Pahoa to celebrate gym opening

By COLIN M. STEWART

Staff Writer

“At long last.”

So began a report in the Aug. 13, 2009, edition of the Tribune-Herald. It announced a groundbreaking for Pahoa High and Intermediate School’s new gymnasium. After decades of promises, the story read, Pahoa would finally have a gym of its own, with construction to be complete by the end of summer 2010.

Better late than never.

This Wednesday — barring any natural disasters or other unforeseen delays — the community’s long wait will officially come to an end when administrators and county and state officials celebrate the gym’s grand opening and blessing. The event will be held during regular school hours, and attendance will therefore be by invitation only, school system officials say.

The construction phase ended on Dec. 28, and the gym has been in use since January. Named after the former legislator and Hawaii County councilwoman who fought to obtain funding for the project, Helene H. Hale State Gymnasium is proof positive that the wheels of government may grind slowly, but grind they do.

“The class of 1972 was promised by the then-governor that they would have a new gym,” said former Pahoa Principal Dean Cevallos. The school has never had a facility of its own, he said, and Pahoa students have used the cramped county gym since 1942.

The $8.6 million facility’s plans called for hardwood floors, bleachers, a concession area and offices for the athletic director and athletic trainers. Its 16,077-square-foot layout boasts a 1,000-person capacity, large enough for graduation ceremonies, which until now have been held at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo.

The building does not, however, include locker rooms, which were excluded from the plans early in the planning stages due to a funding shortage, according to the project engineer. Currently, student athletes utilize adjacent classrooms to change into their gear. State Rep. Faye Hanohano, D-Puna, said in January that she would seek funding during the current legislative session to build and equip those locker rooms.

Her request, House Bill 2827, passed its first reading and was subsequently referred to the House finance committee on Jan. 27, she said Monday. The Legislature will take the measure up when it discusses the statewide budget at the end of the session.

“I have contacted the Department of Education, and they have told me that it is their priority for Hawaii Island,” she said.

HB 2827 requests $3 million for the locker room project. The bill also requests $9 million for construction of a cafeteria at Pahoa Elementary, and money for other projects in her district.

Hanohano added that she is honored to be included in the grand opening and blessing ceremony on Wednesday.

“The new gym is a blessing for this growing community, especially for our future generation,” she said.

Oahu contractor Primatech Construction headed up the gym build, and employed between 20 and 25 workers from the Hilo area and about 15 from the Kona area, said Project Engineer and Hilo resident Ryan Dixon. The delays in getting the gym finished largely came down to “traditional construction conflicts and corrections,” he said Monday. “There were quite a few little problems, but no major hurdles.”

Dixon said location played a big part in slowing progress down.

“We were 15 miles from a volcano, in one of the furthest cities from suppliers,” he said. “Time, materials and the weather itself played a large factor in the changes we had to address and resolve.”

Colin M. Stewart can be reached at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.