i L i n d . n e t

I have to admit very mixed feelings about the change in the city-sponsored spay and neuter program.

According to an Advertiser story today by Will Hoover, the program will change substantially when the new contractor takes over in February from the Hawaiian Humane Society, which has coordinated the program for decades.

Instead of surgeries being done by a network of existing veterinary clinics, they will now be done by the contractor’s own staff, apparently at a lower cost.

That’s not good news for people like us, who have taken advantage of the program to reduce the cost of animal care. We would almost certainly continue to have our regular vets handle spay and neuter surgery. So it essentially takes folks like us out of the program.

That’s bad for us personally, but it may be better for the community. After all, we’ll fix our pets in any case, despite the extra cost. But that leaves more public resources to target at parts of the community who don’t currently take advantage of the spay/neuger program. And the new contractor will reportedly use a mobile van to provide services to parts of the island that have been underserved by the Humane Society. That’s definitely good.

So, as I say, mixed feelings. If the new contractor can perform as promised, and that remains a question mark, then I have to say that the changes will be positive overall.

Just FYI. After a recent evening at Germaine’s Luau with a visiting cousin and his family, my mother gave the experience a failing grade.

She dismissed the luau cuisine as “plate lunch food”, from the macaroni salad and rice on down, and she knows her stuff when it comes to Hawaiian food.

And while Germaine’s web site promises “a Hawaiian luau like no other” and “the magic of ancient Hawaii”, the show actually included little Hawaiian music, instead featuring music and dance of Tahiti and other parts of the Pacific.

Factor the high price in on top of this and there’s no way you could pay my mother to go back.

So much for retail tourism and the experience of Hawaii.

Doug Carlson has been raising good questions in the wake of Friday’s blackout on his CHORE blog (Citizens helping officials respond to emergencies). He saves some of this sharpest comments for the performance of Perry & Price on KSSK during the blackout.

Two calls to the station illustrate how Perry & Price so often miss an opportunity to serve. A caller inquired about whether the outage would affect the water supply for toilets and such. He was laughed off the air with the observation, “The water’s flowing, isn’t it?” or something close to that. Another caller asked whether the canoe regattas scheduled for Saturday would be cancelled. Again, one of the team seemed incredulous and dismissive. The sun would be shining!

Yet by Saturday morning the Board of Water Supply was urging water conservation, and an Iolani School canoe coach called to say the ILH regatta was cancelled.

The P&P knee-jerk reaction is to play it for laughs rather than treat the emergency like what it is – a time of uncertainty and even trauma for tens of thousands of listeners.

Go, Doug!

And here are a few more photos found among my father’s papers. In 1955, he was manager of Dohrmann Hotel Supply, a major restaurant and hotel equipment supplier in Honolulu. The company moved into a newly constructed building on Ala Moana where Ward Warehouse/Ward Center are now located.

There are a couple of photos taken during the construction, like this one, which offer views of the immediate area as well as Mauka sections of Honolulu. Everything looked a lot different in 1955!

Just click on the photo for more.