Committee explores ideas for Fremont High School building

Fremont's 82-year-old high school building could have a nice future, perhaps as a housing and conference center.

That is one of the ideas being explored by a group of interested citizens who are studying several local properties for a proposed new high school. They are also asking what is the best use for the existing high school.

"We feel, as a community, that we have a mutual interest to plan for a new purpose for the existing high school in the event that a new high school is built in a new location," said David Byrne, a local attorney and chair of the Finding the Future in Fremont Committee.

"It is our intent that when Fremont residents approve a new high school, we will work to keep the existing high school as a cornerstone of our community, a gateway to Fremont," Byrne said.

He said that, while the current high school has served Fremont's children well over the years, "we've reached that time where we've clearly outgrown it."

The building itself could be resurrected for other purposes, Byrne said.

"We feel there is still value, for a different purpose," he said. "It has the possibility to help revitalize our downtown."

Byrne said that his committee is committed to exploring possibilities that include housing, a conference center, a recreation facility, artist lofts, incubator businesses, and other uses that could be developed.

The committee has met with a potential developer, Tim Hunnicutt of Hovey LLC of DeWitt, who has presented the committee with several options for the building.

"Mr. Hunnicutt has developed these same types of projects in Michigan and elsewhere in the Midwest, taking old buildings and developing them into housing and other revitalization projects," Byrne said.

Hunnicutt's review and recommendations for the high school building are based on an earlier study commissioned by the Fremont City Council that examined steps the city could take to help the community thrive, Byrne noted.

"Although we understand that none of this can happen until a bond passes and a new high school is built for students," he said, "we are committed to working together in the planning for the eventual repurposing of this gateway structure to our city."

The Finding the Future in Fremont committee is presently seeking the community's input into the four locations that committee members are studying for a new high school: west of the high school gym, north of the Newaygo County Career Tech center, near the middle school, and on the county fairgrounds property south of the athletic complex.

Local people are invited to participate in the survey online at the school district's website at www.fremont.net.

The committee is scheduled to make its final recommendation to the Board of Education in December, Byrne said.