NEWPORT BEACH : School Backers Still Pooling Resources

Boosters at Newport Harbor High School who need an additional $20,000 in city funds to complete the school’s Olympic-size swimming pool are trying to drum up more community support before they take their case back to the City Council later this month.

The city budget committee has recommended that the council give the boosters just $5,000, but the group hopes that additional community support will encourage the council to grant the full amount.

The boosters have a March 1 fund-raising deadline but now plan to wait until Feb. 24 to reappear before the council, rather than Monday as was scheduled.

“They’ve been very kind. Money’s hard to come by,” said Robert G. Lunde, booster fund-raising chairman. “We feel confident the city will come halfway, and we’ll pull it together somehow.”

The facility has been wrought with design and construction delays, upping the final price tag beyond initial estimates. Originally it was estimated at $390,000, but the complex will end up costing $562,133.

The pool and surrounding complex is nearly complete, but another $46,400 is needed for finishing and installing fixtures in showers and restrooms. The boosters have raised $19,000 and are committed to raising $7,400 more, provided that the council votes to provide $20,000.

Without the additional funds, the restroom and shower facilities will lack two-thirds of their shower heads, toilets and sinks.

The council has been leery of giving extra funds to a project that has been six years in the making, more than $170,000 over original cost and in need of a quick infusion of money at the last minute.

Despite the capacity crowd of student and parent supporters at an earlier City Council meeting, the booster group was unable to persuade the council to vote the money immediately.

So far the city has paid $150,000 for the pool, up from the $125,000 it initially pledged to give in 1986.

“The difference between the original estimate and the final contract price is fantastic,” Mayor Phil Sansone said at the earlier meeting. “I’ve got to question this one. . . . It looks like a project that’s completely out of control.”

Booster members, however, argued that when adjusted for inflation, the cost increases are only about $60,000 more than the original target, and half of that is from unexpected soil problems that the Newport-Mesa Unified School District paid to rectify.

Boosters also argued that the city originally committed to 32% of the project cost and that its current contribution actually amounts to just 27% of the total.

The boosters and the school district are paying about 30% and 38% of the costs, respectively.