Residents want
access again
to Natural Bridge High gym
Some Natural Bridge area residents are moving forward with their effort to make the old Natural Bridge High School gym available to the public again.
A second meeting to consider the fate of the gym Wednesday night generated overwhelming public support.
Three subcommittees have been formed to study the issue. Nick DesChamps, the gym’s current owner, is asking to be released from his commitment to let the community use it free of charge. DesChamps locked the gym in 2004, arguing that vandalism and messes that users left behind made his workers do more than they should have to maintain the gym.
DesChamps was not at Wednesday night’s meeting.
A citizens committee told supporters it believes DesChamps defaulted on his contract when he locked the gym. Supporters are demanding to be allowed to regain control of the gym.
Produced by
Washington and Lee
journalism students.
Lead Supervisors:
Prof. Brian
Richardson
Prof. Phylissa
Mitchell
Editing supervisor:
Prof. Doug
Cumming
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd