City Managing Director Ben Lee said one reason the move has taken so long is that the city's original master plan called for the agencies to be moved to Sand Island. However, that plan died in the City Council. "We spent thousands of dollars to clean up the (Sand Island) site ... and were proceeding with a master plan," Lee said.
The alternate plan calls for a series of moves, with the last city office moving out by spring:
>> Relocating the street-lighting section of the Department of Facility Maintenance to an existing Manana warehouse. Renovations to the existing Manana facility cost about $1 million. It cost an additional $440,000 to repair the old roof and $615,000 to install utilities. The move is scheduled to take place at the end of the month, Lee said.
>> Moving refuse trucks and accompanying facilities of the Department of Environmental Services to a site under the H-1-Middle Street interchange near the Keehi transfer station. The city has spent $1.5 million on site improvements and an additional $1.1 million for offices and a locker-and-shower facility for workers. The city hopes to start moving by August.
>> Relocating the Automotive Equipment Service Division of the Facility Maintenance Department to the Halawa Corporation Yard. The city is spending $12.5 million to construct three buildings in the Halawa Corporation Yard. The city's main group of mechanics will move into one of them, temporarily, until the Department of Transportation Services' bus facility is relocated to its new home at Manana. Once that happens, the city will refurbish the Halawa bus site, at a cost of $3.5 million, and have the Automotive Equipment Service Division relocate there. The moves should be done by August or September, Lee said.
>> Moving the Roads Maintenance Division of the Facility Maintenance Department to the new Halawa facility that will be vacated by the Automotive Equipment Service Division. That move will also take place around September, Lee said.
>> Relocating the Wastewater Management field office first to a mauka parcel at Kewalo and then to a site in Halawa under the H-3 freeway.>
The HCDA wants immediate possession of the makai block occupied by the waste-water management office. But because permanent replacement facilities are not immediately available, it will be moving mauka one block to the buildings now occupied by the street-lighting people. The permanent waste-water facility, to cost $6.6 million, will not be available until March 2002.
Lee said an additional $2.3 million has been set aside for demolition, remediation and asbestos removal.
Ross Sasamura, the city's director of facility maintenance, said the move is welcome to the estimated 220 city employees who have been in cramped and aging quarters.
"It's really going to help from an efficiency and productivity standpoint," Sasamura said.
