Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Roller hockey, skateboard
By Harold Morse
park put on fast track
Star-BulletinA skate rink for in-line roller hockey and a nearby skate park for skateboarding gained support last night for high priority in the Koko Head District Park Master Plan.
Seven boys who skateboard showed up at a community meeting on the plan at Hawaii Kai Library. Two mothers also called for moving the skate projects up from medium- to high-priority in the draft plan.
After the meeting, one teen-ager, Shaun Peck, said he skateboards every day at his home and probably won't be here in five to eight years -- the tentative time span for the rink and skate park.
Earlier, his mother, Terri, told about 50 people at the meeting she wouldn't want skating facilities delayed until her two sons are in college.
Another mother, Kelly Washino, said: "They're only young once."
Pam Martin, who backs a planned nine-hole disc golf course, said disc golf people also support high skate rink and skate park priority.
"We're the only state in the United States that doesn't have a disc golf course," she said earlier.
Practicing Cool Moves
Mayor Jeremy Harris and City Councilman Andy Mirikitani broke
ground yesterday for a new skate park next to Makiki District Park.
Other recent improvements at the park include additional basketball
courts, walkways and security lighting. Construction also began last
week for the park's new swimming pool.
This course is planned along the periphery of the former Job Corps site. Disc golf is played by throwing discs in a manner similar to tossing Frisbees to receptacles.The course for this sport has high-priority status in the overall $12.1 million Koko Head District Park Master Plan.
Ralph Portmore of Group 70 International, city consultants, said the idea is to expend perhaps $2,762,000 in city funds within three to four years in high-priority Phase 1; $3,295,000 in five to eight years in medium-priority Phase II; and the remaining $6,050,000 in low-priority Phase III over nine or more years.
As of now, the consultants have a 50-meter swimming pool and renovation of an existing shower building with a price tag of $5 million in Phase III.
In earlier community sessions, residents wanted everything high-priority except two additional tennis courts to go with the six existing courts and a proposed bicycle motocross site, Portmore said.
Group 70 took some liberties and tried to balance priority items with funds that would come available, he said.
But no city entity has a stake in keeping everything intact in the draft plan and items may be moved to new priority levels, Portmore said. Bill Balfour, city parks director, agreed.
It's envisioned the existing 20-acre district park and the 19-acre Job Corps site will go together to form a park site of some 39.5 acres, Portmore said.
Passive picnic grounds, regulation baseball field and soccer and multi-use playing fields are among present high-priority items, he said.
A walking and jogging path of more than a mile is listed as medium-priority. A bike path is not now included but may be considered, Portmore said. A teen center, 250 additional parking spaces and lights for night activity are proposed, along with a $350,000 Super Playground in Phase II, which can be utilized by 150 youngsters at a time, he added.
City & County of Honolulu
