KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM The elephants at the Honolulu Zoo, shown here yesterday, will have to wait another six months for the construction of a new elephant mating facility at the zoo.

Costs delay
zoo’s elephant
breeding facility

The city set aside $7.1 million
for a project costing $11.3 million

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

The start of construction for a long-awaited elephant mating facility at the Honolulu Zoo is being stalled an additional six months while the city and the contractor negotiate a price.

That's because the city appropriated $7.1 million for the project, while the lowest bid that came in Dec. 7 was for $11.3 million by construction firm Jas. W. Glover Ltd.

City Managing Director Ben Lee said yesterday that he does not understand "the large disparity" between the lowest bid and the appropriated amount.

While acknowledging the uniqueness and complexity of the project, Lee said, project designer Belt Collins should have had a better fix on what it would cost.

"I remember a year and a half ago, talking to the consultant about how it was going to be a $6 million project," Lee said.

"Why did they design a facility that cost $11 million?"

The company should have "informed the city every step of the project," he said.

Belt Collins officials could not be reached late yesterday.

Lee said officials with the Department of Design and Construction hope to wrap up talks with Glover on a scaled-down project within the next two months, which would allow construction to begin by the end of the year and be completed by next fall.

The administration of Mayor Jeremy Harris would then need to go back to the Council next year to seek funding for the rest of the project, he said.

John Romanowski, Glover vice president, said his company has produced three scaled-down plans for the city. Construction of the facility is a complex and unique project, making it difficult to split it into phases, Romanowski said.

"It would be very expensive to do only half the project," he said.

Lee denied reports that money for the project had lapsed or been diverted to other uses.

About $5.5 million of the $7.1 million would typically have lapsed last December, but a conditional award was given to Glover that ensured the money would be available, Lee said.

A new elephant facility has been a source of controversy in the past.

The 1991 agreement with the Department of Interior that allowed female elephant Vaigai to be imported from India requires the city to breed Asian elephants on site.

But before a male can be brought here, a specialized breeding facility must be built.

Currently, the only other elephant at Honolulu Zoo is female Mari, who, like Vaigai, is of breeding age.

Critics, including Council members, have previously accused the Harris administration of underappropriating funds for the project.

The city has also allowed several previous appropriations for elephant facilities to lapse, prompting speculation that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could rescind the agreement and send the elephants elsewhere. A 1997 letter from Fish and Wildlife to the zoo expressed "concern" over the lack of a facility. Fish and Wildlife officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

But Lee said yesterday, "There is no danger at all of losing our elephants, because we're going to have more than adequate funds to building the elephant pen and the holding area." Noncritical items, such as much of a planned exhibition area, can be pushed to a second phase, he said.

Sheila Watumull, India's consul general for Hawaii, said she has been promised by a succession of Indian ambassadors that the country will donate a male elephant to Honolulu Zoo once the breeding facility is completed.

"There is a real need to get a new bloodline, and the government of India has said it is willing to give us a baby bull," she said, "but we've never had the facility."