A tale of red tape and three clunkers

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer

Three abandoned cars that have been a blight on the 'Ewa Beach landscape for nearly three months have begun to get under the skin of more than a few people.

Yesterday, after Sen. Willie Espero took up the cause in a letter to Mayor Jeremy Harris and the City Council, came the news that the cars would be removed — but probably not anytime soon.

"Here we have the main thoroughfare — Fort Weaver Road — where literally thousands of people are driving by every day and looking at these things," said Espero. "We have our fair share of abandoned vehicles in 'Ewa Beach. But what makes this worse is the fact that it's on the main drag and it makes the community look ugly and neglected."

Attempts to get the city, state and others to take responsibility and remove the vehicles have gone nowhere, with one woman saying the agencies spent too much time pointing fingers at one another.

The letter from Espero, D-20th ('Ewa Beach, Waipahu), was direct.

"Dear Mayor Harris & City Council members," began the letter, dated Monday and containing photographs of the three junked cars. "These vehicles have been here since the first week in February. Please do what you can to have them removed.

"The people of 'Ewa Beach are frustrated and angry at the slow response."

Copies of the letter were forwarded to Gov. Linda Lingle; Department of Transportation director Rod Haraga; and Cheryl Soon, director of the City's Department of Transportation Services.

Two of the cars are at the intersection of Fort Weaver Road and Old Fort Weaver Road, and the other is in the parking lot of Geiger Park.

Espero said all three were marked "AV" — for abandoned vehicle — by the Honolulu police during the first week of February. Since then, he said, the clunkers on Fort Weaver Road have been further vandalized.

Kymberly Pine, chairwoman of the 'Ewa Beach Weed & Seed Neighborhood Restoration Program, said she got so tired of seeing the rust buckets clutter up the landscape that she attempted to get rid of them herself.

"We were just going to go tow them ourselves, but by the time we got there the wheels were gone, so we couldn't do it," said Pine. "We're trying to get a tow-truck company with a flatbed truck to donate their time."

Pine expressed frustration with the response from various government agencies.

Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the difficulty was in determining who owns the land the cars rest on.

"The city at first told us it was on federal property," said Ishikawa. "Then they told us it was on state. So, now we've got to do all the paperwork from square one to get these things moved. It'll take some time."

City spokeswoman Carol Costa said the city did initially believe the cars were on Navy land, but contacted Ishikawa later to tell him otherwise.

"They're his, not ours," she said. "The one in Geiger Park is on city land and has been processed as a derelict vehicle and will be removed within a day or two."

Costa said the city also informed Espero the Fort Weaver Road cars were on state property — before he mailed his letter.

"Why is he coming back on us?" she said.

Espero said the reason he directed the letter to Harris and not the state is because the city has a towing contract and the state doesn't. He thinks the two need to work together to have dumped cars hauled away in a timely manner.

"I don't think it's directly Mayor Harris' fault, but I think they have to look at the process of prioritizing every moving vehicle," he said.

But Costa said: "This is not a matter of working together. This is a matter of whose property an abandoned vehicle is on. If it's on ours, we take care of it. If it's on state property or private property, then they have to do it."

Costa added that what makes the abandoned-car problem especially exasperating is the fact that it doesn't need to happen. All the owners had to do was fill out a form at any satellite city hall; the city would then promptly haul away the cars.

"And it doesn't cost them a thing," Costa said.

Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.