HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0147.004 2000-2002 March 19, 2001
Hawaii County Council
Public Hearing on County
Budget 2001-2002
Subject: $4,500,000 Capitol Improvement Project for Kawailani Street Bridge
Good evening, my name is Glenn Santos, my wife ElainE-and son Kyle live at 1377 Mailani whic-h is
two streets away from the present Kawailani Street Bridge. On November 2, 2000 we suffered flood
damage to our home and the contents within our home. To date we have spent over $40,000 rebuilding
our home and lives, it has not been easy. My family and I spent seven hours on our kitchen counter, as
I felt it was safer for us in the house than outside in the middle of the night. On Mailani Street seven
home suffered significant damage and on the street above us (Kikaha) eleven homes were badly
damaged. This is a total of eighteen families who have gone through a tremendous nightmare, that I
don't believe you people can even imagine.
None of us ever want to go through this again, and the only way we feel that this type of flooding will
not happen again is to replace this bridge. We have learned that there was flooding in 1979, 1980, 1994
& 2000. We know that in 1979 & 1980 the water did not do any damage to private property but I feel
that flooding twice in two years would have warranted some corrective action on the part of the
COUNTY, apparently the county did not, as nothing was done to the bridge. Then in 1994 the bridge
clogged up with debris and flooded the people up on Kikaha Street. After that flood (three homes were
impacted) the county met with these three home owners and ASSURED them that things would be done
to improve this bridge, six years later nothing was done and this time eighteen homes were severely
damaged. What is it going to take for the County to replace or redesign this bridge? I am not an
engineer, however it does not take an engineer to realize after four floods_that the bridge is not designed
to handle any significant volume of water. Yes the volume of water in November 2000 was twenty-
eight inches in 24 hours, the rain fall in 1994 was fourteen inches in 24 hours we don't know how much
rain fell in 1979 & 1980. The point is you people must correct this problem and it must be done quickly,
before someone is seriously injured or killed by the flooding this ill designed bridge is causing. It does
not need any more studies.
I strongly urge all of you to support the $4,500,000 appropriation in the Mayors budget for this project,
however you cannot not stop here, you must also find ways to fund this appropriation by floating bonds
or some other creative financing that I know you are capable of finding. You must work with our
council person Jimmy Arakaki, the Mayor and his administration to keep this project going forward.
The people in this room are not going to go away until this problem is resolved, just the number of
people here tonight should show you how important this project is to us. We also ask that we be kept
informed as the project goes forward, i.e. funding, biding, construction timetable etc. etc.
Thank you for the opportunity to present this testimony to you all.
Comm. No. r ~
File No.
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