Police may pass on Hawai'i Kai site

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

HAWAI'I KAI — Even though the City Council restored the $5.5 million needed to build the East Honolulu police station, there's no guarantee it will ever be built.

The city is leaving it up to police to decide whether to build a station on Keahole Street on part of the city-owned land at the park-and-ride lot across from Hawai'i Kai Towne Center, said Carol Costa, city spokeswoman.

That site was chosen by a panel of volunteers led by former City Councilman John Henry Felix after a search that looked at seven sites around East Honolulu. But police officials have said they prefer a station that is more centrally located in the district, which spans from Makapu'u to Manoa.

The community has always wanted a police station in its midst. East Honolulu is the Honolulu Police Department's only district without a station within the region. The Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board recently passed a resolution stating that the police station was the community's No. 1 priority.

"I want the police station," said Charlie Rodgers, chairman of the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board. "I'd like the city to spend the money, but the police are saying they don't necessarily want it here."

Police did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.

The police station has been on and off track for nearly a dozen years as the community tried to decide on a site. First it was to be a small station in 'Aina Haina on West Hind Drive. Then it was to be a $4.5 million facility on Keahole Street with a lockup and extra-thick walls and enough parking for 100 cars.

But bids came in $900,000 too high, prompting the city to scrap the project rather than appropriate more money. Construction of the station was to have started this summer and been completed by early 2005.

Councilman Charles Djou managed to restore the money to the city's budget and hopes the city will move the project along.

"The next step is for the city administration to put the project out to bid again and work with the proposed plans to begin construction," Djou said. "I am hopeful that this will occur. I've heard, though, that the administration doesn't want to put it out to bid or build the station."

The East Honolulu station would serve about 40,000 residents. The 13,000-square-foot building is planned on 1.81 acres on the western portion of the park-and-ride facility. The 170 officers assigned to the area would work out of the station, along with a 10-member administrative and clerical staff, rather than going downtown to the Beretania Street station.

The city has spent $900,000 on the project, but officials have said the money wasn't wasted because the same plans could be used, with modifications.

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com or 395-8831.