Editorial: Dillingham Field reprieve

Instead of imminent eviction, as has been the situation at Dillingham Airfield for more than a year, business tenants and other stakeholders in the popular North Shore site can now breathe easier. Not only has the threat of eviction by year’s end abated, with lease expiration now restored to July 5, 2024, there’s now talk of possible renewal for another 20 years that would enable needed facility improvements.

It is a welcome reversal of misfortune, especially for the 130 people employed at the 11 airfield businesses — ranging from skydiving to glider to flight-school operations, which attract about 50,000 visitors yearly and pump some $12.6 million into Hawaii’s economy. Still, the many players involved must remain steadfast toward longer-term solutions, in order to avoid the type of confusing eviction scare that threatened the livelihoods of many.

The fortunate reprieve that came last month reinstated the July 2024 lease-term expiration. In February 2020, tenants received sudden word that their leases would be prematurely terminated in June 2020; that later was extended to Dec. 31, 2021, thanks to industry and legislators’ intervention. The recent lease restoration to 2024 buys nearly three years to mitigate complex problems, for all involved: the business tenants; the state Department of Transportation Airports Division, which subleases to those tenants; and airfield owner U.S. Army, which leases the site to the state in incremental five-year leases.

Chief among the issues: an old water system that serves not only Dillingham Airfield but also nearby homes, Camp Erdman, a city beach park and an Air Force satellite tracking station. Options for an equitable way forward to make needed upgrades, estimated in 2012 at $10 million minimum, would be to create a water co-op or agreement to share costs for upgrading and maintaining the system.

Another needed development that would go a long way toward stability: the Airports Division and the Army coming to terms on a 20-year lease horizon — beyond five years — that would then allow the state to obtain federal grants for site improvements. Also, lingering concerns over lax controls and oversight of skydiving and air tour operations at the airfield must be addressed and remedied.

It should not have taken such a severe jolt, involving threat of shutdown of general aviation operations at Dillingham, to break logjams long- recognized but ignored. Officials need to be more proactive to problem-solve. While still far from clear skies, there now seems to have been enough headway made against key obstacles to hold the promise of a better path for operations.