New camp in town
As a followup to your stories on the removal of several homeless camps last month, I wanted to update this with a new camp that may be unknown to authorities and the press at this time.
There is huge homeless structure being built in the gully on the southwest corner of Henry Street and the Queen Kaahumanu Highway.
They are literally building a house in the drainage below the highway. It is not visible from the road. I have watched them stage the lumber on the trail down and have followed the progress for the past several weeks. The floor is done and they are putting up the walls right now.
Steve Kent
Kailua-Kona
Abortion rally is nothing to be proud of
Crazy Mazie, really?
You promote abortion in the classrooms of eighth-grade girls and boys, as you shouted on the national news. Your attempt to impress the — is it 24? — progressive candidates looks like a job interview.
Abortion is actually reducing your constituents. I was appalled when the crowd you gathered with cheered when a member of Congress said, “I am one in four women who have had an abortion.”
What a great accomplishment.
Richard Ricard
Kailua-Kona
Get out of transit game
According to the latest news reports, the operational fleet of Hawaii County’s Mass Transit system is down to 13 buses. Less than a quarter of the 55 vehicle fleet is actually running.
Our mayor has been promising improvement since the day he took office. The latest Mass Transit director has been on the job for nearly eight months. The results during her tenure? We’re averaging a loss of one operational bus each month.
And the answer to solving the Mass Transit problem, according to our elected representatives? Throw more money at the problem! The latest budget proposals include nearly $20 million for Mass Transit.
This is madness!
Hawaii County citizens know the answer: Operating a robust and reliable Mass Transit System is beyond the administrative capabilities of Hawaii County government. Hawaii County cannot operate and manage a reliable Department of Water Supply. The Planning Department takes months to process simple building approvals. Hawaii County has yet to begin taking effective action to rebuild communities in Puna. Why would the results at Mass Transit be any different?
Hawaii County government is good at two things and two things only: cheap talk full of empty promises and wasting citizen tax dollars.
It is time for Hawaii County citizens to say, “Enough is enough!”
Privatize Mass Transit. Shoot this pig. And get Hawaii County out of the bus business.
Kenneth Beilstein
Kailua-Kona