OBTAINING SNAP AID IS GETTING EASIER

The state Department of Human Services continues to streamline the process for obtaining Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. This program puts food on the table for low-income families and individuals and brings additional federal dollars into Hawai'i.

Under a federal waiver DHS obtained recently from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which funds SNAP, residents can now mail or fax applications to DHS offices statewide instead of having to deliver them in person.

In addition, DHS can and will conduct initial interviews with applicants over the telephone, rather than in person. Recertification interviews for SNAP benefits will now also be conducted by phone. Conducting interviews by phone saves SNAP applicants and recipients from having to come into our office, and it also streamlines the overall process.

Statewide participation in SNAP, previously called the Hawaii Food Stamp Program, has grown by about 23 percent over the past year, with more than 125,000 residents currently enrolled. The USDA reports that more than 35 million people nationwide receive SNAP benefits each month.

Looking ahead, DHS is working with the USDA to expand eligibility for SNAP and provide transitional SNAP benefits to residents for five months after they exit welfare under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families federal program.

For more information on receiving DHS benefits, residents can call 808-643-1643.

LINDA TSARK | SNAP administrator

FURLOUGHS

SCHEDULE FURLOUGH DAYS ON HOLIDAYS

It seems to me the best way to handle furlough days that does not affect classroom time is the following:

1. Consider state holidays as furlough days (14 non-paid?)

2. Consider federal holidays as furlough days.

3. Remaining furlough days negotiated that will not affect classroom teaching days.

If this cannot be done because of contracts by the unions or administration then citizens strongly affected should strongly protest the powers to be and somehow make them change the contracts or have the courts do it.

LARRY CHUNG | Honolulu

MAKAPUU CRASH

OVERLY LONG ROAD CLOSURES CONTINUE

HPD owes the public an explanation of why it closed Kalanianaole Highway at Makapuu for nearly six hours last Saturday.

A one-car accident that was actually off the highway would not seem to justify a total closure of a main thoroughfare for six hours.

This is just the latest in a long series of lengthy road closures that HPD imposes, almost casually, while they "investigate." They don't seem to care a whit about causing untold disruption to people's lives.

The Advertiser has previously reported that the California Highway Patrol manages to clear and investigate even major multi-car fatal accidents in an average of two hours.

If California can do it, HPD can do it. Unless, of course, HPD people are not as competent as CHP people.

TOM MACDONALD | Käneohe