Today, Mayor Kirk Caldwell announced a major new park initiative during his third State of the City speech. The initiative, E Paka Kakou, or “parks together” will be a city partnership with community organizations to step up and revitalize parks.
“This parks initiative works hand-in-hand with the Adopt a Park Bill – Bill 58. Together, these will ease the process for groups wishing to adopt and make major capital contributions to our parks. We are looking forward to working with Mayor Caldwell in the upcoming budget process to see our proposals succeed,” said Councilmember Kymberly Marcos Pine.
Councilmember Pine introduced Bill 58 on September 29th, 2014. If passed, the bill will create a more transparent and clearly defined process for park adoptions, donations and capital improvements, making it easier for organizations to improving specific parks in their communities.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell also revealed that $2 million in the fiscal 2016 budget will be dedicated to making improvements at park comfort stations. According to Caldwell, these funds will be used to refurbish 24 restrooms at parks and 16 sets of existing playground apparatus throughout the island.
The Department of Parks and Recreation will be installing Microguard, a protective coating that is graffiti and rot resistant, on 24 comfort stations, throughout the next year beginning with Asing Park, in Ewa Beach.
