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Arabinda Adrienne Dey To: shiga@co.hawaii.hi.us Cc: Amundson, Ron; jarmstrong@hawaiitribune-herald.com; tspinolacampbell@co.hawaii.hi.us; parksrecreation@co.hawaii.hi.us; aquatics@co.hawaii.hi.us Subject: Hono_lii Beach Park expansion Dear Chairman Higa: I am writing about your interesting idea of expanding the Honolii Beach Park. It occurred to me that there may be a further benefit in such a land acquisition in addition to the benefits mentioned in the HTH article. In order to explain my idea I need to give some background; forgive me if you are already familiar with what follows. Some years ago the County of Hawaii was sued in federal court by some local disabled residents because none of the parks and recreational facilities on the island had been made accessible as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The judge ruled that every single one of the county facilities within the Park & Recreation Department had to be made accessible as provided under the law. The County had to enter into a consent agreement with the court. An expensive consultant was hired to develop a Transition Plan for the department. All the facilities were surveyed and plans were developed to provide accessibility. A timeline was also included in the plan. Note that it is now 15 years since the passage of the ADA. The Honolii park is an especially tough location to be made accessible because of the steep cliff above the beach. The consultants proposed to install an elevator to solve the problem. However, such an elevator would be very expensive, subject to vandalism, and to corrosion because of the salty environment, and would most likely malfunction within a short period of time. Therefore I am thinking that the additional land you are proposing for the County to buy might provide a much more reasonable and simpler accessible route to this beach. Of course this would have to be determined by a careful survey of the area. If you can find a copy of the Transition Plan which is probably gathering dust somewhere, you will see the Honolii project listed as no.73 in the South Hilo section. Activities listed for this park are swimming, surfing, and restrooms. I have to say that swimming would be extremely dangerous at this site. To this day there is no accessible safe swimming beach overseen by a lifeguard near Hilo. The only other beach where there is a permanent lifeguard is at Richardson Ocean Park which the County stubbornly refuses to make accessible. This is the site of the summer aquatics program for children. Obviously children with certain mobility problems are excluded from this program and it is my opinion that this is a serious violation of the ADA. I hope my comments may turn out to be helpful. It is high time for the County of Hawaii to fulfill its responsibilities under the ADA. It appears that the work required by the Transition Plan keeps falling off the bottom of the to-do list. There appears to be money for all kinds of land acquisitions and the development of brand new parks so there is no excuse for putting off this work for so long. I look forward to the County finally showing its aloha to all of its residents. Very sincerely, Adrienne S. Dey 39 Poko Place, Hilo, HI 96720 934-8580 Member, Board of Directors, Paukaa Community Association Trained as a Community Access Monitor by the MA Architectural Access Board Co-founder and subsequently Chair for 3 years of the Needham, MA Commission on Disabilities Legally blind since 1984 Comm N. Ref. T R&f. Date