EMS station in works to serve Central Oahu

State and city officials are touting plans in the works for a new Waipio Emergency Medical Services station as a way to better serve Central Oahu.

The $3.85 million station on Ukee Street next to McDonald’s and near the Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park will provide a permanent home for the Waipio EMS unit, which has operated out of a nearby leased building since 2008.

Officials broke ground on the 26,250-square-foot city-owned property Tuesday and expect the facility to be completed and operating by spring 2017. The station will also serve as the emergency operations center for Oahu’s Emergency Medical Services and will be equipped with a gas stove, generators and concrete construction.

Also, four new ambulances will be added to serve the Makiki, Manoa, Chinatown, Downtown, Kakaako, Ala Moana and Hawaii Kai communities.

EMS Chief Dean Nakano said in a statement: “A new facility and new ambulances are the invaluable resources our paramedics and emergency medical technicians rely on to care for our sick and injured patients.”

State funds released in 2013 cover the planning, design, construction and equipment costs for the long-awaited Central Oahu station. The 2,600-square-foot ambulance facility and a 900-square-foot apparatus bay can accommodate two emergency vehicles.

The Waipio unit, which generally services areas from Pearl City to Wahiawa, responded to about 4,500 calls last year and is considered a “very busy unit” with more than 75 percent utilization, according to the 2015 final environmental assessment. The unit’s current warehouse was not deemed a permanent solution because, among other things, it does not meet the functional requirements for an efficient facility and is rented and subject to potential rate increases.

The last time EMS opened a new facility was in 2010 on Young Street.

STATE Sen. Michelle Kidani, who has worked toward funding a new facility since 2009, said she had met with the Carlisle administration to move forward with the project, but “it still did not happen.”

“Considering in the last 40 years or so there has been growth not just in the Mililani community but, of course, Waikele and along the West Oahu side, this (new station) was to complement that,” said Kidani (D, Mililani-Waikele-Kunia). “I think it’s in a great location. It’s easy access to the H-2 and the H-1. I, for one, look forward to having it there.”

Dick Poirier, chairman of the Mililani/Waipio/Melemanu Neighborhood Board, agreed that the community has wanted a new station for several years.

“We always wished that it could’ve opened sooner,” Poirier said Friday, adding that sometimes projects can take longer than expected.

Officials also plan to establish a new EMS district and have it operational by late summer to early fall, said Emergency Services Department spokeswoman Shayne Enright. The move would essentially split the island into three districts: Windward/East Oahu, urban Honolulu and Central/West Oahu.