LIHU‘E — The county is estimating about $90,000 in repairs and clean-up for ‘Anini and Anahola beach parks after a year of consistent use.
The county’s Department of Parks and Recreation found picnic tables “damaged beyond repair,” rotted shower points, hypodermic needles, as well as fruit and vegetable plants, overgrown vegetation and dug-up areas, Deputy Director Wally Rezentes Jr., said. The money will come out of the department’s budget.
“The figure estimates labor hours, contract equipment rentals, supplies for park maintenance (park caretakers, heavy equipment operators), facilities maintenance crews (carpenters, plumbers, electricians), and park ranger crew members,” Rezentes said.
About 20 staff members worked on cleaning up the parks for about three weeks to clean up left-behind campsites, repainting the bathrooms and more to restore the beach parks.
In March 2020, the county designated these two beach parks, as well as three other county-owned campgrounds, as Shelter-In-Place zones, allowing for a permitted campsite the houseless community could utilize during the COVID-19 pandemic that had access to running water, bathrooms, showers and social services.
At the end of March of this year, these county-owned campgrounds closed this program at ‘Anini and Anahola. In its last month of use, there was a permitted 78 at ‘Anini and two in Anahola.
The clean-up at ‘Anini is ongoing, Rezentes said, and continued clean-up in Anahola will continue once the crew is finished there.
“We anticipate work to be completed by the end of the week,” Rezentes said. “Signs are posted throughout the park advising park goers that cleanup is in progress.”
Some of the work already completed include electrical repair work to lights and lines that were damaged, plumbing repairs, pumping out the septic system and repairing and replacing some of the picnic tables.
The volunteer group Kalalea collected green waste and other debris at Anahola Beach Park after park crews cleaned the area at the beginning of April.
“Once we finish with the Anini cleanup, we will go back to Anahola and remove the debris,” Rezentes said.
Two months ago, the county also installed a new shower system into ‘Anini Beach Park Boat Ramp.
Camping permits for ‘Anini and Anahola beach parks will be available on April 30. Permits cost $2 per person, per night, with fees waived for Hawai‘i residents and children 17 and under.
“We are looking to restore the park, so the general public may once again use it,” Rezentes said.
At the end of this month, Lucy Wright Beach Park in Waimea will shut down.
What about Hanamaulu beach park? Can something be done
about the homeless people living there, the stray dogs and trash. It doesn’t feel safe to even go there.
Idk but when has it every felt safe to go to Hanamaulu Beach Park? LOL
I feel all these areas are important but what about kamalani kai bridge by wailua golf courseits real bad back there im a local and i no like even stop or step out
So, if I read this correctly, our islands campgrounds are taken away for a year, we spend almost half a million dollars to paste them back together again, and a month later open them back up free to residents to go back start the cycle all over again. When are we going to fix this mess, enforce some rules, and give these people somewhere to go??
So you keep the public out and let homeless squat in OUR parks, then spend OUR tax dollars to remove the squatters mess? Makes sense.
How about you become homeless? Then you can camp and you don’t have to pay taxes.
If they take in in, why can’t the “campers” pack it out? So so so messy!
Why not reach out to community organizations who would donate time to help and probably work more efficiently
Ridiculous. These people already getting all kine assistance which we pay for with our taxes. They get free everything. And now we gotta waste more money cleaning up after them. $90k would have bought tons of plane tickets to send these people packing.
I took my son to clean up trash at Anini over the weekend. It was the worst I had ever seen it. There were so many needles and broken glass around the camp ground that we just completely avoided it and stuck to the beach. The septic is completely backed up and overflowing into the bathrooms. It’s really a shame that the park has been treated that way.
Amazing! they give millions to the “houseless” unemployed then when they bite the hand that fed them, we have to pay for it too?
where are all the violin players now? How about you guys go down there and clean it up?
Haha… biz as usual by the unlawful occupation!!!
If they can’t buy it, steal it, they “condemn it! Let’s condemn the entire island chain and get rid of those narcissistic personalities, as well as all, transplant/newbies that like “taylor camp” trust fund hippy first provided to that of the plantation hierarchy, and who now arrogantly comment in this or other publishings, they refer to as opinions, when they themselves are and have been the problem. “Entitled” liar circus clowns with pointy-fingers, who apparently also were raised by scrub parents, who were untrustworthy. These adult second grader tantrums were learned from their own hectic back-story, martial law settings and the culturalS that were further manipulated. They were not going to get their ninny bottles until they could show how “usless” they were going to be in adulthood. A no-brainer, they need to be scheduled for the rabbit hole, dismissal to “the Spa” at GITMO. Who voted for these grunts? Answer, Other grunts continuing the 128-year ruse, military occupation. I know facts. These “locals”, voted into their cushy settings received gucchi attire, go pro-9, or otherwise were bought off, and even had their mortgages paid in full, so the politicojudiciomilitary crop dusters could remain high hung, lacking empathy. Guaranteed they still jealous moving at rail speed or complicit with collusion and corruption, or that everyone of them think they are in a position to talk shibai and not have to pay to play! WHAT part of Game Over do you not get! Retroactively, there are thousands of scrubs that even a mask doesnt hide the evil windows to their souls! lOOk em! I know who you are and so do a lot of our community residents, who are scayed to call out this mob mentality in public, but they Finally are! There are several authored books and “indexes” that name them all, and Ive been steadily practicing, “blowing my whistle, calling THEM All Out” for five decades. i even ran for mayor against Der-IKA who told that we would “cut bait” if we didnt follow Kollar-Kealoha fraud, not a stolen mailbox, but that medical C-germ, not “science”, out from the CCP Wuhan lab. Yet look at who continues to get to make the decisions across the board in this sick, fake state/county of unionized Mongrel Mob-mentalities.
Standard operating procedures. Create the problem get then get paid for the solution. More jobs for lazy county workers and funding.
The useless druggies, bums and other n’eer-do-wells are supported by taxpayers yet are allowed to despoil our parks and beaches wi5h impunity. And in return they leave mountains of trash and wreck the facilities? We need to bring back chain gangs and debtors prisons and get some work out these worthless leeches on society.
There are plenty of places like empty vacation rentals for people to stay especially now. a website like vrbo could be set up showing unused private places and people in need could choose what fits there needs best and find short term relief. The owner could get a reasonable deduction from there taxes, and the person in need gets a good night sleep, and shower. Being clean and fresh is the best way to do well on a job interview and get back on there feet.
Considering the way these folks abused the parks, would you want them living in your property???
Those people that were evicted from the parks are still on the Island, and sadly will be a growing population.
Yes Norm a worthless growing population. Richard Blake. Why would you consider putting these low life’s in someone’s vacation rental? Are you going to open your check book to fix and take away the trash I don’t think so. Those who decided to let these people stay in our parks should pay out of pocket for all damage and messes incurred period not the tax payers.
Does this mean that the Department of Parks and Recreation stayed out of these beach parks during the many months they were designated as “Shelter in Place” spots for the homeless? The parks were at peak use and occupancy. What did Parks and Recreation think would happen?
remember this, next time you vote…..
Wind’s gonna blow, so I’m gonna go
Down on the road again
Starting where the mountains left me
I’m up where I began
Where I will go, the wind only knows
Good times around the bend
Get in my car, goin’ too far
Never comin’ back again
Tired and worn, I woke up this mornin’
Found that I was confused
Spun right around and found I had lost
The things that I couldn’t lose
The beaches they sell to build their hotels
My father’s and I once knew
Birds all along sunlight at dawn
Singing Waimanalo blues
Down on the road with mountains so old
Far on the country side
Birds on the wing forget in a while
So I’m headed for the windward side
All of your dreams, sometimes it just seems
That I’m just along for the ride
Some they will cry because they have pride
For someone who’s loved here died
The beaches they sell to build their hotels
My father’s and I once knew
Birds all along sunlight at dawn
Singing Waimanalo blues
I call bull crap on you Wally Rezentes Jr. If you spend 90k on clean up then you should resign. It’s not because of the homeless people living there, it’s because you weren’t doing Your job! In fact I’ll go one step further, you show me the homeless people caused 90k in damages and repairs at Anini and Anahola beach parks and I’ll pay the county the 90k their out. And when you can’t show it then you resign! Does that sound fair to you? Cause it does to me! SHOW ME 90k in repair and damages that’s were done by the homeless or shut your mouth and resign!
You’ve have now been called out on your lies!
TM Anahola… lazy ass comment… you and the rest should have had more respect for what we all own. Everyone walked when it came to giving the parks back to the community. It doesn’t matter how much it cost. What matters is everyone should have pitched in and clean up your messes period. What makes you or any one else so special that someone else should should be doing the job. The county’s mistake was allowing a bunch of so called low life’s an opportunity to get off the streets. One can only hope they don’t try it again, and again and again. Enuff
the county is definitely padding the bill. A group of volunteers could do it in a day. I’m not saying they should, but the county works VERY inefficiently, we all know that.
Not backing up COK at all. I know they would allocate $40,000 towards a pack of gum (if they haven’t already). But Homeless people are aggressive and possessive. The blue collared county workers scheduled to clean up the park are there for BARE MINIMUM. This is obviously waste from personal camp sites. The COK should have been PREVENTATIVE and hired heavy, off island security to just have a presence there and also they should have contracted outside vendors for increased maintenance on the parks prior to letting the scum move in. If anyone is shocked that this happened, you obviously are dumb enough to have voted for these idiots. Common Sense saw this coming.
* If the septic system was backed up and overflowing in the bathrooms, then why was it not pumped more frequently?
* If there’s rot in the showers why were they not maintained? The enclosures are made from wood. Wood rots, and most park showers are seldom in great shape. And, why are they not built with heavy duty vinyl that would only require pressure washing?
* If the picnic tables were “damaged beyond repair” why were these not monitored and repaired as needed? They’re made from wood too, and we’ve had plenty of rain this past year.
* Repainting the bathrooms? Let’s be real. Pretty much all park bathrooms are in need of fresh paint at least biannually, and more cleaning. In my 30+ years here I’ve seen County trucks pull up many times. They empty the trash, replenish the TP and gone – with no time to actually clean the floors, sinks, and toilets! They’re often a pretty gross experience.
* Lastly, why did it take 20 workers three weeks to clean the parks? At 8 hours daily x 5 days per week x 20 workers, that’s 2400 manpower hours. Seems excessive, and again some of this could have been avoided with proper maintenance this past year.
It’s been a harsh year for many. Houseless or not, they’re still human beings and if nothing more should have at least been offered sanitary conditions. It might have encouraged a few of them to treat these parks with more respect. Sounds like it was a ‘free for all’ with little to no upkeep. What were these 20 workers doing for the past 12 months?
The mayor locks down the island, shutting down all the hospitality jobs and tourist-related jobs and income. And you wonder why there are homeless people trying to survive at the beaches? Look no further than mayor Kawakami. He “protected” the island at the expense of those that live here. Those of you who were able to keep your homes, and continue to have food to eat look down your noses at those that lost everything?
To you, anyone who lost their jobs and homes should be shipped off-island?
Shame. Shame on you.
well-said, Palani. agreed 100%.
If you lost your job do you automatically become a messy homeless person? Do you immediately become someone who sticks needles in your arm and leave trash everywhere?
I feel sorry for those who become homeless, but not for those who leave trash everywhere and expect others to pick up after them!
Thats your answer, become homeless? Why dont the “homeless” fins a job and not expect everything free?