Waimano facility’s
destiny is in questionPearl City citizens say
a treatment center for
sex offenders must go
Pearl City Neighborhood Board members say they will quiz the state Health Department at their meeting tomorrow on the next expected step for the Waimano juvenile sex offender treatment facility.
Michelle Hill, the agency's deputy director of behavioral health, has agreed to attend the meeting and answer questions from the board.
Member James Pickard said he does not expect any new information, but he wants to know the department's plans for the facility.
"They keep telling us that they're not going to relocate right now," he said. However, "we wanted to relocate that facility."
At a public meeting on the facility's future late last year, Health Department officials reiterated that they have no plans to move or expand the home.
The facility opened two years ago within a half-mile of Momilani Elementary and Pearl City High schools, despite opposition from the community.
When the facility was opened, former Gov. Ben Cayetano promised that the location of the 10-bed facility was temporary and that it would be moved as soon as an alternative was found.
But the facility was never moved, and the Health Department, under Gov. Linda Lingle, has said there are no guarantees that the center will be relocated.
The Health Department has also said it could take up to six years to evaluate whether the facility should be moved.
In June the department took the first step in that evaluation by commissioning a $1 million study that in part will look for existing facilities that could house the program.
The neighborhood board will meet at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Pearl City Library auditorium.