Hawai'i Kai police station on hold
By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer
HAWAI'I KAI — The city's cancellation of the East Honolulu police station is the second time in four years the project has been put on hold, and it means the earliest the facility could be completed is 2006 — more than 15 years after residents first began asking for a station in their community.
The city has spent $900,000 on the project so far, but officials say the money used for planning and design wasn't wasted because the same plans likely can be used, with modifications.
The city planned to spend $4.9 million on the new police station on Keahole Street, but bids came in $900,000 too high, said Ben Lee, city managing director. Construction bids came in at about $423 per square foot, double the price of standard practice and well over the cost of the most recently completed station — Kapolei — at an estimated $270 per square foot, Lee said.
With bids too high and facing a tight budget, officials scrapped the project — along with a number of others — rather than appropriate the extra money. That meant that the money set aside for the station lapsed, so now the project is on hold until new money can be found.
The project was to have started this coming summer and been completed by early 2005.
"I want the police station and we really need it, but I understand that at some point you need to reassess the costs," said Charlie Rodgers, Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board member. "I'm happy the city is drawing the line and reassessing the cost issues."
The facility is needed, police say, because East Honolulu is the only district being served without a station in the community.
The Kapolei station, while two-thirds larger than the planned East Honolulu station, has many of the same features the Hawai'i Kai facility will have, said police Capt. Ed Nishi. With each station, police have basic structural requirements, including bulletproof walls and a special telecommunications system, Nishi said.
The Kapolei police station is about 50,000 square feet and houses patrol, burglary/theft, juvenile services, narcotics/vice and criminal investigations, 40 jail cells and a large booking facility. It also serves the communities from 'Ewa to Makaha, an estimated 90,000 people. The station cost $13.5 million to build and opened in July 2001.
The East Honolulu station would serve residents from Manoa to Makapu'u, roughly 40,000 residents. The 13,000-square-foot building is planned for 1.81 acres of land on the western portion of the Park-and-Ride facility. The design calls for two buildings, one two floors high, the other just one to house the 170 officers assigned to the area and the 10 administrative and clerical staff.
"Eventually we'd like to construct an East Honolulu station," Nishi said. "It will be up to the chief if he pursues this with the city again."
East Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou said building a police station was among his top priorities, but the city's fiscal soundness was his top priority.
"The police station is a very, very high priority," Djou said. "With that said, we are also facing an enormous budget crunch. I'm realistic to know that not every project we put forward will get funded."
The first station to be planned for East Honolulu was supposed to be in 'Aina Haina behind the 'Aina Haina Elementary School, but the land was unsuitable for construction and the entrance and exit would have been a problem, Lee said. The money, which was site specific, lapsed when the city decided to look for a new site.
The $900,000 in design and planning costs for Hawai'i Kai already spent aren't wasted, unlike the $7,000 lost when the city designed plans for the 'Aina Haina site, Lee said.
The city will work with the consultant and the police on how to reduce costs that wouldn't require a complete redesign. Instead, the city could look at lowering the quality of finish materials, or phasing in certain parts of the project or maybe by leaving the second floor as loft space and build interior partitions when they are needed, Lee said.
"We shouldn't have to beg the new council," Lee said. "The council has been very supportive of the project."
