Question: Auwe! Maintenance at the Wahiawa Transit Center is horrible. It is in deplorable condition with trash, food gunk, vomit and chicken poop. The feral chicken population is multiplying there ever since trees and shrubbery were cut down to make way for construction of the new civic center. On Monday a worker cleaned off the vomit I saw with a dustpan and broom but did not rinse it away. So hauna! On Tuesday the smell and residue remained. The whole place needs a good pressure- washing, which seems to be done only once or twice a year! These unsanitary conditions are sad for all the hardworking people who go through there every day. We deserve better!
Answer: Yours is the second Auwe that Kokua Line has received this week about hauna, or foul-smelling, conditions at the two-story, open-air Central Oahu bus station, which opened in 2011 with bus driveways and passenger waiting areas on the ground floor, and parking on the second. We informed Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services of the complaints Wednesday. A spokesperson responded that day to say that the transit center would be power-washed.
Meanwhile, DTS passed Kokua Line’s inquiry on to a cleaning contractor, who called to say that workers toil diligently to clean the transit center, repair vandalism and remove graffiti but that it’s a constant struggle made more difficult by the persistent presence of people who hang out at the facility between Center Street and California Avenue, rather than passing through to catch a bus, and by an influx of feral chickens displaced by the adjacent Wahiawa Civic Center redevelopment. Many trees on the roughly 4-acre civic center site have been cut down, and chickens that used to live in and under those trees have moved to the shade of the transit center’s ground floor, he said. Chicken droppings are a problem.
The Final environmental impact statement for the Wahiawa Civic Center Project, which Gov. Josh Green accepted on Dec. 16, said that “a majority of the identified trees” within the project site would need to be removed. “Construction activities may temporarily disrupt routine behavior of common faunal species in the immediate Project Site, but will not result in permanent displacement, or adversely affect regional distribution of affected fauna. Once the Proposed Actions redevelopment is complete, faunal activity in the vicinity of the work site is expected to return to pre-existing condition,” it said.
Envisioned as a hub for county and state government services for Central Oahu and the North Shore, the civic center is to include a District Court building, a satellite city hall and other resources.
On Thursday we emailed the the Department of Accounting and General Services contact person listed in the EIS, asking whether the state would help remove feral chickens from the transit center, but we did not hear back by deadline.
Q: When will the Keehi pickleball courts open?
A: The pickleball complex at Keehi Lagoon Beach Park is scheduled to open to the public late Monday morning, with courts allocated on a first-come, first-served basis unless otherwise permitted, according to the city.
Mahalo
On Saturday my husband fell in the parking lot at Kapalama Shopping Center. We are both senior citizens. He hit the top of his head, causing a lot of bleeding. I just yelled for help. These people came to his aide before the ambulance arrived: Olga and Mia V. of Kailua, Tim D. of Tripler, Mahealani S. of Honolulu (a nurse) and Jay. Then, at the Kuakini ER: Dr. Seidman and Nurse Miyuki. Thank you everyone! My husband is home resting. — Auntie Ulu
Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.
