University of Hawaii-West O‘ahu officials have been giving out the wrong address for their campus for the past six months, but an estimated 1,800 students and 60 faculty still showed up for the first day of classes Monday.
UH-West O‘ahu officials estimated that they have spent only about $1,000 on "some quick brochures" that have the wrong address of 91-1000 Farrington Highway in Kapolei instead of the actual address of 91-1001 Farrington Highway.
"We don’t have letterhead, we didn’t order business cards yet," said UH-West O‘ahu spokeswoman Kalowena Komeiji. "There are some good things about being a government agency and moving slowly."
Somehow the city’s Department of Planning and Permitting gave UH officials the wrong address of 91-1000 Farrington Highway, the department said.
City officials did not immediately have an explanation of how the wrong address was given out to UH-West O‘ahu.
But Felix Bagoyo, postmaster at the post office in Waipahu, told UH-West O‘ahu officials as long as six months ago that addresses makai of Farrington Highway — such as UH-West O‘ahu — have to have odd numbers, said Duke Gonzales, spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Hawaii.
"One side is odd, one side is even," Gonzales said. "Everything makai of Farrington would be odd. Everything mauka would be even. There shouldn’t be that much question. At that point he (Bagoyo) realized the mail is flowing and we’ve got to correct this addressing. It’s not a recent conversation."
State Sen. Will Espero (D, Ewa-Honouliuli-Ewa Beach) said the problem of giving out a wrong address can be overcome.
"It seems like it should be an easy fix, although there was obviously a breakdown of communication somewhere," Espero said.
Because UH-West O‘ahu was built on vacant sugar land and "there are no other buildings or facilties around," Espero said, "that shouldn’t be a problem for the post office to get them their mail."
