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It is a sad day when $350 million will be spent by the state for a football stadium.
High school football games can be played at high school fields.
University of Hawaii football games can be played at UH. UH can drop to Division II.
Money desperately needed for housing and infrastructure is instead being spent for pure entertainment.
Truly a sad day.
Warren Munro
Aiea
Access to SimpliFi Arena slow, poorly managed
Several times this season, the line to get into the SimpliFi Arena for women’s volleyball has extended 300 yards or more into the parking structure. Ticket holders who arrive as much as 45 minutes early may not make it to their seats in time for the start of the first set.
Arena management’s excuse that attributes the delays to a late-arriving crowd does not hold up to scrutiny. The arena fails to open additional entrance doors until the long line has already formed. It often requires multiple tries for the automated ticket readers used at the door to validate the tickets, causing further delay.
The arena is at less than 50% capacity, yet the problems persist. The cost of UH volleyball tickets can be as much as three times higher than what other colleges in the conference charge.
Fans should expect better customer service.
Skip Williams
Hawaii Kai
Hawaii should train its own ICU nurses
What would it take for Hawaii to have its own intensive care unit (ICU) nurse training program? Who has been served or not served by requiring local registered nurses to spend up to two years on the mainland?
Clearly, the pandemic highlighted the need. Certainly, sufficient federal funds have been available for decades. Time for the University of Hawaii to show leadership. Time for the hospitals not to rely on FEMA or traveling ICU nurses to bolster the critical staff shortages.
Other states train our ICU nurses, but for how long?
Bob Grossmann
Manoa
Streamline permitting by eliminating LUC
I suggest the following to streamline the real estate development and construction process.
Eliminate the state Land Use Commission (LUC). The goals of the commission are the same as the goals of the City and County of Honolulu and Hawaii, Maui and Kauai counties.
If a particular development project involving a property less than 15 acres can bypass having to deal with the LUC, why would any parcel greater than 15 acres not be granted the same right?
Eliminate the state Land Court. With the advent of title insurance, this agency is obsolete.
Grant building permits automatically if the construction plans bear the stamp of a registered professional architect and/or structural engineer. These registered architects and engineers bear full responsibility for the design and not the county’s plans checker or the county itself.
Andres Albano Jr.
Hawaii Kai
Service charge also used for credit, debit fees
This is the first time I’m hearing of the service charge being used as a “tip” for kitchen staff (“Restaurant tacks on ‘service charge’ as tip,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Oct. 10).
Kitchen staffers don’t work for tips, which is why they get at least minimum wage while wait staff does not.
Since this happened to me at a Kaneohe restaurant, my understanding has been that the service charge was for those using their debit or credit card, and the restaurants were passing it to the customer since they get charged this fee by the merchant. Hopefully someone looks into this.
Teri Silva
Kaneohe
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