About $3.6 million in federal funds has been targeted for improvements to Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor. The facility is located on the coast between Waimea and Kekaha. U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye , D-Hawai’i, proposed $3. 6 million for the work
About $3.6 million in federal funds has been targeted for improvements to Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor. The facility is located on the coast between Waimea and Kekaha.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye , D-Hawai’i, proposed $3. 6 million for the work as part of a $14.3 million funding bill that was passed by Congress this week.
Linda Fayé Collins, president of Kikiaola Land Company in Waimea, said the funding for the proposed small boat harbor improvement project will help tour boat operators and recreational fishermen who use the harbor.
Some commercial tours to the Na Pali Coast are launched from the small harbor.
“I think it is essential for the safety of the boaters there,” Collins said. “It is another place from which people are taken to the Na Pali Coast. It is important for the safety of tourists that use the harbor.” She applauded Kaua’i State Sen. Gary Hooser for his lobbying efforts for the funds.
Collins said it was her father, Lindsay Fayé who during his time as plantation manager in the 1940s at Kekaha Sugar Co. was instrumental in making the land available to the state for the harbor. Fayé also was an avid fisherman, his daughter said.
In recent years, many West Kaua’i fishermen and residents have lobbied the government for funds to improve the boat entry into and exit from the harbor, which is managed by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Boating and Ocean Recreational division.
Glenn Mossman, president of the Kikiaola Westside Boat Club, said he and other club members have been waiting patiently for the funding to come through for the project for the last four or five years, and are glad that efforts are being made to finally bring the money to Kaua’i.
“I think it is wonderful. We have been waiting to get this done since before 2000,” Mossman said. “The conditions in the harbor. It is dangerous and this should have been done a long time ago.”
Mossman said that the conditions in the harbor have only deteriorated since efforts were made some five years ago to secure the improvement funds.
“The money has always been there,” Mossman said. “It looks like we are going to get some positive feedback from the Army Corp. (of Engineers).” Mossman also thanked Hooser for his efforts to ensure the funds come to Kaua’i.
Collins said as far as she knows, there has been little opposition to the planned improvements. One West Kaua’i man, she recalled, voiced the need in the past to have the funds reallocated for improvements at the Port Allen Harbor in ‘Ele’ele.
The proposed improvements at Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor consist of dredging the harbor entrance and access channel and modifying existing breakwaters at the harbor, according to Joseph Bonfiglio, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers office on O’ahu.
The federal agency would monitor the work and its progress.
Collins said it was her understanding that once the agency improves the harbor mouth channel, the entry comes under its auspices and the “Army Corp. is required to keep it up,” as required by federal law. This mandate would require Army Corp. to keep the passageway clear for many years, she believes.
The navigational improvements will eliminate dangerous wave conditions that periodically develop within the entrance channel, and will allow boats to enter the basin safely, Bonfiglio said in an e-mail to The Garden Island.
A plan for the harbor calls for the berthing of about 45 small boats, and allows for the full development of the harbor basin to serve the navigational needs of the area, Bonfiglio said.
Related to the federal project, residents and others in past years batted around the idea of the state funding improvements at the harbor to accommodate the shuttling of cruise ship passengers to the facility.
“It was something that was contemplated, to improve the cost benefit of the project when the state was doing a master plan for the project,” Collins said. “But they don’t need it to justify it.”
The idea for shuttling cruise ship passengers to the Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor came up because of concerns about the capacity of Nawiliwili Harbor and Port Allen to receive cruise ships, Collins said.
The West Kaua’i community seems to have ambivalence about the passenger shuttling project, she said.
“There would be two sides. One wanting the commercial opportunities, and the other side not wanting the impacts,” Collins said.
She said the community, if it must, will have to decide whether to “accept cruise ships and the impacts.”
“There will be pressure for more harbors. Our harbor is safe when Nawiliwili Harbor isn’t. But I am not sure whether the community is ready for it, or will ever be ready for it,” Collins said.
When the idea of shuttling passengers to shore came up, cruise ships were much smaller, she said. With some modern cruise ships able to accommodate up to 4,000 passengers, the “community really has to think about the proposal,” Collins said.
Related to the federal project, its cost has been estimated at $6.9 million, of which $5,548,000 would come from federal sources. Another $1.4 million would come from non-federal sources, Bonfiglio said.
The $3.6 million approved in Inouye’s bill would be part of the federal portion, according to Jennifer Goto Sabas, chief of staff of Inouye’s office in Honolulu.
State officials have plans for a berthing area within the harbor that would be built at a cost of $800,000, an amount separate from the planned federal improvements.
A construction contract for the federal project is scheduled to be awarded in August 2004. An agreement between the state and the federal government authorizing the work to begin is pending, Bonfiglio said.
The $14. 3 million in Inouye’s funding bill is targeted for 27 Hawai’i energy and water projects as part of the fiscal year 2004 Department of Energy and Water Department appropriation bill.
The bill was passed by the Senate by unanimous consent, and was also approved by the House, Mike Yuen, Inouye’s spokesman in Washington D.C., said in a news release. The measure will now be sent to President Bush for review.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
