Your Views for April 19

Naalehu a good location for KTA supermarket

Naalehu and the surrounding area have been without a supermarket since 2015.

This has rendered this area a “food desert” and has forced residents to trek to Hawaii Ocean View Estates and Kailua-Kona to buy groceries.

KTA Super Stores constructed an express-format supermarket in Kealakekua to service the needs of South Kona several years ago. This would be a perfect format for the Naalehu area.

The defunct Naalehu Island Market and surrounding shopping complex remains largely empty since its closure. This would be a perfect location for KTA (or another supermarket chain) to open an express-format supermarket.

Aaron Stene

Kailua-Kona

Provide tax incentives to create alternative energy

I wish to remind everyone once again of the obvious.

Hawaii is situated in such a geographical place that it can take full advantage of multiple alternative energy sources. The Big Island also has the capability of taking advantage of geothermal sources.

We have a choice. We can either spend the money on high oil prices, or bite the bullet and give major tax incentives to move to some sort of alternative energy now.

Perhaps the state doesn’t have the resources to give such an incentive, but the state would be better off in the long run by borrowing the money to do so, as the population would ultimately have more money jiggling in their pockets by not having to pay so much for high oil prices, would make more money in the long run and pay more in taxes, eventually repaying whatever monies the state had to borrow.

Typical payback for solar is somewhere between eight to 12 years. That could be a 13% return on your investment.

Carl Merner

Holualoa