NEWPORT BEACH : Groundbreaking for Library to Be Held

Seniors donated long-owned collections for a book sale. Hundreds of children read books. A local foundation set up impressive matching grants. Families gave $1,000 to have their names engraved on a donors’ wall.

In all, it was a somewhat herculean community effort to raise the $1.5 million in donations to keep up the residents’ end of the bargain for the new Newport Beach Central Library.

Tough economic times mixed with the common misconception that libraries are civic buildings that do not need private funds made for a challenging donor drive. On Sunday, when the start of construction will be marked with a groundbreaking ceremony, the community is likely to breathe a collective sigh of relief that in just 18 months the new library should be a reality.

“I’ve just had the most touching letters,” said Elizabeth Stahr, co-chairwoman of the fund-raising drive for the Newport Beach Public Library Foundation, of the response from donors.

For little over a year, the foundation has been coordinating fund-raising efforts with innovative events to collect money for the new facility. They include a fund-raising party for the top 300 readers in the city, a children’s read-a-thon and book sales. The new facility will be built at Avocado Avenue near Coast Highway. The funds included $125,000 from Friends of the Newport Beach Library raised through used-book sales.

The $14-million facility is being funded by donations, including $750,000 in matching grants from the Harry and Grace Steele Foundation, a land swap with the Irvine Co. that traded the old site for the new one, about $1 million in city funds and $6 million in city bonds. This week, the City Council awarded the construction bid to the Koll Co., which is expected to complete the project by fall, 1993.

The new meeting room will be twice the size of the one in the Newport Center library. The new library will also have two quiet-reading rooms and a local history room. There also will be more general space that will allow much of the library’s holdings to come out of storage and onto shelves, said City Librarian La Donna Kienitz.

Hundreds of donors and local officials will be on hand for the Sunday groundbreaking ceremony, along with the U.S. Marine Corps Band from El Toro and costumed storybook characters. Library officials will read a congratulatory letter from First Lady Barbara Bush.

The 4 p.m. groundbreaking ceremony, at 1000 Avocado Ave., is open to the public.