It was announced recently that the long-awaited renovations at the Lahaina Civic Center have once again been postponed. As would be expected, the news comes as a deflating disappointment to the West Side community.

Even before the COVID chaos shut down the LCC, the facility had fallen into disrepair with the lockers in the upstairs P.E. multi-purpose room ripped out and the shower rooms taped off and inoperable. Mind you, this is the room where for decades the top collegiate hoops teams in the nation gathered and prepared for the Maui Jim Maui Invitational Basketball Tournament that is considered the top preseason event in the nation.

The room had also been the facility for dance and exercise sessions and for traditional martial arts programs for some 40 years. Down on the basketball floor, the West Maui Youth Basketball League became the event of the winter season here on the West Side year in and year out for some 450 kids ages five to 15 years old. The Lahaina Menehune Basketball program also operated on the LCC floor and set the pathway for the rise up to the highly successful Lahainaluna High School teams.

The Maui Invitational, which through its delightful highlights of the Lahaina/Kaanapali vistas and the breathtaking sunset panoramas across the channel to Lanai and Molokai, provided a wonderful escape from the dreary Mainland weather and the severe slowdown in the tourist industry in November.

The basketball tournament struggles on and even has spent a year on the Mainland, but the WMYBL is gone. The exercise classes and martial arts programs have closed or moved to other locations.

It is indeed a disappointing, sad commentary to see the once starlight center of the Lahaina community and ohana falling into dark and dreary disrepair as the years go on.

Where is the aloha?