Mayor Kirk Caldwell places Waimanalo park project on hold temporarily after possible artifact found
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Kahiwaliko Macomber, age 11, (left) and Bella Souki, 10, plant an upside down Hawaiian flag where trees once stood in Sherwood Forest on Saturday.
COURTESY SAVE OUR SHERWOODS
A University of Hawaii archaeologist found a possible “artifact” on Saturday at the city’s construction site at Sherwood Forest in Waimanalo. The finding has led city officials to temporarily stop the work in what they called an “abundance of caution.”
The city will not proceed with further work on a contentious improvements project at Waimanalo Bay Beach Park until it hears back from the State Historic Preservation Division and the Oahu Island Burial Council about an object that was found at the site over the weekend, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said today.
The council is slated to take up the matter at its Oct. 9 meeting.
The city will make a presentation and the council will make a recommendation to SHPD.
Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, the council’s chairwoman, said the council doesn’t have much decision-making power regarding whether the project goes forward, but if a burial site were to be discovered at the location, the council would be able to approve or reject a plan for how it should be handled.
“In an abundance of caution … we’ve reported it to SHPD and we’ll hear what they have to say,” Caldwell said. “We’ll wait to see what they have to say and then move forward at that time. We’re going to follow all the protocols and make sure everything was done properly.”
It’s unclear how long it will take for SHPD to respond to the city, the mayor said.
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The $1.43 million project calls for a multipurpose field, an 11-stall parking lot, and a playground at the park, which is commonly called Sherwood Forest. The project is supposed to be completed by the end of November, followed by a period of about two months to allow for the grass and trees to develop, Caldwell said.
“Because we’re making sure we’re doing everything properly, we won’t go until we hear back from SHPD,” he said. “That may delay the completion by a bit.”
The plan is considered Phase 1 of a larger Waimanalo Bay Beach Park Master Plan, which has been fiercely opposed by the nonprofit Save Our Sherwoods and others who contend the area contains burial remains of native Hawaiians.
“I don’t think there’s any work going on right now,” Caldwell said. “My understanding is that there’s no activity out there today and there’ll be no activity until we get a report back from SHPD.”
Caldwell said he met with experts Monday who said they have not even been able to determine if the object found was an artifact and, if so, if it’s significant enough to halt the project.
“Finding an artifact doesn’t mean you cannot proceed,” he said.
He said he met with the city archaeologist and an expert from the University of Hawaii who determined the object to be “a piece of basalt of a lava dike that was chipped from somewhere else and probably brought there.”
It’s possible that it was brought there in the 1970s when the military used the area for housing. “A lot of fill was brought in before they put the housing done and it could have come from there but they’re not certain,” Caldwell said.
