Some first-generation Mililani kids, homes and utility lines nearing age 50

I grew up playing in red dirt while ash fell from the sky from nearby pineapple and sugar cane agricultural burns. I shopped with my mom at the Pay 'n Save before it became a 24 Hour Fitness and a Ross, the Woolworths before it became a UFC Gym. I watched kids ride their bikes in a giant pit that eventually became Hawaii's first Wal-Mart.

I'm from Mililani. Part of the first generation that could actually say that. Because before us, there was no Mililani. Our parents moved to “Hawaii's first master-planned” community in the 1970s or 80s when Castle & Cooke finished building the first subdivisions. And while my childhood memories don’t feel that long ago, many neighborhoods in Mililani are almost 50 years old.

“We've lived here since forever — 47 years,” said Mililani resident Karen Arizumi. “We're the original owners.” She and her husband Tom raised their children in Mililani. Although their children are grown, Karen's mother now lives with them along with one of their daughters. Their son lives nearby and another of their daughters lives in Mililani Mauka.

Growing up in a young master-planned community, it was typical for every fourth house on your street to look almost exactly like yours. What wasn't typical was seeing a utility pole in your neighborhood since Castle & Cooke developed Mililani with the utilities underground. But the aging electrical infrastructure has started to cause frequent outages in some older neighborhoods.

“We moved in about four years ago. That's when we bought our house. And we noticed about a year into living here, we started to have power outages and especially on this street,” said Ariana Graham, who lives across the street from the Arizumi family. “Every couple of months I would get a notification on my phone saying that we had a power outage and most of the time it would come back pretty quick. But as it started happening more frequently, it would take longer, I noticed, to come back for service to be restored.”

Tom and Karen have become very familiar with Hawaiian Electric's outage reporting options. Tom still calls the Hawaiian Electric automated trouble line while Karen uses the mobile app. “You make it easy for us. Seniors have a hard time adapting to change,” said Karen.

They also said Hawaiian Electric has been quick to respond to the outages, but the frequency has been a nuisance for many of their neighbors, especially those who don't have rooftop solar.

Ariana said, “There was one day a neighbor walked up to our door and asked if we wanted to sign a petition. I guess to probably send something to HECO. But, yeah, it definitely was disrupting the lives of our neighbors on the street.”

As a Hawaiian Electric employee and Mililani resident, I get a lot of questions from family and friends about outages. (My brother, another Mililani resident, doesn't even bother reporting his outages. He makes me do it.) I do my best to answer questions and apologize for the humbug. Even though we're Hawaiian Electric employees, we're customers, too. We know what a hassle it is to be without power and we take it seriously to restore customers as soon as we can.

Replacing old underground infrastructure, however, is often more difficult and intrusive than replacing overhead lines. Mililani was developed over a 40-year period. Newer areas of the community have utility lines running through underground conduits, which can make repairs a little easier. But in older neighborhoods, like Karen, Tom and Ariana's, the lines are buried directly into the ground, which requires a lot of digging to make repairs.

That's why, since March, Hawaiian Electric crews and contractors have been in their neighborhood, tearing up sidewalks and portions of the road to replace the old lines to improve reliability.

“We appreciate the attention,” said Karen. She's already prepared for the planned outage that's needed as part of the project, since the Arizumis received advance notice in a letter from Hawaiian Electric.

“Hawaiian Electric was very good at informing the neighborhood of the activities that’s coming up in our neighborhood,” said Tom.

“I think that going through this right now is going to be worth it in the long run,” said Ariana. “We’re just grateful for people, you know boots on the ground. Everyone who's out here working really hard and trying to help to resume normal life for all the residents here. Yeah, so I think this this will be great in the long run and hopefully last longer than 50 years.”