Let’s take second look at Paniolo Avenue plans
When the county agreed to extend Paniolo Avenue in Waikoloa Village, I naively thought it was going to extend the four-lane road to Kamakoa Park. After all, the Paniolo Avenue extension is to be the major artery to connect to the Kawaihae bypass. It would serve the planned 1,200 units at Kamakoa Affordable Housing and the more than 2,000 units at the proposed Waikoloa Heights subdivision and ultimately to a proposed South Kohala High School.
However, yesterday I reviewed the plans, lo and behold the extension was a 24-foot-wide, two-lane road; narrower than most of the side streets in Waikoloa Village. Now I am very concerned. I remember how the Planning Department approved the Hulu extension. Hulu Street had no driveways connected to it and was planned as an emergency exit from the village to Queen Kaahumanu Highway. Lo and behold, the approved extension has driveways intersecting the roadway and can no longer be used as such.
What is the future of Paniolo Avenue? Will it remain the backbone for expanded planned development to the north or become a major bottle neck, an albatross around our necks. Will keiki on skateboards or bikes have to share the road with cars and trucks or use the planned sidewalk with pedestrians?
Stop the planned construction. Let’s have a town meeting to inform the residents what the South Kohala Community Develoopment Plan, South Kohala Traffic and Safety Committee and the county have really planned for us. I may not be the only one to misunderstand what the county has in store.
Bob Green
Waikoloa
Taking issue with letter on Obama
Regarding his letter of Dec. 3, I feel I must take issue with several statements by Frank Dickinson.
To suggest that President Barack Obama won the state of Hawaii “because he’s from Hawaii” seems to ignore the fact that Obama carried the state with more than 70 percent of the vote, and cleverly avoids the fact that Hawaii is definitely a deep blue state.
I would further suggest that if Mr. Dickinson read the U.S. Constitution, he will see that there is no mention of any action by the Senate that requires anything more than a simple majority vote (with several notable exceptions, including impeachment, and proposing and ratifying amendments to the Constitution).
Our Founding Fathers had absolutely nothing to do with the super majority which the Senate has bestowed upon itself fairly recently.
Terry Davis
Kailua-Kona