HONOLULU — Honolulu’s Ocean Safety Department (OSD) plans to replace eight older lifeguard towers with eight brand-new ones on city-owned beaches around O‘ahu.
Tower-based service provides vigilance, shoreline and ocean prevention service, emergency medical first response, and ocean rescue at beach locations, according to the city.
The replacement towers in question, which cost $45,000 each, include two at the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve.
Others will be placed at Kalama Beach Park, Sunset Beach, Maili Beach and at beach spots in Waimanalo, Waikiki and Ala Moana, according to OSD.
But paying for those updated towers — which amounts to $392,450 — will require the city to transfer funds from one first-responder agency to the next.
During the City Council’s Committee on Budget meeting on Tuesday morning, the panel reviewed Resolution 187, which requests the transfer of $281,000 in city general funds and $111,450 in Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve funds from the Department of Emergency Services to the newly created OSD.
Kurt Lager, OSD’s acting director since July 16, told the panel that the city “purchased the eight towers using fiscal year 2024 money on a master agreement,” when the lifeguard agency was still part of the Emergency Services Department.
But following executive actions taken by Mayor Rick Blangiardi, OSD became its own stand-alone agency in late May.
Still, the funding transfer pays the cost of installation of the towers — an action recommended by the city Department of Budget and Fiscal Services (BFS) — and allows the funds to be moved into OSD’s 2025 fiscal year budget, which began July 1, Lager said.
“The request from BFS is to move these moneys from ‘current expenses’ to ‘equipment’ so that we can install these towers,” he told the committee. “Six of the towers will be installed in various, different locations on the island, with two specifically for Hanauma Bay.”
OSD’s request for funds also includes $21,000 for a new four-seat utility task vehicle at Hanauma Bay “for moving equipment,” he said, adding, “It gets very congested going up and down the road at Hanauma, with the amount of people there.”
At the meeting, Radiant Cordero, the budget committee’s chair, asked about the city’s process to install the towers once the transfer of funds is approved.
“We have the towers at our headquarters right now, sitting in our parking lot,” Lager replied. “We have a master agreement with a company that will come and take the towers to the beach, where we’re installing them.”
He added that the company will then “take the (old) tower out of the beach and move it back to our headquarters” at 3823 Leahi Ave., adjacent to Kapiolani Park. “We then will reuse the (old) tower somewhere else or remove it completely.”
The requested fund transfer pays for transport of the towers “from our headquarters to the beach, where it’s going to be installed, on skids that the tower sits on,” he said.
“Put (the tower) together — the ramp, the stairs, everything — and then the removal of the old tower, back to our headquarters,” he added.
Cordero also questioned the use of city funds for towers that were purchased in 2023.
In response, Lager said it takes a year to receive the towers after they’ve been purchased by the city.
“So that’s why we’re just now installing towers that were bought last year,” he said. “We just got the towers delivered last week.”
Ultimately, the budget committee reported Resolution 187 out for full council adoption.
After the meeting, Lager told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that OSD was coordinating with the city’s police and parks and recreation departments “for transportation, right of entry to parks and installation” of the new lifeguard towers.
“One of the Hanauma Bay towers has been replaced,” he added, “so only one more needs to go in” there.
With a $24 million budget, OSD fields 271 lifeguards and eight rescue ski teams, which staff 42 lifeguard towers on beaches around O‘ahu, the city said.
