Posted on: Saturday, June 25, 2005

Land board OKs deal with church to clean, use park

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

The state Board of Land and Natural Resources yesterday approved a two-year agreement with New Hope Christian Fellowship O'ahu to provide church volunteers to clean, repair and maintain the baseball fields at Sand Island State Park.

The church also will be allowed to build two canoe storage buildings in the park, with one of the two hale reserved for the church's canoe club.

Dan Quinn, state Department of Land and Natural Resources parks administrator, told the board that the park's ball fields have been neglected for years and are unusable.

New Hope will repair the irrigation system, fill in holes, bring in new top soil and cultivate the turf. The church will be one of several groups using the six fields for league play, Quinn said.

The agreement is part of the state's Curator Program, in which nonprofit and cultural groups take on a five-year stewardship role for specific historic and cultural sites on state land. Quinn said this is the first curator agreement for a recreational area and will run only two years "to get it off the ground and make sure it is working right."

Quinn said there are no other canoe storage buildings in state parks, but many other groups, include religious organizations, have been allowed to use state park property in the past.

New Hope will pay for and donate the canoe shelters to the state and will be given a revocable permit to use one building. Other canoe organizations can seek permits to use the second, Quinn said.

Board member Tim Johns asked about the constitutionality of the agreement regarding the separation of church and state.

Deputy Attorney General Sonia Faust helped draft the agreement and told the board the arrangement does not violate state law or the Constitution and the DLNR is allowed to accept gifts and impose conditions on their use.

"I don't think we are" violating the law, Faust said. "I can't make any promises. This is not a separation issue; it is a land use issue."

Faust said on Kaua'i, a church was allowed use of state land for recreational use, but the public was also allowed to use the area.

"I think in this agreement we have taken great care to honor the right of the public to use the facilities at the park," she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawai'i this week said the arrangement may be illegal because it allows a church to erect and maintain a building in a public park for the exclusive use of the members of that church.

The board asked that the attorney general's office take another look at the final agreement to make sure no laws are being violated.

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.