Keep our beaches and parks safe
My name is Leakule Chrisman and I am 13 years old. As a child who has lived here my whole life I would like to talk about the homeless issue. I see trash, bottles of alcohol, broken glass, and needles left on the ground in public places, we are a community who don’t always wear shoes so it concerns me when I see this happen in places like Old Airport area seeing little kids running around barefoot, and we can all agree we wouldn’t want a kid stepping on a needle or drinking out of an alcohol bottle that they found laying around.
Just the other week a woman walked past the skating rink completely naked, she may have needed help but there was little kids there. I do roller derby down there and often see homeless people around the rink and sometimes inside. I seen and heard of people finding alcohol bottles, needles, cigarettes, pakalolo, and other garbage. There are tons of little kids and it really scares me of what may happen. I think we need to build a homeless shelter somewhere so the less fortunate can finally have a place to stay and we can keep our public areas, beaches, parks, etc. clean and safe for everyone. This a issue that I hope can be resolved.
Leakule Meli Drucker Chrisman
Kailua-Kona
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Protect law-abiding citizens first
On Feb. 10, West Hawaii Today ran a front page article about Rep. Sonny Ganaden’s proposal to reduce jail populations. I am not sure whether Mr. Ganaden is stupid or crazy. Has he learned nothing about the rising crime wave in the Lower 48 due to similar bills?
His proposal is to issue citations without arrest for serious crimes including auto theft, second degree burglary, promoting porn to minors, and resisting arrest. What message is this sending to police officers, the thin blue line which protects us from anarchy?
Ganaden states, “we cannot continue cramming fellow human beings into jails and prisons…” I say, why not? If necessary build more jails, but for goodness sake lets protect law-abiding citizens first.
John Hite
Kailua-Kona
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Rectify the problems
Regarding the Holualoa Elementary School, it is evident that, if media reports are accurate, immediate action be taken to rectify the problems. However, this shouldn’t be a Band-Aid approach.
Too often government, at all levels, provide short term solutions that are ghastly expensive followed by long term solutions that are even more ghastly. How is it possible that planning cost for the Holualoa school renovation are $2 million and the estimated renovation and construction $57 million?!
We see, all too often, government agencies blaming delay and high cost on procurement rules and processes that are in theory designed to encourage lower cost and discourage corruption. Usually they do neither and often the procurement and planning cost exceed what the cost of the actual project should be.
Solutions. First, regarding expedient renovation of the school. We as a community would benefit greatly if an open house were conducted to allow all members, not just parents of students, to see firsthand the conditions at the school. This could result in a broad coalition of support for a proper solution.
Second, elected officials in Hawaii should make improvement of procurement processes a top priority. We should, quickly, look at other models of government procurement that are substantially streamlined; result in far lower costs; and, are relatively corruption free.
This is all very doable and needed.
Paul Seidler
Holualoa
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Tell us about it
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