Tuesday, December 14, 2021 | Today's Paper | 72.194°

LIHU'E — The county's Air 1 hangar at Lihu'e Airport was deemed "inappropriate and unsafe" by auditors in a recent study of the use of the Kauai Fire Department.

"I visited the Air 1 hangar at the airport. In my opinion, that thing should be decommissioned and the plane should leave there as soon as possible," Emergency Services Consulting International Auditor Bill Boyd told the Kauai County Council last week. "I think it is A security issue."

As pointed out in the study, the facility was damaged due to the corrosion of the entire building, which resulted in holes. Earlier this year, a large ceiling light fixture fell off. If the helicopter were in the hangar during that incident, it would be damaged.

Stop using the hangar was rated as one of the most important short-term recommendations by auditors.

"We have been developing a replacement plan for the helicopter hangar, as far as I know, for at least three years," said Steven Goble, the head of KFD. "The original plan was to build a suitable hangar on the open space near the existing facility, but as the plan was finalized last year, the construction cost has increased sharply."

Goble said that the county currently plans to build a prefabricated stretch fabric structure at a construction cost of approximately US$703,770.

"The design contract is being finalized, and the winning bidder will make a site plan at that time," Goble said. "Once the plan is obtained, the project will be bid for construction."

Securing new space to move the hangar also posed a problem.

Rescue 3 is located in the Hubei Hub of Station No. 3, which is convenient to the airport and helicopters. Moving the company further away from the airport will increase response time.

"We haven't encountered anything usable yet," Goble said, noting that the department has studied public, private and commercial spaces. Helicopters now often sit outside and are exposed to the natural environment.

The department currently does not have training facilities, and the auditors also recommend this, except for station maintenance and improvements, such as adding smoke detectors.

Last year, the department had to repair station floors that were taped together, and the presence of asbestos, a carcinogen that used to be used as an insulating material.

The study also pointed out that the radio coverage gap between Princeville and Anahora resulted in "excessive response time and lack of alternate response coverage." Additional sites 9 serving the area will reduce response time and help resolve these issues.

Station 2 Kapa'a should remove mauka to provide better coverage in Wailua and move out of the tsunami zone.

The study evaluated the operational deployment of response resources and measured KFD performance by identifying coverage gaps and operational efficiency related to scheduling and deployment. Some of the data used include records of staffing and expected island growth.

The department’s total budget for this fiscal year is 35.8 million U.S. dollars, starting in July and continuing until June 2022.

Part of the study examined the shift arrangements and work rules established in the 2019 overtime use and retirement audit.

In 2018, the county paid approximately $2.4 million in excess pensions for Hawaii’s employee retirement system, which accounted for more than 10% of the county’s budget. Among them, KFD paid US$2.2 million in excess pension costs for 13 people who retired in 2017 in fiscal year 2018.

Much has changed since then, including transitioning to duty training, limiting overtime tasks, and excluding senior personnel from community risk reduction activities. KFD has also established a leave application procedure to monitor sick leave and vacation.

Some of the issues identified by the auditors also included scheduling restrictions imposed by collective bargaining agreements and combat personnel scheduling procedures used by the battalion commander.

The auditor pointed out that the statewide ranking clause puts the department in a difficult position, and the use of an automated dispatch system can alleviate some of these problems.

Did the audit team ask about charging Air 1 rescue fees from travel insurance companies? The number of Air 1 tourist rescues is absurd. My wife and I live in Pennsylvania and plan to retire in Kauai next year. In Pennsylvania, if your vehicle is involved in an accident and the guardrails, stop signs, stop lights, etc. are removed, your car insurance will charge for repairs to DOT property—I am a PA taxpayer. I think that if Kauai County charges tourists for Air1 rescue fees, two things will happen-1) KFD will get more revenue; 2) Once the news comes out, I bet the number of Air 1 rescues will drop.

The new Hawai'i Five 0 series has a helicopter. They have their own pilots. There is no way on KFD.

Is there a reason for us not to follow TomK's simple charging solution?

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