The long-delayed opening of the Hawaii County Emergency Call Center has been pushed back once again because the facility on July 29 failed a building inspection.
According to Sherise Kana‘e-Kane, spokeswoman for the county Department of Public Works, a faulty air-conditioning unit is the cause of the inspection failure for the police/fire/emergency medical services call center, which is next to the Mohouli Senior Housing Project in Hilo.
“Parts for the chiller have been delayed …, ” Kana‘e-Kane said in a Monday email. She added that repairs to the unit are ongoing by the Honolulu-based contractor, Hensel Phelps Construction.
“We knew there was going to be delays in the acceptance of the building, which was supposed to be in June,” added Hawaii Police Department Chief Benjamin Moszkowicz. “And I was told that was because of issues surrounding the air-conditioning.”
The facility has been under construction since October 2021. The call center, originally conceived in the early 2000s, broke ground during the early phase of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Supply chain problems added both time and costs to the project.
The original cost estimate for the call center was $25.4 million, and it was to have been completed last year. According to Kana‘e-Kane, the construction contract is for $30 million, although there have been estimates of $33 million floated publicly.
“This amount does not include county vendor items,” she said. “A total of $10 million in contract allowance items was deducted from the construction contract and issued to various vendors, such as Hawaiian Tel … Motorola, and others.”
Fire dispatchers, especially, have had a tough go in recent years. They’ve experienced a high rate of attrition and previously worked in part of the decrepit, 91-year-old Central Fire Station in downtown Hilo that was potentially dangerous, with pieces of ceiling falling and outdated plumbing and electrical system.
That caused authorities to move fire and EMS dispatchers last year from the station at the corner of Kilauea and Ponahawai streets into the current police dispatch center at 349 Kapiolani St.
Kana‘e-Kane said there is another building inspection scheduled for Friday, and the anticipated completion date for construction is Sept. 16.
“However, some punch-list tasks may still need to be completed, though these are not required for the operation of the call center,” she said. A punch list is a document that lists remaining work or tasks that need to be done before the project can be considered completed.
And even if the county accepts the keys to the call center sometime this month, they’re not going to be immediately moving to a brand-new, turnkey operation.
“We anticipate it will take 6-8 weeks for the county’s communication systems to be installed and tested before the facility becomes operational,” Kana‘e-Kane said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.