Letters for Wednesday, August 11, 2021

May be time for a tier change

With Kaua‘i cases increasing in the double digits every day, I wonder when it will be deemed time to take a step backward to Tier 4.

We have now lost three Kaua‘i residents to the pandemic. There are, as of Friday, 87 active cases. And school has just started, with children under age 12 unable to get vaccinated. These children can carry COVID home to their families, their kupuna.

I applaud the administration’s efforts to get everyone vaccinated and the availability of testing. I do wish that there were signs in the airport indicating testing availability and that all hotels and resorts advised their customers to be tested.

For the sake of businesses, I hate to suggest that backward step. However, for the sake of our residents, it may be a way to help curb the extreme upward swing of the numbers.

Donna Gould Carsten, Kapa‘a

Some ideas for future of Coco Palms site

Coco Palms sold for $22M. That is Great!! So, what now?

Are we going to wait for another 29 years before we can honestly see what will become of Coco Palms? And, what became of, and where are all of the previous owners and developers who gave us the hopes that Coco Palms would be rebuilt? If you ask me, there were, and may have had been, too much politics and too much of nothing.

Councilwoman/mayor/citizen JoAnn Yukimura said it best: Coco Palms is not a good hotel site anymore. Agreed. But why?

Let’s see. In those past eye-sored 29 years of the despaired hotel, many things have changed. The population increased from 35,000 to over 73,000 people. The traffic is not what it used to be, and without an overhead bridge there are no easier ways to get to the beach. The building codes and regulations throughout those years changed, and with the additional fourth-lane highway fronting the hotel, the traffic and the traffic noise may be just a bit too much. And, too, being in a flood zone area, is it, or will it be, OK to rebuild the hotel without the exceptions of or changes to the codes?

There are many options and avenues where and what the 43-46 acres of the hotel could be used for. Many people have said to tear and flatten it, make it into a park where people can picnic and go to the beach. Or make the existing dining room and bar areas into a restaurant where people could hold a wedding, anniversary, birthdays, or all sorts of functions, or simply just to have a nice luncheon or dinner overlooking the lagoon. Use or tear down portions of the existing rooms and make them into a museum to show off the many good things Coco Palms had and did. Have the history of Lyle Guslander, who managed the then-24-room hotel in 1953, hired a blue-eyed blonde from Pennsylvania named Grace Buscher,who he later married, and how she loved the Hawaiian traditions and the people but managed and kept that hotel very Hawaiiana.

And more.

Do what they did long ago with the lagoon, and probably build a stage for entertainment and, again, probably have Larry Rivera performing and officiating weddings and singing the “Hawaiian Wedding Song,” or even have shows of some sort for the tourists to enjoy, as well have a snack shop on a playground along with what I just said and suggested.

There are so many things I am sure the developers and owners can think of that would make the people of the island happy again with Coco Palms. Rebuilding it as a hotel or tearing it down are probably not the best ideas. The hotel had some significant and important things that made Coco Palms the most prestigious hotel on the island. Have the public put some inputs of the Coco Palms. Whatever it will be, don’t let it become a hotel again. It’s useless.

I am glad someone bought the hotel again after all these years, but like JoAnn said, it’s not a good hotel site anymore. This is my opinion, which may or may not be of any value.

What do you all think?

Ray Domingo, Lihu‘e