Antenna plans progress

By Suzanne Roig
Advertiser East Honolulu Writer

HAWAI'I KAI — The state and the city hope to get a microwave antenna system built on top of Koko Head by the end of the year, part of a statewide improved emergency communications system, officials said yesterday.

At yesterday's public hearing, the state Department of Accounting and General Services, which is overseeing the project, said it has taken several years to develop the state/city and federal partnership for the Anuenue, or Rainbow, project that places broadband technology and antennas in strategic locations across the Islands.

"I think it's good that we have state and city communications systems all together in one structure, rather than in separate structures," said Robert Hlivak, state Department of Accounting and General Services radio engineer. "We've made this work."

The state says the $26 million microwave antenna system will improve emergency communications statewide. For the first time, emergency responders will be able to communicate with one another via a dedicated system. The Koko Head facility will cost about $2.3 million.

Installing the system requires state and city land use permits. The next step is for the city to issue its findings and recommend approval to the City Council Zoning Committee for a hearing. The soonest that could happen is March, said Dana Teramoto, a city Department of Planning and Permitting staffer. The project would place a 70-foot antenna and an 8,000 square foot structure on top of Koko Head.

The full council will have to vote on whether to issue a Special Management Area Use Permit for the Anuenue project, Teramoto told the handful of people at the public meeting yesterday.

Anuenue would replace a 20-year-old system that has become so unreliable government agencies decommissioned it. Anuenue dovetails with a nationwide project called Rescue 21, which will help pinpoint distress calls, the Coast Guard said.

This year microwave antennas will be installed around the Islands, one each on Kaua'i, Maui and Moloka'i, four on the Big Island and seven on O'ahu: at Sand Island, Kalaeloa, Mauna Kapu, Mount Ka'ala, Wahiawa, Koko Head and Round Top.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2006.

The Koko Head structure won't be visible from the road. The design has been endorsed by the Friends of Hanauma Bay and the Hawai'i Kai Neighborhood Board.

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

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