Visitors center sinking
| • | White House criticized on maintenance budget |
By Frank Oliveri
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The visitors center at the USS Arizona Memorial is sinking, and so are prospects that it can be replaced at anything close to the original estimated cost.
Photos by Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
"The building will fail in 10 to 12 years," said Bryan Harry, Pacific area director of the National Park Service. "The existing building was built years ago on poor soil. It is sinking, and that is a big ticket item ... $20 million easy."
Visitors to the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor's Center view the plaques with names of those who died in the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
A National Parks official estimates that repairing the visitors center will cost $20 million. That amount is almost twice the previous estimate and about $3 million more than the entire annual budget to run Hawai'i's parks.
The visitors center is just one item on what Harry called "an outrageous list" of backlogged maintenance and repair projects at Hawai'i's national parks.
That list, produced by decades of money shortfalls, probably won't get shorter for years to come. Efforts to reduce the backlog have been hampered by the war on terrorism, which siphoned away money for military and security needs.
Nationwide, the National Park Service is allocating an additional $12.4 million for security in fiscal 2005.
"Security comes at the cost of something else, and it varies place to place," Harry said.
Haleakala National Park on Maui badly needs a new sewage system to operate new restrooms.
"But because of Sept. 11th and the need for security, they pulled up a lower priority and instead funded more rangers for security," Harry said. "It was something they needed, but they needed a sewage system more."
The state of national parks in Hawai'i reflects a $5.4 billion maintenance backlog affecting the entire National Park Service, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Rep. Ed Case, a Democrat, said the National Park Service isn't spending enough to acquire lands in Hawai'i. He noted that development poses a serious threat to the Islands.
"We have the most beautiful resources on the whole planet," he said. "This is one of the only ways to preserve our natural heritage. The land lives — it's not an abstract thought — and it's under threat."
Democratic Sen. Dan Inouye agreed, saying war should not be the focus of every budgetary decision.
"Because the nature of war is that eventually it will end," he said. "You can't close your eyes ... so everything else is forgotten."
Harry's $20 million estimate for repairing the Arizona Memorial visitors center is almost twice the previous estimate. And it's about $3 million more than the entire annual budget to run Hawai'i's parks.
Inouye said he hears too many cost estimates to know which is accurate.
He is asking the Navy next year to conduct an engineering study on what it would cost to replace the visitors center.
"If we knew it was $20 million, that would be one thing. If it is $15 million that is another," he said. "We'll need some numbers that everyone can be comfortable with."
Efforts are under way to raise private donations to finance a study and ultimately replace the visitors center. The Pentagon is one possible source of aid.
"I need not tell you it is easier to get money from defense," Inouye said. "It is military land. Participating in building the foundation is a major cost item. I've been working on this ... very quietly."
Inouye said military officials have been reluctant to take on the visitors center project, even though it was the military that established the memorial in 1961. The memorial was turned over to the National Park Service because the military said it wasn't in the business of running museums.
But most military bases have museums, Inouye said.
"It is a natural thing for the Navy to get involved," he said.
The Arizona Memorial visitors center opened in 1980. It was designed to settle 18 inches because the land beneath it was fill dredged from the harbor. Engineers designed the building to be lifted with shims, which has been done four times.
But Harry said it may not be possible to shim the building anymore and renovating it could cost as much as replacing it.
Doug Lentz, who is the director of the USS Arizona Memorial said about $3.3 million has been raised to date in private donations to replace the visitors center.
