Letters | 7-30-15

Forget the trash, make life easier for residents

Kohala Councilmember Margaret Wille seems out of touch with the needs of Hawaii Island.

Though the concept of paying to throw away trash is not a new idea and a reality for large metropolitan cities with a stable economy — where jobs are plentiful, housing more affordable and wages more competitive. The stark reality is that the County of Hawaii cannot be characterized as such. Our island’s economy is unstable — jobs are concentrated in a volatile industry, housing is reserved for the wealthy forcing people to live in multigenerational homes in structures meant for single families and wages remain stagnant. Not to mention nearly 30 percent of youth living on the Big Island are homeless.

Before the County Council uses taxpayer money to address privileged ideas such as the bill listed above, our elected voices need to secure more fundamental services that strive to make life in one of the country’s most expensive places more livable for its families. Councilmember Wille needs to use the privilege and power she wields to fight for these services. Together we need to provide more affordable housing for families, give youth a place to live and ensure that all people of this island receive the basic level of government support to make their lives just a little easier because that’s the true Hawaii way. Until that is done, this privileged agenda needs to take a place on the back burner.

Tyler Saito

A student at Seattle University and resident of Waimea

Astronomy is an industry?

I often read and hear the Thirty Meter Telescope protest leaders describe astronomy on Mauna Kea as an industry that makes large profits. Either by intentional misleading or through ignorance, these people are trying to make the public believe astronomy should be treated just like a factory or a new resort that is a business to make a profit. They also, on purpose or through ignorance, claim the observatories only pay $1 a year to the state for their sites on Mauna Kea while making large profits.

One article I read recently from Mililani Trask in “Civil Beat” (an online Honolulu news letter), quoted a source (KAHEA) that suggested the observatories “annual rent should be $45 million to $55 million” for the privilege of locating on Mauna Kea. Her source also claimed that over the past 10 years, the state and people of Hawaii lost more than $500 million in revenue.

The truth is that all of the observatories on Mauna Kea are managed by nonprofit scientific research institutions. The telescopes are very expensive to build and operate but their product is scientific knowledge. That knowledge is made available free to all who wish to understand our place in the universe.

In addition, the observatories provide a fraction of their observing time to the University of Hawaii as a condition of their lease agreements. The financial value of this time is more than $10 million a year, which goes to the state of Hawaii through the university. They also pay their fair share in the cost of Mauna Kea management and infrastructure support.

Astronomy is not factory or a hotel. It does not make a huge profits as the protest leaders would have you believe. Astronomy is basic research that benefits all of us. Their profit is knowledge that we all share.

Jerry Smith

North Kohala