Wood chips still to be decided

By NATHAN LAMB | Milton Independent Staff Writer
mireporter@mac.com

The wisdom of converting the Milton Schools to wood chip heat was an ongoing debate for much of 2007.

School officials are eyeing the $2.4 million project to reduce fuel costs and the district’s reliance on fossil fuels. However, uncertainty on major financial details of the endeavor has the issue unresolved heading into 2008, said School Board Chairman Doug Stout.

“At the end of the day, it is largely about whether the financials make sense,” he said. “I don’t see us going too much further without addressing that question.”

Even so, Stout said a majority of the board remains interested in the project and a subcommittee was formed to flesh-out the district’s options in December.

Central to the issue is the timeframe for state reimbursement on the project. The state has committed to covering 90 percent of most costs from the conversion, but those funds are contingent on appropriation—and there’s no clear picture on when that will happen. Most estimates put reimbursement between two to five years.

With the town expected to carry approximately $113,000 of interest charges annually until reimbursement, the financing costs could constitute a substantial percentage of the final tab for the town, acknowledged Stout.

Cost increases have also been an issue. School officials initially assumed the 90 percent reimbursement rate for the entire project, but have since learned that’s not the case. As a result, the projected local contribution for the conversion has risen from $240,000 to $540,000. That, in turn, raises the question of where the district would secure the difference, should they decide to move forward, said Stout.

The project has also come under fire from neighbors of the elementary school, who are leery of the burning plant and its 65-foot smokestack becoming part of the skyline. A petition against the project was circulated in August and reportedly gathered a couple of hundred signatures.

The issue was raised by neighbors during permitting, and the Development Review Board stipulated that there would be screening between the burning plant and its neighbors. Since then, discussions of the wood chip issue have centered firmly on the financial aspects.

Set against all of those concerns is the possible financial benefit to the district, said Stout. The conversion is projected to save $80,000 in the first year, and up to $250,000 by year twenty; due mostly to the cost of gas and oil rising faster than that of wood. Money not spent on fuel could be put toward the district’s educational mission, and the district has an obligation to manage its fuel costs, added Stout.

In seeking to reconcile those concerns, Stout said three primary options have emerged. The first is to defer action until there’s a clearer picture on what the state will do for reimbursement. The second is to move forward with the conversion only at the high school, which would be within the $240,000 allocated for converting both schools last November. The third is to somehow secure the entire $540,000 and convert both schools this year.

The board wants greater clarity on the financial details and hasn’t decided which option is best, said Stout. There is some support, though, for the halfway measure as a means to keep things moving forward, he added.

However, there could be further complications with the middle course, cautioned school business manager Don Johnson. The price of converting one of the two schools wouldn’t simply be half of $540,000, because there were certain efficiencies with doing both projects at the same time, he said. Also, the original bids totaling $540,000 have expired, and the project would need to be re-bid if it moves forward this spring, he said.

Further, legal and ethical questions have been raised about the board using money voted to convert both schools on just the high school, but Johnson’s understanding was those funds are being kept separate, and that the projects can move forward without another vote, so long as the $1.4 million budget for each conversion isn’t exceeded and the district budget can handle the financing charges.

Overall, Johnson said those are issues the School Board will need to deal with if it decides to move forward.

In any event, permits for the project require that construction take place over the summer, which means the School Board will need to make some sort of a decision this winter—one way or another.

“The February, March timeframe is definitely when we’d need to make some decisions, if we’re going to move forward this summer,” he said.