office or the police. We see mailboxes open every month or two, so we know the thief has been active for quite a while. I tried to phone the post office this time, but you only get a message concerning your own delivery – no person. I tried emailing the postmaster at the address on the post office website, but it came back as undeliverable.
The reason I wrote this letter is to advise people that have mailboxes on the street to install a locked one. It’s too bad that this problem is so low on the police and post office’s priority list to do anything about this.
Charles Herbert, Kilauea
I agree the Mayor did a nice job keeping us safe until the vaccine was available to everyone. However, everyone has now had more than ample time to get vaccinated. So why do we need continued restrictions? Why can’t businesses open to full capacity, bars have dancing and live music, why can’t people gather inside or outside in any numbers that they want to? Why can’t we have big weddings? Why do we need to keep wearing masks? If people chose not to get vaccinated, then they must accept responsibility for that choice. And that’s fine with me. The rest of us who are vaccinated though, should just return to normal with no restrictions mandated by the State. Every other state has ended restrictions. We will never reach Ige’s 70% vaccination goal because there are too many folks who, for whatever reason, will never get vaccinated. Why should we wait for something that will never happen to lift all restrictions? It’s past time to get back to normal.
Just a question that I would find very interesting to secure the answers….
Last year we publicized all the information about the number of cases of COVID. The Island was very fortunate that is for sure. Could we find out about how many cases we had of the flu? That seems to be a fact that has just disappeared.