For the past two weeks, I have read with outrage your stories on tax increases for Hawaii County. Instead of our local government officials spending time how to get by with less, they spend time on how to get by with more. More out of the pockets of people, who live on the west side of the county, is their source of revenue.
It’s amazing that the west side tax-paying population puts up with this scam on the people who work so hard just to pay the various taxes imposed on them from the east side leadership!
This week, the story du jour is the water shortage problem on the west side of Hawaii. Huh? You mean to tell me that there is water in the wells, but we just can’t get it out because of broken down well pumps (with no back-up plan)? Really, now?
Fresh water is a critical infrastructure to the residents of our county, and our county government has no back-up plan other than to tell the residents not to use too much water and to “reduce usage by 25 percent.
You mean to tell me that all of this is happening because of government incompetence, not because of environmental drought? Our local government has got to be kidding. I don’t see Harry Kim driving around in a dirty car (don’t wash your car), nor is he wearing dirty clothes (don’t do laundry), nor is he eating off dirty plates (minimize dishwasher use).
Additionally, they certainly cannot be serious that this problem cannot be fixed until the fall because the pumps are custom made on the mainland. Are we the only county in the United States that pumps water from a well? Do all other counties in the United States have to order custom made pumps, too? This story is too unbelievably outrageous to be true.
First off, if the county actually uses “custom-made” well pumps, then certainly there is an economy to scale with regards to purchase. We should not be ordering one or two custom pumps at a time, we should be ordering at least an entire set of the required custom pumps, plus back-up pumps that can be properly stored to last as long as required before they are needed.
Secondly, why is a county, out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, using custom-made pumps in the first place? If the plumbing infrastructure needs modification to accept standard production well pumps, then why have we not made those funds necessary to do so, and have completed that project already? (Even if it meant floating public bonds for a critical island fresh water infrastructure project). The answer is public servant incompetence.
Finally, the guy in charge of Kona fresh water, Mr. Okamoto, says that “any glitch in the power supply or other short-term effect might discontinue the ability of our existing wells to continue pumping” and “if people don’t start complying …”
Is he joking? The people have to comply because the government is incompetent? Surely, he jests. This guy must be a Harry Kim appointment. How outrageous can it be that the people who pay the vast majority of the taxes in this county have to comply with the directives from Hilo because of the incompetence of the county government? Unbelievable!
Hey, Mr. Okamoto, I strongly suggest that you come up with your Plan B quickly, as we are entering the hurricane season, and power outages are the norm, not the exception for this time of the year. You also need a back-up plan for keeping your job because you can’t seem to figure out how to ensure fresh water infrastructure is in place, at all times, for Kona residents simply by ordering back-up pumps and motors as part of a contingency plan.
Wilson Pepper is a resident of Keauhou.