Posted on: Thursday, June 27, 2002

Junk cars hauled off in interim tow deal

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Eight weeks after it stopped hauling away abandoned vehicles on O'ahu, the City and County of Honolulu is again paying to pick them up.

"We're back in business," said city spokeswoman Carol Costa. "We're picking them up ... as an interim measure while we continue to negotiate a short-term contract (with the towing company)."

The city's contract with Abe's Auto Recyclers to remove abandoned vehicles from O'ahu's public streets and roads expired April 30. The company then submitted a new bid, which the city wouldn't accept because it was too high, Costa said.

Meanwhile, residents noticed wrecks piling up on O'ahu's roads, particularly on the Windward side and the North Shore. Costa said there was not "an inordinate number of abandoned vehicles" there and that the city was removing the hulks as quickly as possible.

Now, she said, "What we're in the process of doing is a short-term, six-month contract with Abe's."

Until those short-term contract negotiations are concluded, Costa said, Abe's is picking up abandoned vehicles through a purchase order process — "so we can get the things off the road."

Costa said that within the next few months the city expects to start the bidding process on a long-term abandoned vehicle contract. It will be open to any towing company, she said.

The number of abandoned vehicles has decreased, she said — from 1,600 in 1999 to 1,300 last year — in part because more people are donating them to charity.

She said the city will begin picking up abandoned vehicles that have been on public property the longest. She said the pick-up list is just under 100 vehicles.

Yesterday the city hauled away 14 abandoned vehicles, and expects to pick up as many as 30 more today, she said. "We are concentrating on the Salt Lake area because of its density and its need for parking," Costa said.