End of World too dangerous
I am really dumbfounded why a couple with three children would even go to End of the World. I read in horror as they let their 13-year-old son jump into uncharted waters off a high cliff.
I have seen this spot before and struggled at the idea of my kids jumping there but they went anyway. I really think this spot should be secured somehow. It is no tourist attraction, however End of the World could be the end to your world! I don’t recommend this place to anyone especially tourists with kids.
Linda Tohara
Kailua-Kona
Get rid of animals before problem needs solving
What is it with government and its agencies? Are they all suffering from shortsightedness or tunnel vision?
I read the article on the restoration of the Kawaihae watershed. Why did we have to wait until it had to be restored before acting? The goats did not fall out of the sky in the thousands, they have been here and multiplying month after month, year after year.
So OK, now we are going to spend money to repair the damage done? Great! But what are we going to do about the problem? The goats are not going away, they will simply move and destroy another part of the island. Why not declare open season on goats, or put a bounty on them? They are an invasive species, get rid of them!
Some time ago, I read another article about one of the islands spending $1 million dollars to put up a fence to protect an endangered bird from feral cats. But did nothing about the problem, the cats! They too are an invasive species. They are not going away either, they will just find other birds to prey on and then we will have another endangered species to build a fence around! Deal with the problem, not merely the result of it!
Kenneth Brandt
Kailua-Kona
Don’t duplicate the problem
I am dissatisfied with the water well fix proposed by Water Board member Nestorio Domingo in his Sept. 1 letter to West Hawaii Today.
Mr. Domingo wants duplicate wells installed next to the current wells. That is, he proposes duplicating the current faulty system so that the current 40 percent deep well failure rate is acceptable.
This is a terrible solution. Installing additional wells without first identifying the source of the current problems is likely to result in future failures. Instead of expanding the system, the water district needs to learn how others avoid the excessive failure rate that Mr. Domingo seems to consider acceptable. I will be very surprised if the secret of other’s maintenance success is to drill duplicate wells.
Bill Culhane
Kailua-Kona
Tale of two transit systems
So the County of Hawaii is being forced to subsidize the slow train wreck that is called HART. Meanwhile, back here at home we have our very own dysfunctional transit system that is called Hele-On.
Our system limps along on an annual budget of $13.8 million. HART is 40 percent complete and is on track to cost about $10 billion (annual operating cost unknown). Hele-On suffers from chronic breakdowns with as many as half the buses inoperative at any given time.
In July Honolulu helped Hele-On by donating nine buses. These buses were 20 years old and, though supposedly serviceable, had reached retirement age in Honolulu. New buses cost about $525,000 to $600,000. Hele-On can afford to buy only one new bus a year. The HART system will cost about the same as 20,000 buses. Can we afford to subsidize HART? Apparently, we have no choice.
Marvin Feldman
Captain Cook