Letters for Sunday, September 12, 2021

Excellent article on FitLot

Our thanks to Dennis Fujimoto’s excellent article in Wednesday’s TGI on our FitLot for Kupuna (seniors) project. This AARP generously funded effort includes a dynamic partnership between the Rotary Club of Hanalei Bay and the Princeville at Hanalei Community Association. There are other groups involved as well, including North Shore Lions and active seniors.

There will be many more celebrations to come for both the FitLot once it is completed and, later, for the entire Kaua‘i Kupuna Place with an Aloha Gazebo and amenities for senior accessibility.

Bill Schilling, co-president, Rotary Club of Hanalei Bay, Princeville

We need numbers of COVID cases with info about vaccination status

COVID cases are in the double digits on the Garden Island, and many people on Kaua‘i are now realizing that COVID is real and the delta variant is spreading like wildfire.

It is important that we can get the facts on the cases. The news reports on how many cases were residents or travelers and community spread or travel-related has shown that COVID is community spread and not from tourists.

As of Sept. 4, an average of 37 cases per day were reported in Kaua‘i County, a 46% increase from the average two weeks ago. Can The Garden Island paper get the news on how many unvaccinated are testing positive for COVID compared to the vaccinated? It is important to know how well the vaccine is working, and also to encourage people to get vaccinated who have not yet done so. 40% of Hawai‘i residents are not vaccinated, and 95% of people hospitalized for COVID are unvaccinated.

Please report each day how many people with COVID are vaccinated and how many getting COVID are not vaccinated. Regardless of whether you support vaccines or not, these statistics are important and relevant to our personal decisions governing health and safety.

Michaelle Edwards, Princeville

County government ups cost of living

The County of Kaua‘i has approximately three times as many employees as the average U.S. county. Ya think that might be a contributing factor of our exorbitant cost of living?

What are the complaints of locals? Excessive government regulations and cost of living. One thing leads to another.

For every regulation there is enforcement. Enforcement equals government employees. With enforcement, there are complaint hearing rights, which involve administrative courts, etc., etc., etc. And who pays for it all? The taxpayer.

And the “public servants,” particularly all those bureaucrats with lifetime jobs, have become rulers, and the citizens have become servants.

For example:

Kaua‘i County.: 72,000 population, 1,400 employees;

Fresno County (California): 990,000 population, 7,000 employees;

Merced County (California): 277,000 population, 2,250 employees.

Terence M. O’Connor, Kapa‘a