Rebuilding of Avalon’s Only Gym OKd by State

After almost two years of battling bureaucracy, officials from Long Beach Unified School District and the city of Avalon won state approval this week to rebuild Avalon’s only gymnasium.

A state board Wednesday approved emergency funding for the gym. Construction, expected to cost $2.5 million, is to begin in late summer and be finished a year later.

The city’s old school gym was shut down in 1988 and razed because of asbestos contamination. School basketball players in the Santa Catalina Island town had to practice outdoors and travel to the mainland for every game.