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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, March 17, 2003

Hawai'i Kai board unaware of plans for gun training facility

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

An ammunition storage area and a classroom portable will be built at the Koko Head Shooting Complex for the Honolulu Police Department to use when it trains officers, police recruits and security guards how to use weapons.

The project, being sought by the city's Department of Design and Construction, is expected to cost more than $750,000. Plans call for a modular classroom trailer, covered shed and a munitions bunker.

No construction date has been set, but when the project goes out for bid, the city estimates it will take four months to build.

Lester Muraoka, a Hawai'i Kai resident and member of the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board, said he was surprised to learn of the city's plan for a 1,344-square-foot trailer at the shooting complex.

The community has been talking about adding an archery range at the gun range, and was successful in including it in the vision project money for 2002 and 2003. The archery range would be open to the public, and would be wheelchair accessible with a covered shelter for archery users. The cost is estimated at nearly $300,000.

"I've never heard anything about this," Muraoka said. "It's never been mentioned in any of our planning meetings for the archery range. It's disappointing that the city didn't run it by the community. We have a number of venues for the city to share information."

The community was unaware how this police firearms training building would affect plans for the archery range.

Police are using an open-air wooden structure that includes three picnic benches and two park benches. But firearms training incorporates video and computer presentations, according to the environmental report prepared for the city by a private urban planner.

The plans do not call for any Americans with Disabilities Act access, nor does it require any plumbing because it will be built near an existing comfort station and a parking lot.

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