LIHU‘E — Two years ago, a small army of volunteers committed themselves to maintaining the Lihu‘e Gateway project, a $5-million undertaking to landscape and beautify roads leading to Lihu‘e Airport. Now, the maintenance of the project, as planned in the
LIHU‘E — Two years ago, a small army of volunteers committed themselves to maintaining the Lihu‘e Gateway project, a $5-million undertaking to landscape and beautify roads leading to Lihu‘e Airport.
Now, the maintenance of the project, as planned in the past, may be shifting from the County of Kaua‘i to the state Department of Transportation.
During a meeting scheduled at 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 30 at the Kaua‘i War Memorial Convention Hall here, Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste and Steve Kyono, who heads the highways division of the state DOT on Kaua‘i, plan to meet with volunteers to discuss the future of the project and maintenance concerns.
County officials had projected that the project would be passed over to DOT workers by summer of this year.
But Dr. Ramon de la Pena, president of the Kauai Pangasinan Association, said he has been cleaning the association plot on Ahukini Road for the past two years.
De la Pena said he has liked doing it because of the exercise, and because of the chance to socialize with other volunteers.
He also said he would continue to maintain the plot if a decision is made to delay shifting the maintenance responsibility from the county to the DOT.
“Personally, I like doing this, but it will depend on what the others (from his (association) say,” de la Pena said at the plot site Thursday.
Volunteers have maintained both sides of Kapule Highway and Ahukini Road since former Mayor Maryanne Kusaka won federal funds through volunteer sweat-equity to start the beautification effort.
The project has helped to encourage visitors to return to the island, and has become a source of civic pride, county officials have said.
The effort has proven to be an outlay of manpower, energy and equipment, all furnished by volunteers, with some help from Kaua‘i County.
Eddie Sarita, manager of the Kauai War Memorial Convention Hall and the coordinator of the beautification project, urged volunteers to attend the meeting to find out more about the status of the maintenance project.
For more information on the meeting, please contact Sarita at 241-6623.
In a statement, Sarita thanked volunteers for their work.
Over the past two years, Sarita has volunteered his time after work to clean and prune the landscaped areas.
Sarita has worked alongside inmates from the Kauai Community Correctional Center, who have also helped maintained the project.
The involvement of the inmates came about after an agreement was reached with Neal Wagatsuma, warden at KCCC in Wailua.
Kauai Nursery & Landscaping in Puhi, the largest landscaping company on Kaua‘i, developed the project, and maintained it from 2000 to 2002.
The beautification project was funded with $4 million from the federal government and $1 million in “matching funds” from Kaua‘i County.
The county’s matching share came in part in the form of help from volunteers who pledged to care for the landscaping project.
Had they not helped out, county officials might have had to return some of the initial federal funds used for the project.
In November, 2001, some 200 organizations and individuals pledged to help with the maintenance project through volunteerism.
But only 85 groups and individuals eventually came out for the start of the project in the summer of 2002, to take care of 113 of 143 plots, averaging about 5,000-square feet each.
In intervening years, Sarita has attempted to find other groups or individuals to care for plots that went unassigned.
Lester Chang, staff writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@pulitzer.net.
