Report Title:

Urban Garden Center Multipurpose Building

Description:

Authorizes the issuance of GO bonds to design, construct, and equip an urban garden center multipurpose building.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2371

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to the urban garden center.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the college of tropical agriculture and human resources' urban garden center provides urban horticulture, plant science, and human resource educational programs for families, homeowners, school children and youth, teachers, university students, and horticulture professionals. The strength of the center is the various plant displays in the field. The center has several of the largest plant germplasm collections in Hawaii. These include collections of citrus, taro, exotic Asian vegetables, groundcovers, turf grasses, hedges, foliage plants, plumeria, and hibiscus.

At the center's current facility on Oahu, there is only one classroom with a capacity of forty-five students. To accommodate larger groups ranging from one hundred fifty to three hundred students, classes are conducted in the open. These large classes can be held only when weather permits. The demand for informal classes and other types of educational activities is high and increasing very rapidly. Examples of activities that occur at the center include: (1) informal science-related classes attended annually by approximately six thousand school children and their teachers; (2) field laboratory sessions in which approximately one hundred fifty to two hundred University of Hawaii, Manoa students participate per semester; (3) annual programs attended by approximately three hundred vocational agriculture high school students, with participation increasing to nine hundred students when the state convention is held on Oahu; (4) 4-H and youth programs such as leadership development workshops, fashion shows, and food shows, in which nine hundred to one thousand two hundred youth participate annually; (5) several special annual events such as plants sales and garden fairs, each attracting between six hundred to two thousand people; (6) more than fifty informal gardening classes offered every year, each attended by fifteen to forty-five participants; (7) monthly workshops for commercial farmers, held on a wide range of topics; (8) and a landscape nursery certification program that serves twenty to fifty participants per year.

The total number of visits to the center is estimated to be between twelve thousand and fifteen thousand per year. From the opening of the center in 1989 to the present, it is estimated that one hundred fifty thousand have visited and/or participated in center programs. With expanded and improved facilities, the center can increase the number of visits annually from twelve to fifteen thousand to over forty thousand. Although this number seems high, it is achievable because: (1) in Hawaii, participation in gardening is estimated to exceed the nationwide average of seventy-two per cent (2) the center is in the center of Oahu's urban population, and (3) the new facilities will be able to accommodate larger groups in all types of weather.

The purpose of this Act is to construct an urban garden center multipurpose building with ten thousand square feet of exhibition and assembly area, two thirty-seat classrooms, and a certified kitchen.

SECTION 2. The director of finance is authorized to issue general obligation bonds in the sum of $4,720,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for fiscal year 2004-2005, for the purpose of designing, constructing, and equipping a multipurpose building, classrooms, and a kitchen at the urban garden center in the following amounts:

Design $ 350,000

Construction $4,115,000

Equipment $ 255,000

Total funding $4,720,000

SECTION 3. The appropriation made for the capital improvement project authorized by this Act shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal biennium for which the appropriation is made; provided that all moneys from the appropriation unencumbered as of June 30, 2006, shall lapse as of that date.

SECTION 4. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2004.

INTRODUCED BY:

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