Homelessness affects sanitation

The letter regarding garbage left by homeless campers near Keaau Beach Park ("Collect trash left out by homeless," Star-Advertiser, Letters, March 17) underscored the impact such populations have on the environment and the challenges of keeping our parks clean and safe for everyone.

The city collects garbage from its parks on a regular basis and recently removed debris left behind at illegal camp sites at Keaau. Furthermore, nearly eight tons of debris accumulated by homeless in the Kakaako area was removed in a sweep of the area.

Our hope is that the extensive outreach effort prior to the closure connected more needy people with appropriate shelters and services that are available.

Markus Owens
Public information officer, Department of Environmental Services

Teachers critic had facts wrong

As teachers, the first lesson we teach our students is to check their information before making statements.

Obviously Jim Delmonte missed that lesson completely ("Government workers sure have a good life," Star-Advertiser, Letters, March 19). He groaned about having to foot the bill for closing schools because of the tsunami.

Hello, Jim! It was a "Furlough Friday," so not only were the schools already closed, but the "privileged" state employees were home with no paychecks.

Mary Agor
Aiea

Public workers deserve respect

Jim Delmonte is misinformed and misleading with his gratuitous derogatory remarks about teachers and government employees in general.

Teachers and other government employees pay taxes, too, and also pay into their Social Security, pension and health care. Most work hard. They do not necessarily earn higher salaries than non-government employees.

The work of school teachers does not end in the afternoon after class is dismissed, or even on weekends, given class preparation, grading, and related tasks.

If Delmonte thinks teaching is so easy and luxurious, he should try it. They and other government employees deserve far more respect, appreciation and compensation for the services they provide.

Les Sponsel
Honolulu

Kudos to all who helped students

The Nanakuli High and Intermediate School Performing Arts Center (NPAC) would like to thank all the individuals, businesses and organizations from across the state and mainland for their support in helping the NPAC meet its financial goal to perform at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland, in August.

The NPAC will depart on July 31 and spend four days in London, then travel to Edinburgh to give four performances of a drama production.

The NPAC was one of 2,200 high schools from across the country and Canada nominated and one of 62 schools selected to perform at the American High School Theatre Festival in Scotland.

Thank you for teaching the students that dreams do come true with hard work, commitment, passion and support from others.

Robin Kitsu
Waianae

‘Single-use’ bags have many uses

I disagree with the Island Voices article asserting that single-use grocery bags significantly harm the environment ("Charging a fee for single-use bags won’t take the fun out of shopping," Star-Advertiser, Island Voices, March 20).

They cost less than 1 cent, do double duty as garbage bags and end up being burned for energy by Hawaiian Electric Co.

Charging 5 cents per bag is like charging $10 for the Sunday Star-Advertiser because it’s a single-use product.

John LeRoux
Honolulu