Mainstreet Pahoa Marketing & Business Plan 1997

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fol III. Project Proposal and Design g The village park, farmers market and visitor information center is intended to enhance existing recreational, commercial and c facilities • ommuruty in Pahoa Village to better serve the larger population of Lower Puna. It would serve as a needed bus stop or residents for the noun bus service as well P County as provide a children's play area and restrooms. Most importantly, �t would clean y an up what now an abandoned lot, overgrown and u giving an appearance of g unsightly, g pp neglect and physical deterioration to downtown P ahoa. The park would also house the Wahaula Exhibit and other restored features and sites of local interest in the designated park are a, and t hereby serve as a passive visitor attracti on. Clean, accessible restrooms and interpretive history story sites are generally unavailable • �n the lower Puna district, diminishing its attraction ' • . g as a place to visit. The restrooms at the I�a�mu Beach drive-in restaurant were the only ' y accessible restrooms along the coastal area for tour buses and independent visitors. One of the proposed interpretive site features w • • would be the Waha uia visitor center display which was removed from the Volcanoes National Park in 1990 when lava flows from the current ongoing eruption at Pu'u o vent • .. P. threatened to cover the Waha u1a he�au and visitor center with its exhibits and displays. The exhibit belongs Service gs to the U.S. US National Park and was to be on loan to MSPA for display y in P ahoa. The area is already an existing county community complex consisting of a community center where classes, meetings, workshops, and other similar activities take place. The parcel is across the street from the recently opened community swimming pool. There is a baseball field situated on an elevated knoll adjacent to the community center and swimming pool. The 24 hour Pahoa Fire Station forms the fourth corner of this complex, located between the community center and the swimming pool. The village park would be located across the . street and contain a bus station complex modeled after the Mooheau Bus Station in Hilo, P o where an open -sided pavilion-like structure is used with restrooms on one end and a olive substation • p bstation in the other end of the building. The historic and cultural character of the e are interpretive g a will be preserved through information displays and take-away ater` y ials describing what that area of Pahoa town used to look like, including: . information on the several lantation Park area P worker camp areas that once occupied the . the site of an old sumo tin which saw re • ' g regularly scheduled Japanese wrestling bouts for camp worker entertainment g . photos and stories of the original Pahoa lumber r ll dati ng ng from 1909 10