School, city begin breakthrough for bookworms

Marisa O’Neil

A little more than a year from now, thousands of books from Mariners

Elementary school and a city library will be cohabiting in a brand

new home.

Newport Beach and school district officials on Thursday helped

break ground on a new joint-use library between the school and the

current Mariners Branch library. The new Donna and John Crean

Mariners Branch Library, funded through private donations and state

funds, is scheduled for completion before the start of school in

2005.

“This is going to be a huge bonus for the kids at Mariners and

Kaiser [elementary schools] and Ensign [Intermediate School],”

library trustee Theresa Chase said. “It will be an open, airy,

light-filled library. They won’t have to get their parents to drive

them to the library. And it will be such a cool building, they’ll

want to spend time here.”

At 15,000 square feet, the new library will be about two-thirds

bigger than the current library, which has 50,000 titles, branch

manager Mary Ellen Bowman said. The city’s central library lies on

the other side of the bay.

Bowman said that she’s already envisioning what the new facility

will be like. The natural light, the tile work and the “Mariners

blue” walls in the building plans will make a great home for new

books and a state-of-the-art computer center, she said.

When the library opens, the Mariners Elementary library will move

from a portable classroom into the new facility. The school will have

its own entrance to the library and a glass wall will slide down to

separate students from the general public, Newport Beach Mayor Tod

Ridgeway said.

“I like how there’s going to be a cool door sliding down for our

safety,” 11-year-old Kaitlyn Obenauer said.

The library will include 24 computers for adults, two computers in

an area for teenagers, and 11 computers in a children’s room.

Plans for the facility’s groundbreaking started falling into place

in March, Ridgeway said, when planners learned that the city had

secured $3.2 million in matching funds. That came after a three-month

fundraising campaign to raise $1 million.

Volunteers came up short just before the 2002 deadline, but local

philanthropists Donna and John Crean donated an additional $500,000.

Trustees are still seeking donations because rising steel prices have

driven up costs another $300,000.

The new library will replace the 40-year-old Mariners Branch

library, which was in need of upgrades. Work is set to start next

month.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at marisa.oneil@latimes.com.