Please honor island’s emergency dispatchers
This week is National Public Safety Telecommunications Week — a time to celebrate and recognize the enormous contribution that 911 emergency dispatchers make toward the safety of our communities.
Here on the Big Island, we have 14 fire dispatchers and 30 police dispatchers who answer emergency calls 24/7, 365 days out of the year, and cover our entire island.
They often work long shifts and all hours of the day and night, during natural disasters, and often miss special holidays and family occasions because of their dedication to public safety.
While they are currently classified as clerical workers, they truly are deserving of first responder classification as they really are the first to respond to an emergency the majority of the time.
Emergency dispatchers are tasked with getting critical information from hysterical callers. Failure to get accurate information could result in a police officer getting hurt or a patient’s chances of help or survival being compromised.
All this responsibility resting on the shoulders of our emergency dispatchers can take a toll on their mental and physical health.
Join with me in honoring our emergency dispatchers for their valuable contribution to our community during National Public Safety Telecommunications Week.
Chaplain Renee Godoy
Friends of First Responders
Ideas for reducing homeless population
In the U.S., like everywhere else in the world, there is homelessness. In Hawaii, the population rate of homelessness increased and there is 10% of the population that are below the poverty level.
The spike of taxes and cost of living shot Hawaii to number one in the top 10 most expensive states to live in the U.S.
Nowadays. it is hard to afford a house and appliances. People need to depend on multiple people to make it every month.
The homeless people try their best to survive as they live at the beaches, parks and under highways. Some are lucky enough to have cars, and you will see tents that the people put up for shelters. A lot of the people get forced out and even arrested for “survival crimes” and regulatory offenses such as sleeping on the streets.
Solutions to help lower the homelessness population are to raise awareness and funds to help the homeless. The fund can be used to to clear land to build little shacks like the ones in Pahoa town.
Expanding the shelters in Hilo would be a good solution to have more homeless people sheltered and safe. Have volunteers or social workers make events to help the shelters, and lower the cost of living in Hawaii or raise the pay of jobs.
All these solutions are achievable and possible as long as they are people willing to help make these changes happen.
Dominic Lopez
Hilo