• Timing is key • Aloha from England • Art Night is for all • Slower drivers on the left lane should be illegal • The beauty of Lydgate Park Timing is key Following up Nov. 6 front page story,
• Timing is key •
Aloha from England • Art Night is for all
• Slower drivers on the left lane should be
illegal • The beauty of Lydgate Park
Timing is key
Following up Nov. 6 front page story, “Board of Ethics clears Isobe”:
“Sir, why did you wait until July 15 to ask the Salary Commission to defer your salary increase that had taken effect on July 1?”
That’s the question no one asked the mayor when he testified before the Board of Ethics on Nov. 1 or at any other time, even though the mayor’s belated request triggered everything that happened around Resolution 2011-1 in the Salary Commission, the County Council, and the Board of Ethics after July 15.
The Salary Commission’s Nov. 3, 2010 salary resolution deferred all pending salary increases for administrative positions until July 1.
In a misguided attempt to give the mayor and council “flexibility” in handling budgetary constraints, the commission included an illegal section in its resolution that purported to authorize the mayor with council approval to lower or “freeze” all increases except the mayor’s by simply excluding them from the annual budget for this year.
The mayor and council excluded the mayor’s salary increase from the annual budget, although they had no authority to do so.
At each step in this process and in relation to each agency the county attorney failed to provide appropriate and timely legal advice.
It was these derelictions that the Salary Commission was called upon to rectify and paper over by producing Resolution 2011-1 on Aug. 5 in violation of the March 15 deadline for submitting resolutions.
The key question going forward is simple: Will those involved in the salary process conduct the process in coordination with the annual budget process as envisioned in the charter?
Horace Stoessel, Kapa‘a
Aloha from England
We would like to thank the person or persons who found the postcard I lost and who took the time to buy and put a stamp on the postcard and put it the mailbox.
The postcard was for my mother and father here in the United Kingdom. I actually wrote and mailed another postcard, so they received two in the mail.
We love coming to the island of Kaua‘i, we have been there five times so far and we find all the people we meet so friendly.
The aloha spirit is alive and well. Mahalo!
Heather Edwards, Durham, England
Art Night is for all
Good letter, Ed Justus! We agree 100 percent with you.
Art Night at Hanapepe is something we wish we could be duplicated in Kapa‘a. It is lively, set in a charming old street. Good food and good vendors add to it all making it very festive. The lack of noisy bars was appreciated. People walk around with smiles on their faces.
When my husband Bill was at Talk Story book store to talk about his book “Rainbows Over Kapa‘a” we were very impressed with the visitors and enjoyed the evening.
If anything, I think the lively street creates an enthusiasm to buy something, so it must benefit the galleries. If not that night, another night.
We would go every Friday but it is a long drive from the East Side.
Keep aloha in Hanapepe.
Judie Fernandez, Kapa‘a
Slower drivers on the left lane should be illegal
I agree with Don, driving side by side along the Wailua Gauntlet is a bad idea. It is to be taken seriously.
Don’s reasons are correct, except that there is nowhere to go to avoid an accident. Most of the deaths that have occurred has been when a Wailua bound car in the “fast lane” crossed the center line and struck a Lihu‘e bound car. They had nowhere to go.
A kind of a conundrum, is the statement, “slower cars stay to the right”.
If the speed limit is 30 mph and you are going 30 mph, then technically you are not slower traffic. There is no going with the flow of traffic unless you break the law. The problem is there are too many drivers going 20 and 30 miles per hour over the speed limit endangering us all.
There are many places that it is against the law to be in the left lane unless passing. This forces everyone to use the right lane or be breaking the law and prevents the “slalom course” that we see going on today. This all would be solved if Hawai‘i had such a law. Rescue vehicles would then have the left lane when needed.
The whole point of this dialog is to get the police out there controlling those that are risking our lives with their speeding.
Come on Chief Perry, get your officers patrolling the most dangerous stretch of road on Kaua‘i, before someone else dies.
Tom Witt, Lihu‘e
The beauty of Lydgate Park
I would like the thank the 50 volunteers for the hard work on Saturday’s cleaning of the beach at Morgan’s Ponds. I swim a mile every morning in the pond.
Having the support of the community shows the love for Lydgate Park. That is a beauty of its own.
The Kapa‘a High School boys soccer team proved the stuff our future is made of team work. The boys worked together and with the other volunteers relentlessly. The task was taken care of in a little less than one-and-a-half hour.
Amazing!
Thanks also to Tommy Noyes and John Lydgate, who have created a powerful team that no job at the park is beyond their grasp.
We have a great and wonderful asset in having Lydgate Park. Something we can enjoy today and many generations in the future.
Robert Blasingham, Kapa‘a
