By ERIN MILLER
Stephens Media
The federal government provided the Kona International Airport’s fire department with new trucks six years ago, but when the equipment arrived, it didn’t fit in the existing fire station, Hawaii Island Airports District Manager Chauncey Wong Yuen said Wednesday.
Those trucks will get a new, upgraded fire station next spring, when construction on a 24,000-square-foot Airport Rescue and Firefighting station is finished, state Department of Transportation officials said during a groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site. The ceremony also included the formal dedication of the airport’s new Federal Contract Tower, the aircraft control tower that replaced what was intended to be a temporary 51-foot-tower built in 1970.
“You can see these two projects represent a lot of collaboration, cooperation with the federal government, state government, county government and the private sector,” U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said. “I love infrastructure projects like this. Not only do we need these upgrades for the safety of our community, but these projects create jobs.”
Almost all of the speakers during Wednesday’s aircraft control tower dedication invoked the late Sen. Daniel K. Inouye’s memory, noting the contributions the state’s former senior senator, a Democrat, made to getting the new tower built.
Lt. Gov. Shan Tsutsui noted that the aircraft control tower is in place to look over the airport and provide guidance for the travelers coming through there.
“Without a doubt, I know the senator is doing the same,” Tsutsui said.
Inouye’s former chief of staff, Jennifer Sabas, told the crowd how Inouye came to learn of the airport’s need for a new tower, and how he pushed for the $37 million in federal funding for the project. Inouye became chairman of the Senate’s Commerce Committee in 2006 and ordered an audit of all of Commerce’s facilities and infrastructure needing repairs and replacements. Through that audit, he learned of the safety issues with the Kona airport tower, including the fact that aircraft controllers in the tower couldn’t see the full runway from the control room.
The Federal Aviation Administration came back with a recommendation to renovate the tower, Sabas said. Inouye wouldn’t accept that answer.
“He wanted the opportunity to talk with the FAA,” Sabas said. “In 2009, the full construction was authorized.”
Inouye said infrastructure investment was one of the government’s responsibilities, Sabas said.
She finished with a charge to the audience, passed along from the messages she heard Inouye give throughout his career.
“Pick up the baton,” Sabas said. “Look forward and continue to do good. Then the people of Hawaii will continue to thrive.”
The Aircraft Rescue and Fire-Fighting station is expected to cost $17 million, with $14.6 million in funding coming from the FAA. The existing station was built in 1980.
Moving the aircraft tower is the first in a series of renovations and relocations at the airport. The old tower will be demolished, opening a space to move the Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Space Center away from its current location into a new building. Doing that, DOT officials have previously said, then frees up space for the department to begin its multimillion-dollar airport renovation project that will eventually create a single check-in and security area and connect the airport’s two terminals.
Email Erin Miller at
emiller@westhawaiitoday.com.
