‘Power play’
Public Works Director Ikaika Rodenhurst needs to get real by talking to people who actually do road repaving for a living, before suggesting we cannot afford to pave Hawaiian Acres roads (“Cost estimate of Hawaiian Acres road plan raises eyebrows,” Tribune-Herald, May 6).
Rodenhurst told council members that the cost for improving every road in the subdivision up to county standards could reach more than $10 million per mile. I’m crying foul on this one.
Just by looking at the numbers for restoring the lava-inundated Highway 132, I am suspicious of the numbers that the county administration provided to council members when discussing Matt Kaneali‘i-Kleinfelder’s resolution to establish a road improvement district to pave Hawaiian Acres’ roads.
The county paid $6.5 million to pave three miles of Highway 132 that had been inundated by lava. This entailed traversing over, crushing and excavating 109,000 cubic yards of lava rock. I don’t understand how it would be cheaper per mile to repave a lava-inundated road than to pave already-established dirt roads in a private subdivision.
We need a realistic estimate for paving Hawaiian Acres and other Puna subdivisions with substandard roads, and we don’t need this power play between council members and the administration.
It is a fact that Ikaika ran against Matt for County Council. It is also a fact that Matt voted against Ikaika becoming the Public Works director. That all needs to be in the rearview mirror, and Ikaika needs to embrace Matt’s idea. It’s for the constituency that Ikaika sought to serve!
This should not be a no can. This very much needs to be a how can.
I look forward to seeing some revised, more realistic numbers and less petty politics.
Tiffany Edwards Hunt
Keaau
Why are these crimes?
This is in reply to the article printed on May 5 regarding the drug bust in Hakalau.
The last paragraph urges the public to call the tip hotline with information related to gambling and prostitution.
Why are these two items considered crimes? They are consensual! Participants must not be willing to participate for them to be even remotely considered as violations of the law.
Gambling must have someone to hold a firearm to the body of another for it to be a crime. If I decided to willingly gamble, without the threat of violence, what crime is there?
Same as with prostitution. Without the presumption of harm, what is illegal?
If I (as an example) meet someone for dinner, and we both desire to pay for our own meal, but at the conclusion I offer to pay for the other meal, is that a case of presumptive prostitution?
Think about that, and then decided if it is prostitution and be subject to prison.
Michael L. Last
Naalehu