Waikoloa Village library moves forward with $21 million state funding

Waikoloa Village is moving from a long wait to an actual build, with Gov. Josh Green releasing $21 million in state funding for a library that residents have pushed for more than 15 years. The money had already been appropriated by the Legislature and will now carry the project through final planning, design and construction.

The proposed library will rise on 2.567 acres of county land on Kamakoa Drive, near the end of Paniolo Avenue, in a community that has grown into one of the Big Island’s major population centers without a permanent library of its own. With a 2020 census population of 7,104, Waikoloa Village has been one of the largest places in the state still relying on temporary service instead of a dedicated building.

For years, that service came through workarounds. After the community lost a state-run bookmobile, residents eventually depended on a full-time bookmobile parked on a former tennis court through a partnership with the Waikoloa Village Association. Cindy Evans, a former state representative and county council member, said Waikoloa was the only Friends of the Library branch without a building of its own, a distinction that underscored how long the village had gone without a true public library.

State Rep. David Tarnas, the Kohala Democrat representing the area, said the community had spent more than 15 years pushing for a library. State Librarian Stacey Aldrich described the future facility as a place to read, learn and connect, which is exactly what the village has lacked while families, students and older residents made do with a parked bookmobile and a temporary setup.

The release of the funding marks the point when the project shifts from aspiration to construction, with an opening now anticipated in 2028. For Waikoloa, the timeline matters as much as the dollar amount. A $21 million public library is not just a building project in a fast-growing part of North and South Kohala, it is a long-delayed civic investment in a community that has been forced to improvise basic library access while its population expanded around it.