GEORGE F. LEE / STAR-BULLETIN
Akane Randall, 14, of Kahala skates at the city's
park-and-ride facility in Hawaii Kai. Come Christmas,
Randall should have a better alternative: a new skateboard
park and in-line skating rink at Kamiloiki.

City fast-tracks
skating rink
for Hawaii Kai

The skateboard and in-line
hockey haven should open
by 2002 at Kamiloiki Park

By Diana Leone
Star-Bulletin

The Carter family of Hawaii Kai is happy about city plans to put a new skateboard park and in-line skating rink at nearby Kamiloiki Community Park.

"It's good" that neighbors approved building the facilities at the park this year, said skateboarder and in-line hockey player Cameron Carter, 11, because "it'd be in the center of everything" and "we need it fast."

Carter said his in-line hockey league uses basketball courts at Kamiloiki now, and the court would be a step up.

"We have three kids that like to skate, so we're all for it," said his father, Ron Carter, whose wife, Lisa, is a co-chairwoman of the Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board's Recreation and Parks Committee.

The Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board decided Tuesday by a 14-0 vote, with one abstention, to put the skating venues at Kamiloiki instead of Koko Head District Park because the work can be completed more quickly, said Jamal Siddiqui, a city neighborhood board assistant.

"We had community consensus that it's necessary to put a skateboard park in Hawaii Kai," Houghton said, and consultants are "going to work very quickly to get a design put together" in hopes that bids can be sought as soon as the money is available July 1. "I think everybody is happy to have it (completed) by Christmas," she said, "but it could be sooner."

The Parks and Recreation Committee meets again at 7 p.m. May 11 at Kamiloiki Recreation Center. The popularity of skateboarding has prompted the city to promise facilities throughout Oahu. Currently there are completed skateboard parks in Makiki District Park and Kaomaiku Neighborhood Park, and construction contracts have been awarded for Aala, Haleiwa, Keolu, Manana and Mililani parks, said city spokeswoman Carol Costa.

Proposed for funding in 2002 are skateboard parks at Banzai, Kaneohe, Koko Head, Kalihi, Central Oahu Skate Facility, Waipahu and Hauula.

The standard skateboard park design is budgeted at $450,000 each, Costa said. An in-line skating rink costs $550,000. Mililani Neighborhood Park already has an in-line hockey skating park, and they have been slated for Manana and Koko Head, which now will be at Kamiloiki.

The city administration has amended the 2002 capital improvement budget to include $1 million for design and construction of an in-line hockey skating/skateboard facility at Kamiloiki, Costa said, so no money will have to be moved from the Koko Head Master Plan improvements funding.

She said the mayor has proposed that Kamiloiki get the in-line park and a small skateboard area, and when Koko Head is completed, it would have a skateboard park but no in-line skating.