In a dispute with the agency in charge of the city’s $6 billion rail project, the Blood Bank of Hawaii is telling city officials that it should be paid $3 million to relocate its Kalihi primary donor center.
The City Council Budget Committee sided with the Blood Bank on Tuesday, inserting language in the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s operating budget requiring that $3 million of its $222 million property acquisition fund go toward purchase of the Blood Bank of Hawaii site on Dillingham Boulevard, along the path of the 20-mile rail project.
But HART officials are objecting and insist that the project won’t have any serious or lasting impacts on the blood bank’s ability to operate.
Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said she doesn’t want to take any chances when it comes to the blood bank. "They said that they’re not able to operate at that site," Kobayashi said after the meeting. "We’re not talking about a little store. We’re talking about the blood bank."
Kim-Ahn Nguyen, the blood bank’s president, said her organization will suffer permanent damage as a result of HART’s construction — including the loss of left-turn access into the property from Dillingham Boulevard and forcing its Bloodmobiles to use a hard-to-navigate Puuhale Road entrance.
"Displacement of unpaid blood donors jeopardizes a third of Hawaii’s blood supply and all of Hawaii’s platelet supply," Nguyen told the committee. About 12 donor stalls will be permanently gone, she said. "Permanent loss of access jeopardizes the receipt and delivery of blood 24/7."
The blood bank is being forced to spend more than $5.1 million to permanently close its primary donor center, find temporary shelter for its manufacturing laboratory and modify the existing building so it can be used as a compliant staging area for blood drives, she said.
Dan Grabauskas, HART chief executive, said his agency is seeking only to take a 2,861-square-foot sliver of the approximately 21,780-square-foot blood bank property, and an additional 1,591 square feet during a three-week construction period. While construction is underway HART will work only during the off-business hours, from about 8 or 9 p.m. to 3 or 4 a.m. daily. "All we’re doing is moving 10 feet closer to the building," he said.
HART officials are willing to work out the issue with the blood bank but have not yet been told specifically how its operations are being affected, Grabauskas said, noting that federal guidelines require strict documentation. He said HART first told the nonprofit that it might be in the way of the rail project in 2008.
He urged the committee to hold off requiring designating the $3 million to the blood bank this year. HART does not intend to do work in the DIllingham area until mid- or late 2016, so there would be still be time for the Council to set aside money next spring if needed, he said.
