Bergeson joins effort to build joint library

Paul Clinton

Former state Sen. Marian Bergeson has signed on to lead a committee

working to raise enough money to build a new Mariners Branch Library.

Plans call for a state-of-the-art $3-million library to replace the

cramped existing branch. It will be shared between the public and the

students at Mariners Elementary School.

“We’re honored to have the leadership of a long-standing advocate of

quality education behind this important project,” said Patrick Bartolic,

the chairman of the library’s board of trustees.

So far, the committee raising funds for the new branch has collected

$40,000 from the Newport Beach Library Foundation and $5,000 from the

elementary school’s PTA.

The committee Bergeson will oversee created the Build a Mariners

Library Campaign Fund to help raise private money for the library.

The fund now has $107,095. The goal is to raise $1 million.

If the community can raise that $1 million, the new library would be

eligible to receive $2 million in state funds from Proposition 14.

Fund-raisers have until June, the deadline for applying for the grant

money.

The new library would be single story and located on Irvine Avenue

next to the school. It would be 14,000 square feet in size, about double

the size of the existing branch.

Bergeson, who lives in Newport Beach, also served in the state

Assembly.