The state Department of Land and Natural Resources said Monday a hazardous materials survey indicated “suspected asbestos” in the former Uncle Billy’s Hilo Bay Hotel.
Contractors will be required to clear hazardous material from the property before demolition of the derelict 148-room former hotel building on Banyan Drive, which tentatively is scheduled to take place next spring.
Vegetation around the property has been cleared, and a perimeter fence has been constructed. However, several breaches of the newly installed fence already have occurred, requiring repairs by a contractor, according to the DLNR.
“We’ve asked people repeatedly not to enter or occupy the abandoned building for their own safety,” said Dawn Chang, DLNR chairwoman. “That’s even more important now that suspected asbestos has been discovered. We will have DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement officers begin an around-the-clock presence and patrols of the Uncle Billy’s area to keep people out.
“For everyone’s safety, we urge people to stay out of the building and to not expose themselves or first responders to the unsafe conditions there.”
Since the hotel’s closure in 2017, the condemned building has been occupied by squatters, with drug use, vandalism, fires and other crimes and public safety hazards occurring there.
Gov. Josh Green on Friday signed a second emergency proclamation covering the Uncle Billy’s property, extending the first disaster emergency relief period designated in original the July 18 proclamation until Nov. 13.
Several DLNR divisions remain in close collaboration with Hawaii County to schedule and plan each phase of the demolition. Asbestos remediation is not expected to significantly delay previous timelines.
Hilo firm Engineering Partners has been selected as the engineering consultant, with Isemoto Contracting as the general contractor, and Oregon firm Northwest Demolition and Dismantling is the demolition subcontractor.
State officials have estimated the cost of the building’s demolition and removal of its ruins from the state-owned property at $13.5 million.
Cassandra Clark, a Banyan Drive resident, this week submitted a letter to the Tribune-Herald saying the DLNR — which already has enforcement officers on the property 24/7 — is preventing volunteers who have fed approximately 40 stray cats there nightly from continuing to do so.
“The cats line up outside the fence every night to be fed, but no one is allowed to give them food. It is heartbreaking and inhumane,” Clark said. “Where are those cats going that have been kicked out of Uncle Billy’s? They’ve helped to keep the rat population down. Where are the cats supposed to go?
“They didn’t come here on their own; they didn’t make reservations at Uncle Billy’s. They were dumped there.”
In a weekly progress report on the Uncle Billy’s demolition project for the week of Aug. 25, DLNR said its homeless coordinator is “working with Actions 4 Animals to see if they will take care of the feral kittens.”
DLNR spokesman Dan Dennison on Monday denied the department is preventing citizens from feeding the felines.
“DLNR is not prohibiting the feeding of feral cats, unless such feeding is blocking ingress or egress to the state property which the hotel sits on,” Dennison said. “Feeding on the sidewalk and beyond falls under Hawaii County jurisdiction.
“As a general statement, DLNR discourages the feeding of feral cats as they are documented as having detrimental impacts on native wildlife and species. They, like rats, are not native or endemic to the islands.”
Clark said she also contacted the mayor’s office about the cats, hoping something can be done for them, but was told the site was under DLNR jurisdiction.
“There’s a lot of abandoned properties in this stretch right here,” she told the Tribune-Herald on Monday. “The county and the state and the DLNR have done nothing about it.
“For years, they’ve done nothing about it.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
