Park fees
Park fees
Another proposal for fee collection
Would it not be more equitable and productive in providing upkeep revenue for our state parks, to charge kamaaina an annual fee, say $5, and to issue laminated ID cards through the county to present to a toll collector for admission.
Forget or lose card: Pay $1 per person per admission until a replacement card is obtained.
With our governments all struggling, seems the responsible thing would be for everyone to pay something directly to maintain parks like Hapuna. All uncarded visitors could pay the $1 fee; passenger cars and buses, likewise, should pay $1 per uncarded passenger for daily admission.
The county and state should work together on this, as they do with lifeguard funding. The private vendor could retain a percentage of the fee and forward the rest. A vendor could be a nonprofit even with low operating costs: salaries, shelter and accounting of expense/revenue. While the parking lots are being improved, make the entrance workable for perhaps two “gatekeepers.” And start it all before Ironman.
Carolyn Pellett
Waikoloa
Insulting process
License renewal
A U.S. legal citizen, I tried to renew my driver’s license May 7. After waiting two hours in line, I got to present my birth certificate, private pilot’s license, Social Security card and current passport.
I was denied and was told to come back with marriage certificates and divorce papers.
This is outrageous. My parents’ parents immigrated to the U.S. legally from Ireland and Germany and for me, as a U.S. citizen, to have to go through this extensive background check is outrageous.
I am currently employed as an airport security guard at Kona International Airport. A government background check was done, and I passed.
This denial of a driver’s license renewal is outrageous. U.S. citizens should not be so harassed.
Close the borders of our country and send illegal aliens home.
Ann Marie Smolinski
Kona
Highway widening
A quick question
One quick question for Fred Cachola: yes or no. Do you or any of your family own or drive a car?
Richard Allen
Keauhou
New mural
Really? Art?
We have to look at “Sug’si” dark people for the rest of our lives? I am referring to the new mural painted on Alii Drive right before the Royal Kona Resort.
My office is directly across from the mess and I have to stare out my window and a bunch of demonic-looking heads forever. It gives me the creeps. Who allowed this?
Great, she is an artist (who can’t spell), but we are in Hawaii, not San Francisco. Paint something more aloha, please. Yikes.
Anyone agree?
Leonora Prince
Kailua-Kona
Kona coffee
Protect the brand
I just got back from two weeks in California. I drank a bit of coffee there, and it was always OK.
In the last year I have only had bad coffee once. A famous local resort in Keauhou served me “Kona blend.”
If that was my only experience with Kona coffee, I would never order it again.
Kona coffee growers need to get together and protect the brand, or it won’t have any value. Register a trademark, Kona if you can, or maybe Konapure, or PureKONA, then sue anyone who gets even close to infringement. The state won’t do it for you.
Ken Obenski
Kaohe