One of the baseball fields has been taken apart in Waiakea Uka Park as work to renovate and expand the park gets underway.
The Hawaii County Department of Parks and Recreation announced that the park will be partially closed through the end of May 2024 due to the large project.
Former Gov. David Ige made $6.4 million available for upgrades and expansion of the Hilo park.
The park has two ballfields, a playground and the 79-year-old Stanley Costales Waiakea Uka Gym, which have all served as a social and recreation hub for the Waiakea Uka community for years.
Capital improvement project funds will be used to build a new community center, two new parking lots, and for relocation of the lower baseball field.
The closure is necessary for the construction of the new center and significant improvements to the lower portions of the park. Isemoto Contracting currently is conducting demolition operations at the park.
The upper ballfields and its comfort station, everything mauka of the flood control canal, should be unaffected by the work of the project and can be used by the community, according to Parks and Rec Director Maurice Messina.
“Depending on how the project progresses, we intend to reopen as soon as possible and may even be able to reopen portions of the project as they are completed and make sense to do so,” Messina said. “We’ll see how we progress.”
For more information about using the upper ballfield, call Royden Chow at (808) 938-2014.