Letters to the editor: 06-01-19

Letter to councilwoman on Keei closures

Aloha Maile David, I am one of your constituents and live in Captain Cook. The issue I have is with the frequent closing of the Keei Transfer Station (on Fridays) and the limited amount of dumping of greenwaste that is allowed. Again today, Friday, May 31, the transfer station is closed along with the one at Keahou.

It was open for buisness at 8 a.m. this morning but closed at some point later in the day, per the new rules it is to be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. This means that we are forced to drive into town, about a 30 miles and hour-and-a-half round trip wasting time and gas. The area to unload greenwaste in town poses some safety issues as you need to back up to a loading dock and push your waste into a dumpster below causing a potential fall hazard. If that situation was present in a union work place OSHA and HIOSH would be called in to investigate. Two other alternatives are available to us: No. 1 is to drive further to the land fill and pay a tipping fee or No. 2, as most people are doing, is to dump it on the side of the road.

If employees are calling in sick or taking the day off they should be disciplined. Or, if it is a managerial issue as in the manager in charge cannot adequately schedule his or her employees work schedule, then it is time to look for a new manager.

The mayor has raised our taxes but what are we getting for it? Are the drivers who are needed over here being diverted to haul trash from East Hawaii to the landfill in West Hawaii? If so, then it seems that the answer is to hire more drivers, the mayor is getting more money from the tax increase, surely there must be some for new hires in this area.

When it is time to prune our coffee at the end of the season will the coffee branches be considered as farm waste and thereby not eligible to be dumped at the greenwaste site? The rules say one truck load per day per person or a maximum amount of 5 cubic yards per day. If I fill up the back of my truck to the top of the truck bed (Toyota Tacoma) where there is no more usable space it is only 1 1/2 cubic yards, why can’t I come down two or three times a day to make the 5 yard maximum?

From my conversations with the security guards and from what I observe, it appears that the county is seriously considering shutting down both the greenwaste and possibly the transfer station for household garbage to save money. Sounds like great customer service to me.

With all that said, what are you going to do?

Michael Federspiel

Captain Cook