The manner in which the destruction of Sherwood Forest has been politically handled is a travesty and an insult to everyone living in the community, city and the state.

The first indication something was underway was the noise of bulldozers leveling age-old ironwood trees and creating barren sand piles in this once-beautiful forest. No one in the community knew what was happening, why it was happening, or where this came from.

Waimanalo has many neglected needs, long ignored by our political representatives, that would have benefited everyone: a community center long closed because of lack of roof repairs, poorly maintained ball fields and parks, roads dug up for years with no completion date in sight, sidewalks dug up, replaced, then dug up again, and still inaccessible.

Proposing time and funds to resolve any of these problems would have received praise and demonstrated benefit to the community and the city. But maybe the political payout level to clean up these problems was not high enough. Thus the need to destroy a forest.

Robert Stodden

Waimanalo

Click here to read more Letters to the Editor.