No quick fix for Kapolei library

By Alice Keesing
Advertiser Education Writer

The Kapolei library likely will remain an empty shell long past its scheduled opening, with no money readily available for staff or books.

Construction of the long-awaited library will finish in December, and it was scheduled to open in the summer next year.

To make up for money eliminated by the Legislature, the governor has said he will make an emergency appropriation next year and a supplemental budget request in 2003, state Librarian Virginia Lowell told the Board of Education library committee yesterday.

But it's unclear how much the governor would ask for, Lowell said, and even the best possible scenario would leave the library months behind schedule.

The Legislature wiped out the $2.5 million the Hawai'i State Public Library System needed to hire staff and buy books, furniture and equipment.

Building a collection for a library of the Kapolei facility's size would normally take one or two years, Lowell said. If the emergency appropriation is approved early next year it would give five months to plan, at best.

"There is no way that is going to happen," she said.

Lowell also reacted with dismay to the governor's suggestion that she funnel what she can from the operating budget into Kapolei. Budget cuts make that impossible, she said.

"Don't tell me that I'm going to have any money to do anything for Kapolei library," she said. "We're going to have to be cutting back on our current services."

While Kapolei continues to wait for a library, representatives from 'Aiea appeared before the board committee yesterday, pleading their case for a new facility.

Although the library system had not asked for it, legislators recently appropriated $2.5 million to buy land at the old 'Aiea mill site as a new location for the 'Aiea library.

" 'Aiea has a very critical need," City Councilman Gary Okino said. The current 'Aiea library is too small, not central to schools and in a dangerous area for pedestrians, he said.

A new library is part of a planned community center and, if the state does not buy the land now the opportunity will be lost, he said.

Although Lowell said it's not a question of one community getting a library over another, she said the delays at Kapolei have made her "leery" of committing to any new project.

However, the committee voted to recommend that the full board support the appropriation for 'Aiea. The governor vetoed a similar bill last year.