Here’s what’s happening: Two state House committees will hold a joint hearing tomorrow — Friday, March 23 — on an important first step towards action on saving our Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium.

1973 Star-Advertiser photo of the Natatorium.

The committees will consider HCR 194, a resolution asking the Department of Land and Natural Resources to convene a state task force on the Waikiki Natatorium issue.

This is important!

Passage of this resolution will put the House and Senate on record as saying “the restoration of the Waikiki Natatorium would benefit the state as a landmark, honor those who served and those who died in World War I, and allow the site to be used for other activities.”

Just as important, the creation of the task force will focus the attention of important state agencies on the critical need to preserve and stabilize the Natatorium now and to resume full restoration as soon as possible.

The hearing by the Committee on Water, Land and Ocean Resources and the Committee on Tourism will be at 10:30 a.m. in Conference Room 325 of the State Capitol at 415 S. Beretania St.

Here’s what you can do!

Go to the Legislature’s web page on the resolution, hit the “Submit Testimony” link and submit your statement in support of HCR 194. Note: You may submit written testimony even if you cannot attend the hearing.

Your testimony need not be lengthy. Just say what the Natatorium means to you, discuss why you think preservation and restoration of this unique treasure is important, and add that you support the positions of the Friends of the Natatorium and the Historic Hawaii Foundation on HCR 194.

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR TESTIMONY BY 4 P.M. TODAY, THURSDAY, MARCH 22! This is a chance for you to make a difference on the Natatorium issue. Mahalo and aloha!

Lin Pang stepped down earlier this year after 25 years as an officer and director of the Friends. He was elected vice chair at our very first meeting in August 1986.

“We would never have accomplished anything if Lin was not there,” says Joanie Apo, who met Lin at that first meeting and was elected herself as the Friends’ first executive director.

Lin Pang and wife, Jeanette (both in lei), receive the thanks of current and emeritus board members (l-r) Mo Radke, Yvonne Geesey, Joanie Apo, Frank Weight and Jim Anderson.

Joanie recalls Lin as the “peacemaker of the group,” the one who bridged the gaps between advocates of different strategies, the one who brought people to a shared vision and a common purpose.

“We would never have made it without his level-headedness, calm demeanor and good solid judgment,” Joanie says. “He was the one guy all of us could trust to keep things centered. He was our lifeline in all crises.”

Lin was also the Friends’ chief ambassador to the business community, and a master of the necessary logistics and coordination with city agencies that made our annual Memorial Day observance at the Natatorium and our other events so successful.

“Lin’s spirit, solid good sense and calm demeanor held the whole thing together,” Joanie says. “God bless Lin Pang.”

We all feel that way; that’s why present and directors of the Friends of the Natatorium got together recently to honor Lin and his wonderful wife, Jeanette, for everything they’ve done for the effort to preserve, restore and reopen the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium. We know there’s a long way to go in this fight, but moments like this are a good time to stop and appreciate just how far we have come.

Mahalo and aloha, Lin!

You can thank Lin too!

Please leave your thoughts on Lin Pang and his legacy in the comments. And here’s another way you can honor Lin: As our 25th anniversary year winds down, consider a gift of $25 – or $2,500, or whatever you can afford – to support the work to which Lin has given so much time, energy and loving commitment. Here’s information on how to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Friends of the Natatorium. Please let us know that you’ve made your gift in Lin’s honor, and we’ll make sure to tell him. Mahalo to you and to all Friends of the Natatorium!

The work is by Honolulu artist Laura Smith, who is also executive director of the nonprofit group Honolulu Printmakers.

"Closed" by Laura Smith

The show, featuring the works of nine printmakers from Hawaii and nine from California, is called “Water’s Edge.” Smith told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the Natatorium made the right subject for a show with that theme. “I thought ‘That’s perfect, there’s a swimming pool on the edge of the water,’” Smith said.

The print is titled “Closed,” highlighting the fact that an important Honolulu landmark — a state-designated official war memorial, and one that makes a subject for a beautiful work of art — is inaccessible to the public and in danger of being lost to us forever.

“Closed” and the entire “Water’s Edge” exhibition is open to the public for viewing through Dec. 1. South Street Gallery is open 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m Mondays through Fridays and 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. It’s closed on Sunday. Frame-Arts Hawaii is at 627 South St. Call 808-525-5212 for information.

Read the Nov. 13 Star-Advertiser story here.

The observance will take place at the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium this Friday, Nov. 11, at 11 a.m. That’s the famous “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month,” the date and time that the armistice ending World War I went into effect 93 years ago.

Nov. 11 has been solemnly observed in the United States ever since, first as Armistice Day and from 1954 on as Veterans Day, an observance honoring all veterans of U.S, military service.

The Natatorium is a particularly appropriate place for a Veterans Day ceremony. It has been, since it opened in 1927, Hawai’i’s official memorial to more than 10,000 volunteers from here who served in the Great War.

Friday’s ceremony will include flower, lei and wreath laying and brief remarks honoring the service of U.S. soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and coast guards throughout the nation’s history, with special attention to those from Hawai’i. A U.S. Marine bugler will play Taps in memory of the nation’s war dead.

Members of the public are invited to attend and participate. If you cannot be there at 11 a.m., stop by the Natatorium [map and directions here] at any time on Nov. 11. Leave lei or flowers, or just spend a few moments in reflection in honor of Veterans Day and the veterans from Hawai’i to whom the memorial is dedicated.

Wherever you are this Friday, mahalo for offering your respect and appreciation to our nation’s veterans.

The story is a good summary of the decades-long battle to restore and reopen a Honolulu landmark designated, when it opened in 1927, as a perpetual living memorial to more than 10,000 from Hawai’i who served in World War I.

In an important way, the photo tells the story too. Seen on this page, it’s a reminder of the Natatorium’s gorgeous design and of how beautifully the 100-meter ocean pool, the bleachers and the arch fit into the shoreline below Diamondhead. But when you expand the image and look close up, it’s a reminder of how — shamefully — we have allowed a war heroes’ memorial to deteriorate.

The Friends of the Natatorium appreciate the headline’s reference to our group as “guardians of history.” But the truth is, we all should be guardians of this historic place, a place that’s so important to our island’s cultural heritage.

What you can do

Here’s a suggestion: Share this Innov8 story with someone you know, someone who is not as familiar as you are with the Natatorium issue. And tell that person about our website. Help us recruit new advocates for restoration and reopening, new advocates for doing what’s right for our veterans and what’s right for Hawai’i. Mahalo!

Six respected leaders joined together to issue this call. Leaders from the Hawaiian community, from the military, from the veteran community, from our water sports community, and from the professional engineering community.

A Star-Advertiser photo of the Natatorium in 1973.

If you are a subscriber to the Star-Advertiser, you can read the op-ed here. Once you’ve read it, please join the lively debate in the comments. Speak your mind. Speak up for the Natatorium!

If you’re not a subscriber, you can buy a one-day pass to the Star-Advertiser online for just 99 cents. More than worth it to read this great piece and then make your voice heard in support!

For those who can’t get into the site, we reproduce the full text below. Mahalo to co-signers Peter Apo, Steve Baldridge, Brian Keaulana, Benjamin Mixon, Bill Smith, and Bill Thompson. They’re standing up for what is right. Let’s hope our elected leaders — and all of us — do too.

Here’s the text:

How we deal with Natatorium will put our character to the test

Richard Borreca argues that 32 years of “dithering and delay on the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium has got to end” (“Natatorium is a problem that just won’t go away,” Star-Advertiser, On Politics, Oct. 4).

We agree.

But we do not agree with those who say that demolition or a change of use is in the public interest or the less expensive financial alternative to restoration.

The city, while led by Mayor Jeremy Harris, spent $4.2 million restoring the facade, bathrooms, bleachers and volleyball court and built a new district lifeguard office. Mayor Harris’s and the Honolulu City Council’s total $11.5 million appropriation for the project also would have paid for a re-engineered pool that would provide ADA access to the ocean for the elderly, and disabled. Had the so-nearly-realized restoration been completed, we would be celebrating its return to public use and swimming there today. But the succeeding mayoral administration, under Mufi Hannemann, swept into City Hall with a passion to undo important major projects undertaken by Harris, beginning with a stunning reversal of a fully designed and permitted Natatorium restoration.

It not only stopped the restoration, but went into high gear to demolish the entire structure. It pursued demolition with a spirit of irreverence that dishonored the memory of more than 10,000 warriors from Hawaii who are memorialized by the Natatorium. Auwe! We are as tired of sloshing through debate as some are of having to listen to it, but Borreca’s column cannot be left unchallenged. To spare your readers from having to navigate a manifesto on the subject, let it suffice for us to say here that the real consequences of demolition lie far beyond what most people realize. The Natatorium serves as a sand retention revetment; it created San Souci beach. Demolish the Natatorium and San Souci is history.

Alternative uses like creating additional new beach or volleyball courts are not permitted shoreline uses and would have to survive a lengthy and daunting county, state and federal permitting process, not to mention court challenges.

The Hawaii Supreme Court has already ruled, in 1973, against demolition for any other use of the shoreline expect for a Natatorium (defined as a swimming pool in Act 15 of the Territorial Legislature, 1921). The cost of demolition to effect the new uses proposed, even if successful, rivals or exceeds the cost of restoration. So much for the argument that it’s cheaper to demolish.

Further, the structure sits in a declared marine sanctuary. Demolition-triggered reef damage is a significant threat. A new beach, according to an Army Corps of Engineers study, would require replacing the Natatorium with the equivalent of a three-wall small boat harbor replicating the footprint of the Natatorium walls and its sand retention function to protect San Souci as well as the proposed added 100 feet of new beach. Go figure.

The proposal to “preserve” the arch by moving it is not an engineering possibility. It would have to be rebuilt as a reproduction. So much for preservation.

Finally, hundreds of pages of scientific and expert studies, including a $1.2 million environmental impact statement, show the least expensive, least environmentally harmful option is full restoration.

The idea of demolishing the Natatorium ranks up there with the attempts to demolish Iolani Palace for a parking lot and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for a new high-rise hotel. The Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium is the last of the great historic treasures of the Waikiki shoreline. How we respond to this challenge will mark the greatness or failure of who we are as a people.
———
Peter Apo is an Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee; Steven M. Baldridge is president of BASE Structural Engineering; Brian Keaulana is a waterman; retired Lt. Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon is former commander of the U.S. Army Pacific; William M. Smith Jr. is an Olympic gold medalist and former director of the city Water Safety Department; and William Y. Thompson, is president of the 442nd Veterans Club.

Now, of course, the Friends of the Natatorium support doing what is necessary to ensure the safety of swimmers on nearby Kaimana Beach.

But isn’t it ironic? The city is acting now on an emergency basis to mitigate a safety problem it caused and could easily have prevented.

The city neglected the Natatorium for decades. It allowed this historic icon and civic treasure to deteriorate. And – in 2005 – it canceled a fully approved and funded restoration effort that would have reopened the pool and made it better than ever.

In fact, when the project was canceled, more than $5 million had been spent and, among other improvements, the bleachers, bathrooms and lifeguard offices had already been renovated.

We agree with reporter Curtis Lum, who blogged for the Pacific Business News that “it’s time for the City and County of Honolulu to decide” what to do about the Natatorium.

We believe, of course, that the decision should be to preserve, restore and renew the Natatorium. We believe that for all sorts of good reasons, including the fact that Kaimana Beach will erode away if the protective Natatorium walls fall into the sea.

But, as Curtis writes, the time to decide and move forward is now, “before Father Time and Mother Nature decide for us.”

What you can do

Write to Mayor Peter Carlisle and to Gov. Neil Abercrombie. Tell them that you think the facts are on the side of preservation and restoration, and that demolition would be more costly and environmentally harmful. Tell them you think that the time for action is now. You can consult this document to help you craft your message.