State, feds need to do better job engaging public participation
State, feds need to do better job engaging public participation
The Central Federal Lands Highway Division has partnered with the Hawaii Department of Transportation to improve 11 bridges statewide, along with three upcoming Daniel K. Inouye Highway phases.
This partnership has already resulted in much-needed improvements to 40.27 of 45.97 miles on the Daniel K. Inouye Highway. This is something everyone involved can be proud of. However, I had to get updates through the project engineer between 2004 and 2011 because the CFLHD’s Daniel K. Inouye Highway project website was never updated.
Dave Gedeon, the project engineer up until late 2011, then passed me off to Mike Will. He and Mark Lloyd provided updates until mid-2013. Then he stated I had to go through the HDOT public affairs office for any additional updates. I had to go through other sources since then, as it’s nearly impossible to get any response from the state department’s public affairs office.
I escalated my complaints to Anthony Foxx, the Secretary of Transportation and Gregory Nadeau, the acting FHWA administrator, recently. Nadeau iterated that I should go through the HDOT public affairs office and told me the CFLHD’s Daniel K. Inouye Highway website would be updated on a regular basis.
I highly doubt the either will follow through on Nadeau’s promises. The CFLHD and HDOT need to do a better job engaging the public’s participation in these projects.
Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona
Public money shouldn’t go to private schools
In the first place, public schools are very good and in some instances, better than private schools. To use public funds to pay for private schools is against all that I believe in. I’m a product of the public school system and I think I had an excellent education. If people create a lot of children, it’s up to them to pay for their education, public or private. It’s not up to the taxpayers to pay their bills. If you can’t afford to educate, don’t make more babies.
Parents have the obligation to provide the best education possible for their keiki. In any event, education begins at home, If you cannot teach your children right from wrong at home, no matter how good the education system is, your child is doomed to fail. People have to take responsibility for their actions and their own child’s upbringing. The trouble with the present generation is they think the state and government should support them.
Each person is put on this Earth for a purpose. Each person should work and support himself, it’s not up to the state to provide for each individual. Everyone should become a contributing factor, not a drain on society.
Colleen Miyose-Wallis
Kailua-Kona