Wood chip boiler plan raises concerns with town

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — Plans for a new wood chip boiler at Houlton High School has generated concerns from town officials on their perceived involvement in the project.
    The town recently sent a letter to SAD 29 Superintendent Steve Fitzpatrick expressing trepidation it had with the project. Houlton Town Manager Doug Hazlett said he sent a letter to Superintendent Fitzpatrick to clarify a few points.
    “The purpose of that letter was to make the town’s role completely clear,” Hazlett said. “Whoever wrote the grant, over extended their comments and spoke for the town, when they were not authorized to do that.”
    Converting oil furnaces to wood-based burners is something several schools are exploring. Leavitt Area High School in Turner and Mt. Abram High School in Strong have already installed wood-based heating systems.
    Houlton was one of six schools and universities to receive a total of $3.2 million in federal stimulus funds earlier this year through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, which is managed by the Maine Forest Service under the Maine Department of Conservation.
    Houlton High School received a grant in the amount of $750,000 to install a wood chip boiler to heat the junior/senior high school, as well as the adjacent Southern Aroostook Vocational Education (SAVE) Technical Center. The total cost of the project is $1,374,650, of which the district will need to come up with nearly half ($624,650) of the cost. Additional grants will be sought to assist with the cost, but local money will be needed to complete the first phase of the project.
    The grant money must be spent or committed to be spent within two years or it is returned.
    Other schools that were awarded grant money were Greenville, SAD 17 (Oxford Hills), RSU 16 (Poland), and SAD 58 (Phillips Middle School) and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
    According to the state of Maine website, Maine Forest Service received $11.4 million in competitive grant ARRA funds from the USDA Forest Service, State & Private Forestry Division for the purpose of assisting public facilities with the installation of wood-to-energy systems.
    The Maine Forest Service created the Wood-to-Energy Public Building Program for the purpose of distributing those funds. The short-term goal for the program is to create and retain jobs in Maine; to achieve energy savings through wood-to-energy installations; reduce Maine’s dependence on non-renewable energy sources; reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and support sustainable forestry. By making the switch, the district believes it could eliminate the need for about 65,000 gallons of heating oil.
    In the letter, dated March 11, Hazlett detailed numerous references in the SAD 29 grant application that contained, what he felt, were misleading statements in regard to the town’s support and participation in future phases of the project.
    Hazlett said he applauded the district in going after the federal grant dollars, but felt clarification was needed.
    “Our involvement in the project was very limited,” Hazlett said. “I whole-heartedly endorse the school in doing something to lower their fuel costs and be more efficient. But we, as a town, never had any substantive numbers or analysis to go on for Phase II and III of the project.”
    According to the application submitted by the school district, Phase II of the project would involve expanding the project to provide heat for the Town Civic Center (which includes an indoor hockey rink), the Town Police and Fire Department building, the Community recreation building, a private senior citizens multi-building complex, and the Catholic Church, which are referred to as the “anchor buildings.”
    Phase III further expands the project to include any residential, commercial, civic, religious, and other town and school buildings on the south side of the Meduxnekeag river that choose to join and are referred to as the “community wide” buildings.
    “It’s a very big project and my concern is it even affordable for the town?” Hazlett said. “We wanted it to be crystal clear. We [the town of Houlton] did not want the grantor to believe the town was automatically going to go with Phase II or III.”
    “I agreed with his [Hazlett’s] assertions,” Fitzpatrick said of the letter. “Those assertions were clarifying [the town’s] commitments for Phases II and III. Those pieces were nothing more than supporting narrative describing the pre-feasibility study. There was no commitment from anybody whether to move forward [with additional phases].”
    Fitzpatrick said the inclusion of other entities outside of SAD 29 were added to the project as possible ways more individuals could experience cost savings, but after researching the subject, those phases may not be feasible.
    “There are just huge amounts of obstacles when you start crossing streets and properties,” Fitzpatrick said. “You have to increase the size and boiler capacities. We identified those challenges and the advice was to focus on the smaller [Phase I] project.”