An ‘unbelievable mess’
It is outrageous for the Department of Land and Natural Resources to have the audacity to ask the Legislature for $16 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned money to demolish Uncle Billy’s hotel.
We the public demand to see how they arrived at such an outrageous amount. Uncle Billy’s hotel exemplified the meaning of aloha, and thankfully Uncle Billy is not around to see this disaster.
My name is Bill Salvador, and I operated the restaurant at Uncle Billy’s before it closed. Many of the sections of the hotel were structurally sound and could have been saved.
Over two years ago (See the April 28, 2021, Tribune-Herald article) the land office was tasked with finding a developer to salvage whatever could be saved of the hotel.
The article states the DLNR “is in the process of soliciting interest from developers to renovate the salvageable buildings.” That was two years ago!
Why was the Orchid Isle property never rebuilt when it burned down years ago? Was it because developers refused to deal with the demands of the DLNR and the cost and lengthy shoreline management permitting process?
How many tax dollars have been spent on security, fencing, lighting and the destruction of the hotel by the homeless since Uncle Billy’s closed?
We demand answers from Gordon Heit of the Land Division and the DLNR on how and why this unbelievable mess exists.
Bill Salvador
Hilo
Wastewater priorities
The options for Puna Wastewater Management (Tribune-Herald, April 30) is a complete list but badly needs to be modified to emphasize priorities.
Cesspools closer than 1,000 or so feet of the coastline are a major source of environmental pollution, and efforts to close those should be concentrated there.
Cesspools further inland below 500 feet of elevation should be the next priority.
Drainage from cesspools becomes less and less of a problem at higher elevations, since filtration and pollutant fixation by passage through volcanic rock purifies water before reaching aquifers.
Cesspools located above a 1,000 feet or so pose no threat to the environment, and requirements to close properly constructed cesspools above that elevation are unwarranted.
Funding for wastewater management is limited and needs to be focused where the hazard is real.
John Lockwood
Volcano