Kona CDP ‘Picayune’

Dear Editor

Hawai’i already has the worst business climate in America, primarily because of an excess of rigid planning. Nothing can happen until countless bureaucrats have had their hand in it, and their hand moves with the speed of a glacier, often in the wrong direction. Hawai`i’s lack of progress is do not to a lack of planning, but rather to, more than anything else, an excess. Block anything that’s not in the plan. So here comes even more rigid planning to lock in an imaginary future, and lock out true progress. But wait it’s not even a plan, it’s only a vision. A plan has to have a budget and a timetable. The KCDP has neither instead it’s a vision of someone’s utopia.

Although the KCDP references the old County General Plan it is hard to see them as compatible. One is as vague as the other is picayune, but both lack funding and neither has a timetable. What’s more, the things we lack in West Hawai’i (Hokuli`a bypass, Parks,) are not due to a lack of planning, they are due to a lack of will to spend county money on anything that does not directly benefit Hilo.

Ken Obenski

Opihihali, Hawai`i

Council gets garbage right

Dear Editor:

Incredible!!! County Council finally gets one right voting down the Wheelabrator Boondoggle.

Along comes a solution to the garbage problem (Jacoby) that appears to already be mostly paid for, (state funds of $100 million), and the manufacturer willing to put up the rest, but since the socialists in charge (Kim, Kenoi, etc.) won’t be able to stick it to the taxpayers, there seems to be lots of resistance instead of immediate investigation.

Almost immediately, the Queen of the Obstructionists, (formerly Queen of the Tree People) starts telling us how lengthy and difficult the process will be to get approval.

Evidently the only thing that can get fast-tracked around here is the hiring of a County Council Member who whines she can’t make it on her salary, and gets hired immediately by the county without the required process of advertising for the position (newly created), etc, or perhaps another project (Wheelabrator) which has already met approval (behind closed doors).

I sincerely hope that a new mayor will have the common sense to get rid of these people who have their own agendas, certainly not the interests of taxpayers, central to their daily activities.

When the truths are finally revealed, the legacy of the Kim Administration will be to go into history as the most deceitful and financially irresponsible administration in the history of the Big Island.

Sincerely,

David M. Sprague

Hilo, Hawai`i

Throw the bums out!

Dear Editor,

Our country is suffering its greatest degradation of liberty since the Great Depression with our combined, interconnecting battles against international terrorism, inflation, unemployment, trade deficit, lost of jobs, lack of affordable health care, escalating price of oil, debt on all governmental levels and the crumbling infrastructure of our bridges and highways.

When people living in a democracy want to keep their liberty they have three choices: violent revolution, the electoral process or by peaceful demonstrations. Mohandas Gandhi, the leader of the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India stated: “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

What change mechanism must we become to face this tyranny? Becoming violent rebels won’t work as proven during the Civil War. Peaceful demonstrations do not generate enough stimulated change because our national government is saturated with career politicians who have sidestepped our U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights with laws which benefit themselves.

Therefore we are left with our electoral process. President Lincoln said our nation is a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” To regain our lost liberty we need to clean out congress and start again with candidates not previously elected to congress.

James G. Borden,

Hilo, Hawai`i

Waiawi: Bananas safe

Dear Editor,

In the story, “State Ag Dep’t to kill off waiawi?” author Mr. Walden asks if the term ‘invasive’ is defined politically. It is not. Invasive species are actually a subset of non-native species. ‘Non-native’ species are those that have arrived in an area solely though human intervention, whether intentional or not. In Hawai`i, native species are often referred to as those that arrived by “wind, wings, or waves”. If it was brought in by humans - at any point in time, pre- or post-Western contact - it is considered a non-native species. This includes everything from bananas to rats to cows to albizia trees - and strawberry guava.

Invasive species are those non-native species which become naturalized in their new environment and escape to spread outside of cultivation, then begin out-competing native species and replacing them. This is why although sweet potatoes are non-native, they are not considered invasive. Sweet potato plants and banana trees do not run rampant in the forests and replace the native trees, as does strawberry guava. Recent aerial surveys have shown that strawberry guava has reached deep into the ohia and koa forests previously believed to be intact areas of native Hawaiian species. It is estimated that strawberry guava has infested over 80,000 acres of forest on the Big Island alone, turning once thriving native forests into dense stands with only that one type of tree.

As the scientists pointed out at the meeting, in its native habitat of Brazil, strawberry guava usually appears as single trees scattered across an area, not as the dense, impenetrable thickets that we have here. This is because in Hawaii, strawberry guava found itself to be free of natural predators, and so nothing keeps it in check. The effort to bring in a biocontrol is an attempt to restore some balance.

Frances M Kinslow

Hilo, Hawai`i

Imagine the Vog

Dear Editor,

Lets imagine that the vents really get roaring and a dense cloud of ash and sulfur dioxide in excess of 20 PPM blankets Kona.

Where are these people going to go? How should they prepare their route to evacuate?

We have yet to start on the dock repairs at Kawaihae (earthquake Oct.07) so the super ferry cannot dock. (part of the plan for super ferry to be allowed).

We have driven off the C-7’s that could help move us off island.

The gas is heavy and by the federal toxicology reports greatly impacts children due to their height and body mass.

Note this fact Mayor the gas masks you were to have prepared do not fit children.

There is a satellite armed with sulfur dioxide monitors (built in Finland and Holland) that flies over Hawaii daily mapping the gas flow and concentrations.

You can see exactly were we need to prepare our area of evacuation from this daily NOAA report.

Here is reality fellow citizens of Big Island.

We are on a island with one of the most active volcanoes in the world.

It seems we are becoming more active and must plan for the worst possible scenarios.

Pompeii did not have our warnings and obviously a government evolved to what we expect today.

Do not let or government fail us.

Call them, write them and hit them during the mayor want to be encounters.

Do this for your children.

Ed Bulson

Kona, Hawai`i

No-Drill Network

Dear Editor,

In light of all the brilliant logic emanating from the Obama “No-drill Network” telling us – “you can’t drill your way out of this crisis…drilling will not lower the price or add a drop of oil in the short term…alternative fuels are the answer to rising prices…so are hybrids, bikes, walking, using less energy…” – I humbly ask::

Are not these liberal “No-drill Network” people the very ones who imposed this crisis upon us by blocking energy development over the last thirty years? DUH!

Is the “New and Improved Obama No-drill” plan different from the old failed No -drill Policy of the past practiced by his like-minded predecessors? OOPS!

Will their “No-drill” program put gas in your tank? HOW?

Will their “No-drill” message stop speculators betting on oil prices going up? NO!

Will their “No-drill” program cause the supply of “alternative fuels” to grow so abundantly in the “short term” as to replace all the untapped oil at a cheaper price? ETHANOL DIDN’T!

Can we afford Obama’s changes?

Gerald Wright

Pahoa, Hawai`i