West-side emergency phone system on hold
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer
KA'ENA POINT — In November, the state granted a long-awaited wish to folks who frequent the Wai'anae Coast's western-most wilderness, past Kea'au Beach Park:
It installed two bright yellow emergency telephones, complete with solar panels and signature blue and white "Call Box" signs. The cost: $80,000. One phone stands at the entrance of Ka'ena Point State Park, the other near the gate of the Makua Military Reservation.
Two problems remain. Neither phone works.
It's a very technical problem about signal strength.
Roger Masuoka, project engineer for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the state contracted with Verizon to do the work.
"First they installed the overhead lines," he said. "Then they installed the call boxes. But apparently, from what the Verizon people are saying, they didn't calculate how much signal was required to make those emergency boxes work. ... It gets technical."
Call it mixed signals.
Kevin Laverty, spokesman for Verizon, said there had been miscommunication with the company that manufactures the boxes.
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"As it turns out, the signal to the phone only works from a certain distance from our central switching office where the calls are routed," explained Laverty. "And that was unknown to the vendor or to us."
This call box near Yokohama Bay Beach and another at the Ka'ena park entrance are not in service.
Laverty said Verizon engineers are looking at ways to boost the signal power on the phone lines so the boxes will work. He couldn't say when that might happen — be it one day or one week. But he was confident that it would happen soon.
For going on three years now, the eight-mile stretch between Makaha and the western tip of O'ahu has had neither pay phones nor cell phone service.
"We have accidents here all the time," Ka'ena Point lifeguard Mac Hall said yesterday. "We have two-way radios we can use to contact dispatch, and then they can contact authorities. But I don't know how the average person is supposed to do it."
In early 2002, Verizon removed the last public phone at Ka'ena Point State Park because it was repeatedly vandalized, and because the aging, deteriorating lines were nearly impossible to maintain.
Meanwhile, the company said cell phone service was not available because of the difficulty putting in a repeater station antenna on conservation land near Ka'ena Point.
Residents complained that the situation was an accident waiting to happen. The coastline is a popular area for fishing, diving, surfing and other water pursuits.
Things came to a head in April 2002 when William Aila, DLNR harbor master at the Wai'anae Boat Harbor, had no way to make an emergency call the morning he spotted the boat of a missing diver off Ka'ena Point. Aila drove five miles to use a pay phone at Kea'au Beach Park.
The diver eventually was rescued. Concern over the situation prompted the Air Force to install an emergency line outside its guard building at the Ka'ena Point Satellite Tracking Station.
Now that call boxes are finally installed, the wait continues.
"It seems like it has taken them forever to get them working," Aila said. "I don't know what the hang-up is."
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
