A recent public input session about the proposed revitalization project in downtown Bremen drew about 70 people to the Bremen Town Hall to be in on the planning process.
Bremen Director of Operations Trend Weldy said the plans need to be done soon to work with the state’s fiscal year funding for 2020. INDOT awarded the town $1.2 million to fund the road project that is anticipated to be completed in 2020. That portion of the project on Plymouth Street will include the road reconstruction and new curbs. Weldy said the rest of the downtown area on Plymouth Street will be restructured with new sidewalks, traffic lights, and light poles and lighting in a three-block stretch.
“We’re only going to do a two-foot extension of the sidewalks, eight-foot parallel parking lanes, and a five-foot bicycle lane which will only be marked out by lines,” explained Weldy. “It’s pretty similar to what we have downtown right now. We bumped out the sidewalks two more feet so if the restaurants downtown wanted to put a couple of tables out we gave them seven feet of room. We have to have five feet of room for pedestrians and we have to have two feet for car doors to open up. So, we have a total of 14 feet.”
The Town of Bremen hopes to obtain a $500,000 grant from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs to complete half of the funding of the town’s portion of the project. The town will come up with another $500,000. The street project will be paid for by the Indiana Department of Transportation.
More design meetings to confirm plans are yet to be scheduled.
