Howard Dicus wrote up an interesting commentary about his recent visit to Kona.I though he wrote up an very informative piece on the state of our tourism based economy here. Although I did leave this comment to give some more in depth information and correction to his comments pertaining to Saddle Road and Queen Kaahumanu Highway.
“The Queen Kaahumanu Highway Phase I widening project should be completed by December 2008.(Between Malulani Gardens and the harbor). In the summer of 2009,Goodfellow Brothers (hopefully if Kiewit doesn’t scuttle it) is going to widen Queen Kaahumanu between the harbor and the airport.
As for Saddle Road, it is still rough between m.m 35 and Mamalahoa Highway.Although the CoH is going to resurface the m.m 35-47 segment as stopgap measure until m.m 35-41.5 segment is re-aligned.The m.m 41.5 to Malamahoa Highway segment is still going through a supplemental EIS process.”
Mahalo to KonaK for giving me the heads up that former State Senator and Councilwoman Virginia Isbell has officially filed her papers to run against Rep. Josh Green for Sen. Paul Whalen’s District 3 Senate seat.
I find it very perplexing that Lowell Kalapa is advocating that the government float more bonds to fund needed infrastructure projects. He believes since the economy is slowing that this would be the perfect time to get attractive interest rates when floating these bonds. On top of that, by floating these bonds to build needed infrastructure it would make up for the decline in private sector construction.
On the surface I agree with Lowell Kalapa. This is great time for the government to step in and build needed infrastructure at a lower cost than during the boom times. But there is an aspect that bothers me about Lowell Kalapa’s position. Time and again I read Lowell Kalapa’s op-ed’s criticizing government for taking on too much debt. It seems to me that this recent op-ed is contrary to the Tax Foundation of Hawaii’s previous positions.
Lastly, it looks like the fallout from the recent layoffs at Kona Community Hospital is continuing. It looks like my concerns about the decline of patient care at KCH were spot on.
The other bad news from the candidate report is that Bob Herkes, HMSA tool/possible zombie (although I have seen him outdoors in the daylight, so maybe not), is running unopposed.
To be fair, now that I think of it, it was probably just booze that I smelled when I met Herkes, and not embalming fluid, so it’s realistically pretty doubtful that he’s a zombie.