By Erika I. Ritchie
The Orange County Register
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — There are a new fire station and library in Corona del Mar.
City officials on Saturday, July 20, held a ribbon-cutting with public tours of the new facilities, which share a building on Marigold Avenue. About 300 people attended the event, including city and library officials and fire department staff.
Having the two services side-by-side “goes back 60 and 70 years,” Newport Beach Mayor Diane Dixon said. “We’re continuing that with a modern facility. The community felt it was something they all grew up with. It’s a smaller branch library, but it made sense.”
The modern, 10,314-square-foot facility replaces two buildings which housed the old Fire Station No. 5 and the community’s library branch. Construction on the $8.3 million project began in April 2018.
The joint facility will make it easier for both fire and library officials to do their job, officials said.
The fire station is in service, but the library won’t officially be open for business for a couple more weeks. When it is, it will house more than 10,000 books and media items. The library is funded by donations from Friends of the Library, Newport Beach Public Library Foundation and Corona del Mar residents.
“The new fire station is better equipped to handle modern firefighting apparatus, updated communication systems and meets current workplace standards for both male and female firefighters,” said Jeff Boyles, the city’s new fire chief. “Not only is it new and fits into the Corona del Mar neighborhood, but it meets the new building codes providing a much safer facility for our firefighters to operate out of 24-hours-a-day, 365 days a year.”
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©2019 The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.)