FM additions taking shape, on schedule

The Fremont-Mills Community School District’s early childhood development and auditorium addition is on schedule for a January 2018 completion, according to Superintendent Dr. Chris Herrick.

Work on the project broke ground last November with a $5.6 million budget. Since that original bid letting, the cost of the project has actually risen to $6 million with the addition of a safe room and a classroom and a 200-stall paved parking lot on the former softball field parcel.

Herrick said last week footings have been poured for both the auditorium addition on the southwest corner of the existing building and the early childhood development center on the southeast side of the building. Concrete block work has also already begun on the childhood center.

“It’s all going very good right now,” Herrick said. “I think we got behind early with the bidding process and we’re probably a month off schedule overall but I’m hearing we’ll catch up quickly and there’s a real possibility we could be in (the additions) around the end of the first semester.”

Fremont-Mills’ first semester in the 2017-2018 school year will  wrap up Jan. 12, 2018.

The early childhood development center will allow the K-12 school’s cramped elementary school to expand and meet the community’s growing pre-school needs. The auditorium will seat 350 for performances and large group learning. Site work on the campus has already been completed in progress for an additional playground area, a circle drive connecting the Lied Gymnasium to a new paved parking lot and newly re-graded and positioned softball and baseball fields on the school’s east side.

Rogge Construction out of Lincoln, Neb., is the project’s general contractor.

“They’re really after it,” Herrick said. “They’ve got crews there all the time. Once we had the dirt work done, they’ve been able to accelerate. We’ve had a really good winter so far.”

Herrick said the addition of the safe room – which will serve as disaster shelter for the pre-school – and the additional classroom in the early childhood development center and the 200-stall parking lot make up the bulk of the additional costs for the now $6 million project.

Last September, district voters overwhelmingly passed a $3.6 million bond issue to cover the bulk of the construction costs. The remaining $2.4 million in costs will be financed through the district’s Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) dollars it receives through a one-cent state sales tax and approximately $500,000 the district has earmarked for the project.