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Council hopes for City Council members are hoping to persuade the Navy to allow both city and federal firefighters joint use of the Thurston Fire Training Center near the airport.
fire-training deal
It wants to share the current
facility even after the city's
lease expires in 2004By Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.comHonolulu Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi earlier this month asked Council members for $500,000 to find a new site for a fire training center.
The city's 25-year lease with the Navy ends in 2004. While federal officials initially agreed to sell the 5-acre site to the city, those talks ended when Navy officials decided to take over the fire training center for its own federal firefighters after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
City officials estimate it will cost between $8 million and $10 million to construct a new facility.
Councilman Romy Cachola co-introduced a resolution this week urging the city administration and the federal government to pursue an agreement for joint use.
"The Honolulu Fire Department is the finest in the nation," Cachola said. "And when it comes to training with military firefighters, it's happened before. It makes perfect sense for coordination or a joint program."
Cachola said the deal would also save money for both the city and the Navy. He noted the city has spent $3 million in improvements over the years.
Leonardi told the Star-Bulletin that he is willing to discuss the issue further but will continue seeking a new site of between 10 and 20 acres between Honolulu and Waipahu.
While fire officials were at first not happy that the Navy had changed its mind about selling the property, Leonardi said, they realized in hindsight that the department has outgrown the site.
Staying at Valkenburgh would require allowing the facility to expand onto adjacent, vacant land, Leonardi said.
How much impact a "joint use" agreement with the state's 200 federal firefighters would have on the facility is unknown. Leonardi said the current lease allows the military to use the facility, but "the military rarely uses it."
He added: "They have their needs and wants. I think that all needs to be thrown on the table and discussed."
Cachola said an expansion would cost $4 million to $5 million, the costs of which could be shared.
Agnes Tauyan, deputy public affairs officer for Navy region Hawaii, said Navy officials could not comment on Cachola's proposal because they had not yet seen it.
Tauyan said federal firefighters do not have their own dedicated training facility.
"The federal fire department has also expanded, and its responsibilities have also increased, and they are in need of a fire training facility," she said.
One possible relocation site for the city operations is at Kalaeloa where the city recently took over a portion from the federal government. But Leonardi said Kalaeloa is not his first choice because it is far from Honolulu, where the bulk of the firefighters and their trucks are housed.
The city is hoping to gain an extension of at least two years beyond its 2004 deadline to vacate.