Highway project earns sarcasm
This letter is in response to the complaints about the slow progress of the Queen Kaahumanu Highway widening project. What the average person doesn’t realize is that the workers are trying their hardest to finish.
On a recent workday, I saw a crew of 10 men working on the project. Two looked like engineers as they constantly looked at rolled up sheets of paper. Another two seemed like Goodfellow Bros. supervisors as they were getting out of a truck with the Goodfellow Bros. logo. One gentleman with a nice aloha shirt was studying some bones, most probably from a shoyu chicken plate from the nearby Pine Tree Cafe. Another man was standing by him as if he was waiting for an evaluation on whether to order a work stoppage. Two workers were eating their plate lunches on the hood of their truck, obviously forced to spend their lunch break on-site; one quietly dumping some chicken bones on the ground and burying them with his shoes. One man looked like he was supervising the one man who was actually doing the shovel work.
If this situation reflects the average work force; by extrapolation, the 6-mile renovation will have been completed by only six men! These six young men should be congratulated for their heroic effort to try to complete this project hopefully in their lifetime.
Bear in mind that the machine operators were severely hampered by what appeared to be unreliable machines as they seemed to be working only 15 minutes every hour. They may be more productive if they used the same companies that brought us the Pinto, Vega, and Yugo.
One person complained that this project should have been finished in one year but give these workers a break; they are doing their best!
Bryant Ching
Kailua-Kona
Community made event a success
We at the Kailua-Kona Lions Club recently held our annual Pancake Breakfast at Hale Halawai. This is our single biggest fundraiser of the year. We served 450 people that day with the help of the Disabled Veterans (DAV) and our sister club, the Kaloko Lions. Our membership is getting older and we couldn’t pull this off without their help.
We also had several sponsors that need a big mahalo for helping offset our costs of the event. That would be: Toyota of Hawaii, Splasher’s, KTA Superstores, AmeriGas, Starbucks and Safeway Stores.
Our event was privileged to provide free entertainment from the Humble Project Group, Kona Bob, Alan and Art, and Tuesday’s Child. Great music. It was difficult for the patrons to leave. They wanted to listen all day.
The patrons at the door were extremely generous in contributing to our current service project. We are gathering band instruments for Kealakehe Middle School. And with that project is the need for monies to repair and refurbishing those instruments. The crowd donated $689 in our calabash jar. All this money went directly to the school.
And last but not least, we need to thank our contributors who donated items for our drawing. Ace Hardware, Big Island Grill, Body Glove, Carolynn Spenser Designs, Costco, Huggo’s, Jackie Reye’s Ohana Grill, Kona Brew Pub, Kona Engraving, Mrs. Barry’s Cookies, Pancho &Lefty’s, Precision Auto, Quinn’s Almost by the Sea, Royal Kona Resort, Target Stores and The Club of Kona. The generosity of the businesses in our community is just amazing. We know that they are constantly asked for donations and we are honored by their donations.
All of the money we raise at this event goes back into the community. So many thanks to all of our patrons and contributors.
Bob Roseler
Secretary, Kailua-Kona Lions