Hawai'i Kai skate park vandalized before done
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
The concrete surface of the Hawai'i Kai skate park is barely dry, but vandals have already left their mark.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
The facility, at the corner of Hawai'i Kai Drive and Lunalilo Home Road, is already marred with graffiti, and skaters have been using the park since before the base of the skate facility was finished.
The new skateboard park in Hawai'i Kai is still under construction and not yet open. Yet more than 30 skateboarders were using the facility Monday afternoon and graffiti already mar the ramps. Contractor PER Inc. is responsible for removing the marks before presenting the park to the city.
Skaters have been eagerly awaiting the facility for more than a year, since Mayor Jeremy Harris promised teens at a public meeting that he'd build them a skate park. Skateboarders had been using, and getting kicked out of, the park-and-ride lot on Keahole Street.
One skater walks around his house with binoculars, waiting for workers to leave the skating facility before he and his friends walk over.
"I know it's not done yet," Gerald Hebert said. "They should open it anyway. People are going to come in and skate it. ... We never had anything like this in Hawai'i Kai before."
The skate park is part of a $1 million skating project the city is building at the lower section of the Kamilo'iki Elementary School grounds. It is expected to be completed by the end of July, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa. The other portion is an in-line skating rink, which has been completed.
The graffiti did not sit well with the city and contractor PER Inc., which is responsible for removing the marks before it can hand over the concrete skateboard structure to the city for final payment, said Eric Soto, PER Inc. president.
"We usually have guards at night and during the hours we have to be careful," Soto said. "The graffiti has to be ground off."
At new skateboard facilities in Mililani and Kailua, the contractor had to post guards to try to keep skateboarders off the facility until it was completed. The contractor bears the liability until it hands the facility over to the city, Soto said.
Because the kids can't wait, Soto said, he may line the facility with plastic and sand to keep kids off the surface until it is completely done.
At the Hawai'i Kai site, metal poles jut out of the concrete, waiting for fencing to be erected, and concrete for a new walkway is still being poured. The park will be open from sunrise to sunset daily, Costa said.
"It's the responsibility of the contractor to keep the kids out until it's finished," Costa said. "We have a serious problem there. We call upon the skating community to get control of the people breaking in there."
Once the facility is completed, the city will erect signs that outline park rules. The signs will tell skaters they skate at their own risk and to use protective gear.
The Hawai'i Kai park is one of 10 the city plans to build by the end of the year. There are plans to build four more by the end of 2003.
The outdoor parks were the result of lobbying from skating enthusiasts who had been relegated to benches at bus stops, the park-and-ride facility, street curbs and mall planters. Police and business owners are constantly chasing skaters away.
"The skateboarding community is responsible for helping to design the facility," Costa said. "And they have agreed to monitor the kids who use the facilities. We will be relying on the skateboarding community to help see that the rules are adhered to."
