Hawaii County finance committee forwards two Safe Routes measures, approves park transfers

The Hawaii County Finance Committee voted April 21 to forward two Safe Routes to School funding measures to the full council and approved several routine fund transfers, including money to buy new park maintenance equipment.

Engineering Division Chief Tony Thompson told the committee the Kilauea Avenue Safe Routes Part 1 project will add 8-foot sidewalks with gutters, drainage improvements, about 14 retaining walls (roughly 25 feet deep), and bike lanes roughly 5–5.5 feet wide. "The primary purpose of the school program is to provide a safe walking area for kids within about a mile of the schools," Thompson said.

Thompson and department staff clarified the financing for the Kilauea Avenue project: a state grant of $1,386,000 will be used toward the county match, the county expects to provide about $2,000,000 in local matching funds, and federal funding for the project is approximately $8,000,000, for a total project cost on the order of $10,000,000. (The committee record includes an apparent transcription error listing a much larger dollar figure; staff corrected the project totals on the record.)

Committee members also discussed Bill 150, which would appropriate $50,344 to the Safe Routes non-infrastructure account. DPW staff explained "non-infrastructure" funds cover programmatic items such as supplies, outreach and data collection — "people waving the sign, not the actual poles or blinking lights," Thompson said — rather than curb, sidewalk or signal construction.

The committee approved forwarding both bills to full council with favorable recommendations. The clerk recorded eight ayes on each measure; one member was excused in each vote (Inaba and Nava appeared as excused on separate items).

Members also approved routine reports of fund transfers and change orders. Parks business manager Charmaine Felipe told the committee that no vendors responded to the request for the county portion of the Summer Fun food-service program in the Kohala/Waimea area. "We didn't get any vendors that were responsive to the bidding process to provide the summer fun food for the program," Felipe said. She clarified that this county funding is separate from an available federal grant that can provide up to $80,000.

A council member pressed staff on equity and how Safe Routes projects are prioritized across districts; Deputy Director Neil Azevedo said staff are looking islandwide and will share plans and district-level breakdowns once available. "We are looking at schools throughout the island... We hope to try to cover every school we got," Azevedo said, and offered to provide cost breakdowns by district.

The committee completed its agenda and adjourned at 11:26 a.m.