Punishing Puna
Dear Mayor Harry Kim and Civil Defense: Last weekend, there was a motorcycle and vehicle accident on Highway 130 a short way before Leilani Estates. Traffic was backed up for more than a mile each way at a standstill, as usual, until the police and tow trucks finished their job.
During that time, if there had been an emergency at Isaac Hale, Leilani Estates or any of the other subdivisions in Kalapana, there would have been no way to respond because Highway 130 was completely blocked AND is the only road in town.
How is it that the county can declare a state emergency and allow Puna Geothermal Venture to build a road to its property yet not declare an emergency due to road blockages? Open at least the road to Pohoiki, so it is not a death-trap and the lifeguards and emergency vehicles can respond to emergencies at the beach when Highway 130 is blocked or without driving 60 miles round-trip.
That gentleman motorcycle rider could possibly still be riding today if Puna had more than one road. Instead, the county insists on forcing the entire population and all the tourists and all the emergency responders to travel one road, leading to traffic problems.
The whole six-month waiting period is some kind of creepy punishment for the Puna residents, like the county is trying to get as many people to give up on going home by not opening the roads.
The six-month arbitrary waiting period is absolutely made up and the direct opposite of how the county has always operated after a lava flow, including opening Highway 137 before the six-month waiting period and also shows favoritism because it gives preferential treatment to a private for-profit company over its residents.
Sara Steiner
Pahoa
GET hike no ‘gift’
Regarding the general excise tax increase: Our county officials view the ability to increase taxes as “a gift from the Legislature” and consider serious efforts to improve government efficiency, eliminate potential conflicts of interest and reduce the number of “pay me because I show up” county employees to be politically impossible.
It’s no wonder there is increasing cynicism among the electorate and a decided lack of new investment in our community.
Richard Ellis
Keaau