HELCO HELCO ADVERTISING No cost reduction in charges seen Would you please ask Nancy Cook Lauer to provide an English language translation of Hawaii Electric Light Co. President Jay Ignacio’s remarks. If he ever leaves his current position, he should
HELCO
No cost reduction
in charges seen
Would you please ask Nancy Cook Lauer to provide an English language translation of Hawaii Electric Light Co. President Jay Ignacio’s remarks. If he ever leaves his current position, he should run for political office. It’s difficult to remember a better example of double talk.
A simple question for Mr. Ignacio: What is the average cost difference between a kilowatt hour produced by an oil burning steam generator versus one produced from a renewable energy source? As 36.7 percent of HELCO’s power comes from a supposedly lower cost renewable energy source, would not consumer energy costs decrease? As a permanent resident for the past 12 years, I’ve seen no cost reduction in HELCO charges.
As president of a public company, Mr. Ignacio’s primary goal is to increase shareholder value. The only “pain” he would ever feel is if his performance-based stock option grants and annual bonus were reduced.
Michael J. Henninger
Kailua-Kona
Medicare
Doctors not
accepting new patients
I am sure according to government statistics I have health insurance and am blessed. My insurance, however, is Medicare Plus, a supplement plan. What government statistics don’t show is how many doctors are not accepting new Medicare patients. So, am I really insured. Just saying.
Vytas Katilius
Kailua-Kona
Travel
KOA needs more than one screening device
Heads up for your readers flying out of Keahole Airport on Hawaiian or Alaska Airlines: On a recent trip to the mainland, we were in the TSA security line for one hour. Passengers were lined up out to the sidwalk, and down the street. Our flight departure was slightly delayed because of waiting for passengers to get through.
One screening device just doesn’t do it for peak traffic. Airport and TSA folks need to increase screening capacity.
Kurt Engelstadt
Waikoloa
Coral clean up response
Roadside memorials were not touched
This is in response to Russel Jobst letter “Memorials, not graffiti.” When we first started to clean up coral from the side of the road, one of the first things we did was to agree to not touch the roadside memorials. A lot of memorials have personal effects, pictures, etc that we respectfully leave “as is.” The coral used to make the graffiti is removed from our shores.
The first day we picked up coral each bucket was weighed and we calculated the coral to be more than 5 tons. The coral was then returned to the shore. That day we only worked from Hina Lani street to Kaiminani off Queen Kaahumanu Highway, a small stretch of the more than 20 miles of coral alongside the road.
When the coral started appearing along this road back in the 1970s it was “cool,” but now, 40 plus years later it is not “cool” anymore. There are even big name companies putting their name (advertising) on the lava fields with coral. We have found people have even used white spray paint under the coral so their names will stand out more.
As far as volunteering for all the causes you listed, we do volunteer in other areas of our community that benefit our keiki and kupuna. You say we are “destroying a local tradition” — we say we are returning coral to the shore.
Michelle Tomas
Kailua-Kona
