Letters To The Editor
September 26, 2007 - MidWeek
| Share
Del.icio.usLandfill facts
I want to thank Larry Price for expressing his concerns about the City’s need for a municipal solid waste landfill. However, I also want to clear up some misconceptions contained in his column.
First, the current landfill site will not be “overflowing within a year.” The current footprint has capacity until May 2010. That allows the city to request a date extension of the Special Use Permit. Next, the Department of Health has not received an application for the expansion of the landfill because that cannot be filed until the permitting is completed. An environmental impact statement (EIS) is required for the expansion process and the draft EIS will be published in November. Unfortunately, the EIS process is being held up because the State Historic Preservation Office does not have an administrator.
Mr. Price’s contention that the City “makes a lot of money” from tipping fees is misleading. The City does collect fees, but those fees are used to manage our solid waste collection system. The fees merely defray the costs; in fact, this year $90 million from the general fund was spent for these operations.
As for the meeting in Nanakuli, I was there. People did listen to the mayor and, while not everyone walked away happy, most people did walk away happy that the mayor will not seek to open a new municipal solid waste landfill on the Leeward Coast. The people were also appreciative that the mayor did come to speak to them face-to-face about this difficult issue.
The bottom line is that most people understood that if there is a landfill on the Leeward Coast, it should remain at Waimanalo Gulch and not move to PVT or other potential sites closer to their residences in Nanakuli.
Eric Takamura
Director, Department of Environmental Services
Thank you, major
As a retired Army man, I was originally appalled at Jerry Coffee’s column bemoaning U.S. troops in Afghanistan did not kill some innocent goat herders. Mr. Coffee is a great patriot, but it seems he is sinking to the depths of our enemies. So I was heartened to read the letter from Maj. Jon Winchester saying that there was no place in the U.S. military for attitudes such as that expressed by Mr. Coffee. Thank you, Maj. Winchester, for speaking up for the American way.
John Adams
Honolulu
Petraeus vs. Kerry
Rick Hamada’s rant against the Left for an ad that used a pun - Petraeus/betray us - to disparage a general’s testimony to Congress is either the silliest thing I’ve ever read or the most disingenuous.
I can’t recall how Mr. Hamada commented on the “Swiftboating” of John Kerry by Karl Rove and his pals in the 2004 election, or similar treatment of war amputee Max Cleland. If he stood up and protested the shabby treatment of other war heroes, I hope he’ll remind us what he said then. But that, I’m betting, is a column that will not be forthcoming.
For what it’s worth, Adm. William Fallon, commander of U.S. Central Command (former head of Pacific Command at Camp Smith), and thus Gen. Petraeus’ boss, believes Petraeus was lying to please the president - perhaps because Petraeus is said to have his own presidential ambitions.
Michael Yamamoto
Downtown
Blame Bill
I am thrilled that Susan Page saw past Mr. Bush’s lies about Iraq’s WMDs and an Iraqi-Al Qaeda connection. Nor was she misled by Cheney’s phony pronouncements about our troops being greeted as liberators or the insurgency being in its last throes. Even Condi Rice’s terrifying, but ultimately bogus, image of the mushroom cloud could not throw Ms. Page off the scent. No, she knows that Bill Clinton and the contested 2000 presidential election are the twin generators of the current, and rancorous, divide over Iraq.
Thank you, Ms. Page, for ignoring all recent truths and rightfully blaming Bill Clinton and that sad sack Al Gore for the current mess in Iraq. But why stop with Iraq? Why not blame them for Hurricane Katrina, Michael Vick and the Superferry fiasco as well?
Todd Shelly
Hawaii Kai
Gabbard’s jump
I didn’t know that Bob Jones was a Republican. Since when did a good ole “liberal” like Jones start getting his feathers ruffled over someone (Mike Gabbard) joining the Democratic Party or because of election law minutiae?
In my humble opinion, elected officials should retain the right to quit or join any party they choose. Using Jones’same logic, one could argue that an elected official should have to resign from office if he changed his stance on issues or anything else.
Kevin Simms
Kapolei
Send your letters to MidWeek Letters, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 500, Honolulu, HI. 96813; by fax to 585-6324, or by email to dchapman@midweek.com. Please include your name, address and daytime and evening phone numbers. We print only the letters that include this information, but only your name and area of residence will appear in print. Letters may be edited for clarity and space.
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS Comments (0) |
Most Recent Comment(s):
