City seeking
new site to train
firefighters

The city had planned to buy
Navy land, but the Navy backed out

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.com

The city is being forced to find a site and build a new firefighter training center because its 25-year lease at a Nimitz area site will expire in 2004 and the Navy has changed its mind about selling it.

Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi told the City Council's Budget Committee yesterday that the city and the Navy had been negotiating for his agency to purchase the land under the site near Valkenburgh Street. But those talks broke off when Navy officials decided to take over the fire training center for its own federal firefighters after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the chief said.

It is anticipated that the Navy will allow for an extension of up to two years, through 2006, Leonardi said, but after that, "we'll be homeless."

The administration of Mayor Jeremy Harris has proposed $500,000 for site selection, master planning and design of a new training center, which needs between 10 and 20 acres. One possible site is at Kalaeloa, where the city recently took over several hundred acres from the Navy. But Leonardi said that is not his first choice because it is far from Honolulu and the bulk of firefighters and their trucks.

The Navy is expected to take over the Mokulele Fire Station adjacent to the training facility, Leonardi said.

While initially unhappy when the Navy first told the city about its change of heart about two months ago, Leonardi said, in hindsight the Fire Department has outgrown the site. Where it trained 700 firefighters a year when it opened, it now accommodates 1,100.

Also yesterday, the first day of review for the $475 million capital improvements budget, Councilman Gary Okino proposed a moratorium on building more city swimming pools.

A pool is under construction at Salt Lake, and funding has already been allocated for one in Mililani. Okino said he would allow funding for the aquatics center at Central Oahu Regional park but delay money for pools planned for Kahuku, Koko Head, Waianae and Lanakila.

Okino said not only are the pools, with construction costs between $7 million and $10 million, expensive to build, they also are expensive to operate and maintain.

Other highlights from yesterday's hearings:

>> Councilman Duke Bainum chided the administration for proposing $3 million to acquire a quarter-acre lot on Ala Wai Boulevard for a municipal parking lot without telling either him or the Waikiki community about it. City spokeswoman Carol Costa said the parties were not notified because the site only recently became available for purchase.

>> The cost of the Smith-Beretania Park in Chinatown has climbed by about $400,000, and construction has been delayed by as much as three months because nearly 20 sets of human bones were excavated in one Honolulu's oldest neighborhoods, according to Rae Loui, city director of design and construction. It was slated to be done by this summer at a cost of $7.6 million.

>> The Honolulu Zoo is to get $6.1 million for a discovery center and veterinary clinic. The Honolulu Zoological Society is chipping in $1 million from a fund-raising effort. The rest will come from bonds.