It’s time we stopped wasting more millions

Honolulu Advertiser

Cheers to Paul Mizue for his Aug. 21 letter, “Fixing Natatorium would be a waste.”

If this “bit by bit” repair is allowed to go on for the future years, we are going to be looking at millions and millions, and since the salt air will continue to tear at the structure forever, we will have to set aside money every few years for the continued upkeep of this memorial.

There is no end to this repair bill. For what?

Yes, we love our memorials, and we are steeped in traditions of the past. Yes, Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe trained there, and it was once a glorious swimming pool, fondly remembered by a previous generation. But Duke Kahanamoku has a wonderful statue right on the sidewalk. We don’t need any more expensive memories.

And didn’t we spend millions recently on it?

The point is, it will never end. And it doesn’t even work. In fact, if you read your history books, it never did work properly.

So, if it will never work, and we will forever be spending millions of dollars in repair work, why is it kept there? How much nostalgia is Honolulu willing to pay for?

It’s right smack dab in the middle of the most expensive and most visited real estate in the world.

We desperately need more beach and park areas and more parking. What we don’t need is wasting more millions of dollars on this ugly, crumbling and hopelessly outdated drain on our taxes.

As World War I fades into memory, and the Olympics of the 1920s is relegated to the history books, it’s time to think of the future, and our new young athletes and schoolchildren, and what they need to make them competitive in the modern world. And that’s not memorials.

Bob Buscombe
Honolulu

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Dearth of parking condemns renovation

Honolulu Advertiser

Your Aug. 16 editorial on the Natatorium was right on! Tear it down and restore the beach. Preserve the facade for a memorial.

Others would have us believe that the only group standing in the way of complete restoration is the group that uses the beach. Nonsense.

If we spent $50 million restoring the whole thing and building an Olympic-sized freshwater pool for competitions, no one would use it. Why? There is no parking available.

Evanita Midkiff
Kahala

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Fond memories, but pool’s time has come

Honolulu Advertiser

I remember going for my junior lifesaving merit badge as a Boy Scout at St. Augustine’s in 1950. Every day we jumped from the towers at the Natatorium and swam laps. (Anyone from Troop 51 out there?) Those days are gone, and so is the Natatorium.

Six million dollars to do a partial restoration, and the whole thing is falling apart. Making the Natatorium what it was is like making us who used it 55 years ago young again.

Clear the area, plant some explosives in it and destroy it. Make it a contiguous part of the shoreline with a small plaque on the shore that acknowledges its existence.

Fritz Amtsberg
Honolulu

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New memorial would replace existing ones

Honolulu Advertiser

Three articles appeared in the July 28 edition of The Honolulu Advertiser about war memorials in Hawaii honoring those veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
We already have a befitting memorial for those veterans who died in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Wouldn’t it be a good thing to honor those veterans who died in World War I and World War II with a new memorial on the grounds of the State Capitol?

This new memorial would replace the natatorium and the memorial at Punchbowl and King streets.

If possible, the design would be a continuation of the Korean War and Vietnam War memorials.

Lester Nakata

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Mufi’s Switch

Midweek

Bruce Anderson’s commentary in MidWeek (June 30) further solidified my belief that the city ought to take a second look at the need for a Waikiki Natatorium pool.

Winston Churchill, when criticized for changing his mind on an issue, once said, “When facts change, I change my opinions.” That thought would certainly apply to the Waikiki Natatorium controversy.

When supporters of the natatorium sought my vote for the restoration, I acceded under three conditions:

  • priority was to be given to preserving this memorial arch to our World War I veterans;
  • the total cost was not to exceed $11.5 million;
  • the facility would have appeal to residents and visitors alike.

I was always told that the cost to restore the arch and beach would be as much as restoring the entire natatorium. Soon after the vote to grant the permit, concerns were again raised over the pricing. While the winning contractor submitted a basic bid with the $11.5 million budget, the additive alternatives that included bleachers and restrooms brought the total cost to $18 million. Councilmember John Henry Felix and I introduced Resolution 99-87, subsequently adopted by the full council, that called on the administration to produce a viable operation and maintenance plan that would assure our financial obligations would be capped.

Judge Nakatani’s recent ruling, state Health Director Anderson’s statement that rules promulgation could take up to a year, admissions that certain segments of our population would likely be denied access to the pool for health and safety reasons (which leaves the city open to costly litigation), and ongoing uncertainties over pool maintenance costs, have led me back to my original priority: that the Waikiki Natatorium restoration should be restricted to the memorial arch. The permit the council approved can and should be modified for that specific purpose.

The city’s poor fiscal condition, the council’s recent decision to raise real property tax rates, and other urgent needs tell us that we can’t afford to undertake this costly restoration in full.

The Harris administration should get over its stubborn insistence that the natatorium project proceed in full, and instead bow to the will of the public and its own financial limitations by reducing the scope of the project.

Mufi Hannemann
Councilmember

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Natatorium Lawsuit

A Letter to the Editor by Rick Bernstein
Published in the Honolulu Weekly, June 9, 1999

The Kaimana Beach Coalition lawsuit challenging the attorney general’s opinion that the Natatorium swimming pool, by statutory definition, is not a swimming pool, is underway.

The AG’s opinion allowed the City & County of Honolulu (the developer) to skirt state Health Department health and safety rules and regulations, which would have required the city to obtain a state swimming pool permit and comply with swimming pool rules that protect swimmers against staphylococcus bacteria and assure proper water visibility so that people in trouble can be seen by lifeguards. Neither of these problems has been solved by the city to the satisfaction of the Health Department. For these reasons, it is the Health Department position, on the record, that it would not grant the city a permit to operate the Natatorium as it is presently designed. In the words of Health Director Bruce Anderson, the lack of a swimming pool permit would be a “deal stopper.”

With the AG’s last-minute opinion of Nov. 18, 1998, in place, the city no longer needed a Health Department swimming pool permit. This removed the last stumbling block for the City Council to grant a Special Management Area permit. Just 14 days later, the Council granted the permit, giving no time for the opposition to challenge the AG’s opinion and allowing the project to move forward to the bidding process.

On May 10, 1999, the $10,850,870 contract with the contractor. Healy Tibbits, was finalized. This is the same contract that came in at over $18 million during the bidding process and was then “value engineered” to the present amount. How they were able to cut over $7 million out of the project and maintain structural and architectural integrity is still a great mystery to Natatorium watchers.

Unless the Harris administration knows something about the legal process that the rest of us don’t, signing the contract before the lawsuit is settled is foolhardy. Should the case go in favor of the Kaimana Beach Coalition, Health Department health and safety rules for the swimming pool will be necessary to protect the Natatorium pool users. As there is no practical way to decontaminate the saltwater pool with its current design, the project will be halted until such time that it can be made safe and healthy for swimmers. An already executed contract would leave the city liable for damages to the contractor and waste more taxpayer money. One must ask why the city is knowingly entering into a binding contract with a lawsuit pending.

Perhaps the most startling development is the blitz of expensive television commercials paid for by the “Friends of the Natatorium” featuring 1948 Olympic swimming champion Bill Smith speaking in support of Natatorium restoration. Mr. Smith misstates one crucial point regarding costs to restore the beach as compared to restoring the Natatorium bleachers and the pool. He states that, according to engineers, the cost to do either would be the same.

In fact, a 1985 study commissioned by Mayor Eileen Anderson entitled “Waikiki 2000” by the CJS Architectural Group had the cost of beach restoration at approximately half of full restoration. According to Chris Smith of CJS Group, the present cost to restore the beach would be no more than $6 million. Bill Smith’s information comes from Leo Daly. the engineering company commissioned by the Friends of the Natatorium and paid by the state to create the present plans. It was always clear that the Friends favored full restoration and wanted nothing to do with a restored memorial arch and new beach. As a matter of fact, then chief City Planning Director Robin Foster called Daly’s beach restoration plans “more elaborate than necessary.”

The only conceivable reason for the Friends to be spending so much money on spin and misinformation at this point is to influence the judge in the pending lawsuit (Honolulu Diary, “It still ain’t over,” HW, 4/14). One truly hopes that these tactics will be seen through and that a fair and just decision be made by the judge to protect the health and safety of people of our community and visitors who will come to this tourist destination in the heart of Kapi’olani Park.

The Kaimana Beach Coalition still contends that a restored memorial arch, new restroom facilities and a new beach would show the proper respect to the honored veterans and would be a cost-effective and safe solution for this precious piece of real estate.

The case has been continued until June 18 at 9 a.m., when it will be heard by Judge Gail Nakatani.

Rick Bernstein
Kaimana Beach Coalition

Editor’s note: During services held in front of the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium over Memorial Day weekend, Mayor Jeremy Harris stated that full renovation of the Natatorium would begin soon, perhaps as early as this month, and would be completed by next year.

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