By Mandy McFarland Enquirer Coordinator
BREMEN — Bremen is a small town with big hopes, and Wednesday morning, Oct. 28, those hopes were revisited during the monthly meeting of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce.
In a written address to members of the Bremen community, Chamber president Bill Davis presented a plan for Bremen’s future in more than half a dozen areas.

According to Davis, in the 1990s, a group from Ball State University did an evaluation on Bremen’s assets and its liabilities. A separate evaluation by the Kiwanis Club of Bremen took place in 2004, which also identified areas of need within the community. Independently, they identified a need for a community center of some kind that could serve seniors and youth, additional park programs and a need for further industrial growth.
Five years later, in January 2009, Bremen’s first-ever Community Development Conference took place. Using the Ball State group’s 1990 formula as a guide, a committee identified many places where they felt Bremen needed improvement. They indicated the town’s low-income housing downtown as its strength, and listed a number of weaknesses like an empty downtown, a lack of downtown parking and signage and out-of-date lighting. In the west end commercial district, they identified a strong industrial base, but agreed there was a need to improve Bremen’s entrances. However, they identified Bremen’s quality of life as a strength based on the Community of Hospital of Bremen’s new up-to-date building, a Doctor’s Hospital at the former COB location, as well as Bremen’s parks churches, the newly-relocated train depot, access to a food pantry and organizations like the Marshall County Community Foundation, United Way and more.
“As I have attempted to process all of this information I have come to some realizations,” Davis said in his report. “Many leaders before us have contributed to Bremen becoming a place with more strengths than any other town in Indiana, and it will take strong leadership to continue adding to the list of strengths without having any fall off.”
At the October meeting, Davis presented the following lists of recommendations based on the 1990 study and broken down by committee.
Revitalization committee
•Establish downtown as the heart of the community
•Upgrade the downtown public environment as a symbol of community pride, creating a pedestrian-friendly, aesthetically-pleasing downtown
West-end commercial district committee
•Develop a district corridor plan to guide public and private investments, which reinforces the commercial districts' sense of place; a subset of this was to develop a streetscape plan for this area of town
•Create a funding mechanism to generate infrastructure and improvements in the district
•Upgrade the edge and connections to adjacent land use. Work with property owners to improve this area

Housing committee
•Provide opportunities for reinvestment and revitalization of existing older housing stock
Transportation, infrastructure
•Develop a “thoroughfare plan” for the Town of Bremen.
•Improve the intersection of U.S. 331 and U.S. 6 to better accommodate truck access to the community
•Develop a landscaping plan for U.S. 6 that creates a linear gateway and town edge
Industrial parks committee
•Upgrade existing industrial parks
•Evaluate role of industrial and community development
•Create an industrial development strategy that considers industrial diversity and environmental impact
Quality of life committee
•Maintain and reinforce the small town atmosphere
•Reinforce community celebrations and festivals
•Continue to look for opportunities to expand the relationship between the community and the school system through recreational and educational programs
•Stimulate development of community pride through heritage and cultural enrichment activities
•Continue joint community programs sponsored by local churches
•Create a greenway system linking existing parks and open space
•Create a master plan for parks, recreational facilities
•Build a community center that facilitates a broad range of indoor activities
•Continue the development of youth and senior activities
The Bremen Chamber hopes to play an increasingly active role in seeing some of these dreams become reality.
“We at the Chamber are attempting to be a leader in change through our emphasis on uniting local businesses in an effort to advocate and support economic vitality while cultivating community prosperity and quality of life in Bremen,” Davis said in his report. “Based on the feedback we have received beginning in 1990 through our two sessions in 2009 we have added the following initiatives to our 2009 agenda: One, take on the challenge of design, funding and implementation of an improvement to our town entrances ... Two, develop a marketing plan for the Town of Bremen that will promote our town as a destination for business, individuals seeking a great place to live and visitors that are looking for a town to visit. Three, assist the town of Bremen in developing a downtown redevelopment plan that will attract new investment and commerce.”
Davis invites everyone to the next Community Development Conference Nov. 19.
More information is available at 546-2044.