Please be kind
I was talking to my daughter last week about the homes being sold to the highest bidder … obviously majority of the highest bidders are not the people who will be working in the gas stations so that you can get your gas, at the grocery store so that you can shop early or late, or at the fast food restaurants or any of the restaurants for that matter. So when you are at the store or gas station or restaurant and the lines are long and the employees are working as fast as they can please be kind- — the people who normally work at these location were forced out of their rentals had to move away. Please be kind …
Kathleen Kuikahi
Kona
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The burden should be shared
Here we go again with visitors wanting the locals to help pay for their vacations. Diane Wallis declares that it is a slap in the face. Unfortunately, the slap is misplaced. She thinks that tourists should not have to pay their fair share in keeping up Hawaii beaches, but instead, she wants the locals to take care of that for them. We are sorry that she feels that she can no longer encourage anyone to come here. We are sure that her friends and family will be disappointed that they will have to go elsewhere for vacation and pay for lodging, along with gas, food and car rental.
Why should local residents pay for visitors to play when they themselves are working more than one job just to make a living with no time to play? Ms. Wallis is able to afford to stay here for several months and still maintain a home elsewhere. Most local Hawaii residents cannot afford this and can hardly afford the home that they live in here. This may come as a surprise but we are sure that this minor pay detail will not keep tourism down. It was also pointed out that beaches are public. Yes they are, and so are roads public, but both roads and beaches need maintenance, which costs money.
Our beaches are beautifully maintained by our Parks and Recreation department. These workers like to be paid for their hard work. It’s not asking too much to ask visitors that can afford to come to Hawaii to help pay these workers. The entire burden should not be put on local residents, many working for minimum wages and multiple jobs.
Elizabeth Purse
Waimea
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Following up
To follow up on the issue about Mauna Kea Resort charging nonresident members of the public to park in public parking spaces which was reported to me by Diane Wallis and described in her letter to the editor on March 30, I asked my legislative staff to contact the Hawaii County Planning Department. The Planning Department staff informed us that they also got another complaint about the Mauna Kea’s new $20 charge last week. County planners reviewed the Mauna Kea’s SMA permit files and confirmed that their permit does not allow them to charge a fee for the public parking spaces.
The County Planning Department then notified the Mauna Kea that these fees were being charged in violation of their SMA permit, and the Mauna Kea confirmed they will comply and cease charging the fee, effective immediately. This was on March 22, last Tuesday.
According to the Planning Department, it sounds like this was a new policy that the Mauna Kea had just put in place without their administrators knowing that it was a permit violation.
Hopefully Mauna Kea has corrected this and it won’t happen again.
State Rep. David A. Tarnas
North Kohala, South Kohala, North Kona
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