Here are excerpts from Mayor Mufi Hannemann's State of the City address yesterday:

From day one, it's been my style to be open and frank with you. And nowhere has that been more evident in the condition of city coffers and our aging infrastructure. Before taking office, I knew we had a big job ahead of us. I'm afraid I just didn't know how big.

We have 1,478 miles of city sewer mains. Of those, 318 miles are 50 years or older. Twenty-seven miles of those were constructed at the turn of the century — and I'm talking about the 1900s, not Y2K.

In my first budget, for fiscal year 2006, we raised sewer fees 25 percent and 10 percent this past July, the first time fees had been raised since 1994. We vowed that the fees would go exclusively for sewer work, and we've kept that promise. We budgeted a record $240 million for sewer projects in my first budget, the highest figure in at least a dozen years, and $354 million for this fiscal year. Next fiscal year, we're proposing to spend $350 million on sewer and wastewater projects. Our projected three-year total of $944 million will nearly equal the amount committed to wastewater improvements and repairs in the previous 10 fiscal years combined.

You'll recall that a major force main in Waikiki ruptured during last spring's deluge, which left us no choice but to divert 48 million gallons of sewage into the Ala Wai Canal. We don't want O'ahu's people to ever have to face something like that again. Once that pipe was repaired, we immediately began working on an emergency bypass. That's just one part of an accelerated program of improvements to crucial points in our sewer system that will require many millions of dollars more than we initially planned when I came before you two years ago.

When we present our fiscal year 2008 budget next week, we will include a proposal for a new schedule of sewer fee increases to fund these projects, which include condition assessments of six crucial force mains and providing backups for three of them.

OTHER SEWER PROJECTS

No less important are the many other sewer projects already in the pipeline. Work in Saint Louis Heights will commence this year. The Kalaheo sewer reconstruction in Kailua will be completed next month, at long last. You've no doubt seen the water and sewer work along the length of Kapi'olani Boulevard. Two weeks ago, contractors successfully inserted a new pipeline 90 feet below Kalaniana'ole Highway.

We will break ground for projects in Kailua, Kane'ohe, and Kuli'ou'ou. We'll be putting out to bid work in Kalihi, Nu'uanu, Waimalu, Wilhelmina Rise, Wai'alae Iki, and Waimanalo. Our budget for next fiscal year includes money for work on wastewater treatment plants at Kailua, Honouliuli, and Sand Island and pipelines on School Street, Ala Moana and in Mililani.

SUSTAINABILITY

Hawai'i's original inhabitants developed a sophisticated and successful resource management system based on the ahupua'a land division that supported a population more than half as large as it today, and there was not a car or bus among them. We must continue to learn from our Polynesian predecessors and renew our commitment to self-sufficiency and the protection of our 'aina. The concept of the "21st Century Ahupua'a" first emerged in 2005 when the city, working in conjunction with Kevin Vaccarello and Ramsay Taum of Sustain Hawai'i, sought to develop a culturally appropriate strategy for restoring balance and sustainability to our island home.

I tasked the Department of Budget and Fiscal Services to lead a working group to put the ideals of the "21st Century Ahupua'a" into action. Specifically, I asked them to develop a 10-year plan with goals for alternative fuel usage, hybrid vehicles, cogeneration of electricity, conservation and recycling. Already, we have upgraded the air-conditioning system at Kapolei Hale to shave $50,000 from our electricity bill. This year, we'll be completing a major air-conditioning and lighting project for the Fasi Municipal Building and Honolulu Police Department headquarters that will save us a cool $500,000 a year.

The city will continue to retrofit energy-efficient systems into existing city buildings and find new ways to conserve electricity through relamping, solar window tinting, use of Energy Star appliances, and ultra-efficient air-conditioning. We will begin testing the efficacy of rooftop photovoltaic systems on city facilities.

BIOFUEL USE

The city must lead by example when it comes to conserving energy and promoting the use of biofuels. We are already a leading user of biodiesel in our city trucks and heavy equipment, now using more than 600,000 gallons of B20 a year. We will expand our use of biodiesel in our bus fleet as local supplies become available, with a goal of total conversion within two years. We are replacing our fleet with new hybrid diesel-electric vehicles, a process advanced last year with the purchase of 40 new buses to add to the 10 hybrid articulated buses we purchased in 2004. We're putting in for 20 more for the coming year. These vehicles cut fuel consumption by about 15 to 20 percent as compared to their diesel cousins.

Nothing the city can do will impact our quality of life and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels more than the development of alternative transportation options. On O'ahu, traffic is not only an environmental concern, but congestion has become our number-one quality-of-life issue. Our multi-modal transit system — encompassing a fixed guideway, buses, a ferry, bicycles and pedestrian paths — is under way and will go far in reducing driving, cutting consumption of imported oil, and curbing air pollution.

RECYCLING

Honolulu has already achieved an enviable 57 percent recycling and waste-to-energy diversion rate, which is the percentage of municipal waste that is sorted and recycled before conversion to refuse-derived fuel. We've been huddling with our consultant, R.W. Beck, on developing the city's integrated solid-waste management plan, the main goal of which is to reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill.

But voters made it clear in November that we should be doing even more with recycling. I am therefore proposing that we try to introduce curbside pickup of recyclables this year. Community input is a requisite first step, so we'll be holding a series of public meetings in April and May to garner input on where and how to launch this new service. The final program is far from definite, but for the sake of discussion, we are proposing once-a-week curbside pickup of regular trash and once-a-week curbside pickup of greenwaste and mixed recyclables, the latter on an every other week basis. If once-a-week trash collection isn't enough, a homeowner could add a second pickup for a monthly fee of $10, subject to council approval. Bulky-item pickup would be unchanged.

We are looking to launch the program in Windward O'ahu, where homeowners have the blue bins; in Mililani, which tested the program in the past; or Hawai'i Kai, whose councilmember has been an outspoken advocate of once-a-week pickup.

I'm an advocate of recycling. But I have cautioned repeatedly that trash collection comes at a price. The culture on O'ahu, unlike the Neighbor Islands or Mainland municipalities, is free receptacles, free twice-a-week trash pickup, free twice-a-month greenwaste pickup, and free monthly bulky-item pickup. Yes, we can do curbside pickup of mixed recyclables, but it'll cost, in dollars as well as time. Curbside recycling will require a personal commitment from each of us to reduce the volume of waste that goes into the bins for regular trash pickup. The result will be a stronger conservation ethic and a cleaner environment.