Pasadena Seeks Way to Keep Marine Reserves in Town

Hoping to keep a Marine Corps Reserve Center in Pasadena, city officials will hold a public hearing tonight to advocate relocating the post to an Army Reserve facility.

The Marines want to stay in Pasadena but face moving to Riverside County because neither the city nor the federal government has come up with the $3.4 million necessary to replace the current run-down facility.

City officials will seek community input on a proposal to move the Marine reserves from their decades-old east Pasadena facility to the U.S. Army compound nestled below the Colorado Street Bridge in the Arroyo Seco.

The city hopes to obtain federal approval to house the Marines and Army reserves in the same facility, officials said.

But Mayor William Paparian said saving the Marines is far from a certainty because the two service branches may not want to share a facility.

At tonight’s 6:30 meeting, at 177 S. Arroyo Blvd., the city and military officials will answer questions about traffic and other issues that might arise if the Marines move to the Army facility.

“People in my district have nothing but good things to say about the Marines,” said Paparian, a former Marine whose council district includes the current facility.