Decision to be made today on fate of ‘Stairway to Heaven’

The future of the Haiku Stairs is expected to be decided by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply today, and the public is being asked to weigh in.

Those who want to keep the trail intact believe the “Stairway to Heaven” is a unique feature that should be preserved and made available for public use. Opponents, however, say throngs of hikers still flock illegally to the closed attraction, wreaking havoc on neighbors by trespassing and vandalizing their property on the way to and from the trail.

BWS officials have repeatedly called for the board to approve dismantling the trail or unloading the property to another entity. Removing the trail, rung by rung, is estimated to cost about $1 million. They point out that it costs the semi- autonomous agency $250,000 annually to hire security personnel to ward off the frequent trespassers.

“The BWS’s mission is to provide Oahu residents with a safe, dependable, and affordable water supply,” said Ernest Lau, the board’s chief engineer and manager.

“Managing Haiku Stairs draws BWS staff, financial, and other resources away from our core mission to efficiently and effectively meet the water demand of our customers,” Lau said, in a statement.

Lau will make a final staff recommendation to the board today, a spokeswoman for Lau said.

A final environmental impact statement released in February restated the board’s intent to either remove the stairs or turn them over to another government entity because of the ongoing liability and security costs tied to retaining the asset.

But in a letter to BWS Chairman Bryan Andaya on April 14, Mayor Kirk Caldwell reiterated his proposal to have the city Department of Parks and Recreation take the reins of the stairs and then lease them to a third-party vendor who would make repairs and improvements, and then charge the public, or at least nonkamaaina, to visit.

“I believe Haiku Stairs is an important and unique asset on Oahu, and that the Stairs should be preserved as long as they can be renovated for safety, and that public access issues are addressed and resolved,” Caldwell said.

The city earlier this year solicited proposals for ways to have the facility managed and operated as a third-party concession and received 14 submittals, the mayor said. Based on that show of interest, the city is ready to start the process of requesting bids for a private partner, he said. “We will then select a qualified organization willing and able to restore, operate and maintain the Stairs for a fixed period of time.”

City Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson, who represents Windward Oahu, said he wants a decision made soon so long-suffering residents in the area get some relief as quickly as possible.

“I remain supportive of opening the Stairs from a controlled access point that would allow managed hiking,” Anderson said, noting that such an arrangement worked well when the location was under the management of the U.S. Coast Guard.

“But if such an arrangement is not worked out by the date the Stairs can be legally removed, the Stairs should be removed,” Anderson said. “There isn’t an indefinite timetable on this.”

The stairs were built by the military in the 1940s as part of a military installation deep in Haiku Valley and have been closed to the public for decades.

VOICE YOUR OPINION ON THE HAIKU STAIRS

>> When: 5 p.m. today

>> Where: Board of Water Supply, 630 S. Beretania St.

>> Social distancing: The board won’t have testimony received by the public in the actual boardroom, but will have a live videoconferencing station set up in the lobby of the BWS building. Those seeking to testify can sign in and wait to be taken into the station, one person at a time.

>> By phone: Additionally, people can call in to 748-6040, be placed in a queue and then testify one at a time.

>> By email: Must send email by noon today to haikustairstestimony@hbws.org.

>> By form: Testimony is also being taken through a form that can be filled out at the BWS web page at www.boardofwatersupply.com/haikustairs.

>> Where to view advance testimony and the environmental impact statement: at the BWS web page, www.boardofwatersupply.com