Let someone else finish the job
Sitting on Queen Kaahumanu Highway for almost two hours to make it to the airport gives you a lot of time to think, and I am in just disbelief at the lack of progress on this basically straight road addition.
The company that is working on this project should be ashamed of its ability to build this addition. The county keeps throwing more money at this company and still not more than what seems like 15 guys trying to build approximately 5 miles of basically straight road. I understand there have been hang-ups with very understandable archaeological items that deserve the respect they get but you would think, once solved, the builder would push forward with everything.
I remember when this project started there was a great number of team members working on the road and the company told all of us that they would be working six days a week to complete as fast as possible. The road addition in Hilo with the Saddle Road went so fast and they had much harder conditions to overcome. Let’s bring that company on board to finish this project and get our community moving again.
Randy Mulvaney
Kailua-Kona
Dear Salary Commission,
What world are you living in that you people can just decide that all these people listed in the West Hawaii paper dated Dec. 22 deserve anywhere from 20 percent to 40 percent raises?
I am hopeful that the paper also releases your names phone numbers and addresses, so you can face the public that will have to pay for this in higher taxes and higher rents across the board as a direct result of your decisions! You can believe that I will not be alone when you people have to start defending this theft of the taxpaying public. Nice Christmas present to the privileged bureaucratic paper-pushers that run our public systems! Maybe some of these poor, underpaid public servants should apply for a job in the private sector? Check out the real scary world of private enterprise and see for yourself how it feels to be drained of your hard-earned money from seven-day work-weeks. The golden goose story comes to mind.
The mayor rightly says the people who need the raises are not getting them, so I suggest commissioner Fratinardo wake up and either redistribute some or all of this money to the people who actually work for a living, or have the decency to step down because of incompetence. Time to respect the overburdened taxpayers!
This is a great time to look into the collective bargaining arrangement that is being blamed for the inequalities claimed by the commissioner. It is bad enough that we are burdened with a federal government that has a full-time job of stealing our money, but now we have to watch our backs from our own neighbors! The public needs to stand up now before our overpaid bureaucrats drive the taxpaying citizens into bankruptcy and we all end up homeless and living at the old airport!
P.S. Yes, I work 7 days a week.
Bob Johnson
Kailua-Kona
The secret is out!
I think I owe a big mahalo to David Polhemus for letting me in on a big secret. Even though I have owned a real estate company for 24 years, I had no idea our clients who bought foreclosed properties on the cheap, and who worked at such places as big box stores, supermarkets, gas stations, and such, actually were billionaires! They sure fooled us!
However, Mr. Polhemus should do some facts checking. While the financial crisis 10 or so years ago was caused by people who were not qualified to purchase properties and not the billionaires, the market collapse did bother most everybody. It certainly had a devastating effect on financial institutions, and those buyers who used their properties as an ATM and got foreclosed on actually got a “get of of jail free!” card.
John Rabi
Kailua-Kona