Letters for Friday, August 12, 2022

South Shore road fund could be better spent

I just read we’re getting $25 million for South Shore roads. This should be good news, except the plan calls for 3 more round abouts. Poipu Road at Pe‘e and Ala Kinoiki? Not a particularly busy intersection that waiting 30 seconds or even a minute should warrant such an expensive fix. But take a look at our roads. Poipu Road from Koloa town is in terrible shape as is Waikomo Road used frequently to connect Poipu Road with Ala Kinoiki.

And if we don’t get a decent bus stop station in front of the post office, where so many locals and visitors have to stand, sit on the curb or lamp post, then the money is wasted. I’ve often thought about the elderly man leaning on his cane in the driving rain there waiting for the bus. How shameful. There is a lovely covered bus stop in Lawaʻi at Horita Road that I’ve seen used exactly once in the two years I’ve lived next to it. So pick it up and move it to the post office. And please drive our roads down here before committing such a sum to more round abouts. Please!

Candy McCaslin, Lawaʻi

What use is a UH Football program

In 1999, the UH football program made a bold move by hiring June Jones as head coach. This gave some attention to the Hawai‘i Bowl. And it produced some revenue for Hawai‘i. Others saw Hawai‘i as a tourist destination spot and December time Hawai‘i Bowl was created for people who liked O‘ahu and want to relax and visit. The peak average tourist to Hawai‘i in 2016 was 8.9 million visitors annually to Hawai’i. This according to Hawai‘i news now station website. This is really not a lot compared to say, California or some place like going skiing off the mountains in Alaska. Hawai‘i is competing with other locations too. The UH football program only hinders the HTA’s outlook on good vacationing and should be cancelled off the spreadsheet from HTA and Hawai‘i’s general budgeting when deciding money needed every year in the state capitol.

There are several reasons I feel Hawai‘i is at a loss by keeping Hawai‘i football program open. The number one reason, it does not generate any income for Hawai‘i. It is costing the state more money now, now that an added rail transit system is in place. We don’t need a football program. By changing the HTA’s “slogan” to a more attractive Hawai‘i, we get to focus our attention 100% on tourism and not on small issues like where and when do we get our new Aloha Stadium? This issue is not acceptable and does not generate any revenue for Hawai‘i

Number two, funneling money into a centralized organization as HTA, we get to create a better tourist based system. Without a useless organization like UH football and ideas from UH, thereby letting the state, and others around the globe decide what is best.

The revenue brought in by the HTA now becomes unlimited and very much a world class destination everyone will know about.

Dean Sabado, Honolulu