Council Votes Favor School, Fire Dept.

A fire station will get a new home and a private school a new gym and classrooms as a result of City Council votes this week giving the nod to both projects.

After lengthy debate, the City Council voted 5 to 0 to permit the exclusive Fairmont Private School to build a 13,225-square-foot gymnasium and 3 to 2 to allow it to convert an auditorium into nine classrooms.

The school, opened by Vineyard Ministries International in 1993 with 175 students, has been straining under the pressure of its own popularity. It has 450 students today but expects enrollment to climb to about 650 within the next five years.

But the proposed expansion at the school, in the middle of a light industrial zone at 5310 E. La Palma Ave., inspired questions and debate from several council members concerned that the location of a new gym could put children at risk of injury or chemical contamination from neighboring factories.

School officials and several parents told council members there was no such risk.

The new fire station will replace one on Manchester Avenue near Freedman Way, which is being sacrificed for the widening of the Santa Ana Freeway.

The council voted unanimously to award a $2.4-million contract to D.K.S. Contracting and Engineering Inc. of Lake Forest to build the new station nearby, at Clementine Street and Freedman Way.