LOCAL : Nixon Arrives in Southland, Will Meet Reagan This Afternoon

Richard M. Nixon arrived in Southern California today on the first stop of a trip that will peak Thursday when Republican Party leaders and current and former Presidents gather to dedicate Nixon’s library 16 years after he left office in disgrace.

Nixon’s first scheduled event of the week is a meeting with former President Ronald Reagan. The two are slated to meet this afternoon in Century City and again this evening at Reagan’s Bel-Air home.

The library will be dedicated Thursday, and there the two men will be joined by Gerald R. Ford and George Bush, rounding out the Republican Party’s list of living current and former chief executives.

Local leaders will also be on hand for the ceremony. County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, a Nixon admirer who caught the former President’s attention with a speech to the Republican National Convention in 1988, will be among a handful of speakers who will address dedication guests Thursday.

At the library today, workers scrambled to make last-minute preparations, watering flowers, pruning trees and setting up dozens of white tents for guests.

Star Irvine, one of the workers helping to install the sound system for the event, eyed the area today and acknowledged that there’s plenty left to do. “To get it done by Thursday, we may be working around the clock,” Irvine said.