I routinely make periodic checks of contract information available through the State Procurement Office website, often picking up interesting bits of information.

The website has been revamped to make it easier to search through the large amounts of data relating to contract solicitations, contract awards, exemptions from routine procurement procedures for emergencies or sole source contracts, etc.

Check out HANDS, the Hawaii Awards & Notices Data System.

According to the website: “HANDS gathers information from multiple state and county procurement platforms and displays it all in one place.”

There’s no cost to view or search the contract database, which is open to the general public.

I usually find interesting things, although not necessary newsworthy.

For example, the Department of Land and Natural Resources has awarded a $60,000 contract to a California company, Conservation Metrics, Inc., to analyze over 1,000 hours of field recordings of bird calls in the Kahikinui area of Maui. Several of the company’s staff have extensive research experience in Hawaii.

Conservation Metrics has a huge database of Hawaiian seabird calls and uses a proprietary algorithm to analyze the presence and activity of specific species. This contract aims to track the activity level and population size of Hawaiian petrel, Newell’s shearwater, Bandrumped storm petrel, and the common barn owl.

Another request for approval of emergency contracts details damage to buildings at Kapiolani Community College during an unexpectedly intense storm in February 2017.

“Another On Saturday February 11, 2017 at approximately 11:30 a.m., Kapiolani Community College was severely hit by hurricane force winds and engulfed by rain. After the fact readings would reveal that winds reached upward of 75mph and flash flooding occurred throughout the island of Oahu…for 5-10 minutes the campus was engulfed by hurricane winds and torrential rains. At the time of the storm, nearly 4,000 people, many of whom were children under the age of 13, were present at the KCC campus for the weekly Farmer’s Market and the annual Honolulu District DOE Science Fair.”

During the storm, “water rose to about three feet deep along the back” of the Kalia Building. When the parent of a student attending the science fair opened the back door to check the flood conditions, water rushed in, flooding most of the first floor an average of four to seven inches. Two large computer labs and classrooms, and about 15,000 square feet of administrative space and officers, were affected.

It cost more than $81,000 to clean up the water and mud, then repair the flood damage by disinfecting the area and testing to prevent mold, cleaning behind and within walls, removing and replacing damaged drywall, etc.

The request for approval contains a number of pictures of the storm damage. Quite an eye opener!

In any case, I recommend bookmarking the HANDS database for future reference.