Kaua‘i County officials have reached an agreement with Lihu‘e Land Company leaders to create an emergency by-pass road between Kipu and Koloa, Mayor Bryan Baptiste announced Friday.
The former cane haul road would provide an emergency route between Kipu to Koloa should an traffic accident occur on Kaumuali‘i Highway in Kipu and either slows or halts traffic, Baptiste said during a meeting with the media at his office at the Lihu‘e Civic Center.
The road is part of a network of emergency by-pass roads the Baptiste administration is attempting to create through high population areas of the island.
The roads would allow motorists to get to safety in case of emergencies on well-traveled highways.
The newest by-pass road would run south from an area by the Kauai Humane Society building in Kipu, and southward toward the Wilcox Tunnel, and then to areas by the old McBryde Sugar Company mill in Koloa.
Baptiste said while the legal right of the county to use the emergency road has been established, county work crews have to cover up potholes and clean debris before the road can be used.
The shoulders of the road also may have to be shored up, officials said.
Deputy County Attorney Christiane Nakea-Tresler, who attended the meeting, helped negotiate the right-of-way easement.
Baptiste’s administration also recently worked out an agreement with Lihu‘e Land Company for a “right-of-entry” for an emergency by-pass road between Hanama‘ulu and Wailua.
The former cane haul road is located mauka of Kuhio Highway between the two towns and can be used when the highway becomes impassable due to an accident.
In other matters, Baptiste praised 16 Kaua‘i County Public Works Department employees who participated in a training program that encouraged them to excel in their jobs and to help government save money.
They were trained to analyze their work environment and to suggest and implement changes and achieve more productivity and efficiency in their jobs, leading to cost savings for the county and improved public services.
The county workers were part of the Managing and Establishing a World Class Workforce program, a joint project involving Kaua‘i County and the Small Business Development Center with the Office of Continuing Education and Training at the Kaua‘i Community College.
The students went through 11 sessions, each averaging 4 hours.
On May 26, the students went through graduation exercises at the Kaua‘i Community College and described cost-saving measures for their jobs.
County officials hope to expand the program to other departments as well, according to John Isobe, interim director of the Office of Continuing Education at the Kaua‘i Community College.
“It is a more effective use of government services and resources, translating to more efficiency in government,” Isobe said in an interview with The Garden Island. “The ultimate beneficiaries are all of us (the public).”
Those participating in the training program included supervisors and heads of divisions within the Public Works Department, he said. The students were mostly from the auto maintenance division and the parks division of the Public Works Department.
The management program was funded through a $55,000 appropriation that was approved for the current fiscal year by the Kaua‘i County Council and the mayor, Isobe said.
The funds also were used to train other employees in the use of computers and in the presentation of projects, Isobe said.
He noted the council has approved other funds in next year’s county budget to continue the various training programs.
Kaua‘i County is the first county in the state to implement the Workforce program, and other counties have shown interest and could fund similar projects in the future, Isobe said.
Baptiste said state government agencies are using the Kaua‘i project as a model for their own programs.
Baptiste also said he was impressed by the effort of the proponents of the project and the potential for government to save more money in the future.
At a simplistic level, the county could save up to $113,000 over the next five years by changing plastic toilet paper holders with more durable stainless steel ones in county facilities, Baptiste said.
“A simple idea like that can save taxpayers a whole lot of money and aggravation,” Baptiste said.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
