LIHU‘E — Members of the Kaua‘i County Council on Thursday were poised to take action on a request by Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste to apply for $3.3 million in federal funds for the third phase of a 16-mile coast-line bicycle,
LIHU‘E — Members of the Kaua‘i County Council on Thursday were poised to take action on a request by Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste to apply for $3.3 million in federal funds for the third phase of a 16-mile coast-line bicycle, pedestrian and multipurpose pathway, from Nawiliwili Harbor to Anahola.
But Councilmember Mel Rapozo wasn’t likely to be one of them.
At a council meeting at the historic County Building, Rapozo said he couldn’t support any part of the project at a time when county leaders are scrambling to find answers to acute problems like affordable housing, traffic, and crime.
“We got a lot of problems on this island today, and I think that is what the people question,” Rapozo said. “How can you spend so much on the bike path when we have all these problems?”
He also said he understood the urgency of the project, since the money for the third phase may not come to Kaua‘i if Federal Highway Administration officials don’t commit the $3.3 million by Aug. 15.
The project is definitely not a priority when the needs of senior citizens who use the Kekaha Neighborhood Center go wanting, Rapozo said.
The seniors need to have the screens installed to keep out flies when they eat their meals at the center, Rapozo said. He said he personally asked Kaua‘i County Department of Public Works officials on March 9 to have the work done, as a favor to the elderly.
“March 9, and today is July 14, and the screens are not there,” Rapozo said. “When you guys come up here and say we need to do it now, or we are going to lose the money, and we got a bunch of seniors out in Kekaha waiting for screens, I have a hard time with that.”
He also said he wasn’t going to support using “a million, $100,000, $300,000, on a bike path that is somebody’s dream, an issue that is not a priority.” The project is intended for recreational use, and will not make a dent in the traffic problems of East Kaua‘i, Rapozo contended.
Doug Haigh, of the county DPW, said the $30 million for the project, by law, can only be used for the project. “The money cannot be used for neighborhood centers. We cannot use (it) for our roads,” he said. After the meeting, he said the needs of the elderly will be taken up.
Rapozo also wondered how much the county would have to use of its own money for the project as the undertaking stretches out over the years.
County leaders became eligible for the $30 million after members of the Michele and Justin Hughes family donated nearly eight acres of beach-front land in Kealia, and the Thomas D. McCloskey Jr. family donated 59 acres for its Kealia Kai agricultural subdivision, to the county during former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s administration.
In turn, the county used the appraised value of the properties, about $7.5 million, as the county’s percentage matching funds to get the $30 million in federal funds.
In time, though, particularly as construction costs go up, county officials may not be eligible for as much, meaning county funds will have to be used to finish up the project, or, as much of it as possible, both Rapozo and Councilmember Jay Furfaro said.
Haigh and county Department of Finance official Leonard Vierra said that concern may be premature, as other folks might be willing to donate land for the project, allowing county leaders to secure more federal funding for the project.
The plan also came under attack from Glenn Mickens of Wailua Homesteads, the most vocal of perhaps a handful of critics.
At the same time, support has come from people from many other quarters of Kaua‘i, who like the idea that the regional pathway will greatly enhance the recreational value of areas it passes through.
“Maybe one of you can give me a logical, rational reason for building an ugly, 12-foot-wide slab of cement around the pristine shoreline of this island,” Mickens wrote in testimony given to the council.
Mickens asserted the development of the project will “create more” problems, and “will not give the masses of people any bang for the millions being spent.”
The project will only benefit consultants, designers and contractors, “not the people,” Mickens said.
“I ask again, who needs this path, and who will benefit from the obscene amount of money being spent to build it?” Mickens wrote.
The pathway will go the way of bicycle lanes built along Kuhio and Kaumuali‘i highways, Mickens emphasized. The lanes are seldom used, he contended.
Councilmembers were asked by county officials to apply to Federal Highway Administration leaders to use $300,000 this year for the planning of the third phase of the pathway project.
In addition, county administration officials asked council-members to apply for another $3 million to hire a contractor to build the pathway.
Only one leg of the proposed 16-mile coastline project from Nawiliwili to Anahola has been built. That phase is a 2.3-mile, multi-use pathway built at Lydgate Park in Wailua. Construction is to start this fall on a second phase, a 4.3-mile leg from Lihi Park by the Pono Kai Resort in Kapa‘a northward to Ahihi Point, commonly known as “Donkey Beach.” Four other legs are pending, including the latest project that is planned.
