HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Last week’s downpours sent water cascading into the basement offices of the Hawaii State Capitol, and it’s not the first time.

The leaks happened because the Capitol’s iconic ponds are in the process of being replaced by $10 million sheets of glass.

The ponds have been a maintenance nightmare for 55 years, since the Capitol first opened. Now the idea that there may never be water there again is troubling to admirers of the original design, like professor William Chapman, interim dean of the University of Hawaii school of architecture.

“I think they’re an essential part of it,” Chapman said.

The pools symbolized the ocean surrounding the islands and surrounded sometimes chaotic chambers with an oasis of calm, which Chapman says is irreplaceable.

“It creates this sort of tranquility within the space that I think a porcelain kind of finish will not do,” he said.

After concluding that the original brackish ponds were too hard to maintain and that using drinkable water would be too wasteful, the state decided to replace them.

Artist Solomon Enos is involving the public in coloring in a wave pattern that will be reproduced on heavy glass tiles. He was selected by the state Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

The public is invited to add a dot of paint to the design Monday through Saturday, from 9 a.m. to noon, until Nov. 30 at the Capitol Modern museum, located at 250 S. Hotel St., across the street from the state Capitol and Iolani Palace.

The dots of paint will be mapped so families can return to the glass promenade and find the exact dots painted years earlier.

State Director of Accounting and General Services Keith Regan said the glass feature will also require continuous maintenance, not unlike the ponds.

“This is a community heirloom,” he said. “This is something that multiple generations are going to be able to enjoy and be proud of.”

But getting there is also a challenge. Regan said the removal of old weatherproofing left the Ewa-side pool area vulnerable to rain, which poured into the basement House staff offices last week, damaging ceilings, walls and equipment, and knocking out power.

State Rep. Sean Quinlan, new House majority leader, said staffers and lawmakers arriving for work Tuesday were stunned by the damage.

“It was kind of a shock. There was water coming down inside the building, inside the parking garage. A number of light fixtures were broken. The other side of the parking garage was pitch black, you couldn’t see a thing,” he said.

Similar weather a year ago caused much more severe leakage in the Senate side of the basement, which also was blamed on the removal of weatherproofing in the Diamond Head pool.

Regan said the contractor this year prepared better for the rain, with hoses and pumps to prevent heavy ponding over the slab, and will pay for any damage.

Meanwhile the glass pools are planned for unveiling in fall of 2026.

Quinlan said many lawmakers have mixed feelings about the change.

“It was never a very comfortable feeling having that volume and weight of water over your head, but it’s also kind of sad, because it was a beautiful feature,” he said.

Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Police on Hawaii island are investigating a possible drowning in Kealakekua Bay.

Authorities said in the morning of Sunday Nov. 10, a 29-year-old woman was found floating face down in the bay. Police said she was wearing a mask, snorkel, fins, and a wetsuit.

Bystanders were able to pull her from the water, place her on a paddle board, and immediately began CPR. A nearby boat soon picked up the woman and brought her to land.

CPR was continued until medics arrived.

Fire personnel arrived on scene and took her to the Kona Community Hospital where she was later pronounced dead.

At last check, the woman has not yet been identified. An autopsy has been scheduled.

Copyright 2024 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.

Hawaiian Paradise Park residents are urged to submit feedback about a proposed new district park that will be built in the subdivision.

Construction of HPP’s first public park could begin in two years, and a draft environmental assessment published last week is the latest step in the project’s development.

The park would be built on a 20-acre Hawaii County-owned parcel on Kaloli Drive between 25th and 26th avenues and is estimated to cost upwards of $80 million.

The draft EA proposes several potential facilities to be included in the park, including a baseball diamond, soccer field, two tennis courts, three pickleball courts, a community pool, dog park, skate park, two covered playground areas, about 218 parking stalls and more.

The county Department of Parks and Recreation held a community meeting about the park in October, where Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz said she hopes the project will be completed in a single phase of work, rather than be split into multiple phases to spread out the cost.

However, the draft EA states it is likely that the high cost of the project will necessitate a multiple-phase approach, although no details about how those phases will be split have been determined.

Parks and Rec Director Maurice Messina said any determination about whether the project will be broken into phases will be made based on the county’s ability to secure funding and how it prioritizes its major projects.

“It depends on the availability of capital improvement funding, which all the county agencies compete for,” Messina said, adding that major high-priority projects like the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant likely will take up the lion’s share of county CIP funds, leaving other projects to fight over the remainder.

Messina said Parks and Rec itself has several other projects in need of funding, including deferred maintenance work at dozens of parks islandwide.

As for whether the HPP project can receive enough funding to be completed in one fell swoop, Messina remained ambivalent. While an $80 million district park might be a tough sell compared to other county projects — “I’ve never seen it happen before,” Messina said — he added he also has never seen such focused community support for a project before, either.

The October public meeting about the park was widely attended by residents who urged the county to accelerate the project, since the growing subdivision is in dire need of community spaces.

Messina urged residents to submit comments on the draft EA during its current public comment period, since those comments will not only be used to influence the final EA, but also could be used to amend the HPP District Park Master Plan.

A master plan for the park was first drafted in 1997, and was amended more than 20 years later to include a preliminary design based on community feedback.

Messina said feedback on the final EA will help finalize the master plan and determine what park facilities the community thinks are most important to include.

The final master plan is slated to be completed in January.

A broad timeline included in the draft EA estimates the final design and permitting processes could be completed in one year.

The contract bidding process would add another six months, and construction could possibly begin in two years and take another two years to complete.

The draft EA can be read at tinyurl.com/y22vmhab.

Community members are asked to submit comments to Jennifer Scheffel at consultant group SSFM International at jscheffel@ssfm.com.