Base generates 930 jobs on Kaua'i

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i—The sleepy west side of Kaua'i, with sunny skies, sand dunes and rusty fishing trucks, is also home to one of the most vibrant economic engines on the island.

The Pacific Missile Range Facility is a site for defense research where testing of advanced technology takes place. In June 2003, the solar-powered Helios Prototype, a remotely piloted unmanned aircraft, took off from the facility at Barking Sands, Kaua'i, but the aircraft broke up 30 minutes into the flight and crashed into the Pacific Ocean. The economic impact of the base is more impressive because only a few years ago, it was among the military facilities nationwide that were targeted to be abandoned. Advertiser library photo

But this is a high-tech haven, where super-fast computing equipment tracks missiles and submarines, where rockets burst from between the kiawe trees and new-generation radars sweep the skies, and where the fleets of Pacific nations train.

Nobody — not even the Navy — has a good handle on how big an economic force the base is.

The basic annual budget at the missile range is $80 million, said base public information officer Tom Clements. Another $20 million a year is spent on special projects, he estimates.

"Then there's so much funding from other sources, like the Office of Naval Research, the Department of Energy and others. One major event on base can bring in 300 or more temporary people here for a period of time, and we have three to five major events each year," he said. All those folks stay in hotels, eat in restaurants and rent cars, at an infusion of millions of dollars more.

The roughly 930 employees of the range and its contractors make it one of the island's three or four biggest employers. Most of them live off base.

"It's absolutely been great for the west side of the island," said Kelly Liberatore, who operates the Waimea branch of the real estate firm Makai Properties. The housing demand from the missile range helped take up the slack when Kekaha Sugar Co. went out of business.

"Many people have been able to rent their homes to folks working at the base," Liberatore said.

County economic development director Beth Tokioka said the county estimates that the economic value of the base to the island economy is about $130 million annually, but Clements said that's an old and probably very conservative figure.

"I think that its not being there would have a huge impact," Tokioka said.

Local businesses of all kinds have a significant stake in the health of the missile range.

"They're very important. They're a significant part of the whole island's economy," said Ray Ishihara, president of Waimea's Ishihara Market.

As a result of the range, "high-tech is an emerging business on Kaua'i," said Mattie Yoshioka, director of the private Kaua'i Economic Development Board.

"Everyone benefits from this effort, as engineering and other technical skills make Kaua'i residents valuable resources not only for (the missile range), but also for the growing technology industry here. We benefit from recruiting local technical talent as it increases the likelihood of long-term employment, and reduces the need for recruiting of Mainland engineers," Connelly said.

Yoshioka agreed that island residents tend to be more stable as employees. "You can ship someone out from San Diego, but they're not part of the local community, and after you spend thousands of dollars training them, in a couple of years they go home," Yoshioka said.

Waimea resident Liz Hahn said the base's impact on the community is impossible to overestimate. "Most of my neighbors have some kind of tie to it," she said. "It's one of the greatest opportunities on the island for good-paying jobs."

But no organization so large is without problems.

The range may once have been one of the most open military facilities in the world before the terrorism attacks on New York and Washington, but post-attack security protocols closed beaches to surfers, picnickers and anglers. Today, residents must undergo security checks and carry special identification cards to gain access to the sandy shores. Hours of access are still limited, and night shoreline fishing continues to be prohibited.

When the range's Agricultural Preservation Initiative sought guarantees that neighboring state lands would be kept in agriculture, already wary residents wondered publicly whether the military was staging a land grab. The state Board of Land and Natural Resources granted the guarantees, but not before difficult discussions.

Navy Capt. Jeff Connelly, a pilot, is commanding officer of the Pacific Missile Range Facility, based on the west side of Kaua'i. Advertiser library photo

Still, most community responses to missile range are positive. The economic impact of the base is more impressive because only a few years ago, it was among the many military facilities nationwide that were targeted to be abandoned.

"They were on the hit list for base closure," Yoshioka said. U.S. Sen. Dan Inouye is largely responsible for keeping the missile range open and driving new federal research dollars to it, she said. In July, Inouye's office announced that the Senate defense appropriations bill contained more than $100 million for spending on Kaua'i, most of it associated in some way with the range.

The base is the site for missile defense research where testing of radar systems and other advanced technology takes place. It is the top site in the world for training crews in the use of Aegis weapons systems aboard the newest high-tech warships, and although Navy officials say that's not a big profit center for the base, it is another reason the range will be needed well into the future.

At this point, thanks in large part to a continued commitment by Inouye, the missile range is the largest test and evaluation facility in the world, but it's still not entirely out of the woods, Yoshioka said.

"We're getting to the point where it can be self-sustaining without his (Inouye's) help, but we're not there yet," she said.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.