(Tabor) -- Completion of the Fremont-Mills School District's expansion and renovation project is still targeted for early next year.
Accompanied by a Facilities Cost Management representative, members of the Fremont-Mills School Board toured the project during their regular monthly meeting Wednesday evening. Fremont-Mills School Superintendent Dr. Chris Herrick tells KMA News the project continues to take shape.
"We went and viewed the preschool addition, the early childhood addition," said Herrick. "We viewed the storm shelter room--that room is coming together. Then, we also, of course, viewed the construction work in the auditorium. In the early childhood addition, the roof is on. They're laying the outer brick right now on the shell of the building. Window frames are there. It's starting to take shape, and the board enjoyed the tour."
At its current pace, Herrick says contractors expect construction to be completed by late winter-early spring of 2018.
"Obviously, that's contingent on the weather, and those kinds of things," he said. "But, I think right now, the rush is to get the building sealed up in terms of getting the roof on, the windows in, and the getting the walls put up so that they can work inside in the fall and winter."
Herrick says overall, the board is pleased with the construction progress.
"Like everybody else, they're anxious to see it continue to move along smoothly," said Herrick. "We also put the final piece of the financing in, directing the sale of the sales tax bonds. I think, overall, we're in a good place, and the board feels that, when it's all said and done, we're going to have a wonderful facility there at Fremont-Mills for our kids."
The superintendent, however, warns inconveniences await students and staff upon returning to school in two weeks. He says parking will be an issue.
"It's one of those things--we're still going to have to deal with parking issues," he said. "We're hopeful that the new parking lot will alleviate some of that. That construction is going to begin at the beginning of next week, and we're hoping we won't too along into the fall before that new parking lot is actually poured. We're hoping by basketball season to have that new parking lot completed."
Voters in 2015 approved a $3.6 million bond issue for the project's construction. Another $800,000 was made available in local option sales and physical plant and equipment levy revenues.
