EDITORIAL:Clock tower and the march of time

Time takes its toll on all things. That’s inevitable. As we move into the future, that natural deterioration of things threatens to obliterate our past.

So it will be of great consolation to many Newport Harbor High alumni to learn that their beloved clock tower will be reincarnated.

Today’s clock tower, at Newport Harbor’s Robins Hall, sits as a painful reminder of that aforementioned march of time. The clock tower and the building it’s attached to are nonfunctioning parts of the high school. The reason is that age and time have rendered the buildings seismically unsafe.

So what to do with a landmark that has been part of the Newport Beach skyline for some 80 years? A landmark that once served as a navigation tool to seafarers and sailors.

Thanks to the passage of the Measure F school bond, school officials have some options.

The first answer, unfortunately, will be to raze the current structure. To bolster the tower and make it able to withstand an earthquake would be monumentally expensive and unfeasible.

But this week we learned that architects from LPA Inc. have come up with a plan to restore the clock tower and make it nearly identical to the original.

That’s great news to those who have grown up in Newport Beach and attended the high school. The clock tower is part of the tradition and pride of the Newport Harbor Sailors, and we are happy to learn that that will not change.