While it never left Pahoa, the Puna Community Medical Center is eager to return to its home at the Pahoa Marketplace, said Clinical Programs Director Dan Domizio.
The small medical office moved into an annex on the other side of town in December as lava appeared ready to inundate the shopping center.
But thankfully that lava never arrived, and with the return of Malama Market on Wednesday, the medical center remains one of the last tenants to return.
Domizio said he hopes to change that soon but noted the move back likely will take a few weeks to complete.
“We had the floors buffed and a new coat of paint put on the walls,” he said. “All the real nitty-gritty has not begun.”
The medical center has seen patients for the past three months in a former house near the Pahoa schools. While a bit larger, Domizio said the space wasn’t designed well for a medical office and was not fully handicap accessible.
The move out of the shopping center also has been a financial burden for the nonprofit organization.
Domizio said its budget shortfall had reached $90,000 but since has dropped a bit.
“We need 550 (visits) a month to be breaking even,” he said. “We were down to 340 in January and crossed 400 in February.”
The medical center has applied for disaster relief funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Bills in the state Legislature also sought to provide an emergency appropriation to the organization and two public charter schools, but each of those measures failed to pass.
The bills would have provided $1,155,595 to the Hawaii Academy of Arts and Science Public Charter School, $571,213 to the Kua O Ka La Public Charter School and $256,343 to the medical center for costs associated with preparing for the lava flow.
Sen. Russell Ruderman, who introduced the bills, said the general attitude at the Capitol was “we don’t have any extra money this year.”
Ruderman, D-Puna, said it’s possible the charter schools still could receive help from the state’s emergency response fund.
Bills he introduced to seek the construction of an airstrip and harbor in Puna in case the flow severed Highway 130 also were defeated.
Ruderman said he has introduced a resolution to study the creation of an airstrip since lava could again threaten the transportation route.
Domizio said the medical center has received some aid from private foundations.
He said the nonprofit still plans to move ahead with building emergency room facilities on state land near the shopping center.
“We’re going to go ahead with it,” Domizio said. “Hopefully, lava will go back into its previous patterns and leave us alone for a millennia or two.”
Securing financing still could be difficult because of the ongoing lava activity, he acknowledged.
As of Thursday morning, the closest surface flows were about 8 miles upslope.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
