Letters for Feb. 22, 2015

• Thank you for kindness, lunch • Canned answers from HDF as disturbing as mayor’s absence • ‘Very bad feeling’ after meeting falls short of expectations

Thank you for kindness, lunch

I want to thank the family who blessed us with lunch on Sunday, Feb. 8 at the Tip Top Restaurant in Lihue. I never met you but wanted to publicly thank you.

A note was given to me, and it read, “Aloha. Hope you all enjoyed your first time here. Enjoy our favorite breakfast spot. Love, Kauai Ohana.” I didn’t know anyone paid for our lunch until we were done.

The kids really thank you and extend their love to you and your family.

It was their first time at Tip Top. These kids have been through a lot and you may not know how much they appreciate your kindness. We just came from Wilcox Hospital, where we visited and prayed for Tutu. I can see in their little faces they were worried for Tutu.

Your generosity that day really showed them that there are still people who care in time of need. Even strangers, but now I call friends, God calls them angels.

We wished we would have met you and thanked you personally.

You may think something like lunch may not be something special, but by the looks of these kids’ faces, you absolutely made a difference. Lesson learned!

God must have put you in our path that day and it was no accident that you were in the booth next to us. May God bless you a hundred-fold and may your blessing also extend to your family for many generations.

I thank God that there is someone, like you family, who God can use to extend his love and kindness, to help people in need.

Praise God.

Marie Padilla

Lihue

Canned answers from HDF as disturbing as mayor’s absence

I find it troubling the dairy people have a neighborhood schmooze at Koloa School, but any questions the public is allowed are to be pre-submitted long before the “meeting,” and oh yes, the dairy folks get to pick which ones they want to answer.

I find it interesting the mayor usually shows up for the dairy dog-and-pony shows — but does not attend any of the meetings at the Koloa Neighborhood Center attended by concerned people in the community who live downwind of the proposed dairy, which is all of the South Shore of Kauai.

I also find it disturbing the dairy is trying to tell the public they are “volunteering” to do the environmental study — as if it was an option not to do it? Two thousand cows pooping on the clay flood zone, which is Mahaulepu, is a bad idea no matter how big the checks are being given out.

The Hyatt is the biggest employer on the island and if their business is compromised because Mainlanders know what dairy farms smell like and don’t want to spend their vacation dollars on the South Shore, all your uncles and aunties are not going to find jobs at a dairy farm.

There are a lot of very thoughtful, intelligent people who have spent over a year with great financial sacrifice out of their own pockets studying the multifaceted issues that will become a horrible reality if a dairy is seriously being considered for the Mahaulepu area.

Shari Pilaria

Koloa

‘Very bad feeling’ after meeting falls short of expectations

The well-staged meeting, even with two security guards, at Koloa School fell short of what I thought it was going to be (i.e., informative). Instead, it was a controlled, no-questions-allowed, dog-and-pony show.

The acoustics were terrible. There were four individual stations, which were manned by HDF’s consultants, and therefore, no opposing views were heard. As stated at the outset, “We don’t have to do an EIS.” So it sounds like, no matter what the EIS reveals, the dairy will move forward.

Maybe Kauai should have a dairy and maybe not. But why have it in Mahaulepu Valley near Poipu?

I have a very bad feeling about the eventual influence of the EIS and the presence of the dairy on Kauai in its presently planned location.

Michael Diamant

Koloa