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Sports teams
eager for Mililani
Mauka’s park

The district park, still needing
funding, will have fields for softball,
baseball, soccer and football

By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

What is now a field of weeds promises to become a field of dreams: 16.5-acre Mililani Mauka District Park.

Bill Balfour, city parks director, recently outlined the future park to the Mililani Mauka/Launani Valley Neighborhood Board and some 40 residents at Mililani Mauka Elementary School.

The new park is not to be confused with the existing Mililani District Park on the other, or Waianae, side of H-2 freeway, he said.

The new site is on the Honolulu side of the park-and-ride facility at Makaikai and Ukuwai streets. The H-2 freeway runs along the park's west boundary, and Ukuwai Street runs along its east boundary. Grading for it starts in September.

Eventually, it is to have two softball fields and one lighted baseball field, and these fields also will double as soccer and football sites.

Plans for a 25-meter swimming pool were scrapped, as a 50-meter pool is going in at Mililani District Park across the freeway, and there was more community support for a second softball field, Balfour said.

"It's a field of weeds at the moment," he told a reporter later.

But the new Mililani Mauka District Park is likely someday to have a gym, basketball courts, lighted tennis courts, playground and recreation building, Balfour said. Also, it will have parking, comfort stations and the three athletic fields. But Balfour cautioned it is all in the talking stages with no funding as yet.

Harry Saunders, executive vice president of Castle & Cooke Hawaii, Mililani developer, confirmed that grading begins in September. Before the city can take over, Castle & Cooke has to grade the site, improve landscaping and establish green grass, Saunders said. Then the city will inspect the site to make sure it meets city standards.

It could be ready for city takeover some time next year, Saunders said. Infrastructure already exists. There is a road. Sewer, water and electrical lines are there for eventual extension to the park.

Roy Doi, chairman of the Mililani Mauka/Launani Valley Neighborhood Board, said there is a shortage of nearby parks.

"We haven't had access to a park in the Mililani Mauka area," he said.

The big issue regarding the new park was whether a swimming pool or another softball field was needed, Doi said. Just bare-bones playing fields are a blessing, he said.

"Those fields are going to be used pretty quick," he said.

Glenn Ah Sam, president of Central Oahu Youth Baseball League, said: "We need it, as far as I'm concerned. We need another lighted field."

The young, growing community has many players.

The Youth Baseball League averages 500 to 700 kids and runs from January to July, Ah Sam said. A lighted field would make night games possible.

"We are very short on fields during the daytime," he said.

Mainland teams come to play Mililani teams, and a lot of fields are needed for tournaments, he said.

Jackie Ah Sam, Glenn Ah Sam's sister-in-law and active in fast-pitch softball for girls, is enthused: "Oh, that's good news. ... I hope that they will give the girls the same opportunity as the boys. I'm just glad that they're finally putting in more fields to accommodate all the different sports in Mililani."