As the article indicated, IDX and VOW sites offer the consumer additional venues to conduct their search for a home and provide some information on properties. However, potential homebuyers should consult with a Board of Realtors member to interpret reports generated from these outlets and to get the most detailed and comprehensive information on property listings.

TEST SCORES

ENGLISH AS SECOND LANGUAGE A HINDRANCE

When recent reading test scores were announced last week with a downward spiral from last year, most verbal and written comments were negative. Does the public realize how difficult it is for children to improve when English is not spoken at home in most immigrant families?

Further, in many of these families, both parents work at minimum wage and children are cared for by grandparents. Has the DOE ever surveyed the number of children from foreign-speaking households?

We must continue to improve reading scores but be more patient for improvement.

WIND FARM

RESIDENTS APPRECIATE EFFORTS BY CITY, HECO

Thank you, Mayor Hannemann and Robbie Alm of Hawaiian Electric Co., for the personal interest you took in addressing the community concerns regarding HECO's proposal to build a wind farm above Kahe Power Plant.

The public meetings hosted by HECO showcased the conflict between the need for ecologically sound, renewable energy sources and the need to preserve the integrity of our cultural sites and landscapes.

We, a group of concerned residents, continue to affirm our commitment to work with HECO to explore energy-saving practices, i.e. clotheslines in yards, more solar water heaters on homes and small businesses, and implementing renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic cells, fuel cells, OTEC, etc.

The goal for all of us is to create and instill a conservation ethic, an attitude that recognizes and respects living on an island of finite resources and very visible limits.

Maka'ala!

ALA MOANA

PUMP STATION SHOULD BECOME A RESTROOM

There soon will be a public discussion concerning the proposed redevelopment of the historic Ala Moana pump station. I believe that the best possible use of the site could not be more obvious, especially considering the original purpose for its construction: Renovate the pump station to become the most magnificent public restroom anywhere, for use by locals and tourists alike.

The total lack of any clean, safe, accessible public restrooms in Honolulu is an embarrassment to our city. After all, most public restrooms here are beach restrooms and most of those are actually multifunctional in that they serve as housing for our growing homeless population, a haven for drug dealers and vandals, and even a hangout for gang members.

Let's face it, folks, when you gotta go, you gotta go. Does it pass the mayor's test? Do we need it? Yes. Can we afford it? Probably not. Can we maintain it? Certainly not in this city.

PRISONERS

LEGISLATURE: FUND DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAM

I am currently a prisoner at the Women's Community Correctional Center on O'ahu with a five-year sentence for a class-C drug felony. I recently graduated from the Hina Mauka drug treatment program and am waiting for an opening at TJ Mahoney & Associates.

After reading the Oct. 2 commentary "Time for a better solution" by Peter Gellatly and Kat Brady, I became frustrated to hear our Legislature chose to not fund 30 new beds for TJ's, which has a 63 percent rate of success of helping women to not return to prison.

Because the additional 30 beds were not funded, I sit here at Hina Mauka in prison waiting for an opening, when someone could be receiving the same treatment I received here at Hina Mauka. It's not enough that only 50 women at a time can come to the program — when someone like myself who has completed the program and is ready to move to the next level of working toward bettering myself is stopped short because the Legislature feels it's too costly.

Where are our priorities? We're wasting money sitting in prison when there's a successful program the Legislature isn't supporting. The time I spend waiting for my chance adds up. Why couldn't that money have gone to TJ's instead of the prison?

BIG ISLAND

LAVA TUBE ARTIFACTS ARE LEGACY FOR ALL HAWAIIANS

I understand a developer building homes in Koloko accidentally punctured a lava tube containing an impressive collection of artifacts. This happened on Sept. 21, but was not known to the majority of Hawaiians and the public until The Advertiser published an article on Oct. 20. According to the article, the developer was counseled to temporarily seal the cave and told that "these things were hidden and meant to stay hidden."

It appears the landowner and the Historic Preservation Division (Hawai'i Island) tried to keep this event secret from the public and all Hawaiians. The landowner/developer has claimed these artifacts and is seeking counsel on what to do.

By now, we should all know that the landowner, the Historic Preservation Division and Hawai'i County do not own these artifacts. They belong to the Hawaiian people. These artifacts represent the cultural legacy of traditional Hawaiians, a legacy that was hidden in times of conflict so that it would be preserved for future generations.

Hidden in darkness for ages, the time has come for these artifacts to reveal their cultural legacy. Why else would they show themselves? Many generations of Hawaiians seek knowledge of their cultural foundation and lineage. They want to know what Hawaiians were like before Western influence. These artifacts hold the key to that legacy.

In truth, this legacy is not meant for those who would keep these artifacts for themselves, who would seek to control them for their own benefit. And this legacy is not meant for those who are afraid and cannot step into the light. It is meant for those who want to know more about their lineage and traditional culture, to know more about what is "Hawaiian."

GIVE US CURBSIDE

CITY FUDGING ON RECYCLING DATA

The Hannemann administration is understandably defensive about its failure to bring curbside recycling to O'ahu residents (Letters, 10/26). The public has been clamoring for such a convenient system for years.

But instead of outlining a clear plan for making curbside a reality, Environmental Services Director Eric Takamura chooses to make excuses and to misrepresent Honolulu's recycling rate. His figure — 58 percent of trash recycled — belies the city's own claimed recycling rate of 34 percent for 2004, a figure whose derivation is posted at the city's recycling Web site: www.opala.org/facts2.html.

Where did Mr. Takamura's inflated recycling percentage come from? He counts burning trash as "recycling" — something that the Environmental Protection Agency does not do when it calculates municipal recycling rates nationwide.

This gross conceptual error renders his statement that Honolulu's recycling rate is "significantly higher than the nationwide average" complete garbage. (Further, the city's 34 percent "recycling" rate is likely vastly inflated; it includes sewage sludge and donations to Goodwill, for example — things that are not included in the EPA's calculation of municipal solid waste recycling for comparison purposes — and the percentage is based on the assumption that the total amount of opala generated in Honolulu has remained the exact same for the past 17 years.)

Enough excuses and fudging of numbers. We can do better in Honolulu. A program that allows residents to recycle bottles, cans, food jars, cardboard, newsprint and other recyclables at their own curb would vastly increase our real recycling rate. It might even reduce the need for twice-a-week garbage collection, saving taxpayers even more.

With the clock ticking toward the promised closure of Waimanalo Gulch landfill and no obvious landfill alternatives, curbside recycling is a "need to have," not merely a "nice to have." What's more, we even have a company willing to pay the city for the privilege of collecting our recyclables. What we don't have is a community willing to pay to have a new landfill in its backyard.

Over 10,000 cities across the nation have resolved their challenges with unions, bidding, permits and other speedbumps to implementing a successful program. With strong leadership, we can surely do the same. After all, we're talking about trash collection here, not disarming North Korea.

While we welcome an expanded green waste collection plan and city assistance with bottle law redemption sites, the missing link to boosting our recycling rate to a true 58 percent is an islandwide curbside program. Mayor, let's see a timeline and real deadlines for providing this "need to have" service for O'ahu residents.