Cattle chute
Cattle chute
I tried to attend the informational meeting about the Pahoa roundabout last week but had to leave once the announcement was made that Pahoa has no choice in the matter.
Perusing the roundabout design, I fail to see how one lane circling is a safe exit for Pahoa and lower Puna in general, much less in an emergency. To be clear, the DOT is telling us, the residents of Pahoa, that they are spending multimillions of dollars on our safety?
Look at what is being proposed. As it is now, at least we have separate lanes coming and going, a turn lane and a merge at Malama. In the event of a disaster, you all are expecting an orderly evacuation on that one-lane, cattle-chute roundabout? Just one accident and the cars are going to be pinned in a circle, backing up very quickly, and the emergency responders won’t be able to access — they will have to walk in and no one will be able to get out of town. Eventually the roundabout gets increased to two lanes.
Pahoa can’t wait for eventualities any more. It is time to help Pahoa with modernizing the entrances to Malama, Woodland Center, Hawaiian Beaches and Post Office Road immediately. You can use the money for the roundabout to accomplish all those projects.
We have been waiting for years and years to get our fair representation and a decent road for Pahoa.
Do we have to file more civil rights complaints to get fair treatment?
Sara Steiner
Pahoa
Co-op for people
Kudos to (Marco) Mangelsdorf and (Richard) Ha for trying to bring an electric co-op to Hawaii Island.
Kauai Island has had a co-op for years, why can’t we? The politicians should get their act together and allow the people of the Big Island to administer their own electric system. Why should we send our money to Wall Street and their overpaid local stooges via inflated rates?
HELCO pays Ormat as little as 6 cents per kilowatt-hour for geothermal power, then sends it to Hilo on government easements and charges us up to 50 cents per kWh. In Iceland, a volcanic island similar to the Big Island, a government-owned utility charges customers about 3 cents per kWh for geothermal power and provides well-paying jobs making cheap hydrogen for their non-polluting vehicles.
We are stuck with overpriced solar and unfair contracts by HELCO for renewable energy. Geothermal power is cheap, reliable and available 24/7, but HELCO refuses to develop it properly, probably influenced by its Wall Street petroleum suppliers.
Electricity is a necessity of life. Let’s get rid of Wall Street exploiters and establish an electric co-op run by the people for the people.
Are the politicians listening or are they going to “study” this matter to death?
Allan Dougherty
Hilo
Way too fast
Attention motorists who travel upon Banyan Drive: The number 25 you see posted on signs is the speed limit for that street and does not mean you can go 25 times faster than the speed of sound.
Banyan Drive is not the Indy 500 racetrack. Speed humps along this road are long overdue and we need them now. The sidewalk areas are well-used by residents and visitors alike, and with speeding vehicles so close to foot traffic, Banyan Drive is an accident waiting to happen.
Rick LaMontagne
Hilo
Family park
It has been such a relief these past few weeks to pass Lincoln Park without anxiety.
Much aloha and mahalo to the nice folks who worked to make the park a family place again! So many of us are grateful!
Laura Buck
Keaau