Hawai‘i County Council urging administration to repair park inundated by lava during 2018 Kīlauea eruption

It’s been nearly eight years since the lava flow from the 2018 Kīlauea eruption decimated parts of the Puna community, cutting off roads, destroying property and inundating Isaac Kepo‘okalani Hale Beach Park that hugs the rugged coastline and includes the Pohoiki Boat Ramp.

The Hawaiʻi County Council wants the administration to take action to repair the park along Kalapana-Kapoho Beach Road that was a gathering place for the community and a launching ground for fishermen.

During the Tuesday meeting of the council’s Governmental Operations and External Affairs Committee, the nine members unanimously gave a positive recommendation to Resolution 428-25, which urges the county’s Parks and Recreation Department to expedite the repair of the park as well as work with the Department of Finance and the Kīlauea Eruption Recovery Division to finalize a project budget and identify appropriate funding sources.

The measure will go before the full council in the coming weeks.

The park project does not include the Pohoiki Boat Ramp, which became landlocked due to the lava flow. The boat ramp is managed by the state’s Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, which secured funding to dredge the ramp last June. But that project failed after high surf backfilled the area crews were clearing. Officials are now looking at other options.

According to the resolution, the Isaac Kepo‘okalani Hale Beach Park project is urgent because visitors are venturing into hazardous, culturally sensitive and privately owned areas due to the absence of restored facilities, infrastructure and directional signage. The lava flow buried access roads to the park.

“We lost [the] playground, showers, life guard station, and hangout areas,” said Hawai‘i County Councilmember Ashley Kierkiewicz.

The park initially was scheduled to be restored by the end of 2023, a timeline that was ultimately delayed to December 2026, according to the resolution.

A community meeting held in July 2024 gathered feedback on preliminary park restoration concepts to inform a Draft Environmental Assessment, which was provided to the Department of Parks and Recreation by a private planning consultant, the Limtiaco Consulting Group. Limtiaco has been contracted to undertake the planning and design process of the park improvements project.

The restoration timeline now is further postponed to December 2028, more than a decade since the eruption, and spanning three mayoral administrations.

Kierkiewicz, author of the resolution, said the new timeline for park completion is unacceptable.

Kierkiewicz has been at the forefront of engaging the community about what residents and lineal descendants from the area want to see for the park.

“This resolution is a community-driven plan, priorities for what the community would like to see in their park,” Kierkiewicz said. “And it saddens me, it frustrates me that the timeline for restoration keeps moving.”

She added that she does not know what more she or the community can do.

“I think we’ve done everything that we can to help inform plans and to get us to this point, but I’m really needing to work in stronger partnership with the Department of Parks and Recreation to ensure that this park continues to be a priority,” Kierkiewicz said.

Hawai‘i County Park Planner James Komata provided an update at the meeting about the status of the park project, saying the parks department is reviewing the Final Design Documents, the Environmental Assessment, the Archaeological Inventory Survey and the Preservation Plan developed with Limtiaco Consulting Group.

The project is scheduled to go out for bid for construction in the first quarter of 2026, according to the county’s Kīlauea Eruption Recovery website. In addressing the park restoration, Komata said the project scope is not just to restore certain components of the park for public use, but also to include enhancements and improvements to the park that didn’t exist before the lava flow.

This bigger project, estimated to cost $16 million based on the first iteration of the pre-final design, was a result of community feedback, Komata said.

The county has received approximately $5 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for the project, which includes:

• A new, large, primary pavilion for community gatherings
• Several roof-only open pavilions for smaller gatherings, plus additional open picnic areas
• Improved camping amenities
• A new off-grid electrical system consisting of photovoltaics, batteries and a generator
• A new fire protection system
• Parking and other related infrastructure and recreational amenities to support maximum use and community value to the park

Komata said there are so many priorities for the county, but confirmed the Puna park is still top of mind for the administration of Mayor Kimo Alameda.

A handful of testifiers expressed support for the measure during the Tuesday meeting, including Leila Kealoha. She told the committee she has worked through three administrations to support Kīlauea recovery efforts in lower Puna.

“This specific project on Isaac Kepo‘okalani and Hale Beach Park, our park infrastructure, has been one of the most challenging,” said Kealoha, adding that she is astounded by the lack of urgency.

Kealoha said there was good headway made during the Mitch Roth administration, but under the Alameda administration “I feel like we’ve just been in a standstill for the past year with this work. It was a priority from our last administration, and now it’s just falling to the wayside.”

The park in its present condition is visited by about 500 people a day, Kealoha stated. With only one road in and out of the area, the park is one of the few gathering places for the community.

During the meeting, Kierkiewicz said she was concerned the county doesn’t have all the financing in place to complete the project. She also said it would be better to scale back the project than give the community false hope.

Kierkiewicz also told Komata that completing the project in phases was not an option.