ANAHOLA — A light rain, natural blessing, sprinkled the Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative Anahola Service Center during the blessing and dedication officiated by Kahu Wayne Vidinha of Ke Akua Mana Church on Friday.
The sprinkle sent the audience of about a hundred people into the warehouse to listen to comments from KIUC CEO David Bissell, Alan Smith of the KIUC board, Kipukai Kuali‘i of the Anahola Hawaiian Homestead Association and Kaua‘i County Council, and Kali Watson of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
“KIUC’s priority is to provide reliable electricity to all residents of Kaua‘i, and the Anahola Service Center will enable us to continue to improve the resiliency for the eastern and northern parts of Kaua‘i,” Bissell said. “We greatly appreciate our continuing partnership with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the Anahola Hawaiian Homestead Association, and the Homestead Community Development Corporation.”
The KIUC Anahola Service Center that includes a community meeting room in its footprint, replaces the Kapa‘a Service Center that has served the community for more than 60 years. The Anahola Service Center serves as the hub of field operations for the island’s eastside and North Shore service area, and provides much-needed garage, office, and storage space.
“We are truly blessed that we have this land to share,” said Kuali‘i. “We also have to say ‘mahalo nui loa’ to KIUC and its board for working with us, for responding to us, and seeing us, for recognizing us, and being willing to work with the beneficiaries directly, not just the state department in Honolulu.”
The center was constructed on 4.45 acres of land leased from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. The footprint of the Service Center is included in General Lease No. 299 that also covers land that houses the Anahola Solar Farm and adjacent Anahola Substation. The DHHL and the AHHA, which negotiated a community benefits agreement with KIUC when the project was initially proposed, were instrumental in the successful completion of the project.
“This project goes back to 2015 when the solar farm was constructed,” Watson said. “This is a shining example where different organizations can come together and coordinate the development of something like that that will benefit the community for generations. We thank KIUC for their willingness to do that on Hawaiian Home Lands.”
At an estimated cost of $8.5 million that Bissell described as an “investment at the height of the COVID,” the work on the site was done by all Kaua‘i-based companies. Avery Youn designed the facility that Kahu Wayne Vidinha presided over the groundbreaking in December 2020. Site work was done by Cushnie Construction, Inc., and the building construction was completed by Kalani Construction, Inc.
The new Anahola Service Center will serve as a staging area for transmission and distribution operations, and will also house KIUC’s Distribution Planning team. The expanded site will serve as a storm preparation area and equipment depot for the hurricane season that starts in June and runs through November. This is expected to improve response times to outages on the North Shore with the move from Kapa‘a to Anahola.
