Mariners library supporters meet fund-raising goal

Deirdre Newman

NEWPORT BEACH -- In only three months, the grass-roots fund-raising

campaign for the proposed joint-use Mariners library has exceeded its

ambitious $1-million goal, making it eligible for $2 million in state

funds.

The announcement Wednesday came as Newport Beach and Newport-Mesa

Unified School District officials unveiled a design for the library,

which has raised safety concerns in the community.

The new state-of-the-art library will be a one-story,

14,000-square-foot building to replace the existing Mariners Branch

Library on Irvine Avenue. The lot is on city property next to the

Mariners Elementary School campus. Students will visit the children’s

section of the public library with their teachers. The school’s existing

library will be maintained but will be used in another capacity.

The project now awaits approval from city and school district

officials at their respective meetings on Tuesday. Even if the

application makes it to the state, it will still have to compete for the

joint-use Proposition 14 dollars.

District and city officials say safety concerns raised by some

community members helped them to find a solution that proved elusive at

first -- the 2,000-square-foot section for schoolchildren will be

separated from the public children’s portion of the library during school

hours with a roll-down door.

“The bottom line is the concerns have come together to make this a

better project,” said Homer Bludau, Newport Beach’s city manager. “Not

that we didn’t have those concerns ourselves, but the community’s

concerns forced us to deal with them.”

But some library opponents charge their fundamental fear has still not

been alleviated -- that the public and Mariners students will still

mingle during school hours. The public will be allowed access to the

school portion by signing in at the Mariners school office, which is the

district policy for visitors to any school.

“The solution is they must close the school section to the public

during school hours, just as was originally stated by the mayor,” said

Linda Duffy, who has led the charge against the library.

At an April 9 City Council meeting, Mayor Tod Ridgeway said the

students will never mix with the public.

On Wednesday, Supt. Robert Barbot defended the joint-use nature of the

children’s section, saying that reasonable precautions will be taken.

“We have hundreds of parents coming in and out of our sites daily,”

Barbot said. “It’s not a new experience. We don’t have forts.”

The idea for the school-public library was originally conceived by

Walt Howald, president of the Coast Community College board of trustees,

and Barbot. The idea was to take advantage of state funds that neither

the city nor school district could pony up for a project of this

magnitude, Howald said.

While some parents have complained that there have not been ample

forums for discussion, the school board, Mariners Elementary School and

library board have each hosted public meetings. The design changed three

times based on community input, Mariners Principal Pam Coughlin said..

As the current design reflects, the entire children’s section will

encompass an approximately 4,000-square-foot area. Mariners students will

have the secured use of the school portion of this section for about 30

hours per week. They will access the area through a separate school

entrance.

Although the final details are still being hammered out, current

safety precautions include the separate entrance, separate bathrooms in

the children’s sections, video cameras and a security patrol.

And more procedures still must be fleshed out, including how students

will access the library during lunch and recess, Barbot said.

Supporters embarked on their fund-raising campaign in early March and,

as of Wednesday, more than 600 individual donors have pitched in, for a

grand total of $1,001,683. A recent donation from Donna and John Crean

doubled the fund-raising amount.

And the committee will continue raising funds because there is still

interest in the community, said Theresa Chase, co-chair of the Committee

to Build the New Mariners Library.

If Newport Beach and the school district approve the project on

Tuesday, the proposal will compete with more than $2 billion worth of

needs throughout the state for a pot of $350 million, said Judy Franco,

school board president.

But officials are confident their approach to dealing with safety

concerns will give their application an edge.

“I’m not sure anyone else addressed [safety issues] to the degree we

have,” Ridgeway said. “It meets with all the education code. How many

competing applications will be able to say that?”

* Deirdre Newman covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at o7 deirdre.newman@latimes.comf7 .