Waimea emergency response center gets $5 million state funding boost

After fires burned through parts of Waimea in 2021 and 2023, and a July 29, 2025 tsunami warning sent coastal residents inland, the case for a permanent emergency center became impossible to ignore. The state budget’s $5 million allocation gives the Waimea project its biggest public boost yet, but the town is still only one-third of the way to the $15 million needed for a facility leaders say must work in both a disaster and an ordinary week.

The proposed center would rise at Spencer Kalani Schutte Park and cover nearly 8,000 square feet. Plans call for a commercial kitchen, showers and a centralized meeting point for disaster coordination, with the building doubling as a community center when the skies are clear. The site is being described as shovel-ready because the needed infrastructure is already in place at the park, a factor that could shorten the path from funding to construction.

The scoreboard still shows a gap. Another $10 million has to be lined up, and the state money depends on matching support from the county and private donors. Mayor Kimo Alameda said the county has identified $3 million, while more than $3 million in private pledges were already in hand, including $2 million from Lynne and Marc Benioff. A May 2024 donation of $750,000 from Marc and Lynne Benioff, routed through the Daniel R. Sayre Foundation, covered design, permitting and other early costs for the Waimea project.

The effort has been discussed for more than a decade. In 2024, Nancy Carr Smith told the County Council the idea traces back to the first phase of Waimea District Park in 2015, when a multiuse community building was designed but never built for lack of funding. Waimea District Park was renamed Spencer Kalani Schutte District Park in 2020, honoring the councilman credited with securing funding for the original Waimea Community Center and pushing public-private partnerships on Hawaii Island.

At a May 7 town hall on emergency readiness, Carr Smith said, “This year we’ll be breaking ground and building the emergency evacuation center, which will also serve as a community center for Waimea.” County, utility and emergency officials were at the table, including civil defense, police, fire, parks and recreation, public works, water supply, Waimea CERT, Hawaiian Electric, Pohakuloa Training Area, Waimea Resilience Hub, and school and church leaders.

If completed, the center would change the way Waimea handles the next major emergency. Instead of leaning on churches, schools and improvised gathering spaces, North and South Kohala would have a hardened facility meant to serve Waimea, South Kohala coastal areas, North Kohala, Waikoloa Village and Waikii Ranch, with the Department of Parks and Recreation set to operate and maintain it.