Molokai veterans center waiting for promised money, permits
State Representatives Mele Carroll and Cindy Evans are on a fact-finding mission. The two visited the Molokai Veterans Compound to attend a May 7 meeting as a result of a resolution they introduced to open a line of dialogue with veterans through meetings held on a state level.
“I introduced a resolution that said I want to go out, throughout the whole state, and I want to talk to the veterans,” said Rep. Cindy Evans, to the roughly 50 veterans at the meeting. “This is the third meeting; I’ve been to Maui, I’ve been to Hilo, and I’ve learnt so much.”
“I’d rather just talk story with the people, I’d rather the ideas come from the people,” said Rep. Carroll, who co-introduced the resolution. “So when I’m over there and advocating on your behalf … we push what you want us to do.”
The main focus of the meeting was the construction of a veterans’ center, to be built on the very location of the meeting. Purchased from Molokai Ranch three years ago for $10, the 18,000-square-foot lot is the future site of a 1,900 square foot (3,100 counting a covered lanai) veterans’ center.
However, the main hurdle remains, which is receiving the $250,000 in grant money slated for the project.
“I hope to have this money released by the end of the month,” said State Representative Mark Moses, director of the office of Veterans Services. “We’re right down to the final details now. They’ve just got a couple little questions. For instance, budget and finance has people that look at structures and stuff and they look at this structure and say: ‘We see the prefab as costing $90,000, but you said it’s going to cost less, how could that be?’
“That’s all we’re going to verify now is what is it actually going to cost,” explained Rep. Moses.
Even acquisition of the grant money, however soon, will not result in concrete being poured next month. There are still other hoops to jump through.
“We’re 60 percent through with the drawings [blueprints] but we’re waiting for it to go through the Special Management Area (SMA) process — that’s where it is right now,” said Arthur Parr, the chief architect working on the structure. “We need to get that [the SMA’s aproval] before we proceed to anything else.”
When asked when the process will be complete, Parr said: “God only knows, it’s a black hole … They’ve had it for several months.”
According to Parr, most of Kaunakakai is classified as a Special Management Area, which means the Maui County Planning Department pays extra attention to building projects within that area.
The next phase includes finishing the blueprints and applying for building permits. The veterans hope to begin construction at the start of 2009.
In other business
Rep. Evans and Rep. Carroll took the time to listen to concerns and ideas. Such concerns and ideas included: vehicle tax exemption for veterans, tuition deferments, wait times for appeals and grants, the establishment of a hotline with live operators for veterans, the grim situation with homelessness among veterans and the beautification of the veterans cemetery on Molokai.
