Buzzwords instead of help
This is to give some correct information regarding the county’s “resilience”/”restoration”/”rebuilding”/other buzzwords and self-congratulatory back-slapping (“Puna water projects mulled,” Tribune-Herald, Oct. 29).
I listened in on the meeting and provided one comment in the chat — the only one ignored by the presenters.
While I question the accuracy of their figures regarding participation in the buyout program, the county’s slow (it’s going on four years) and misguided (rewarding the uninsured or not directly lava affected, while creating a community looking like Swiss cheese due to buyouts) approach has ensured participation in a buyout by taxpayers who have not been supported in the true rebuilding of their lives.
In Kapoho, we still can’t return to our land since our access road has had a low priority for years.
Now, the “powers that be” (whose salaries we pay) have decided to not meet their obligations to restore water.
Vacationland residents paid for a main line (sold to the county for $1) and paid “standby fees” for many years (to reserve capacity for the future).
Some creative options to help them not breach their contract are to put pipes above ground, reimburse the community with part of the FEMA money (the pipe we sold them was probably part of the 13.5 miles they were reimbursed for), support the community with trucked water, develop individual or group catchment systems or wells, and provide building code waivers, etc.
We need help and basic services!
Hartley Phillips
Former Kapoho resident
Down a ‘twisted road’
I remember a long time ago standing in line in Kaneohe to get my polio vaccination.
I was too young to remember much else, but I do remember the lollipop I received afterwards.
Fast forward to my own children’s vaccinations. I don’t remember any opposition by parents or community members (although I think that kids sometimes made their opposition known).
What is different today? Is it the word, “mandate”? Are we so polarized that we cannot change our opinions even when presented with clear scientific data?
Why do some of us cling to the “you’re not the boss of me” thinking? Do we just want personal freedom without common rules?
We are traveling down an increasingly twisted road in this country, and heaven help us if we cannot figure out that we have a responsibility to each other, a social contract. If we fail in this regard, the legacy we leave our kids and grandkids is quite sad.
Mary Hudak
Hilo