KIHEI - After nearly a decade of planning, South Maui residents will soon hear the rumble of heavy equipment when workers for Goodfellow Bros. Inc. begin clearing nearly 20 acres for the first phase of the long-awaited South Maui Community Park.
"We are very happy and delighted that this day has finally come for South Maui," said county Parks and Recreation Director Tamara Horcajo during a groundbreaking and blessing ceremony at the park site. "It's a great day for South Maui parks. . . . It's been a long-awaited journey. A lot of people have worked very hard for this day."
The first phase of the park will be built on 19.6 acres on the Wailea side of Lokelani Intermediate School. The construction cost is nearly $11.3 million for the first phase, and that phase should be completed in about a year. Future phases of the park, which will be 44.8 acres when complete, include additional playing fields, play courts, a gymnasium and a youth center.
In remarks during the ceremony, Goodfellow Bros. Vice President Chad Goodfellow recalled growing up in Kihei and playing baseball on a substandard field at Kalama Park. The players used their baseball mitts as bases because base pads were not available, he said.
Even now, Kihei youth football players hold their "home" games in Kahului, Goodfellow said, because the South Maui fields are inadequate.
So, Goodfellow said he was proud his company was going to be part of building a state-of-the-art park for South Maui.
"It's great to be a part of what we're about to build," Goodfellow said.
The project also provides sorely needed work for Maui's construction industry, he said, adding that he checked recent figures and found that 65 to 75 percent of construction laborers are out of work because of the slow economy.
"These are people with families, and they deserve to earn a decent wage," he said.
Goodfellow said the employees who will be working on the project are "the best of the best," many of whom have been foremen on various other projects.
"We care a lot about South Maui, and we want to give you a product you can be proud of," he said.
Following the ceremony, Bob Richardson, a member of the Kalama Park Action Team and the Kihei Community Association, said that progress on developing the park comes as an "excellent opportunity for the community to come together and look at a project 20 years plus in the making."
South Maui, for a long time one of the fastest-growing communities in the state, has needed a large park for decades, Richardson said. Kalama Park is crowded with sports teams looking for venues to practice and play.
"It's exactly what the community needs," he said. "The South Maui community is very excited about it."
The initial phase of the project will involve blasting to grade the ground, said Parks Department project manager Karla Peters.
A community meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Kihei Community Center, she said. Officials of subcontractor Blasting Technology Inc. will discuss timetables and answer any community questions about blasting in the project area.
Richardson said he didn't think blasting was out of the ordinary for a project such as the new park.
"If you put a project in Kihei, you're going to have to blast," he said. "It just comes with the territory."
The community park will be developed in three phases. The notice to proceed for Phase 1A begins Dec. 14, Peters said.
The project's first phase includes a soccer and a softball field, both with lights; two restrooms; a playground; a jogging path; irrigation; grass installation; other landscaping; picnic tables; benches; barbecue pits; and 113 parking stalls, four of which will be handicapped accessible.
The playground was donated by the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa, which also has pledged to maintain the 3,000-square-foot play area.
* Brian Perry can be reached at citydesk@mauinews.com.
