I read the letter written by Ryan Finlay in the Oct. 24 West Hawaii Today and would agree with him on one condition. That condition would be if Puna was the only district that comprised the island of Hawaii and the mayor and county council had limitless funds to spend.
Unfortunately for him, there are others who live on this same island who have made better choices than he has when deciding where to invest in a house and lot. Our investments costs us more because the gamble of living down hill from a live volcano just didn’t sound like a smart idea. Sure the land was cheap and had a number of special attractions like a black sand beach created by volcanic activity, hot pools heated by under ground volcanic activity and a real functional geothermal generating plant.
The writer complains that the mayor and council has done nothing to restore the economic and living conditions in the volcanic disaster area. The rest of us understand the rational. Is it wise to spend millions of dollars restoring access to the area because the volcano has stopped erupting for two months after 35 years of continuous activity? Besides that, the area does not and may never ever again generate sufficient taxes to compensate for the needed investment. As I understand, even that council representative is now being paid by finances generated from the other districts, if and when she shows up.
The reality is, county finances are limited and there are numerous needs through out the county. As an example, I have been a volunteer on a trail project in Waimea for the past 20 years. We have been asking each administration for help and have received promises. This administration alone has been working on our project for six years and the volcanic activity in Puna has created another delay on our project. Are we upset?
To answer the last question, when the trail project was first initiated, we had a committee of enthusiastic individuals that showed up at every meeting and work day. Since then, two of our original committee members have died and some others are reluctant to show up on work days, not being able to do as much as they wish they could due to their ages.
However, the rest of the committee continue doing our part believing that eventually our turn will come and hopefully, that will be in our lifetime.
Leningrad Elarionoff is a resident of Waimea.