LIHU’E — The county is moving forward with its plans to build a community kitchen and storm-resistant resource center at a site near Kukui Grove Shopping Center. A request for proposals will go out soon to recruit a team to
LIHU’E — The county is moving forward with its plans to build a community kitchen and storm-resistant resource center at a site near Kukui Grove Shopping Center.
A request for proposals will go out soon to recruit a team to design the Project Ho’omalu facility, to be located along Kaumuali’i Highway and Pua Loke Street near the county Department of Water.
The facility will be financed with $1.3 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds and at least matching funds from other federal, state and county sources.
It will serve as a shelter in times of severe storms, and as a professional kitchen for backyard and weekend cooks who want to turn commercial.
A secondary benefit of having the kitchen component is that it can be used as a mass feeding and food preparation center in the event of a natural disaster.
The largest of a dozen or more parcels making up an area that was once the site of the Nawiliwili Road alignment, the site is a two-acre, triangular parcel bounded by the highway, Pua Loke Street and the office buildings of Kukui Grove Commercial Village.
That is where the main structures will be built.
The land was recently deeded to the county from the state Department of Transportation Highways Division, and includes portions of the old Nawiliwili Road alignment snaking between King Auto Center and Lihu’e United Church.
“One of the things that’s going to make this resource center unique is that it’s going to be built out of different types of materials and different types of technologies,” explained Ken Rainforth, executive on housing in the Offices of Community Assistance (OCA).
“One of the purposes of the resource center is for people to display these different wind-resistant materials and techniques, so the designer of the facility needs to know which of these materials and techniques he needs to incorporate into the structures.
“So, first of all, we need to get the guy on board, and then solicit different manufacturers and people for their ideas and products and make decisions on what we should be using,” Rainforth said.
“Ho’omalu” means “to protect” in the Hawaiian language.
The County Housing Agency has been in discussion with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to ensure that the economic development project will meet stringent federal standards, Rainforth said.
He is also working with the county attorney’s office on a plan to allow the county to create a nonprofit entity to operate the facility.
Building the resource center and running various programs are the two main chores.
Rainforth said he’d like the nonprofit entity to be separate from the CHA so it could draw expertise from other governmental entities, and private enterprises like insurance companies, Kauai Electric for energy conservation matters, a representative from the Contractors Association of Kauai, and other builders and trades people.
Dennis Alkire, the OCA’s in-house architect, has been working on conceptual drawings of the facility. The plan needs to get county Planning Commission approval.
Rainforth explained that the process of applying for permits might have to be put on hold until a consultant is contracted to design the facility.
The intent is to open the doors to Project Ho’omalu in 2001, with construction expected to begin in mid-2000.
Rainforth learned in the aftermath of Hurricane ‘Iniki that FEMA has funds available not only for rebuilding after natural disasters, but for storm damage mitigation projects as well.
The bulk of Project Ho’omalu funds are expected to come from FEMA’s mitigation project funding.
