Severe flooding forced Polihale State Park on Kaui, Hawaii’s fourth most famous island, to close in December. The needed repairs to a bridge were estimated to run $4 million, and yet state government lumbered along, spitting out no funds for the project. So local businesses got together and did the job themselves.
One of the organizers of the private-enterprise repair job, a local surfer, noted that the two years the state could take to do the job meant a summer or two without the attraction that local businesses depended upon, and that, “with the way they are cutting funds, we felt like they’d never get the money to do it.”
A businessman named Ivan Slack (no slacker, he) said his kayak business utterly depended upon the park — “tourism is our lifeblood; it’s what pays all our bills” — so he was more than willing to get the job going sans taxpayer dollars. His business’s survival depended upon it. He couldn’t just “wait around for a stimulus check.” So his company donated resources — as did others. The community provided its own stimulus.
And the job was completed in eight days.
This is what used to be the norm in America. When Alexis de Tocqueville toured the country, he noted the amazingly prolific community organizations and associations that abounded in what was then a “new country.” If the people saw a problem, the people fixed it.
If there’s a bright side to the current economic depression, surely it’s stories like this.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
12 replies on “A Very American Bridge”
In de Toqueville’s day, the local folks voted on the projects and collected the monye amoungst themselves. They were the parties that were affected and they took the repsonsibility and bore the cost. They didn’t have to do that AFTER having already paid out a substantial portion of their income already to a bloated government that was then squandering it on uncomstitutional items. Like the folk in this article.
Government has become a leach. At the state level it appears merely incompetent and inefffectual. At the national level it is an overwhelming hinderance.
Jefferson said that “The democracy (Republic) will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
Because then you are back to a monarchial oligarchy and have to start all over.
I believe this happened a few years ago but it applies today. If I recall most of the repair was cleanup and was done by hand. It was also done for I believe (don’t hold me to it) for about $1,000.00. If government is to fix something or hire a contractor to do so it will cost more. Politicians need to return favors with government (our) funds.
A prime example of bloat is the Baltimore City school system. They were paying $7.00 for 80 cent incadesceant light bulbs.
Worked for a defense contractor. We would go down to the local Walmart; buy a mushroom boat anchor for about $11; sand it lightly and then spray paint it olive-green so it would meet the mil-spec drawing that was specifically drawn to the parameters of the Walmart anchor, and then ship it out and bill the govenment $50-60. And there was no way that the folks that were buying it were allowed to do anything else.
And, if thsi gets around, then Hawaii will get what the people in California got (I think it was 2 or so years ago)- some (I beleive)Boy Scouts had a goat or two, and the goat(s) ate the overgrown grass and other vegetation. (And probably provided fertilizer for the vegetation to grow back). And the union(s) representing peopel (read state employees) WHO WERE SUPPOSED TO BE KEEPING THE VEGETATION CUT either sued or filed a complaint–taking away their jobs.
You mean the “guvmnt” people actually let them do it themselves? I would have expected them to ban them from doing anything so the “guvmnt” employees had something to do. (ya know, overtime at the people’s expense)
Will the people of Kauai look at how their government performed and vote in new people in the next election? Somehow, I doubt it.
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Common Sense with Paul Jacob » Archive » A Very American Bridge
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