HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/29/2022 CIP Budget - All Other Depts CIP Budget—Department of Public Works &All Other Departments
Honorable Bernard P. Carvalho, Jr.
Honorable Mason K. Chock
Honorable Felicia Cowden
Honorable Luke A. Evslin
Honorable Bill DeCosta
Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i
Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro
The Committee reconvened on March 29, 2022 at 9:00 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Good morning, I would like to call back to order
the Committee of the Whole and the Fiscal Year 2022-2023 Departmental Budget Reviews.
Let the record reflect that we do have a quorum. On the schedule for today, March 29, 2022,
we have the Department of Public Works and their new CIP projects, along with the CIP
Budget for all other departments. As we do each morning, we will take public testimony at
the beginning on any of the departments/agencies we are reviewing for the day. There is no
one in the public wishing to testify this morning. Is there anyone registered to provide
testimony this morning?
There being no objections, the rules were suspended to take public testimony.
There being no one present to provide testimony, the meeting was called back to order,
and proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Hearing none, we will proceed. For today's
discussion I will ask any departmental representative to take us through the remaining
portion of the CIP discussion. We will start off with the new CIP projects for the Department
of Public Works, which is Auto Maintenance improvements that we went through yesterday
and we are going to go down the line. The new projects have been added in here, you will see
the status is blank because they are new projects. We will just go through department by
department, and division by division. That is the plan for today. We already did Auto
Maintenance, so the next division is the Engineering Roads. Engineering Roads has a few
new projects. Actually, some of these projects include moneys to help with the older projects
also. We will go through the list and if anyone wants a description of the new projects, we
can ask the Administration for that. Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: I have a question on the Kapahi Bridge repairs.
For the Kapahi Bridge repair, was that bridge just replaced in 2016?
MICHAEL MOULE, Chief of Engineering Division (via remote technology):
Councilmembers, this is Michael Moule, Chief of Engineering. We talked about this briefly
yesterday. The bridge was just recently replaced. What happened though, during the storms
from the year or two (2) after it being finished we had the 2018 storm and the 2020 storm
both did some significant erosion, what we call scour around the abutment of the bridge and
that effectively weakened the areas around the abutment, so the idea is to come in here and
strengthen that with riprap or some sort of grouted riprap to strengthen the area around the
support of the bridge. The bridge itself is fine, there is no damage to the structure itself, but
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there is weakened supporting soils and things around the structure. That is what this project
is for, it came out of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funded project
after the storm.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay, that makes sense. In some future 2018 and
2020 type storms, will we have to do this work again?
Mr. Moule: The idea is to strengthen it so it does not scour in
the same way again. Certainly, you can do all the repairs needed after huge storms and have
problems still, but what was there before was native soils that washed away, and
unfortunately, we cannot put back this soil, so we have to come in with something more
engineered to strengthen it, but that would strengthen it more than the native soils would
have been.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Samee, rightBridge a below the Kapahi
p gp
repairs, I have Waimea to Kekaha shared-use path. Michael, is that the multi-use path that
we are going to include the equestrian path with the walk and bike, or will the equestrian
path be separate?
Mr. Moule: That is a very good question. We have not actually
gotten that far in the planning stages for this. We are just entering into the planning contract
with the consultant. A crosssection of the path, the exact alignment has not yet been
determined. I think we are including equestrian needs on this, obviously there would be
public involvement with this planning and design effort. My recommendation would be to
have equestrian needs to be a soft surface in addition to the paved path that might be used
by folks that are jogging, who like soft surfaces sometimes and/or equestrians either directly
adjacent to or possibly separated a bit from the paved path. That is a good point, something
that we would like to come up during public involvement, but we have not gotten to that stage
of the planning effort, right now. The State Planning and Research (SP&R) funds being
discussed here is the effort right now in the planning piece, which is starting right now. The
funds shown here in this CIP budget are the final design funds, once we have the planning
effort completed, which is just starting at this time.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you.
Committe Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Councilmember DeCosta asked my main
question. I am really excited about this path on the Westside here. Is this being funded on
the Federal level, similar to what we did in Kapa`a? Is it the same type of grant structure?
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Mr. Moule: Yes and no. The planning effort is SP&R funds,
those are Federal funds, they are State Planning and Research grant funds with an 80/20
match on the planning effort that we are moving into right now. The design effort that is
proposed, we plan to do the final design purely with County funds. The reason we are doing
that is because we are doing that with all our phased projects going forward is that the
procurement and approval processes for even changing a contract with the consultant takes
at least twice as long with these Federal funds, and we only get so much Federal funds per
year anyway, generally speaking. I will give you a caveat related to that in a minute, but we
feel that in general, all our projects we are developing the designs with County funds so that
we can get it done more quickly. That is our goal on this one as well. The construction,
however, is planned to be Federal funds. It is listed on the Statewide Transportation
Improvement Program (STIP) right now as part of our normal limitation on Federal funds
that we get for Fiscal Year 2024, if I recall correctly. It is possible to apply for special kinds
of grants, if and when those are available. There are the traditional alternative program
funds that are not nearly as much of those funds as the funding programs that were used to
build the path on the eastside, but we do anticipate that there is a good chance that we would
apply for those funds in the future depending on how much is available and how that
compares to the cost of the project when we get to it. The same way we have talked about
yesterday, the Po`ipu Road project, allowing us any grant funds we received to plan the funds
on the STIP, then we can distribute the funds to other projects—the same thing could happen
here. Right now, those funds are limited, but there is still a chance that we would apply for
them.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you so much.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Michael. I want to thank you for
Kamalu Road improvements and the bridge along Kalama Stream—we have had too many
tragedies there. The question is, I see that we are doing a two-lane bridge, will the bridge
also be raised? I know that we have flooding issues in that area that might be some of the
cause of the issues there.
Mr. Moule: We have not gotten that far along on the design of
this project. This one is a little further out. These funds are for the design—the funds that
we are asking for at this time. A future funding would be needed on the STIP for Federal
funds, the future County funding to match that would be needed when we get to construction.
I think this one is funded in 2025 for construction. Again, these are for the design funds, we
do not know yet,just how high the bridge will be, how the alignment of it, any of that, because
we have not started the design process. I will also mention that this bridge is currently set
at three and a half (3%) tons based on inspections from last year. We have plans on an
interim basis, because this project will not be constructed for about four (4) years. On an
interim basis, we plan to put a temporary bridge on top of that existing structure, so we can
strengthen it, because it is an important road and detours for anything heavier than three
and a half (3%) tons, basically anything bigger than a large Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) or
large pickup truck is a challenge. We do not know the elevation. Obviously, the work would
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include the flood studies and it would be designed to withstand any flooding, it cannot cause
any rise in the stream, we would be required to not cause any rise in the stream in this
project. It is possible that it might be designed where when there is a large flood the bridge
gets overtopped, or it is possible that we would design it so all the water would go underneath
the structure, but it depends on the final design that we would get into when we get into the
design process.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any follow-up questions on this one?
Councilmember DeCosta, then Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember DeCosta: I found my answer.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I want to thank you about the `Anini Bridge
replacement. I wondered when the timing is. When is that likely to start or finish?
Mr. Moule: Again, the request that is shown here is for design
funds. The design we anticipate starting within a year or so, the construction on this depends
a lot on what happens with the old structure. You may remember that this is a bridge where
we did add a temporary structure over the existing culvert, because the culvert was settling
and weak, very similar to what is happening with the Yasutake Bridge. We want to get this
project "shovel-ready" through these design funds, so that we can move quickly to build it
once it is needed. Continue to do inspections of the temporary bridge and the old structure
underneath it will determine when we actually want to build this project. It is kind of an odd
situation that the old culvert underneath is not carrying any load at this time, but it is still
settling into the mud in that stream, and the culvert is not effectively carrying the load, but
it is retaining the soil on which the abutment of the temporary bridge sits right now. As we
continue to inspect that bridge, if we get to the point where we think five (5) years from now,
we expect that it will not be able to hold anymore, we will look to install this project, but this
one that we want to get ready because we do not really know when we will need it, it depends
a lot on the inspections of that old structure.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions on this page? If
not, we will move on. The next page are projects that we already saw from yesterday, so I
am going to keep moving. Next up, I see CIP Finance, there are new projects for CIP Finance.
Are there any questions?
Councilmember Kuali`i: How many pages did we flip through?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I just got through Engineering.
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Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Those are all the existing projects we saw
yesterday. I have a question on the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) satellite office.
Reiko, is this satellite office going to have any employees or is it just going to be a fully
automated DMV site?
REIKO MATSUYAMA, Director of Finance (via remote technology): Reiko
Matsuyama, Department of Finance. For this initial phase, we do not have any designated
employees yet, but we are trying to construct it such that there will be three (3) windows
there that will eventually be filled by new personnel. We still have a lot to do though,
operationally, to get there, those three (3)windows will need to be cross-trained, and you will
hear more about our DMV integration project when I come up for my Operating Budget, but
what we are trying to do is cross-train them here at Kapule Building first, so that they can
do that down there. We cannot have, let us say, two (2) people that are doing driver's
licensing transactions and one (1) person doing motor vehicle transactions, so all three (3)
windows will have to be fully trained to do any DMV transaction. There is still a lot of work
to do before we get real live people in there, but it is a project to get the building ready for us
to occupy.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We have not gone through your budgets yet, are
we looking to add employees to staff that, or are we moving employees from our current
building there?
Ms. Matsuyama: I do not have any requests to add positions there
for Fiscal Year 2020.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Are there any further questions on this
item? If not, are there any other questions on any other items on this page? Councilmember
Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: On our computer servers in storage, are we going
to be locating it in the same place? This is mostly a hardware change, is that correct? This
is all hardware.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: It is probably a Del question.
DEL SHERMAN, Information Technology Manager (via remote technology): Del
Sherman, Information Technology (IT) Manager, County of Kaua`i. Yes, this is all physical.
These would be located onsite to help offset this cost. We are also doing some cloud services
with Microsoft Azure, we will be hosting some of these servers in the cloud, that cost is not
represented in here, that is not a CIP project, all of this is onsite.
Councilmember Cowden: Is it still, I want to call it the basement, is it still
in the downstairs area below everything, is it in the same area, or do you need a bigger space?
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Mr. Sherman: We do not need a bigger space. We just finished
renovations in this area down here in the Kapule Building in consideration of supporting the
servers that will be putting in the future, that renovation involves special air conditioning
and power, so that we would be prepared and ready. Our expectation is that footprint-wise
these replacement servers will consume less space than what we presently have in place, so
no expansion needed.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions on this page for CIP
Finance? If not, we will move to the next page. I have a question on the Finance and
Accounting ERP, what is that?
Mr. Sherman: "ERP" is Enterprise Resource Planning.
Specifically in this case, what we are referring to is the software that we use for our Finance
and Accounting system, so we are looking at a replacement of that. Many know of that system
as the green screen or AS400 system, so this CIP item would put us on the road towards
getting that system replaced with a modern much more user-friendly system.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Is there a system we are on the State that we are
following or are we still using the same ERP system that we have in an updated version of
it?
Mr. Sherman: What we would do is use these funds to draft and
Request For Proposal (RFP), which we would post for a set period of time and entertain
proposals from vendors across the board that deliver enterprise, financial, and accounting
systems. Then, subsequent to that, we would take a look at all of the proposals and see which
one is the best fit for us, but this is highly unlikely to just be an upgrade of the existing
system. More likely it would be an entire replacement with something completely new.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Is this $600 just to get us started? Is it not going
to be the amount to actually replace that entire system, right?
Mr. Sherman: That is correct. The overall project represents a
significant expense and investment by the County. This would just be the opening shovel to
get us going with that project.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Are there any other questions on this item?
Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I have a holistic question on the six (6) items for
Finance. It looks like we are replacing a lot of both hardware and software, and we have
been doing so for the past few years. When this is done, these particular items, how close are
we to having to hit our goal for moving from manual or old technology to new? Are we getting
close, or do we have a few more years of different systems to be adding into the update?
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Mr. Sherman: I think we are getting close. As far as having
identified the systems that are being targeted outside of what we looked at here with Finance
and Accounting ERP and what you are aware of that is presently taking place with our
Human Resources (HR) management. There really are not any major systems beyond that
that would require a replacement. This pretty much addresses all of the critical systems and
infrastructure that we have. As far as the length of time, once we get started with theses,
these could be multiyear projects, so it is not like this is the last time we will see this. They
are going to come up again, but not likely to ask for more funds with maybe just a few
exceptions like Finance and Accounting ERP. Does that answer your question?
Councilmember Cowden: I think so. The Land Information Management
System (LIMS) system, will that come up in Finance when we are there? LIMS will probably
come up in the regular Finance time.
Mr. Sherman: The LIMS CIP is presently within Planning, and
it is likely that we will want to expand that in the future, as well. We have enough funding
there to keep us going for a period of time yet, but we do not want to let the momentum stall
for LIMS, we have made some good progress with some of the services that we are offering
the public and we want to keep that going, which will require probably an infusion of
additional funds in the future.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i, then Councilmember
Carvalho.
Councilmember Kuali`i: On the top item, the County video conferencing
$214,000, it talks about the upgrade for these locations, the Planning Commission room the
Boards & Commission, along with three (3) other smaller conference rooms, where are the
locations of the three (3) other smaller conference rooms?
Mr. Sherman: We have a conference room in the Office of the
County Attorney, there is another one (1) in the Department of Finance, and then another in
the Real Property section.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Are you saying they will all be tied into the Kaua`i
Emergency Management Agency (KEMA)?
Mr. Sherman: Our objective is to allow any of our video enabled
conference rooms to take a feed from KEMA, so that if we were to ever activate and we are
in the middle of a major event and say for example, KEMA was doing a situational update,
but there is no room for everyone to gather in the big meeting room at KEMA, we could feed
that video over to all of these conference rooms, so that you could have attendees at multiple
different locations all getting the same information at the same time.
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Councilmember Kuali`i: The thing about multiple different locations,
would you not want to have it in locations that are far apart? It seems like a lot of these
locations are all right there in the same basic area. I know you were talking about rooms
that can fix"x" amount of people, but will there be people that are further out in the County
that will need to be in on all of this activity that will then have to drive somewhere. Do you
know what I mean? It would make sense to have a geographic coverage spread out to a
certain degree.
Mr. Sherman: I know exactly what you mean. The locations that
we have currently configured to allow the gathering of larger groups are targeted specifically
by this video conferencing CIP, but in addition, we will be able to extend coverage to remote
locations via our Microsoft Teams applications, so that if we need to reach our groups at one
end of the County or the other, we will be able to do that as well.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: I just wanted to go back to the County network of
the structure. When we went to National Association of Counties (NACo) the big discussion
was on broadband and how it gets out to the isolated parts of our island or the communities.
How does this all tie into the broadband?
Mr. Sherman: The broadband initiatives are a separate project.
However, we have been able to utilize our County network infrastructure to deliver some
broadband services, primarily to all of the neighborhood centers, then open those up to the
public and to our community college for families to use if they did not have internet
connectivity at their homes or some other means to connect. Although the network
infrastructure project is not technically a part of any broadband initiative. It has allowed us
to deliver broadband services to some of these groups that we were concerned about.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions regarding CIP
Finance? Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I have one on Fire.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We are not there yet.
Councilmember DeCosta: Okay, I will wait.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: When I hear about these Zoom rooms, is there any
thought for the Council to have one, too? It would be nice if we had that. I know that is
maybe not Finance, but it might be good if we had that capability as well, just putting that
into the mix.
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MICHAEL A. DAHILIG, Managing Director (via remote technology): Mike Dahilig,
Managing Director. As part of what Del has been mentioning, we are trying to also tackle
some of the requirements that amend to Hawai`i Revised Statutes (HRS) 892 for in-person
testifying and those types of things. Those additional areas are more than welcome
partnerships with the Council on using those on Council hearing days. Typically, we do not
schedule commission or board meetings on Wednesdays for that reason, so that multi-use of
dual use of our County conferencing facilities could be used in that manner.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
(Councilmember DeCosta was noted as not present.)
Councilmember Kuali`i: I think what she is asking, is this room capable of
connecting on the day that we need to with KEMA, the Planning Commission, the Boards &
Commission, and now the three (3) locations that Del told us about; Office of the County
Attorney, Finance, and Real Property Tax, and if not, if it needs to have some kind of technical
upgrade, would it not seem appropriate to do it here at the Chambers?
Mr. Dahilig: I am understanding the question,
Councilmember, that certainly is a good suggestion. I think at this point, as Del has
mentioned, we still have to scope out the full extent of technology use for those facilities that
were identified and we can come back as a supplemental and adjust it to include Council as
an identified facility, if that is what the Council so wishes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions regarding CIP
Finance? If not, we are going to move onto Fire. Councilmember DeCosta had a question,
but he just stepped out. I have a question on the helicopter hangar, can you give me the
status on it? Where is it going to be located? I know at one time we had over $1,000,000 or
more for the hangar. I know we have a hangar at the airport right now, but I think the plan
is to move it off the airport, so if anyone can give me an update on the helicopter hangar.
STEVEN R. GOBLE, Fire Chief (via remote technology): Good morning. Fire Chief
Steve Goble. Helicopter hangar, this has been a long time project for the Fire Department
and we had initially sited this project for the airport site; however, through that process we
identified a couple of things, one, we did not have sufficient funding to build the facility that
we needed on the airport—that facility type, so we regrouped as that hangar shrunk in size
and shrunk in addressing our needs, we regrouped and came up with plan "B," which was to
erect the tension fabric structure that we obtained through a grant several years ago, and
locate that off site at the Honsador site which is just south of the airport. We are looking to
co-locate that with another project of ours, a modular training facility that can help us save
a little bit of cost there. As you noted, the original cost had swollen to over $2,000,000 to put
that metal structure on the airport side, and now through some effort on our part, we are
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able to reduce that cost significantly. We cut it in about half and we feel like this will meet
our future needs.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Are there any follow-up questions to
that? Are there any new questions? Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I am looking at the Fire Station improvements. I
am surprised that the numbers are as low as they are, but it is not for all the fire stations, is
that correct? It is just for these two (2) that we are looking at, Waimea and Kalaheo.
(Councilmember DeCosta was noted as present.)
Mr. Goble: That is kind of an open project for us. We have
been afforded funding in this project year-over-year, so we use this money to adapt to our
pressing needs across the island with our fire Stations. That note in their addresses the
Waimea and Kalaheo Stations flooring projects,which are ongoing right now. We just moved
forward with a notice to proceed on both of those projects. This additional $250,000 for
additional projects coming up in Fiscal Year 2023, primarily a reroof of the Koloa Station,
and some improvements at Hanalei Station, and design and engineering project for
apparatus bay extension.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I was absent for the flooring. I am going to ask a
question for the flooring. Can you get me the square footage on both those fire stations, and
what are the labor and material costs embedded in the square footage? I was just looking at
the price and I wanted to know what the price per square foot of labor and material would be
to install.
Mr. Goble: We will break down that cost for you. We do have
a little over $70,000, almost $74,000, marked for these two (2) projects. A lot of this is driven
by the labor cost and the current construction market is really driving this. With both of
these jobs out for bid and did not get back any acceptable bids, so we had to go through an
alternate method to get the procurement done. The prevailing wage piece of this is a
significant chunk of that labor cost that is a part of this, but we will break down the cost and
get those to you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions for Fire on their
items? If not, we are going to move on. Thank you, Chief. Next up, is Housing. Do we have
any questions for Housing? I have a question for Adam. Can you give us an update for Lima
Ola? What is the status of it? I know a lot of the ground improvements have been completed
and I want to know where we are going from here and when vertical is going to take place.
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ELISA LAGOC-CHANG, Assets Program Coordinator (via remote technology):
Aloha, good morning. This is Lisa Chang,
Housing. Adam is currently out of the office at Lima Ola as we speak, so I do not have any
updated information to provide.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: This is a simple question. I did not realize
Waimea Theater would be under Housing. Is it because it did not have a place to belong?
What are we doing with the $125,000? It says just fixing it up, basically. Why is that in the
Housing Agency?
Ms. Lagoc-Chang: It has been historically with the Housing Agency.
The request that we are doing is to address the ongoing flooding issues at the theater,
especially with the torrential rains that we have been having in 2018 and 2020. Whenever
we have those inclement weather, the theater always seems to flood, and Housing would be
responsible for mitigating the issues at the theater.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you. I did not know that it had that
problem.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: For the Pa'anau Phase I Energy Upgrades; two(2)
questions on that. One, I see it says General Fund here, was there funds utilizing some of
the revenue from the Contract For Difference (CFD) Kukui`ula Bond, or was that a different
energy project?
Mr. Dahilig: Councilmember, I can confirm that it is a blended
fund scenario, so there were things that did come out of that funding source to support that
as well.
Councilmember Evslin: The other question is, it says here, converting to
tankless hot water, was there some consideration for using solar hot water and how did that
determination get made? Do you go with tankless?
Mr. Dahilig: That is something I would probably have to ask
the designers on, on why they made that call and why a waiver was given, but I would suspect
given the size of the units and the individual demand on the matter of fact that scenarios for
that multi-housing type of situation to having something that was more adept to right sizing
with the tankless setup versus a solar and tank setup was a lot harder than tankless readily
savings, but I can go ahead and confirm that for you. If I could also, just to reply back to the
Chair's question, we have already awarded two (2) vertical construction lots out at Lima Ola.
Those are expected to begin with vertical construction in October. We currently have an RFP
out for an additional area to duplicate what we tried to do at Kealaula using American Rescue
Plan (AMR) funds, so that permanent support of housing initiatives looking to be put on an
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additional pad that has already been build out there in Phase I, so that is currently out for
RFP at this time.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay, thanks. Are there any other questions for
Housing? If not, we will move on to HR. Are there any questions for HR? All of the expenses
are for Human Resources Management Systems (HRMS), which he already had discussion
on already in the HR Department. If not, we can move on. Next up, is Kaua`i Emergency
Management Agency (KEMA). Are there any questions for KEMA on their single item?
Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: This looks like a significant project when it is
replacing all five (5) of the communication buildings with current public safety grade harden
prebuilt structures, specifically for radio communication. This means out on the towers, is
that right? Where does this mean? Near the towers?
ELTON S. USHIO, Emergency Management Administrator (uia remote technology):
Councilmember Cowden, the 800 mhz radio
system that KEMA manages and operates for the County includes a combination of various
locations. The system core resides here, at the main Emergency Operating Center (EOC),
Kaua`i Police Department (KPD), Prosecuting Attorney complex, but we also have multiple
sites in the field. The five (5) sites included in this request are what we call our primary
microwave site in our infrastructure that ensure transmission and connectivity, not only in
the respective areas, but to each other and back to the system core here at the main complex.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. We talked about this together, but it seems
like an important upgrade that has been needed for some time.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Yes, and we would really appreciate support on
this item, particularly as past and current Administrations, County Councils, even the State
Legislature have supported our public safety radio system, and this is an additional step in
our effort to harden it further, particularly given the age of those structures.
Councilmember Cowden: So, this would be about $600,000 a piece, so that
is cinder block walls, are you taking the entire building down and putting a new structure up
for that? What is a harden building?
Mr. Ushio: My understanding is that these are prefabricated
structures. I do have our Telecom Administrator Officer available to provide more specifics.
David, are you able to chime in here?
DAVID MIYASAKI, Telecommunications Officer (uia remote technology): This is
a specialized prefabricated building with total telecommunications support for special
grounding electrical cable management fire suppression. Yes, these are specially designed
for public safety operations.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions on this item from
the Members? If not, we will move on. Next up, CIP miscellaneous for Building. I have a
question on Pi`ikoi renovations, what is our plan for the Pi`ikoi Building?
Mr. Dahilig: Over the past couple of years, we had attempted
to see if we could use the request for a proposal process to look at P3 types of opportunities
to revitalize that space, and through the public solicitation that we did do and through
conversations with developers it was apparent that the conditions, both economically
business set up wise, as well as the fact that we were looking for will not necessarily attract
that large amount of private investment into that former Big Save space. In the meantime,
what we are concerned about is leaving that space empty is not an option, but we also need
to do some things to put it in a useable condition rather than having it be in a position where
it starts to slowly deteriorate. What we wanted to do with the funds is to at least do some
minor upgrades to that area to make sure that it is weatherproof, make sure that the interior
is at least shelled out as an open space, and then talk about future plans and specifications
for additional development on it, because it still is an asset that can be used, but the idea of
turning that into some type of P3 opportunity was not viable when we went out for solicitation
over the past year.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: What is P3 mean?
Mr. Dahilig: A public-private partnership.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. I am curious. That building has not been
used for a long time as far as I know, is it molded or is it in reasonably good shape inside?
Mr. Dahilig: It is essentially what you would expect a gutted
supermarket to look like, uneven concrete, pretty much a shell. We have been using it on
and off for storage of supplies between different departments, that is all it has been used for,
so there is no electricity to that area, no water or any type of utility services. It is a shelled
out building.
Councilmember Cowden: Are we talking about the old Big Save not the old
Gems. Gems is a storage area. Are we talking about Gems or Big Save?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: That is the area we are talking about—the Big
Save area.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions for the renovations
of the Pi`ikoi Building? Councilmember DeCosta.
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Councilmember DeCosta: I have two (2) questions. The first is on the
Waimea 400 drainage. Are we using consultants with that $400,000 or are we going to do
those drainage and soil studies in-house?
Mr. Dahilig: We are going to be using consultants for those.
That is beyond...the scope and we look at specifically to implement some of the items related
to the Community Plan that was presented to you, it is going to require some hydrological
types of investigations which we do not have that capacity.
Councilmember DeCosta: I can support that. The next one was about the
electrical repairs. I noticed that it is kind of large sum of money to hire a consultant that we
already in the description say that the system was old, temporary, and they were told funding
to perform work will follow. Why do we have to spend $250,000 to tell us something that we
already know, that the air conditioner was temporary, needs to be replaced, and we should
replace it anyway?
Mr. Dahilig: A lot of that comes as a consequence of the design
of the building. We were quoted initially a very large sum to do these repairs. We did not
believe that the amount was necessarily reflected of the amount of work that needed to be
done. It is a lot more to try to create specific plans and specifications for those repairs rather
than trying to go at it as a "fix what you see" type of scenario. That is kind of why we need
to be a little more methodical rather than having these repairs done on the fly. It does require
a consultant to do so.
Councilmember DeCosta: I like that, Mike. Thank you very much.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions on this page? If not,
we will move on. CIP-Parks & Recreation. These are all items that we have not gone over
yet. If there are questions on any of the items on this page...Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Regarding the Veterans Cemetery. This
substantial completion...I know we put more columbariums in there. I thought we were
going to open that building up. Maybe I missed it during the COVID-19 time. Did we open
the building up, so it faces the back side of the park? It seemed like a pretty substantial
repair. We have that beautiful ceramic piece there. Has that already been done, opening it
up to face the back side where we are expanding the cemetery? Did I miss it?
PATRICK T. PORTER, Director of Parks & Recreation (via remote technology):
Yes, so the cemetery project is a State-run
initiative of the State Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS). It is near
completion, yes. We are probably going to have a blessing at the ending of April. That is a
State-run project and does not fall under our CIP.
Councilmember Cowden: Am I hearing correcting that they opened up that
building to face out both ways?
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Mr. Porter: Yes.
Councilmember Cowden: Wow, okay. I have to take a look.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions on the Veterans
Cemetery Improvements? If not, I have a question on the Parking Lot/Playcourt Resurfacing
for Koloa basketball and tennis courts. It says that it is completed. Was that one actually
completed, or is it going to be completed this fiscal year?
WILLIAM TRUGILLO, Chief of Planning & Development (uia remote technology):
No, that project is not completed. We have
awarded the contract and are looking to see when we can get the contractor out there to start
physically doing the project probably in the next couple of weeks.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I have a question on the Hanapepe Stadium. I
noticed that we have some moneys allocated towards the comfort station, food booth, and
ticket booth. The community, especially the kupuna, has asked many times about the
bathroom. Right now, we only have those porta potties out there on home-side of the
Stadium. They have to walk very far to get to the other side to use the bathrooms. I was
wondering if we were going to address those bathroom needs somewhere down the line out
in Hanapepe?
Mr. Trugillo: Yes. The intention for this project is to do a
bathroom that is closer to the home-side, as well as a bathroom that can also service the
outside fields. When the Stadium is closed, the little leagues, soccer, or flag football
participants and families can use an accessible bathroom as well.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you, William.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: William, I was told that there may be another
project for a bicycle track at the Kapa`a, Bryan J. Baptiste (BJB) Sports Complex. Is that
true? I do not see it on here. I was wondering what the status of that is.
Mr. Trugillo: There is a community group that has shown
interest in establishing a pump track particularly in that area. They want it in that area.
We have had discussions with them and have talked to them about where a possible site
could be in the area of BJB Sports Complex. We have left it up to them to see what they want
to do as the next steps. They were talking about bringing in funding, resources, and the like
so we gave them a possible location and they were excited about the options. We are waiting
for them to see what their next steps are at this point.
Councilmember Chock: Okay, thank you for the update.
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Mr. Trugillo: Sure.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Just a follow-up to Committee Chair Kaneshiro's
question for the Islandwide Playcourt Resurfacing. There is the Parking Lot/Playcourt
Resurfacing which mentions K6loa Park, which is what I think he was asking about when
you said that it was in contract. Lower down there is the Islandwide Playcourt Resurfacing
which also mentions Koloa Park. It says that this funding will follow the resurfacing at Koloa
Park. I was just wondering how those two (2) projects tie-in. Is there some overlap there
regarding Koloa Park? Is the first one doing Koloa and the second one doing other parks?
How does that work?
Mr. Trugillo: Yes, there is overlap in terms of the pockets of
funding available here. The intention has been to use both funding sources and project
numbers for the same thing. In this case, we had enough for one (1)park to do the resurfacing
of the tennis and basketball courts at Koloa. Moving forward, we intend to do others
throughout the island.
Councilmember Evslin: Great, that is good to see. Regarding the Koloa
one, I know a lot of tennis courts have been restriped to allow pickleball also. Is that going
to possibly occur at Koloa? I have heard that there is definitely a community push to have
pickleball at the Koloa tennis court.
Mr. Trugillo: Yes, so we have had both sides of the net for this.
Of course, pickleballers have been asking and the tennis players have also been hesitant
about it. Currently, the plans in Koloa are to establish what is called dedicated pickleball
courts. This means that it is a pickleball court and the nets are there permanently. We will
have a few there. We will also be having at least one (1) tennis court there. That will be the
first dedicated pickleball courts for the County. Also, on all the tennis courts, we are going
to do what is called"blended"or"ghost lines"where the lines for the pickleball court will also
be available, yet it will be a "bring your own net" situation. They could also play pickleball
on the tennis courts also.
Councilmember Evslin: Awesome. Are there two(2)tennis courts at Koloa
right now? One (1) would be pickleball and one (1) would be tennis? There will be no new
additional paved area?
Mr. Trugillo: Correct.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay. Awesome, thank you, William.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
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Councilmember Cowden: On the Waimea/Kekaha Americans with
Disability Act (ADA) Improvements, it is two (2) parks. $1,600,000 seems like a generous
amount of money. What exactly are they going to do to bring them up to ADA compliance?
Mr. Trugillo: ADA improvements for both includes primarily
walkways and the improvements at both parks. To be honest, the $1,600,000 will be enough,
based on our primary construction estimates from the consultant, for pretty much one (1)
park.
Councilmember Cowden: Oh, okay.
Mr. Trugillo: We are going to focus on Waimea Canyon for now.
Like I said, that will be the walkways, bleachers, announcer's booths, renovating the
bathroom to meet ADA-compliance, et cetera. That is what that one is for.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. On the Kilauea Gym, I know this is just a
match for State funds. Did we already fix the roof? What are you going to do to the Kilauea
Gym?
Mr. Porter: Yes, that is a hardening project to bring it up to
speed as a Category 3 hurricane shelter. The roof is a part of this job. There will be a
brand-new roof.
Councilmember Cowden: The overall cost must...if it is to harden up the
Gym...probably the State or Feds...the State is putting in a significant amount of money?
Mr. Porter: Yes, it is a big project.
Councilmember Cowden: Yes, okay, that will be good. Is that is the only
shelter on the entire North Shore?
Mr. Porter: Hanalei Elementary School is used as a shelter.
That is our primary shelter we use during disasters on the north side of the bridge, and this
will be a shelter on the south side bridge.
Councilmember Cowden: Yes, if it is not raining. With the Convention
Hall—I appreciate the details in here. It looks like it is just trying to bring it to a little bit
more modern speed, right? Is the building just getting old? Is it just bringing it up to date?
Mr. Porter: Yes.
Councilmember Cowden: Ceiling, electric...
Mr. Porter: Yes. It is slowly deteriorating and so we are just
chipping away at it and bring it up to speed.
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Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I noticed we are putting lights in the tennis courts
or replacing lights at the Waimea Canyon Middle School. I have been told that there is a
basketball court by many of my constituents that they need some lights when they play at
night and some of the lights need fixing. There were some concerns about the lights out at
Waimea Canyon basketball court. The second question I had was, how are the lights out at
our County park next to the Waimea High School? I noticed during football season and even
the baseball season, it gets dark early. Those athletic programs struggle, so can you provide
a status? William, do we have plans to place any bleachers at the Waimea County Park next
to the new baseball field?
Mr. Trugillo: The first question you mentioned was regarding
the Waimea Canyon Park basketball court.
Councilmember DeCosta: Yes.
Mr. Trugillo: That there were concerns about the lighting?
Councilmember DeCosta: Yes.
Mr. Trugillo: That is the first time I am hearing about that, so
I will put a work order in to check it out. I had not heard that before. In terms of the Captain
Cook Park lighting, we can also look at it. The intention when we went through it was to do
g
basic...to be honest what the plan was in working with Waimea High School was that it was
going to be a practice field. The word I got later was that it was so nice they wanted to play
games there. The bleachers, the night lighting, and so forth was not considered on that first
round of improvements, but like we said, if the intention is for them to play games there,
then we can look at putting the other amenities that is required for games there.
Councilmember DeCosta: Who decided that discussion with the field being
just a "practice field?"
Mr. Trugillo: The initial discussions were with Waimea High
School.The initial intention was for it to be a practice field.A practice field for the high school
and the youth and for other youth baseball to use it for perhaps as games, but the intention
was for it to be more of a practice area.
Councilmember DeCosta: Was the community involved in that discussion?
Mr. Trugillo: At the very beginning, no, because it was just a
renovation of that one practice area. It was the County and the high school.
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Councilmember DeCosta: How about the lights for the practice
baseball/football field, would we be able to get that as an accommodation for those coaches
out there that when it does get dark, it is not a safety issue, can we have the lights turned on
or not?
Mr. Trugillo: Yes, we can look at that. We can have it looked at
in terms of having night lights out there for sure.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you very much.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: For the skateboard park, it says $250,000 was
incumbered in this last fiscal year. For the Bryan J. Baptiste skateboard park renovations, I
thought that the moneys were Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act
money or did it get transferred somehow and end up becoming CIP?
Mr. Porter: The skateboard park was supposed to be funded
with CARES Act moneys, but through the funding process, it was transferred over to a
different fund and CARES was not used for that project.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay. For the $150,000 left, my understanding
originally with that $400,000 was that it was supposed to go towards Hanapepe Skatepark
or a Westside skatepark somewhere. Is there still forward momentum there for a Westside
skatepark?
Mr. Trugillo: We did a quick build that we received grant money
for at Hanapepe Town Park. The County is also working with the community group to do a
quick build at the Waimea Canyon Park. The intention with this $150,000 now is to go and
look at where else we can...or we want to do the long-term permanent park and try to get
designs for those.
Councilmember Evslin: Hopefully $150,000 for design in this next year
and then in future CIP hopefully for construction?
Mr. Trugillo: Yes.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I have a follow-up. There was a doubleheader high
school game already played out there in Waimea, so they are playing games. How much
would it cost the County to put bleachers on both sides of those dugouts? Can you provide
me with a cost estimate in an E-mail later?
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Mr. Trugillo: Yes, can do.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: For Kapa'a Stadium Improvements, I know we
have talked about that in the past, but can you provide us with update? The big picture was
to use that facility for a Kaua`i Interscholastic Federation (KIF) site.
Mr. Trugillo: In the past year, what has been done relating to
this project is the replacement of all the bleachers, the new announcer's booth, the new
scoreboard, all of those were done, they had to do a lot of the electrical and water lines
throughout construction. We redesigned it so that the field space itself was a little bit wider
than it was. All the major pieces are completed...and we made it ADA accessible by having
the routes put in. Hopefully the experiencing of viewing it is better with the fans being higher
up. All the major parts are done and is being used by youth football leagues. In terms of what
is left, there is a small punch list items that the contractor had to come back and finish up,
but for the most part, it has been safe, and it is being used.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: For the Islandwide Playground Equipment and
then I also see a separate one for Kalena Park Improvements, will either of those include
funding for the slide at Kalena Park? The slide there has been unusable for a while now and
that playground structure has been decaying. Would any of those include funding for
playground equipment at Kalena Park?
Mr. Trugillo: Yes, the Kalena Park line item is intended to help
with the slide and overall aging equipment. The community group has taken it upon
themselves and took the initiative and contacted the contractor, the vendor, and is in the
process of replacing the slide. Amongst themselves, they decided to change the slide to
climbing steps. That part is on order, and they are waiting for it to arrive. The lead time for
these items has been six (6) to seven (7) months. That is the status. The community group
wanted to look at how they can redo the entire playground and are throwing around ideas of
doing a more "adult" or senior fitness things in the area. They are throwing around ideas
amongst themselves right now. The $60,000 that is in the budget is to help support that.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: My question is broad with a lot of these different
improvements at our parks. Are we thinking as we make some of these improvements to
include shaded areas for our kupuna? A lot of our people create their own little watching
area sometimes; they bring their chairs, pop-up tents, and maybe some of our kapuna think
to bring an umbrella. Even when you create those smaller bleachers, can at least a portion
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of it be, like maybe the ADA portion where a wheelchair can park or just some of it include
shading? That is what I heard from some kupuna.
Mr. Trugillo: We can look at shade aspects in terms of seating.
That is a good point.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions on this page of
projects? If not, we will move to the next page. Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: The Black Pot Comfort Station. Could you
describe that a little bit and provide a status?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: That is one of the newest projects on the list.
Mr. Porter: That is not meant for the comfort station. That
will tie into the overall master plan process. Now that the master plan has gone through its
course, the next step was to request money for the planning and design, so that money to
start that process.
Councilmember Evslin: Is that some element of that constructure of
comfort station? I thought $500,000 seems...I guess what are the next steps there to
implement the master plan?
Mr. Porter: We just have to retitle that item. After the master
plan was completed, our next step is to go through the planning design concepts for what was
build out in the master plan. The $500,000 is to start that entire planning and design process.
Councilmember Evslin: We left the master plan process talking about
maybe more communication to try and figure out a canoe club location there. Has that been
determined in some capacity whether there will be a spot for a canoe hale and will that be
included in the next steps here for the master plan?
Mr. Porter: We have not had too much discussion on the
process with the Council, but that would definitely be a part of the discussion with the
planning and design process. That will be a big part of the discussion, yes.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Does that mean that you are going to put all that
concrete in, all that harden surface on that grass there in that park area? Is that what this
is? Putting in all that concrete? Does this mean that this is the design to lay out all that
concrete on those acres in that back of that flood prone area?
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Mr. Porter: There were a few sidewalks that I remember in
that master plan, but that all goes back to the planning design. For example, what type of
material we put on the ground will start out in the planning and design process. Nothing in
that master plan is set in stone. It just shows a conceptual of the area, and not at all anything
written in stone. That is what this next step is going to be a guide into and take a look and
see what is appropriate for that area.
Councilmember Cowden: Does that include diving into where we saw
profound scouring over the new concrete that I sent all of those pictures of into the river, like
where we put the concrete in, it scoured through basically the canoe club property, because
that is the unhardened surface, now Namolokama Canoe Club area, because of the existing
concrete. I hope that when we plan this that we look at that type of destruction, which
happened after we had this conversation where the rest of the group approved the plan. It
seems really evident that there is so much flooding in that area and we are seeing that
manifest. Where will there be in this $500,000 effort some sort of community input, to keep
more scouring from happening? Certainly, Namolokama Canoe Club where it does exist right
now would be a greater threat for more scouring as we harden the surfaces on either side of
that private one-acre piece.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: What was the question?
Councilmember Cowden: Is there opportunity,where are we going to be able
to make sure that is looked at, because it seems like it has been an obvious problem from
before it was approved, yet it got approved. I worry that we are going to really have a lot
more problems.
Mr. Porter: Again, the drainage issues will be addressed in
the planning and design process. That is what this money is for, and it will take into
consideration all of these issues and we will design and plan it appropriately.
Councilmember Cowden: Will it possibly correct the problems that have
occurred from the improvements that we have made so far?
Mr. Porter: Yes, and that is what the plan would be...any
issue that is existing there, we would want to address in the design process moving forward.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions on this item?
Councilmember DeCosta: I see where Councilmember Cowden is advocating
for that canoe club and that acre, but I must advocate for our County that we are doing
improvements on our park, but we do not own that acre, so we cannot improve that acre. We
can only improve the land that is all the way around there and maybe we work as a partner
with the landowner, and together come up with a plan.
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Councilmember Cowden: You missed my point, Councilmember DeCosta.
My point is it does not really matter if it is private or not private. My point is that the
improvements that we did scoured the adjacent piece of land, so when we are putting in more
concrete...do not shake your head.
Councilmember DeCosta: It was not our fault.
Councilmember Cowden: I am trying to...
Councilmember De Costa: It was the fault of the weather.
Councilmember Cowden: Point of order.
Councilmember DeCosta: Why are you blaming the County?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: You can finish what you were going to say and
then we can move to new questions.
Councilmember Cowden: The point I am making is when we put that
harden surface in that floodplain, anything next to that hardened surface gives away next to
it. So, when our plan that was approved, I believe 6:1—there is a lot more harden surface, so
I want us to be really concise if we are going to erode the land next to more harden surfaces.
We see evidence that the harden surfaces damage the land around it. That is what we are
seeing. Regardless of who owns what land, it is important to look at the impact of the harden
surfaces, that is my point.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: I want to follow-up on that. When talking to the
Parks team and they have a plan in place, we went over all how to address each of the areas
that is being discussed right now. The discussion on the table was to look at each area
specifically, like you are saying Councilmember Cowden, and address it accordingly. It is not
being put on the side. This funding is there to address it. I just want to make it clear as
Committee Chair talking to our Parks teams. It will be addressed.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I think it is very important how we state things in
front of the public that we do not mislead them to think something else, so that is why I
correctly made that comment. I appreciate your corrective comment, Councilmember
Carvalho.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions on Black Pot? We
are going to change the title. Mike, did you have something you wanted to add?
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Mr. Dahilig: I did want to mention in response to any type of
determination that improvements made after 2018 have exacerbated any type of property
damage, we would very strongly deny those claims and if there is some evidence to that effect
that it has been brought to us by a license professional, then we would probably want to
investigate that. What we are suggesting is part of the overall Black Pot improvements and
we will send over a supplemental adjustment to that title based on that erratum. What is
important to us as Pat mentioned is that when we are looking at the material that is being
used and not just the construction. As you are aware, a predominant amount of the new
construction involves materials such as crushed coral or grassing, so those are strategies that
we understand are preferable to the community out there. If and where those are balanced
with durability and maintenance cost over the long run, they can be included in the overall
strategy in development of construction plan or materials list. We are certainly open to that,
but at this point we have not decided that at any subsequent improvements after the 2018
flood as part as some of the partial implementation of some of the parking needs that are out
there have been contributing factors to, in other words, something that was catastrophic.
Until we have a licensed professional making those determinations that we agree or disagree
with that.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions on this?
Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: On this page? Hanapepe Stadium Improvements,
will that $700,000 bring our stadium, especially the baseball area back up to par? I noticed
that we had some dugout areas that were badly damaged. Will that $700,000 bring us up to
code and would we be able to have County or high school baseball games again in that area?
Mr. Trugillo: This money does not include replacing the
dugouts at Hanapepe Stadium. I understand that it is aging, and we had to do some safety
measures, but this money does not include that at this point. There have been different talks
to what we can do to address it and nothing has been settle yet. In terms of having games
there, like I said it was...I believe, I do not know, but I believe it was the choice of KIF to play
at Cook Field rather than at the Hanapepe Stadium. The Hanapepe Stadium is ready to play.
I think other leagues are using it now, it is just KIF who is not.
Councilmember DeCosta: Two (2) blocks down, it says, "Replacing and
improve comfort stations at various sites," and I noticed you have Lucy Wright Park,
Hanapepe Town Park, and Lihu`e County Park, but there is no comfort station at the county
park at Cook Field in Waimea. The last time we had a high school game, we had to use state
bathrooms. Is there a plan to put a county bathroom in that area?
Mr. Trugillo: At this point, there is none. Like I mentioned, the
idea was for it to be a practice field and we are shifting the intention to be game field, where
the public is called to, especially since it is a KIF event, I think using their bathrooms for
now is okay. But in the long-term plan, we can look at that. If this is going to be a place that
people play games that restrooms be installed for sure.
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Councilmember DeCosta: I talked about comfort stations, lights, and
bleachers all at that Cook Field. It was supposed to be just a practice field and now KIF
decided to play games there. I am hoping there is a possibility, especially for our kupuna a
place for them to sit and watch their grandchildren play a game, so the bleacher would be my
priority for the Cook Field out in Waimea. Thank you.
Mr. Trugillo: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I would like to talk about the comfort stations at
Lihu`e County Parks and just for clarity, that is right next to Elsie H. Wilcox Elementary
School. There had been bathrooms in there that seemed like they were removed. Can you
tell me about that? What is our plan to put bathrooms back in? I think the bushes are
sometimes replacing that need for a comfort station. What is the situation with that there?
Mr. Porter: That was taken down because of the condition of
it and the septic system associated with it. We removed it because it was becoming a hazard.
We are looking at the Portland Loo style bathrooms to replace the bathrooms at these three
parks. For the Lihu`e Baseball Park, we still have not determined where the best location is.
We are thinking it is not going in the same place that it was. We are thinking of another
place, maybe closer to Convention Hall side, which is primarily so it can service the tennis
courts and the baseball field, and the sewer tying is closer on that side. We are thinking
somewhere along there. We have not finalized the spot yet.
Councilmember Cowden: An example of a"Portland Loo" would be the ones
next to our bus stops here between the two County facilities, correct?
Mr. Porter: Correct.
Councilmember Cowden: Would we just put one stall in or would there
likely be a little bit larger system with more than one toilet?
Mr. Porter: They are coming out with new models now and so
we are looking at their new models.
Councilmember Cowden: I know a problem that we certainly had at Lucy
Wright Park and I think maybe at Lihu`e County Park can sometimes have misuse of the
bathrooms at night and even people living in them. The idea of doing the Portland Loo is
that it would really be pretty much limited to going to the bathroom. Is that the goal behind
putting the Portland Loo style in?
Mr. Porter: Correct, and the maintenance of Portland Loo is
more user-friendly for the maintenance side.
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Councilmember Cowden: When we first put this one in next to the bus
shelters, my memory tells me that at first, we had trouble with the flow going through this
sewer line because there was not enough water flow or there were some problems. Did we
resolve that effectively and do we know how to resolve that to put that elsewhere?
Mr. Porter: That was purely a plumbing issue, and it took into
the raise and the run of the actual plumbing itself underneath, so it had nothing to do with
the Portland Loo itself. It was the outlet plumbing that was the issue on that one. That will
be taken into consideration.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: In regard to the basketball courts, there are
numerous parents calling and asking about the possibility of having courts having the same
size baskets for the younger youth age. There are many children islandwide involved in
basketball and I remember the conversation being brought up by parents looking at the
baskets being at that lower youth level. Is that something we can think about?
Mr. Porter: At the Isenberg Park? Yes, we can talk about that
and adding them to other courts around the island.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there further questions on this page? If not,
we will move on. We have CIP-Planning next. On the update East Kaua`i Community Plan,
I know we have done a great job on all the other community plans, I just wanted to know
what is the area for the East Kauai Community Plan?
MARIE WILLIAMS, Program Manager (via remote technology):Hello, Council Chair,
this is Marie Williams with the Planning Department. I can speak to the scope of the East
Kaua`i Community Plan. That is what we call the East Kaua`i Planning District. The last
update that was done back in the 1970s primarilydeveloped a town plan for the Wailua-
Kapa'ap p
area. This update will look at the entire region and not just the towns, but definitely
looking at Wailua Homesteads, Wailua Houselots, and I believe it goes all the way up to
Anahola and down to the Wailua Bridge. That is the geographic scope.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay, good. I have seen the process you folks have
gone through with all your other community plans and they all went really well. You
answered all my questions on it. Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Just along the lines of this plan, do you have a
proposed timeframe to start this process?
Ms. Williams: Yes,we are currently launching the public process
for the Climate Adaptation Plan, and we anticipate the plan will be at Council in about a
year. Upon that conclusion of our current project, we will go out and procure a consultant for
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this project and then we will work with them to figure out the timeline for the East Kaua`i
Community Plan.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I know this is a State issue, but I am just
wondering if the County will correspond with our State. I know the water is going to be
displaced by the decommission of that reservoir up there for our local farmers, that really
worries me. I know reservoirs and water is a state issue. I think it would be nice if our East
Kaua`i Community Plan can have a sit down conversation with our State officials and see if
we can save that reservoir. Especially not only for farming, but a lot of our community
members use it as a recreational fishing area and again, I know it is a state reservoir, but
with all of our children not getting enough outdoor activities, it would be nice to keep one of
our fishing areas available. Do you have any vision for those two (2) things I mentioned?
Water for our farmers coming out of that reservoir and the decommission of that reservoir
from the state.
Ms. Williams: Right now, we have not identified the specific
community concerns that would be addresses, although I would image that you are right—
those are major concerns that we would identify through our community process. We also
meet with the other, not only County Departments and Agencies, but our Federal and State
partners, I think that is the beauty of a planning process like this—we all work to identify
these issues and see how we can support what the community goals are. I would image the
gas product would be some how touched upon and addressed in the upcoming plan.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I want to follow-up and support what
Councilmember DeCosta just asked about, not just that reservoir, but just like what you did
with the Waimea 400 area that we put a lot of concentration into the water flow and how the
drainage works, and at one point the Kapa'a area was lo`i, it was actually wetland like what
we saw with Waimea and Kekaha. I imagine that you would be working a lot with looking
at where wetlands were, do we have templates for looking at how we deal with this flooding
situation, because Waimea and Kekaha have those ponds near Polihale, but we do not have
that in Kapa`a, so we have to think how we are going to adapt with that. Is that integrated
in what you are planning to do?
Ms. Williams: Yes, I think that the existing Climate Adaptation
Plan will be a really great...will come up with actions such as what you just discussed
regarding how we can use our natural infrastructure such as traditional wetland areas, and
use that to solve or at least provide a buffer for some of the drainage issues that we currently
have or are projected to increase as a result of climate change and sea level rise. I think that
the fact that so much of our built area in east Kauai area is low-lying and prone to drainage
issues that will have to be identified and addressed.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I have a different question and that is about the
LIMS system, and I know that Del Sherman answered many of them and this is an area in
process, but how much of the Land Information Management System is currently working
and where are we going?
Ms. Williams: I believe that the LIMS project description, I am
so sorry to throw it back to IT, but I believe that IT is best suited to answer that.
Mr. Sherman: I can tackle the LIMS question. Specifically, you
had asked if any of it is in production at present, and the answer is "yes" it is. We have a
public facing portion of LIMS that anyone can visit, the website is connect.kauai.gov, if you
were to browse through that website you will see various means of public interacting with
the County from fireworks permits to driveway approach permits, and a handful of other
functions in between. On a bigger scope, LIMS is a multi-faceted thing, which is really
intended to connect actors and stakeholders to various things from materials and resources
to environmental to geographical types of data, so this is a work in progress, and our work
with LIMS continues, but I think we have made some good headway there. Hopefully visiting
that site will give you good information about where we are at today. Does that address your
question?
Councilmember Cowden: I will visit it. I know how important it is in terms
of planning, building, and permitting. $255,000 that is for this year, does it have another
two (2) or three (3)years in front of it to where it is fully functioning, or is another year all it
needs?
Mr. Sherman: I think we can safely say that LIMS will continue
to evolve forever. The capabilities of the software that we chose to support our LIMS
environment are significant, almost to the point where if we could imagine it, we can build
it. We will never stop growing LIMS. The moneys that we are seeing here in this CIP are
the funds that remain from our original CIP allocations several years ago. No new funds
have been added since that time, which I think is a remarkable accomplishment. We got a
lot done with the money that we were given. As I have mentioned before, likely sometime in
the future, we will need to supplement those funds to continue the program, but behind the
scenes I think we are making good progress as well, and implementing changes and new
ideas to bring the momentum of the project up a little bit, so we a excited about it, it is still
a front burner thing, it has our full attention and we plan to keep that going for the
foreseeable future.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you. You answered my question. I was
wondering if we had spent all the money. That is still part of what we did. I still think about
two (2) if not three (3) years ago and thank you for working diligently on this very important
project.
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Mr. Sherman: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Del, I had a question on LIMS project have
anything to do with Geographic Information System (GIS) and GIS mapping for Planning? I
thought we were going to try to have an integrated system where Planning, Roads, and
everyone had a GIS system they were working off, so everyone knew where everything was
as far as infrastructure-wise, where certain zoning lines were.
Mr. Sherman: We are on track. That is exactly what one of the
functions of LIMS was to be in. Yes, there is a very heavy GIS integration with LIMS, much
more so than we can cover in just a short amount of time we have here. I think to address
that in a suitable way, it might be appropriate to arrange a briefing at some other point to
get into that and into detail, so you have good information on that. Just a high level to answer
your question, LIMS is an integral part of our approach to GIS and will remain so for the
near future.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay, thank you. Are there any other questions
on any of the items for CIP Planning? If not, we will move on to CIP Police, one (1) item,
Kapa'a Police Substation. Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: I have one question Chief; I do not know if you are
there. I have been attending the Mahelona Community Master Plan meetings and the
substation has come up, it actually been a source of contention in terms of testimony, and I
am curious, I see that you folks have gone through some of the process here in the community
outreach, how is that being embedded, and have we come to a resolution agreement on its
location where you folks are stating it for?
TODD G. RAYBUCK, Chief of Police (uia remote technology): Good morning,
Council. Thank you for the question, Councilmember Chock. Yes, as you are aware, and you
pointed out there is some opposition from the residents that are immediately adjacent to the
proposed site. That opposition is approximately twelve (12) to fifteen (15) individuals, there
may be a little bit more than that, but on average the standard that I have discussed with
and identified is about twelve (12) to fifteen (15) very vocal persons that are in opposition of
the current planned location, not that they are in opposition of a police station at the
Mahelona site, but simply with the current location. Just as the background, this program,
as many of you are aware, started back in 2014 when this site location was initially selected,
and it has been designed and in development since 2014 in a slow slog to where we are today
with the draft final Environmental Assessment (EA). We have met with the new group that
is looking at a review of the site Master Plan, and I am hopeful that we will still be able to
locate, in fact, I am confident that we will still be able to locate the substation on the
Mahelona property. It may not be in the specific site where it is developed right now, but I
think it is important to mention as well, although there has been consistent vocal opposition
to the location, a very significant amount of support for the substation on Mahelona, as well.
There has been collective support from the Kaua`i Association of Contractors, as far as many
members of the community over one hundred fifty (150) Kapa`a/Kawaihau residents have
signed in favor of building that site up there. So, we will continue to work with Mahelona,
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the site developers, and the community to try to find a path forward to build this very needed
substation in the area. Thank you for the question.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions on this item?
Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: Chief, I would advise you to also work with those
fifteen (15) very loud vocal community members that you mentioned, because they are just
as important as the other one hundred fifty (150) that signed your petition. Everyone is
important in our community, so maybe if they are nervous about the station being too close
to their homes, apparently a home is someone's biggest investment, so we need to sympathize
with them also, but maybe there is ways that we can bridge the gap and work together for
everyone to have a win-win.
Mr. Raybuck: Councilmember DeCosta. Yes, thank you very
much, you are right, every member in that community is equally important. I have walked
that community on a couple of occasions to discuss with the specific homeowners what their
concerns are and done my best to explain a way some of the concerns that I think are without
merit, but nonetheless, we will continue to work with the community in placing this
substation. One of the things that we did in response to the resistance from some of those
community members is to pause the publication of our final EA, so that we can continue to
work with this site, as well as the community to find a win-win situation for all of us.
Councilmember DeCosta: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions on this item?
Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: My question is kind of basic. All three (3) of these
dollar items are everything describing it is exactly the same, is there something that
differentiates how each amount of funding is being spent?
Mr. Raybuck: Councilmember Kuali`i, thank you for that
question. Actually, these funds are set aside for the next phase of development, which is the
development stage, so each one of the different line items corresponds to a specific portion of
that budget where it may be earmarked for the architect design phase, or it may be the
consultant and landscape design phase, so it is broken out and structured in a manner of how
that spending would be utilized during the construction planning phase.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions? Did we finalize the
type of building—how big it was? I remember we went through a few budget cycles and each
budget cycle, I think the price of the building went up and the size of the building went up. I
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think the price went up a few million every year until it got to...I think it started at
$7,000,000 and ended at $15,000,000 or something. Did we ever finalize what that building
is going to look like? Hopefully not have it explode to $15,000,000, it might be $20,000,000
now if we have not heard about it in a couple of years.
Mr. Raybuck: Thank you for that question, Chair. The building
has been in fluctuation, both in size and in cost. We have finalized the concept design for
that plan, it is roughly eight thousand (8,000) square foot facility and the current cost for the
build is approximately $8,000,000. I think it is still fair to understand that building costs
have gone up dramatically since this project was initially slated in 2014, some of these costs
also include improving the type of construction that is used to meet the increase standards
for hurricane resistance—things like that that have also increased the cost of design and
build of this substation.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay, thank you. Are there any other questions
from the Members? Thank you, Chief. If not, we will move on to CIP Solid Waste, there are
a few new items on it. Are there any questions on those new items? Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I am happy to see that there is needed money
budgeted for our siting of a Solid Waste solution. All of these looks very important. Can you
tell us a little bit about our landfill siting?
ALLISON FRALEY, Solid Waste Program Development Coordinator (via remote
technology): As we presented back in January, we have a lot of
issues to look at when it comes to our long-term disposal options, specifically with landfill
siting. There are very little areas where we are able to site and we did reevaluate all the
previous sites that have been studied over the last twenty (20) years and found very limited
options, so we will be working to see if there are lands that do not have restrictions that we
can do preliminary engineering on to be able to site a landfill, as well as expanding vertically
at Kekaha and looking into the mining of landfill. This CIP budget here also hits other
solutions, which is investigating the feasibility of a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), as
well as the curbside recycling. So, we are going to use that budget to look at a lot of different
options.
Councilmember Cowden: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember DeCosta.
Councilmember DeCosta: I think important agricultural lands are one of the
stumbling blocks that makes a lot of the areas not useable, so I am going to ask, how can we
address our Senators from our State Legislature that somehow we need to talk with them
and have some kinds of accommodation made for the County of Kaua`i, because we are in a
must situation here, and we have been working on the landfill site for a very long time under
the Administration of Mayor Bernard P. Carvalho, Jr., we have a list, but that list is smaller
because of the categorizing of important agricultural land. Somehow, I would like to help
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with our Senators, whether it is a resolution or what, but somehow, we need to get that
redesignated, so our County has a better chance of siting a landfill.
Ms. Fraley: Yes, thank you, Councilmember. There is a house
bill that is moving right now, it is House Bill 1712, we have our eyes on it, we have submitted
testimony. This is about the important agricultural lands and formally preventing any
building on those lands, so we are looking at testifying, as well as submitting writing
testimony when that comes up. But thank you for your offer to help, I am not sure if Mike
has any suggestions on that.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Thank you, Allison. We talked about a little bit
yesterday, regarding the landfill siting Solid Waste solutions, and I am sorry that I have not
seen it in here, our version does not have it. Two (2) questions as follow-up from yesterday,
as Councilmember Cowden was asking about what the study is going to look like for the new
landfill siting, from my memory, and I might be wrong, but from the integrated Solid Waste
Management Plan, it lays out this huge landfill siting process, including establishing ethical
committee, and it seems like a long drawn out process, which I believe the County went
through the first time around. So, from what I am reading here, that whole big process does
not need to occur again, right? It is just a simpler study relooking at those previously
identified locations.
Ms. Fraley: Correct.
Councilmember Evslin: Is there a time period by law that we would need
to reconvene the initial process, or are we okay just with this smaller scope study for the
foreseeable future? We are not going to be timed out if we do not find one of these sites being
suitable, if there is not a likelihood of us having to reconvene this extensive process is there?
Ms. Fraley: I would say, "no." What is outlined in the plan is
the normal process for siting a landfill—a very intensive process, which like you have said,
we have already gone through. If we find sites that we have already looked at that are still
feasible, there may be one (1) or two (2), or new sites, we could do a shortened process. It
really has to do with preliminary engineering, working with the host community, and making
sure it is not in any restricted areas, otherwise it would not even be considered. I believe
that we could expedite the process, we will not have to go through the lengthy process that is
normal that we have already conducted.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay. A follow-up from the other part of my
questions from yesterday about the MRF and the curbside recycling component of that.
Ms. Fraley: Yes.
Councilmember Evslin: Just to be clear, it does not mention curbside
recycling in this write-up, you have the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan does
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clearly say, a study to determine feasibility of curbside recycling, so that curbside recycling
component will be included in these other solutions for diversion study, right?
Ms. Fraley: That is the plan, because we have to know what
the costs are. That is a really big thing, as was discussed earlier today like the construction
costs are skyrocketing, so we cannot go off of our former figures, we need to know the real
costs, so we would want to do that through a study to be able to make a decision.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay, thank you. Last question, just because it
also does not say in the description, will part of that study include siting for MRF?
Ms. Fraley: Yes, some of that we can do internally. We want
to be as cost-effective as we can, so internally we will be looking at sites and not just throw
it off to a consultant. We are going to save funds where we can.
Councilmember Evslin: Great, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any follow-up questions?
Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: I am a little bit encouraged here, because when we
had the excellent presentation from the Solid Waste Division, and we looked at all the sites
we had in the past, and none of them are okay now. I came away with a false impression
that there was no place that was available, but you are saying there are places available.
Ms. Fraley: Potentially Kekaha mauka.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay.
Ms. Fraley: Potentially, we are still looking into it.
Councilmember Cowden: That is the Agribusiness Development
Corportation (ADC) land.
Ms. Fraley: Yes.
Councilmember Cowden: I am sure I did support HB 1712.
Ms. Fraley: Yes.
Councilmember Cowden: I will look at it again. I think I wrote a letter on
that one. As Councilmember DeCosta said, will a resolution from our Council help you? Is
that something that we need? It seems like we are in a desperate situation.
Ms. Fraley: We are in a desperate situation. I am not sure
what would help. I do not know if my superiors here have any more insight than I do.
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Councilmember Cowden: Mike Dahilig, is there value in a resolution from
our Council, or is it out of our hands? If it is the State that is telling us there is no place that
is available.
Mr. Dahilig: Councilmember Cowden, just in response, City
and County of Honolulu is also in the same predicament, so this is something of, I would say,
consequence for majority of the States population. Like anything, as discussed with the
Council back in the previous conversation about the landfill and our next steps, we are
keeping as many doors as possible open, and throwing as many lines in the water as possible,
is the strategy we want to continuously keep pressure on and anything that would aide in
keeping those doors open, so that options are on the table is much appreciated. If that is
something that the Council would like to initiate in its support of best strategy, that would
be most welcomed.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, perhaps, you could give us some guidance,
what you think is the shortest path to solving it, because it is important that we ask for the
right thing.
Mr. Dahilig: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions regarding this
landfill siting and Solid Waste solutions item? Councilmember Carvalho.
Councilmember Carvalho: Mike and Allison, I wanted to follow-up. The
current Ma`alo site, I know we have gone back and forth and there has been some issues
regarding the State. I know we went through a lengthy process to relocate it there and the
positives of it moving there having gone through discussions with the Kekaha community,
and the very aggressive discussion we have had, and taking on the steps of my question, I
am going to ask again, one more time, I know there is some kind of issue with ADC, but is
there still a possibility to work it? We went through a lengthy process with Ma`alo. The
location was centrally located, it made sense to relocate there away from the westside. Before
we move away from that is there anything we can do to continue these discussions there to
hopefully come to some kind of understanding, because a lot has been done already. The
resource recovery part, all of it tied in, and I know there has been changes, but I am asking
the question, because by the tine the Kekaha landfill expires, are we in the timeline area? I
want people to understand the timeline and if there is a possibility in reaching out again, I
want to know as a Councilmember, what we can do to help the process—that is all I am
saying, because we have gone through a lot of different things in the past, but I am hoping
that we can continue or open dialogue, or something—that is where I am at.
Mr. Dahilig: Just in response, Councilmember Carvalho, it was
certainly our preference out of the gates to investigate and move forward on Ma`alo as the
site, and like anything in any process to build something, the next step after the
environmental disclosures that were done previously was to get right to the property to be
able to then move to getting the entitlements, which is the Land Use Commission approvals,
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zoning approvals, Department of Health, et cetera. Many of those processes are contested
case hearings, which right now, if you wanted to use as an example, the Waimanalo Gulch
landfill expansion proposals by City and County of Honolulu have been in decades long
litigation through the courts which has led to no progress of them also being able to find
landfill there. The one difference between the City and County and ourselves is that the City
and County has H-Power to mitigate their timeline, whereas at this point, we do not have
that opportunity to do so. As you have mentioned in the rearing of your statement, what
drives the conversation, or the decisions to go on the low, largely are the air space available
to us at the landfill. In discussions as we presented to the Council, that is where we start
our calculus or determination, and when we moved out of the gates to try to get and secure
landowner approvals, it was clear to us that the Agribusiness Development Corporation was
renascent to give us rights to the property since they hold current Executive Order without
consent of the States Airport Division due to the proximity of that landfill potential site being
close to the Lihu`e Airport, in conversations with Deputy Director of Transportation,
including many presentations between the Solid Waste staff and the Engineering staff at the
Airport Division, we could not reach an agreement that would have them either oppose a
potential permit or in fact go before any of the entitlement processes and essentially go before
Planning Commission and say we do not want this site here. Understanding that the
timeline becomes very unpredictable when you have that degree of opposition, both from a
State agency as well as another State agency that is renascent to relinquished property due
to the opposition of a sister agency. We had to make that calculation whether or not we would
be able to withstand Solid Waste continuity on-island without being able to site the landfill
within that period of time, and it became more apparent that the headwinds and Ma`alo were
becoming too out of range for us to be able to say, we have a solution at the end of the life of
the current Kekaha landfill. When Allison uses the phrase"crisis," it is in an essentially that
phrase where we had to start from square one, and take a look at all the sites again, look at
all our opportunities, and that is why the proposal before you for landfill siting and Solid
Waste solutions is meant to also be aggressive along with throwing other lines in the water,
that look at diversion and other types of means to be able to reduce the intake flow at Kekaha
as much as possible. That is what we are trying to build more years for a buffer to do so,
however, even with the additional airspace that we are looking at that has been approved by
the Council at the last Fiscal Year budget for vertical expansion, it is still unapparent that
we have agreements from the State, both from the Airport Division, as well as Agribusiness
Development Corporation, to not create headwinds for us going through the entitlement
process. We have not been in a position to have a willing landowner at this juncture and
while I would like to continue discussions, we need some tangible for a progress on other
potential options for us to be able to take care of this Solid Waste issue, because time is not
stopping, and as much as I would like to stop time, we do not have that luxury as trash
continues to go into the Kekaha landfill. So that is why we are being aggressive in this
proposal by looking at both landfill siting, looking at some of the work that has been done in
the past, and trying to build on that just trying to get some forward progress on that, but also
taking really serious things like construction, construction and demolition (C&D) types of
materials taking into consideration, what options we have for low-cost MRFing and those
types of things, so that we can build in additional use to that timeline to be able to create
that buffer, so that when Kekaha is absolutely full, we can seamlessly move to disposal
without having to essentially a Solid Waste mess on our hands. That is why we had to look
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at Ma'alo in that context. It was not our preferred route, but at the end of the day, we do not
hold the rights of that land, and at the same time also, we do not have the right of
condemnation for that property either. So as a County agency, we cannot condemn a site
that is on State land, that is just not one of the options that we have, so we have no control
over this to be able to make forward progress at the clip that we would like to be able to meet
the timeline dictated by the Kekaha filling.
Councilmember Carvalho: All I know is that it was a lengthy process, and I
was hoping that we could still continue to look at it and willing to do whatever I can at that
particular location, only because of the timing and the connections and all of that stuff. I
wanted to hear again one more time, because at that time, Kekaha was very against having
it remain there. We did not come up with it, the plan was done, we followed the plan, and
this was one of the locations. It started at Kalaheo in the coffee fields, but that did not work,
so then it moved here, and it continued, you folks know that. Anyway, I just wanted to bring
that to the table, and I am willing to do what I can as a Councilmember with my fellow
Councilmembers with me, but I think we need to keep moving, and if these discussions or
connecting...this is an important thing for our island, and just the layout of that whole are,
and I understand. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We are at caption break. We will stay on this
subject. We will take our 10-minute caption break and come back.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 11:07 a.m.
The meeting reconvened at 11:17 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Welcome back. We are still on the Landfill Siting
and Solid Waste Solutions line item in the CIP. Councilmember DeCosta, did you have a
question?
Councilmember DeCosta: I have a question for Mike, and I hope our County
Attorney Matthew M. Bracken is listening. Mike, can you check if Matt is online?
Mr. Dahilig: Matt is signed in.
Councilmember DeCosta: Could I have a list of choices, the fastest route
possible on how we can site a landfill? If Ma'alo is a preferable site...
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: It is Ma'alo.
Councilmember DeCosta: Sorry, we get the logistics of it. Thank you,
Councilmembers. Is it now to a point where we are going after some other sites that we were
originally going after? Are we looking at condemnation? Are we looking at those Important
Agricultural Lands (IAL) that have to be recalibrated into the category that they fall into? I
would list of what would be the fastest way of getting a landfill site. I notice that we use the
word"crisis" and in my definition of"crisis" that means something drastic is going to happen.
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I believe we are in a crisis-situation. I have spoken about this in another meeting on the
word condemnation. We have done it for the betterment of public workforce housing in
certain areas of Kauai. Why would this not be a feasible choice for a landfill on Kaua`i? I
want to ask the County Attorney a question now. If he is not there, I will address Mike, and
perhaps Mike can follow up on that. With condemnation, can we get started right away on
the project even though it has not gone through the court system yet?
MATTHEW M. BRACKEN, County Attorney (via remote technology): All that is
required to get the condemnation process started would be a resolution from the Council.
Once the Council authorizes the resolution, we could start the condemnation process. To get
control of the property, we would have to put down a deposit with the Court for the assessed
value of the property. We would also have to do an assessment of the property to get an
estimate of the value and we would have to deposit that with the Court. Once that has
occurred, then we have control of the property. That is the condemnation process, generally.
This would also require a few other moving pieces of course, which can be difficult to speed
up. I could have a memorandum prepared for you on all the various steps it would take.
Siting a landfill will not be a fast process. It will take time.
Councilmember DeCosta: We have seven (7) years left. Would it be finished
before the seven (7) years?
Mr. Bracken: I really could not opine on that. I could figure out
the process for you and how long each step will take. As far as construction, that is not
something that I could...I do not know the specifics of that. I could put together a process for
you. The Department of Public Works could probably piece together a construction schedule
and how long each phase might take. I really could not make an estimated guess at this
point.
Councilmember DeCosta: What I heard during the last discussions about
our landfill and landfill siting is that we are in a crisis-situation, and it seems like we do not
have an answer. Unless we come up with an answer, I have come up with my own conclusion.
Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Allison,you had told us about HB 1712. Mike,you
chimed in a little bit. When I looked at it online...basically, Allison, the testimony that you
would support or be providing...if you could send us a copy of that. Is the testimony actually
in opposition to the Bill or in supporting an amendment to the Bill so that there might be a
little carve out of a small percentage of IAL that could be used by government for the solid
waste disposal purpose? Is that how you are doing it?
Ms. Fraley: We are in opposition because of the situation that
we are in and we are in the same boat, as Mike said, as the City and County of Honolulu. If
you look at their testimony, they are opposing this measure as well. We have to have a
landfill and we have limited sites. That is what our testimony would be.
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Councilmember Kuali`i: Do we have a lobbyist helping us or working with
us? Does the Administration have one? I am curious if we are just opposing it or if we are
trying to make it a bill that considers us. From what I see of the Bill so far, it is just sailing
through. It is getting unanimous votes of passage in each of the committees so far. If it
passes and all we are doing is opposing, but not trying to make it a Bill that at least considers
us...do you know what I am saying? Obviously, that is left to smarter people than me,
including a lobbyist or whoever. Do share what you are doing and how we might be able to
help.
Ms. Fraley: Sure. I will work with our political analyst on
that.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions on this page or for
the Solid Waste Division before we move on? If not, we will move on to CIP-Transportation.
Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: I have to ask on behalf of my friend Alice Parker
about a Pahe`e Street bus stop. She could not make it today. Do we have any plans for Pahe`e
Street?
LEONARD T. PETERS, Assistant Executive on Transportation (uia remote
technology): I am responding for Celia M. Mahikoa. We
allowed her to take some time off. Yes, Councilmember Chock, there are plans for Pahee
Street. We are in the process of working out the details. We have been out there to the site
where we are proposing near the Dynasty Court to have a stop there. The issue is having
enough room for an accessible pad in that area.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you so much.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions? I have one (1). It
is regarding the expansion of the bus transit facility. Is that at the site where you are at or
is that a different facility you are looking to expand? I know room for you has always been
an issue. You are bursting at the seams.
Mr. Peters: It would be at the existing facility.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: It is not getting more land, correct? It is just
modifying the facility to fit more things there.
Mr. Peters: Correct. It would be expanding in the footprint
that we are in now. For example, we have added five (5) office spaces in the form of a portable
building on the same property.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay, thank you. Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Building on that, is the main thing that you need
office space? It seems like you need garage space, too. Is office space the concern here?
Mr. Peters: We are in the process of design and engineering
for additional bays to our repair shop. We are looking to add three (3) additional bays north
of the existing repair shop. It would be deeper, but the same width so that our buses, our
current and planned fleet, can be better facilitated in the base.
Councilmember Cowden: Is the money for that work in the bays in the CIP
yet?
Mr. Peters: It is not there yet.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any additional questions for Leonard?
If not, thank you, Leonard. We will move on to CIP-Wastewater. This is our last Division.
Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: One of the items describes increasing capacity in
the Lihu`e District. I am just curious if there was a specific target or outcome in terms of how
much service we would be able to provide given this increase.
DONN KAKUDA, Civil Engineer (via remote technology): The Lihu`e plant is
currently rated for two million five hundred thousand (2,500,000) gallons. We just did a fix
to one of the clarifiers. We were basically at half, because we had to fix that one clarifier.
One is brand-new and we have to go back and fix the other one. That would bring us back to
two million five hundred thousand(2,500,000)gallons a day. I guess to answer your question,
it just depends. There is quite a bit of plans that come in, so if we approved all of them, we
would be getting close to about 75% of our capacity. We are not there yet. It just depends on
what gets built.
Councilmember Chock: Okay. Thank you very much.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: On the Coco Palms and Kaua`i Sands piece, does
SPS mean Sewer Pump Station?
Mr. Kakuda: Sewer Pump Station, that is correct.
Councilmember Cowden: What does MCC mean?
Mr. Kakuda: Motor control center. That is basically the
electrical to run the generators.
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Councilmember Cowden: Okay. I cannot help but notice that the Wailua
Pump Station area smells like sewage a lot. Will this help that at all? Or not really?
Mr. Kakuda: It will not. The reason that it smells a lot is
because the lines are oversized in the Wailua area. Since the lines are oversized, the sewage
does not move as fast. By the time it gets to the Coco Palms area, it starts to get old and that
is what causes the smell.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay. There is not enough...
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Not enough flushing.
Councilmember Cowden: Not enough flushing...okay.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions on this page from
the Members? If not, there is one (1) more new project on the next page. Sewage Pump
Station Upgrades. Are there any questions on these items? Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: It looks like all of them we are getting four (4) and
they are all worth...some are worth a lot more than others. Do they have similar parts and
pieces? Will these be somewhat interchangeable and easier to manage? Have we put thought
into that? Are they each unique?
Mr. Kakuda: The pump stations that we are looking at are
mostly in the Wailua area. The ones in the Wailua area are pretty bad. The idea is
that...they are called "can systems". Basically, it is like a metal can and then inside the can
there are pumps. The idea is to switch them into submersibles. We will pull those out and
put in submersible pumps. That will make them easier to maintain. If you had to pull the
pump, we would not have to go inside the can, we could just pull them up, fix them, and then
put them back in. That is the idea with this project. It is to do the design of one (1) pump
station.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions on this page? If not,
we can move on to the next page. We have the Wailua Headworks Improvements.
Councilmember Cowden.
Councilmember Cowden: Can you help us understand the headwork
improvements? I have been over there. It is old, right? What are we doing?
Mr. Kakuda: This might be a longer explanation. Right now,
we are doing an EA to fix the Wailua plant. That will probably be done a year from now. As
part of that plan, we want to rehabilitate the entire Wailua plant. Right now, the first half
of the Wailua fix is in design. We are at 90% right now. Basically, this headworks is the
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second half or second phase of the Wailua project. This $1,000,000 is to handle basically the
top half of the Wailua plant and this is for design.
Councilmember Cowden: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any other questions on this page? If not,
we will move on to the next page. Are there any questions on this page? If not, we are on
our final page. All of these pages either deal with Wailua or Waimea facilities.
Councilmember Evslin.
Councilmember Evslin: Donn, you might have alreadyanswered this, but
g
it looks like the two (2) Wailua Wastewater Treatment Plant Headworks Improvements are
identical, both for $1,000,000. Is that two (2) separate components of the project or is that
an accident?
Mr. Kakuda: I think that is an accident. I think that got listed
twice by accident.
Councilmember Evslin: Okay.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: The Wailua Facility Plant Update was also
doubled.
Mr. Kakuda: Yes.
Councilmember Evslin: Except that one has different prices.
Councilmember Cowden: One (1) is for Waimea.
Councilmember Evslin: You are right, sorry.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any further questions for Wastewater
under CIP projects. Council Vice Chair Chock.
Councilmember Chock: I am trying to understand...I thought you
mentioned 90% at capacity. Is that correct?
Mr. Kakuda: No, I said 90% of the design is done for the first
phase of the Wailua plant.
Councilmember Chock: Okay, thank you.
Mr. Kakuda: For your information, at Wailua, we are at 60%
capacity right now.
Councilmember Chock: 60%. Alright, thank you very much.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any final questions? If not, I would just
like to say thank you to everyone on the Administration's side for being available and
answering questions. At this time, I would like to recess the Departmental Budget Reviews.
We will reconvene at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 31, 2022, where we will hear from the
Department of Parks &Recreation, Office of the County Attorney, and Department of Liquor
Control.
There being no objections, the meeting recessed at 11:34 a.m.