Library work off the shelf

Alicia Robinson

You might not be able to finish “War and Peace” by the time the new

Mariners Library opens, but you could probably put a good dent in the

slightly shorter “Anna Karenina.”

Construction on the $5.5-million Donna and John Crean Mariners

Branch Library began this week, with completion expected in February

2006. The 15,000-square-foot library will replace the existing

Mariners Library, which opened in 1963, and it will house library

facilities for the adjacent Mariners Elementary School.

“I can’t tell you how excited I was when I drove by the other day.

They are really moving some dirt,” said Theresa Chase, who co-chaired

the committee that raised $1 million to help build the library.

The library was jointly paid for by a $3.2-million state grant,

private funds and the city of Newport Beach, but about $250,000 more

is needed because of increases in the cost of building materials,

Chase said.

The existing Mariners Library will remain open while the new one

is being built, but it will be demolished when the new library opens.

The school’s library, now located in a portable classroom, will

remain as a resource room for students, though many books and other

materials will be available in the new library, Mariners Elementary

School Principal Pam Coughlin said.

“We’re really looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a

beautiful facility,” she said.

A separate area of the library devoted to the school will provide

about three times the space of the current school library.

The new facility will be about two-thirds larger than the current

Mariners Library, and it will offer longer hours of operation.

Construction crews began this week by tearing up two tennis

courts, which will be relocated.

Chase said community fundraising efforts will continue to get that

last $250,000, because there’s no fat that can be trimmed from the

project.

“We’re pretty much at a bare bones building right now,” she said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.