Newport Beach to float history in Rose Parade

Alicia Robinson

The 2006 Rose Parade is still months away, but Newport Beach should

have a design for its float today.

The float is part of the city’s grand plan to celebrate its

centennial -- officially Sept. 1, 2006 -- with events beginning this

fall and lasting through October 2006. The centennial steering

committee will give the stamp of approval to one of two designs at a

meeting today.

The city hired Fiesta Parade Floats to create the design, and the

choices were drawn up by renowned float designer Raul Rodriguez.

“He sort of grew up coming to Newport Beach, so he knows the

community pretty well and what it has to offer,” said Newport Beach

building department director Jay Elbettar, who is working with the

float subcommittee.

While the possible designs are still under wraps, Elbettar said

the final selection will reflect the centennial theme, which is

“Sailing Through the Century,” as well as the somewhat more nebulous

Rose Parade theme, “It’s Magical.”

Expect boating, the beach and aquatic life to come into play on

the float, which also may carry local dignitaries or well-known

people of the community.

“There will definitely be riders,” Elbettar said, adding that some

cities auction off spots on their floats as a way to help pay for

building them. The cost of Newport’s float is, of course, up in the

air until a design is finalized, but the ballpark estimate is

$250,000, said float subcommittee member Lloyd Ikerd.

But it will be worth it to take home a prize, he added.

“I think one of the big things is obviously we’d like to win an

award for the city of Newport Beach,” Ikerd said. “I think the two

[designs] we’ve looked at are definitely award winners.”

Of its dozen or so entries in the 2005 Rose Parade, Fiesta won

awards for most of them, Elbettar said.

The next task will be fundraising to pay for the float, and toward

the end of the year, the city will need volunteers to help assemble

it.

During the last few days before the parade, they’ll work around

the clock in shifts to get every last flower or pipe cleaner glued

into place, with the goal of showing the world what the city is all

about.

“We feel its an opportunity to present our community,” Elbettar

said. “It’s maybe 10 or 15 seconds [on TV], but the coverage and the

exposure during the building process and the actual time during the

rose parade -- the coverage will undoubtedly been seen by tens of

millions of people around the world.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers government and politics. She may be

reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at alicia.robinson

@latimes.com.