By Holly Heller Staff Writer
BREMEN — Spring weather is about to heat up the Bremen Public Schools renovation project, which has gotten off to a sluggish start due to freezing temperatures in its first two weeks.
“Not a lot has happened yet,” said Superintendent Russ Mikel.
Building and Grounds Director Jeff Unsicker updated the Bremen School Board on the $15.5 million project.
“This week, the weather’s gonna break and a lot of things are going to start happening,” he said.
Site preparation for the expansion of the K-8 building in the playground area has already taken place, with some playground equipment removed Thursday. Part of the playground will soon be home to the expanded west wing of the building, where the first floor will gain an additional four classrooms on the south side. Second grade will utilize the new rooms in the fall.
“The mechanical and electrical foremen have been on the job site, getting familiar with the building, laying out a plan,” Unsicker said.
Also in the K-8 building, a basement area has been prepared to be transformed into a new boiler room. The school corporation currently has one boiler room that is utilized by both buildings. The renovation includes separate boilers for the high school and K-8 buildings.

Next on the punch list is technology infrastructure in the K-8 building, as well as the creation of an underground water retention system that will be installed in the field on the facility’s north east side.
“It will catch the majority of the rainwater, like a container system,” Unsicker explained. “Once its installed, you won’t even know it’s there.”
He noted that the system will send overflow into the city storm drains, but that the vast majority of water collected on site will leech into the ground below.
“I would like to have some sort of report card, or score card on project management,” said Jack Jordan, school board member. “I want to make sure they’re doing what we expect from them.”
Jordan suggested a green light, yellow light, red light system on a variety of checkpoints, such as “How are they doing about not disrupting classes?” and “Are they using quality materials?”
Jordan said, “Our mentality needs to be, when you’re dealing with Bremen Public Schools, they’re tight, they’re rigorous … they need to think three times before they’d ever use sub-par materials or mess up one of our hallways …”
Unsicker agreed to develop a score card at Jordan’s suggestion.
Todd Stuckman, board member, was concerned about the way materials were stacked in an elementary hallway.
“It’s going to become a safety issue,” he said. “We need to comment to them early and often about safety.”
Unsicker agreed.
“They are more than willing to accommodate anything I ask,” he noted.
Mikel said regular monthly progress reports on the construction will be given during board meetings. He is also looking into adding a link on the school Web site that would provide updates and photos to the community.