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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, August 3, 2002

You'd better not mess with this restroom

By Will Hoover
Advertiser North Shore Writer

HALE'IWA — That is no ordinary bathroom sitting at the Hale'iwa Small Boat Harbor. It has the strength of a World War II pillbox and it can withstand the force of a Zone 4 earthquake, according to its manufacturer.

The new Hale'iwa Small Boat Harbor restroom was blessed Thursday by Brother Franklin Pao, a kahu. State officials are warning vandals not to attempt mischief at the facility, made of reinforced concrete.

Department of Land and Natural Resources

All that and it flushes, too.

After community residents were inconvenienced and incensed for nearly two years after vandals destroyed the previous public restroom there, state officials managed to come up with a building that is fire-, rust- and rot-proof and, for all practical purposes, vandal-proof.

The restroom weighs 50 tons and is built of steel-reinforced concrete 4 to 6 inches thick.

The doors are solid steel, with specialized bolts that make them next to impossible to remove. The walls — inside and out — are coated with an anti-graffiti sealer. The mirrors are solid sheets of polished steel. Toilet paper dispensers are padlocked in place. The hand dryers, encased behind the walls, are nothing more than a metal button and a nozzle.

And it cost less than a traditional facility.

After Thursday morning's official blessing, state Sen. Robert Bunda, D-22nd (Wahiawa, Waialua, Sunset Beach), stepped inside the men's room and performed the ceremonial "first flush" to the cheers of the throng gathered around the structure.

"It's a doozy," Bunda said of the restroom. "It will withstand a hurricane."

And then some.

The previous restroom at the same location, beside Hale'iwa Road not far from landmark Rainbow Bridge, was blown up and burned by vandals in the wee hours of Aug. 26, 2000. The explosion blew the roof off and rattled houses for blocks.

"Someone threw a homemade bomb in there and blew it to smithereens," said Jacob Ng, vice chair of the North Shore Neighborhood Board. "Then it burned. It was totally destroyed. It inconvenienced an incredible number of people for months."

Ng, harbor regulars and others in the community who wanted the restroom replaced faced inevitable bureaucratic delays in acquiring money, and design and construction work. To replace the destroyed facility could take between two and three years and cost $250,000, Ng said he was told.

That's when folks at the Department of Land and Natural Resources, while attending a Mainland boating conference, happened upon a virtually indestructible restroom design produced by CXT, a company in Spokane, Wash., that produces HazMat buildings, among other things.

Officials learned that a precast comfort station made of reinforced concrete could be bought and built for less money and a fraction of the time required to design and build a traditional restroom. In late January the state released money for such a facility through the DLNR's Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation.

The restroom arrived July 8 in Hale'iwa in two self-contained components. Three days later it was completed. Total cost: $175,000.

"From the time it was talked about to the time it was done was six months," said Bunda. "And, it cost $75,000 less than a traditional hollow tile block restroom that would take at least two years to finish. What else can I say?"

"Not only that, it's ADA compliant," added Jim Schoocraft, with the state's boating and recreation division. Not many restrooms here meet standards of the Americans With Disabilities Act, he said.

"It is utterly fantastic," Ng concluded.

Paul Sensano, harbor master, said no decision has been made about whether to keep the facility open around the clock or to lock it up after dark. Although the building is impervious, Sensano said fixtures inside could be damaged by a determined vandal.

Still, he warns that any hoodlum caught messing with the popular bathroom should be prepared to face the consequences.

"There's a plumeria tree right beside the bathroom where we could hang 'em high," said Sensano, with a chuckle.