Gov. Josh Green has released $21 million in state funding to build a long-sought public library in Waikoloa Village.
“The Waikoloa community has worked tirelessly for over 15 years through the Friends of the Library Waikoloa Region to advocate for a new community library,” said Rep. David Tarnas, a Kohala Democrat, in a statement announcing release of the funds. “Finally, after all these years, we can see this important project soon become a reality.”
The library will be built on 2.567 acres of county land on Kamakoa Drive in Waikoloa off the end of Paniolo Avenue.
“The new Waikoloa Public Library will be a beautiful new community hub for the community to read, learn and connect — and we can’t wait for it to open,” said state Librarian Stacey Aldrich.
The money, previously appropriated by the Legislature, supports the final phases of planning, design and construction for the project. Tarnas and Sen. Tim Richards, a fellow Kohala Democrat, advocated for the funding — which was approved prior to a final environmental assessment in May 2024 that found the library would cause no significant adverse environmental impact.
“For me, personally, it’s been 15 or 16 years, because it started with the community asking me to get a public library,” said Cindy Evans, a board member of Friends of the Library Waikoloa Region and former state representative and County Council member. “… It takes a community voice, a strong voice, a focused and consistent voice, because it’s a long, long process.
“I’m going to be celebrating for a month, I think.”
With a population of 7,104 in the 2020 U.S. Census, Waikoloa Village remains one of the largest population centers statewide without a permanent public library facility. According to Evans, Waikoloa’s is “the only branch of the Friends of the Library that doesn’t have a library building.”
“The only one,” she repeated for emphasis. “They’ve done a lot of stuff over the years. They did children’s reading, they did baby’s first book. They raised money, and anybody who has a baby in (Queen’s) North 91直播 Community Hospital got a book — baby’s first book.”
And after former Gov. Linda Lingle reduced library funding, causing the loss of a state-run bookmobile that made periodic stops in the village, Friends of the Library Waikoloa Region negotiated a deal to obtain an idled bookmobile to serve the community on a full-time basis.
“The Waikoloa Village Association agreed to give up half of one of their tennis courts where we could park it, and they were willing to tie in electricity to the bookmobile,” Evans said. “So, all of a sudden, we had a place. It’s safe and secure, and it’s open seven days a week.
“… It’s pretty amazing thing for the community, but they want their library.”
As designed by architect Glenn Miura of CDS International in Honolulu, the new library will be approximately 12,000 square feet with spaces for community meetings, educational programming, shelving capacity for at least 50,000 books, and 71 parking stalls.
Also included in the plans is a 3,000-square-foot early learning center, which Evans noted was part of preschool initiatives championed by Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, who is currently on a voluntary unpaid leave of absence while the target of an investigation by the state attorney general’s office into possible campaign funding improprieties.
“That’s a big deal,” Evans said of the preschool. “But it’s also something that held up the final design, because the person designing preschool space is not the librarian … so you had to have a different agency and their facility people actually weigh in on the design.”
In addition, the facility will also support digital access, workforce development and cultural programming.
Evans said the library could open in 2028, if all goes well.
“The state librarian is cautiously optimistic that … in the fall of ’28 that the doors, hopefully, could be opened, at the earliest,” she said, noting that approval has already been given to hire the person who will run the Waikoloa library.
Tarnas said he’s delighted funds have been released.
“The state librarian is very motivated to get this project done — and we are achieving a dream that the community has been working on for decades,” he said.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
