Committee approves bill to encourage park pride

A City Council bill that seeks to promote pride and a sense of community ownership in city parks by designating cultural and historic sites generated praise from officials and residents.

Introduced by Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, Bill 9 would establish a program to recognize a structure, object or area in a city park deemed important to the surrounding community’s history or cultural identity. The designation would be included in a city development plan or recommended by a neighborhood board.

Recommendations for sites and signage would need to be approved by city Parks and Recreation Director Michele Nekota.

An organization or group that recommends a site would “reimburse the department for all costs related to the installation and maintenance of the marker and the marker itself, as determined by the director.”

The bill passed first reading last month and was reported out of the Council’s Parks, Community and Customer Services Committee on Tuesday. It will next go before the full Council for a public hearing and a second reading.

Pine, who represents the Leeward Coast, said the measure has been two years in the making.

“We’re very disappointed when … the Council would fund improvements to parks and within a week or two, it would be vandalized or destroyed,” Pine said Tuesday. “There was just this feeling that we need to somehow promote pride and understanding of the significance and the sacredness of some of our locations, especially in our parks.”

Nekota said the department supports the bill and pointed out that “if they (community) actually pay for it themselves, then they do take pride and ownership in this.”

The city does not have estimates at this time on costs to groups to install and maintain markers.

Several community members from across the Leeward Coast submitted testimony in support of the bill.

Mikiala Lidstone, a kumu hula and teacher at Kapolei High School, said the initiative would help her students and keiki learn about Kapolei’s rich history. Lidstone, who is heading an initiative to erect signage at the hula mound at Kapolei Regional Park, added that they are willing to hold fundraisers and pay for the marker and its maintenance.

“I always feel like when people feel connected to the place they live, there will be this effortless practice of stewardship,” Lidstone said Tuesday. “We feel that with more education and a presence there (Kapolei Regional Park), it will bring more life to the place.”