County hypocrisy The article in the Tribune-Herald on Thursday, March 1, regarding our buses not having safety checks or insurance begs the question for everyone pulled over for no safety check and no insurance. ADVERTISING Why not just say they,
County hypocrisy
The article in the Tribune-Herald on Thursday, March 1, regarding our buses not having safety checks or insurance begs the question for everyone pulled over for no safety check and no insurance.
Why not just say they, too, have self-cleared their vehicles for the road and are self-insured as well? Also, is the County of Hawaii really self-insured, and, if so, where is the fund and how much is in it?
Stephen Hannigan
Hilo
Rose Atoll is a gem
While there is an abundance of pink coralline algae in the reef at Rose Atoll (Tribune-Herald, Feb. 28), it was named by its discoverer, Louis de Freycinet, for his wife, who accompanied him on his round-the-world voyage in 1819, according to Edwin H. Bryan Jr., who was curator of collections at Bishop Museum in Honolulu when he wrote this in his book, “American Polynesia: Coral Islands of the Central Pacific.”
Rose Atoll is a unique and fragile ecosystem that held only five species of land plants when I visited it in 1971. Thank you for promoting its protection.
Ron Needham
Hilo
Control the dogs!
Thank you for the update on the August dog attack in Leilani Estates. The police and animal control are looking bad on this one. Their defense for not immediately citing the dog owner, Emelia Green, and getting those vicious dogs off the street was that she lived behind a locked gate. Does that mean if I break a law, then lock my gate, I don’t have to worry about being arrested?
Puna police Capt. Samuel Jelsma says he has “documented efforts to contact that party,” as if documentation justifies this case having been suspended until the media shone a bright light upon it.
Is Jelsma saying that his department can’t get a search warrant to arrest someone who allows their dangerous animals to prey on people and their pets in my neighborhood? If that’s the case, we need some laws changed!
I walk every morning in Leilani. My confidence that I am safe has been shaken. Joel Foster was attacked, a police officer witnessed that my neighbor had been injured, and yet the dogs that caused this harm are still free to roam Leilani.
I’m concerned that a message is being sent to irresponsible dog owners that they have little to fear in the way of reprisal if they fail to keep their dogs restrained. The police botched this and owe Joel Foster an apology. They owe all of us a commitment to work harder to keep our neighborhoods safe from predator animals.
Bett Bidleman
Pahoa
