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LETTERS for November 4 issue

By Staff | Nov 4, 2010

DON’T LET DOGS RUN LOOSE AT LAUNIUPOKO

Once again, the Launiupoko Agricultural Subdivision is under attack by dogs that are allowed to run loose. The two loose dogs I have seen on my farm recently are a medium-sized black dog and medium-sized tan dog. Twice I have seen them in the early morning hours around 7 a.m. They look like well-cared-for family pets, but around chickens, they become killers.

The Neighborhood Farm has 300 free range hens producing fresh eggs for restaurants, stores and residents of West Maui. The challenges of running a small farm are great — the work is hard and the financial return is moderate. However, I am firmly convinced that Maui could, and should, be raising a significant portion of its own food. In order to accomplish this goal, however, farmers need the full support of the community.

If you live in the Launiupoko or Makila area and you own a dog, please make sure your dog is secured on your property at all times. If you see dogs running loose, please get a good description, and we will make an attempt to find the owners. Please e-mail the description of the dogs and where and what time they were seen to thefarm@hawaii.rr.com.

West Maui has vast areas of marginal agricultural land which are ideal for pastured poultry operations. Not only does the pastured poultry model produce a better product, the process of rotating the poultry across the land greatly increases the fertility of the soil. My vision is to have a multitude of small family farms producing eggs and meat with a cooperative facility to process and market the products island-wide. This can only happen when free roaming dogs in the agricultural subdivisions are curtailed.

THEO MORRISON, Owner and Farmer, The Neighborhood Farm

PROTECT HONOLUA BAY

It is with grave concern that I write this note, for it has been 32 years since I had the good luck to call Maui home. Back in September 1974, when I first arrived on Maui, I lived in Lahaina and worked at the old Lahaina Broiler. Last week, I returned with my wife for a brief visit. While we were there, I was appalled to see what Kapalua has become and just how close their rampant development is to Honolua.

In 1974, the sight that greeted a visitor as one rounded the turn towards Honolua was more than a view — it was a vista. From the top of West Maui’s mountains sweeping down the hillsides to the ocean and across to Molokai, there was nothing in the world to compare to the awesome beauty that the eye beheld.

Today that vista is gone, and Kapalua’s footprint is dangerously close to Honolua. It makes one wonder when enough is enough? It is for this reason that I will try to do what I can from Rhode Island to help to preserve Honolua and all Hawaiian open spaces for future generations.

Here in Rhode Island, we have Narragansett Bay — a gem that many don’t appreciate. It therefore becomes our task to educate people and make them aware of how the natural, unspoiled beauty of such places can benefit a local economy without four-story hotels, townhouses and golf courses chewing up the countryside and shorelines.

I will be circulating a nonresident petition here in Rhode Island along with family and friends in the hope that our small contribution can help to stave off Kapalua’s encroachment on Honolua for generations to come. “Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka ‘Aina I Ka Pono.”

MICHAEL E. JOLICOEUR, Warwick, Rhode Island

GROUPS SEEKS VICTIMS OF MORTGAGE SCAM

The kupuna are aware of many of our Hawaiian people who have been victimized by the “Royal Hawaiian Treasury Bond” scam (see the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Nov/18/ln/hawaii811180356.html).

Followers were told to stop making payments on their mortgage notes, and one woman instructed many of our Hawaiian people that certain government bonds would be used to pay in full their mortgages.

As a direct result, many have already lost their homes, while others are in foreclosure proceedings, very close to losing their homes. This now includes yet another family.

There is an awareness all over Hawaii Nei that this woman has made the Hawaiian people victims of her fraud and selfishness — at the expense of our Hawaiian people.

If anyone has been a victim, call Na Kupuna O Maui at 281-1567.

PATRICIA NISHIYAMA, Na Kupuna O Maui, Lahaina

MAHALO FOR SUPPORTING LAHAINA TUTORING PROGRAM

On behalf of the hundreds of students and adult participants in the Lahaina After School Enrichment Tutor Project, we want to express our deepest appreciation and gratitude to everyone who contributed in any way to the success of the Macy’s “Shop for a Cause” fund-raising program. The Beyond the Rainbow Foundation has been for several years a strong supporter of our project’s ongoing fund-raising efforts. In this instance, President Debbi Katz, Volunteer Sponsorship Coordinator Susan A. Nealy and Assistant Diane Pure made an ambitious, creative and remarkable extra effort to promote widespread participation in this worthy community cause. A huge mahalo to them.

And certainly Walter Chihara also deserves abundant accolades for his informative and persuasive recent commentary about the Lahaina Complex Tutoring Project and his urging support through Macy’s “Shop for a Cause.” As Walter, who is also a tutor, so accurately and powerfully stated: “There is no more vital or noble effort than nurturing the minds of our keiki.”

Again, we thank all who have supported, and those who continue to support, the tutoring project’s fundraising efforts, which will continue throughout the year.

PAT AND RICHARD ENDSLEY, Lahaina

ALOHA TEAM CLASSIC A COMMUNITY-WIDE EFFORT

Beyond the Rainbow Foundation hosted the Aloha Team Classic 2010, a four-day event that began Sunday evening, Oct. 17, with the Sunset Welcome Reception and concluded after three days of golf on Wednesday evening at Sonz Restaurant in the Hyatt at Kaanapali. With nearly 40 players and their guests attending one or more of the activities, a wonderful time was had by all because of the tremendous support from the business community and our volunteers.

The foundation extends a huge mahalo to all those organizations that helped to make this event possible. Without the Aloha Team Classic Supporters — which include the Kaanapali Golf Courses, Kapalua Villas, Marriott Maui Ocean Club, Outrigger Napili Shores and the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua — the foundation would not be able to even consider holding this event. In addition, many of Maui’s golf courses supported the event by providing free rounds of golf for prizes and offered discounted rates for participants that wanted play additional rounds during their visit. The courses included Manele and Koele on Lanai, Dunes at Maui Lani, Elleair Maui, Kaanapali Golf Courses, Bay and Plantation Courses at Kapalua, King Kamehameha Golf Club, Makena Golf Course and Wailea Golf Resort. Many restaurants and businesses across Maui supplied items for the welcome bags and prizes, making this a great partnership and island-wide effort to help Maui’s youth.

This is truly a community-wide effort to bring visitors to Maui for this event to raise funds for some of Maui’s smaller nonprofit agencies, which are truly “Helping Maui’s youth realize the promise of their future!” Mahalo to all for a job well done!

DEBORAH KATZ, President, Beyond the Rainbow Foundation