With the approval of the association, the O'ahu Veterans Council will tear down the 50-year-old community center on Haloa Drive in Foster Village and build a $2.8 million state-financed center with the facilities intended to be used by both groups.

"I believe it is a good deal for everybody," said Albert Frumkin, veterans council vice president.

The council includes local posts of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and more than 25 other veterans organizations. They have been searching for a place to build a permanent home for 12 years but faced one roadblock after another in either securing the property, access or the necessary approvals.

They had settled on a Navy property near Pearl Harbor when in March 2001, a group of children found mercury in an abandoned pump house and spread it around, contaminating the site.

Fred Ballard, public affairs officer for the Veterans Administration in Honolulu, said he knew the deal was dead the minute he heard about the spill at the site.

"It just became impossible and we gave up," Ballard said.

In the meantime, the Foster Village Community Association was facing problems of its own. After leasehold homes in the community were offered for sale fee simple, the covenants requiring association membership were not enforced and membership dropped from 235 households to about 150. The corresponding decline in dues, which are used to maintain the community center, pool and park, also dropped, leaving less money for repair and maintenance.

"We don't have the money to keep going," said John Drake, president of the community association. "We are at a point now where we can't afford the upkeep and at some point won't be able to afford the insurance. If this (project with the veterans groups) doesn't happen we stand to lose the whole thing. If we sell the property, we lose control. Now we may be able to maintain the park at no expense to the community."

The new center will be built on the 2,700-square-foot community center and fenced-in swimming pool area. The new center will be single story, no more than 25 feet high and have about 11,000 square feet of floor area with a multi-purpose meeting hall with a capacity of 200 people and a kitchen/dining area and office space for the veterans groups.

The veterans will install a sprinkler system in the park, a first for the 2.8-acre property, picnic areas and children's play equipment, and they will improve the basketball court.

The tennis court will be eliminated and made into a second basketball court.

The veterans council filed a draft environmental assessment for the project this week with the state Department of Environmental Quality Control. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2004 and be completed in less than a year.

When the center is done, the community will be allowed to hold the same gatherings held there now. The veterans groups will have a place to call their own and keep their flags, memorabilia and records rather than meeting in various parks and restaurants.

"We will provide a place for the community to do the things they have been doing now," Frumkin said. "We do not intend to disrupt the community in any way, shape or form."