Our Honolulu
New year, new way to work, love life
By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist
Nettie Ramos, state telephone operator, has started the new year with the best of two worlds: a good job in Our Honolulu and a dream home on the Big Island. She doesn't even have to commute.
Ramos is one of the few people in Hawai'i who does her work 200 miles from the office. Here's how it happened:
Nettie and her truck driver husband, Dennis, bought an undeveloped lot in Mountain View in 1989, but it rained so hard for two years that they couldn't even start to cut down the towering ohia trees. In 1991 they began going over on weekends with a chain saw.
Why Mountain View? "It's beautiful," said Nettie without hesitation. "The sky is crystal clear blue today. I can look out of the window and see Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. Walking on the road this morning, I saw smoke coming out of Pu'u 'O'o vent. The drive to work in Hilo is like a dream."
But Nettie and Dennis had to survive blisters, sunburn, heartache and disaster before the dream came true.
"We put all our energy and effort into it," she said. "Our family — the boys are 21 and 14 now — all helped. We cut down the trees like pioneers on weekends and vacations. A subcontractor laid the foundations and framed the house, but we did everything else ourselves, keeping our dream in front of us. We didn't know how it was going to work.
"For almost nine years I tried to get a job in Hilo, filled out applications and flew up for interviews. After so many years of trying over there, I kind of gave up. It took a year and a half to build the house. It was my vacation place. My husband tried working in Hilo for a few months, but it was too hard.
"In 1999 the brakes on my husband's truck went out on the Pali and he was badly hurt; concussion, back, knee. It was stressful taking care of him. We discussed what to do and decided, well, we have a perfectly good house in Mountain View. Let's sell our house in Pauoa and make the best of it.
"The house went up for sale in October 2000 and by December we had a buyer. I let my bosses know. Things happened faster than we expected and by April of 2001 we were closing already. We sold everything in Honolulu. We had enough to get by for a few months.
"I gave my notice and my bosses handed it back. I was speechless. For me, that's rare. They said I could do my job at the state building in Hilo as well as here."
Lester Nakamura, administrator for information and communications services, said, "Her manager came to me and said Nettie was going to resign. We value her as an employee and didn't want to lose her. We're doing this as an experiment. The concept could be employed in other state positions."
"Ever since we moved, I've been walking on cloud nine," said Nettie.
Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.
