For years, Hele-On bus drivers taking the cross-island trek to deliver passengers to Waikoloa resorts have had to wait in their buses for up to seven hours before making the return trip.
A measure recently approved the County Council aims to bring them some relief. The council voted 9-0 Wednesday to approve Resolution 294, to lease space at Queens Marketplace for parking for up to 10 buses and a break-room for bus operators.
The 12-month lease would cost $1,598.52 per month, plus common area operating expenses to use the facility, electricity and taxes for a total of $4,232 monthly. The money would come from the general excise tax, Mass Transit Administrator John Andoh said.
The contractor, Roberts Hawaii, will furnish the space and the contractor is expected to pick up the lease costs in future years, Andoh said.
“There are about 10 buses a day that sit for close to eight hours at Waikoloa Resort,” Andoh said. “For the health and welfare of those operators, we should provide them with a space to relax during those times.”
Andoh said the space could also be used to provide public information about Mass Transit.
The lease is an interim plan, he said, while the agency works on providing hubs around the island for its hub-and-spoke bus system. Currently, Kailua-Kona and Pahoa hubs are in the planning stages and “Waikoloa Resort is an area of consideration,” Andoh said. The agency could also provide a break-room space at a planned maintenance facility in Kailua-Kona, he said.
“I can see running a bus empty one way and back again, we’d run up too many miles,” said Kohala Councilman Tim Richards.
Since the resorts receive a benefit of having much of their workforce brought to them, perhaps they could provide space in their resorts, suggested North Kona Councilman Holeka Inaba.
Andoh said the bus parking and break-room will be provided as soon as the paperwork is completed.
In other Mass Transit action, the council approved 9-0 on first reading Bill 103, accepting a $100,000 state grant to begin site analysis and an environmental assessment that includes options for co-locating a public library at a bus hub in the Pahoa area. Andoh said the Hawaii State Public Library System would contribute $1 million to the county for design and site acquisition if the library is co-located with the transit hub.
Andoh said the goal is to contract a consultant to do the environmental assessment by the end of this month, with the assessment and site selection completed by the end of the year.
Puna Councilman Kanealii-Kleinfelder said former state Sen. Russell Ruderman, D-Puna, had recommended siting a library with the bus hub.
“Co-locating with the library would be absolutely amazing,” Kanealii-Kleinfelder said. “I always thought that would be great idea.”
