County does a lot of good work, too
I’ve noticed people are quick to point out negative things about county government, but there is a lot of hard-working employees who do positive things for our island community who are not acknowledged.
One of those people is Joe Kamelamela, and his staff, at the Office of Corporation Counsel for Hawaii County. Mr. Kamelamela, along with other corporation counsel staff, ensured the completion of the Mamalahoa Highway bypass in South Kona. They were able to do this by reaching a financial settlement with Oceanside 1250 Partners and American Motorist Insurance Company after years of litigation.
In addition, they were also able to finalize the condemnation of the necessary right-of-way through the Coupes property to complete this highway. Their hard work in this instance wasn’t something isolated. Mr. Kamelamela and his staff were able to obtain the necessary right-of-way for the Puainako Street Extension recently after years of litigation and mediation.
The acquisition of the right-of-way allows the County of Hawaii to transfer ownership of this highway to the Hawaii Department of Transportation in the near future. This opens up the possibility of including the Puainako Street Extension as a part of the Daniel K. Inouye Highway (Saddle Road).
There is a lot of issues facing Hawaii County at this point. However, there seems to be a fixation on focusing on solely the negative issues.
As I pointed out above, there is a lot hard working county employees doing a lot of positive things for our island.
Aaron Stene
Kailua-Kona
Army action seems like WH
West Hawaii Today was right on in its assessment of a most egregious action taken against “We the People” after its reporter was barred from a recent public meeting. As far as Trump’s responsibility for that and other U.S. military actions and decisions, he is commander in chief of the armed forces. As such, it’s impossible to ignore his powerful paw prints all over what the military does, is, and is allowed to do.
The open hostility Trump shows to any news source or individual who doesn’t agree with him illuminates his insecurity, power madness, and need to hide the truth. But to think that a U.S. president could have such a profound ignorance of what makes this nation great and its people free is even worse. Is it any surprise that the military would be so emboldened to act against the law when their leader shows no interest in protecting the First Amendment of the Constitution — a document Trump swore to protect and uphold when taking office?
A free press is what stems the tide of ignorance and helps nations avoid perilous government control over their lives. Without rigorous protection of our deepest, constitutionally guaranteed rights including a free press, our nation would be nothing more than a banana republic.
One can only hope that supporters of this president will rise up alongside their fellow Americans to condemn further actions of press discrimination which are, in fact, discrimination against all U.S. citizens’ right to know the truth.
Janice Palma-Glennie
Kailua-Kona