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Kalaeloa managers:
Funds needed
Federal monies for the transition
State of the State Address
from Barbers Point Naval Air
Station are being phased out
Winners & Losers By Pat Omandam
Star-BulletinThe agency created to oversee the transition of the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station to civilian use needs an extra $46,000 to make it through the next fiscal year.
Bill Bass, executive director of the Barbers Point NAS Redevelopment Commission, said he has written to Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris asking that the city pay $23,000, while he hopes the state will foot the other half.
Bass said the commission's supplemental request for $45,514 to maintain current services has been deferred.
About 2,150 acres of the former Navy base is being conveyed from the federal government to the state and city under the Barbers Point redevelopment plan. The base officially closed July 1 and the area was rededicated as the Kalaeloa Community Development District.
Bass told state senators Friday he needed the money to offset the phase-out of federal funds to the commission's budget. Federal grants fell to $150,950 for fiscal year 2000-2001 from $200,000 in fiscal year 1999-2000.
"We're being phased out of the federal grant program at 25 percent a year," he said.
The shortfall means the commission lacks the money to cover the three commission jobs and fringe benefits paid for by the federal government. The state pays $92,736 a year for a fourth position, but that is not enough, Bass said.
If there are no changes in staffing, the commission won't have enough to pay for office rental, telephones and other expenses. Bass expects personnel costs and other expenses will total $1.14 million in fiscal year 2001.
The commission now oversees all roadways, drainage systems, water and waste-water systems at Kalaeloa. The district is open to the public, providing surrounding Kapolei and Makakilo communities with easy and quick access to large areas of beach and park space.
The commission also pays for night security guards at the Kapolei and Ewa entrances to the district.
Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Waianae) wanted to know what Bass thought of Senate President Norman Mizuguchi's plan to have the Hawaii Community Development Authority take control of Kalaeloa.
There is an assumption the commission will be eliminated in 2001 as part of government restructuring, she said.
Bass responded that the agency's goal is to get the state and city to take over the roads at Kalaeloa and to see that all new landowners or "end users," such as the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, have taken proper control of their lands there.
He said if that is done, the authority would control only the infrastructure in the district. Bass said it had been proposed to the 1997 Legislature that the Hawaii Community Development Authority take Kalaeloa. Instead, he said, lawmakers created the redevelopment commission.
Bass said it would cost about $118 million under a 20-year master plan to upgrade all the infrastructure at Kalaeloa, about $157 million less than the $275 million originally projected.
So far, the Kalaeloa Airport (operated by the state Department of Transportation), Federal Aviation Administration, Veterans Administration, the Hawaii National Guard and the city Department of Parks and Recreation are using Kalaeloa.
Others are expected to occupy their properties by June 30.
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