Avalon May Lend Funds for Its New Gym : Schools: Officials on Santa Catalina Island want to speed up process, which depends on the Long Beach Unified School District and the availability of state money.

By ADRIANNE GOODMAN

Nov. 30, 1989 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Avalon city officials, casting about for ways to help the Long Beach Unified School District find money for a new gymnasium on Santa Catalina Island, are considering lending the district money to pay for architectural plans.

The old gym was torn down earlier this year because of asbestos contamination, city officials said.

The proposal, still under discussion, would ultimately depend on the availability of state funds, but it could shorten by several months the time needed to design and build a new gym, city and district officials said.

“It could mean a big difference for a number of students,” said City Manager Chuck Prince. “If things continue according to the schedule now, some students will have gone virtually three years without a gym.”

The gym, which was built in the 1950s, was closed last fall while asbestos workers hired by the district attempted to remove the carcinogenic substance. That effort proved to be too costly, and the gym was razed in March. During last year’s basketball season, home games were played in the ornate Casino Ballroom, and this year all games will be played on the mainland.

The proposal to lend the money to the district was raised by city officials during a visit by school board members to the island last week, said district spokesman Richard Van Der Laan. Diane Kirkham, special assistant to state schools Supt. Bill Honig in Sacramento, said the state ran out of money for new school construction earlier this year.

Whether the Long Beach system and other school districts have building funds will depend on the passage of a proposed statewide bond measure for new school construction that may appear on the June, 1990, ballot, school officials said.

“All of this is subject to the availability of state funds,” Van Der Laan said. “But the loan from the city could speed up the process.”

Even if the measure passes in June and the district breaks ground for the gym that same month, Avalon schools Principal Jon Meyer said it is doubtful whether a new gym could be ready for next fall’s basketball season, unless architectural plans are already in hand.

Without the city loan, Prince said, the district cannot even seek bids or have plans for the gym drawn up before June.

A city loan “would allow us to move more quickly,” Meyer said. “It would give everybody genuine hope rather than clinging to an outside chance.”

Van Der Laan said district officials are considering using a possible loan from the city to pay for architectural plans and design. He could not estimate the cost of the plans.

The cost of building a 9,000-square-foot gym, including transporting construction materials and workers to the island, is estimated at $2 million, Van Der Laan said.

Since the gymnasium was torn down, the community has rallied to salvage the school’s athletic programs, holding fund-raisers and selling “Casino Ball Room” T-shirts last season to defray travel costs to games on the mainland for student athletes, he said.

The gymnasium was a focal point of social life for students and adults, residents said, providing the island’s only public center for dances and other social activities, as well as athletic events.

The gym’s absence “creates hardships beyond belief for our small community,” Meyer said. “So many activities take place there.”

Last year, Avalon students and faculty coped with the loss of the gym by holding basketball games in the Casino Ballroom, which is owned by the Santa Catalina Island Co. and was made available to the school. The ballroom, which was extensively renovated earlier this year, has not been available for games this fall, company officials said.

Students this year have had only one dance, in the school’s small cafeteria, although a homecoming dance is scheduled for this weekend in the Casino Ballroom.

The girls and boys basketball teams are practicing on school’s tennis courts and on a makeshift blacktopped court over the site of the old gym, said Coach Dave Lassiter.

The basketball teams must play all their games on the mainland, which will require an overnight stay and a string of consecutive weekends away from home, Lassiter said.

The district pays for transportation and hotel rooms for out-of-town trips, but students must pay for their own meals. This year, however, the school is paying for meals for games that normally would be held at home, Lassiter said.

PTA President Virginia Friesen said, in addition to efforts to secure state funds for a new gym, the community should work to raise funds on its own.

“There’s no promise the bond issue will pass, first of all, and there are so many demands on that money,” Friesen said.

Some parents and other Avalon residents, who have formed a booster club to raise money for a long hoped-for public swimming pool, have suggested that a gym and pool could be built at the same time in a single complex. But district officials said they are concentrating their efforts on the gym. The booster club has raised about $130,000 for the pool, said club President Wendy Offield.

Students said the lack of a gym has presented a hardship--including abbreviated practices on the unlighted outdoor court--but there has been a positive side.

“You get all dirty and everything, and it’s cold, but it’s a challenge, and it’s fun,” said senior Kirsten Doutt, 16, who plays forward center on the girls basketball team. Doutt wrote a college application essay about the community’s efforts to build a new gym.

Although both the girls and boys basketball teams made the playoffs in the Liberty league during the 1987-88 season, neither team made the playoffs last year, Meyer said. New seasons start for the girls team this weekend and for the boys team next week, school officials said.

Said senior Tanya Vojkovich, 17: “This year, if we don’t win anything, at least we had fun.”