SANTA ANA OKs PLAN TO EXPAND BOWERS MUSEUM

The Santa Ana City Council has approved a panel’s recommendation to expand Bowers Museum at an estimated cost of $8.8 million.

In this week’s action, the council decided that the city will pay the entire cost. Construction of a 19,000-square-foot structure for galleries and other uses might begin in late 1987.

City Manager David Ream has proposed financing the expansion mostly from tax money generated by the city’s redevelopment program. Final City Council action on the Bowers financing plan is expected in August.

The Bowers site falls under the authority of the city Redevelopment Agency, which has plans to rebuild the Main Street corridor into a major cultural area, including a multifacility “museum district.”

Panel chairman Hector R. Godinez said exploratory talks have been held with the Newport Harbor Art Museum about that museum’s opening a satellite facility in the proposed district. Newport Harbor officials said the proposal remains under study.

The City Council also appointed the nine-member citizens panel--known as the Bowers Blue Ribbon Planning Committee--to be the museum’s new governing board. A contract formally making the new board the museum’s operating body is expected to be signed in October.

Godinez said the board’s first meeting is planned for late August. The new Bowers director is expected to be hired by that time.

The committee’s recommendation that the city--which owns the 24,000-square-foot museum--continue subsidizing Bowers at the current level was endorsed by the City Council. The city provides about $1.2 million a year, which accounts for most of the museum’s operating budget.

The museum’s new board said it plans to greatly expand private support of Bowers, including the establishment of an operating endowment.

In their report, committee members said they had to seek city financing of the Bowers expansion because there are not enough private funds for such an undertaking.