Rusty guard rails endanger Kalanianaole travelers
The Ka Iwi coastline is one of the most breathtaking on Oahu. Countless residents and visitors drive, bike, bus, jog or walk along it. It puzzles me why the state of Hawaii has let this section of Kalanianaole Highway fall into complete disrepair.A casual perusal of the stretch of roadway between Sandy Beach and Haunama Bay shows it has intermittent shoulders. Where shoulders do exist, they are punctuated by rockfalls left indefinitely. Vast sections of critical guard rail have disintegrated from rust and are falling down. Recently, a vehicle apparently hit a section of rotten rail and the rail simply fell over. Hikers and walkers, frankly, should be given tetanus shots before being allowed out there.
Is this the picture of Ka Iwi we want? This popular, heavily used road is an fatal accident waiting to happen. Do we want to continue to allow that?
Several years ago a proposal for an extensive suite of improvements, most paid for by federal funds, was shot down. This was a mistake, and it is about time that we make some badly needed improvements before we pay for our neglect with people's lives.
Khal Spencer
(Via the Internet)
Greedy gas suppliers hold motorists hostage
The high price of gas in Hawaii has long been a point of frustration, so it was with great interest that I read your article on the recent national decline in gas prices.The Department of Energy recently announced that the price of crude oil and gas has slipped to the lowest in two years. Mike McNeely claimed "the market really sets the price." It certainly doesn't set the price of "raw materials." It's obvious he refers to what the motorists of Hawaii are willing to swallow.
Stafford Kiguchi of BHP claims that just October to January is too small a window to focus on. Again, the prices for crude are at a two-year low.
The question remains unanswered: Why do gas prices in Hawaii remain so high?
It is especially frustrating not having any idea who to ask to remedy this. The attorney general indicated it was due to a lack of competition. So we remain hostages to the greed of the gas suppliers in Hawaii.
Don't be fooled by the song and dance. We are being ripped off!
Stephen Levine
Haiku, Maui
Gas prices in Hawaii are outrageously high
As a frequent visitor to Hawaii, I read the Star-Bulletin daily on the Internet. So I noticed Rob Perez's (Feb. 11) article that gasoline prices have remained steady in the islands while they have tumbled on the mainland.Locally, they have dropped from $1.45 per gallon in October to $1.07 per gallon in February. I recently paid 80 cents per gallon in Washington.
Hopefully, Perez's piece on the subject will start a downward trend and stop the price gouging in Hawaii.
James M. Mitchell
Grants Pass, Ore.
(Via the Internet)
Most principals don't have time to be activists
As a public school principal, I am pleased to know that your paper appreciates the situation that we principals face on a daily basis (Editorial, Feb. 2). We are committed to making the decentralization of authority work. However, it is difficult without adequate staffing at the grassroots level.The state auditor is correct when she says that "school personnel are overwhelmed by their responsibili- ties." Many of the principals I know don't have the time to plead our case in the media or to be political.
We just try to do our best with the limited resources we have to provide our communities and our students with quality education.
You don't know how great it was to read the editorial, "Schools need control." Somebody else out there understands. Thank you for noticing.
Jeannie Sugimoto
(Via the Internet)
Discrimination was found at Kauai county agency
On Jan. 21, you printed an article on discrimination within the Kauai County Housing Agency (KCHA). How did you get it so wrong?Your first paragraph read, "Federal jurors have rejected discrimination claims by two former Kauai County Housing employees." For your information, the jury verdict forms indicate that the jury found the county guilty of discrimination on 12 of the 16 charges!
After a six-week trial, the jury found overwhelming evidence that there was racial hostility and discrimination at the KCHA -- not just isolated incidents of racism but ongoing racism of a pervasive nature that was condoned by management from 1992-1995.
Want some specific examples of the racism that occurs there? How about a staff meeting where a co-worker says, "You haole, why don't you go back to the mainland where you belong? You don't fit in here, and you never will."
Testimony was also given about an administrator saying, "Those damn haoles are taking over county government!" and "I don't want two haoles working in the same office."
The jury heard that eight staff members were assigned to one Caucasian employee as "cultural coaches to teach her to act local."
Are you convinced yet? The jury sure was.
Judy Lenthall
Military inequity exists in protected Saudi Arabia
The United States has over 200 warplanes stationed in Saudi Arabia, but the Saudi government won't let the U.S. use them to attack Iraq during this current crisis. Why does the U.S. continue keeping $10 billion worth of planes, crew and equipment there if we aren't allowed to use them?The answer: Those U.S. Air Force planes are not stationed in Saudi Arabia for the convenience of the United States. Instead, American taxpayers are paying to defend Saudi Arabia. This is a good arrangement for the Saudis, although it is a bad one for us.
During 1993, I taught naval command and control to Saudi naval officers at their base in Al-Jubail. Every weekday, their warship crews would come to work at 9 a.m. and crowd the base exits by 3:30 p.m. Subtract lunch, prayers and tea-break, and they were working only five hours per day.
Yet, for a decade, U.S. sailors have been leaving their families and children for six-month deployments to the Middle East. The Saudi sailors can take it easy because American sailors are keeping them safe. This also is a very good deal for the Saudis, and a very bad one for America.
Patrick Grandelli
Golf cart decision didn't require OK of City Council
In response to a Dec. 30 letter by Harry Choi, the decision to make golf carts mandatory at the West Loch and Ewa Villages golf courses was operational in nature and does not require approval by the City Council.Due to the design, layout and recommendation of the golf course architect, it was deemed that riding was the only practical way to play these courses. The distance between many greens and the next tee are excessive and would make walking cumbersome.
Choi points out that other three counties allow golfers the option to ride or walk. The City and County of Honolulu has four courses that also allow this option, except if you are playing in groups of five or six.
The practice to require fivesomes and sixsomes to ride was also an operational decision that did not require approval by the City Council.
Alvin K.C. Au
Director, Department of Auditoriums
City and County of Honolulu
Time for public employees to give back to taxpayers
Over the last few years, bureaucrats knuckled under to pressure and threats from public employee unions. These unions pushed for and got pay increases and benefits far above what the economy could support.Now, as Hawaii's economy skids ever closer to the brink, public employee furloughs or layoffs loom on the horizon. I recommend a rollback as a simple means of redressing past bureaucratic largess.
Let's say that public employee pay is rolled back an average $1 per hour, based on a sliding scale. Assuming a 40-hour week times 52 weeks per year times 45,000 state employees, we achieve an annual savings in excess of $93 million.
Next, eliminate overtime in all but the most crucial circumstances. Finally, eliminate two or three holidays in favor of productive work days. Total annual savings should easily surpass $120 million, if not more.
Such actions should also avoid immediate furloughs or layoffs, and allow a more ordered personnel reduction through attrition and retirement.
Public employee unions were more than willing to take while the getting was good. Are they now willing to give back, not only to save jobs but to save Hawaii's economy?
Kerry A. Krenzke
Bishop Estate Archive
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