Federal, State Officials to Join Biomass Boiler Ribbon-cuttings at Gardiner, Waterville High School
Posted by | Posted on Mar 13, 2012March 13, 2012
Conservation
Tom Wood, (207) 287-3920
Jeanne Curran, (207) 287-3156
AUGUSTA, Maine – Federal and Maine state officials will join local city and school officials this week to celebrate the completion of two energy projects designed to save Maine taxpayer money and create jobs.
Officials with the Maine congressional delegation, U.S. Forest Service, Maine Department of Conservation (MDOC), Maine Forest Service (MFS), under MDOC, and Maine Office of Energy Independence and Security (OEIS) will take part in two ribbon-cuttings on Wednesday to mark the completion of the installation of biomass pellet boilers at the city of Gardiner and Waterville High School.
The two projects, funded both locally and with federal monies from the Maine Forest Service’s “Wood-to-Energy Public Building Program,” are expected to save the two communities more than $105,000 a year in heating oil costs and create more than 23 jobs in Maine. The projects, which will use Maine manufactured pellets, also support the state’s $4.3 billion forest-products industry.
“We are very pleased that both the city of Gardiner, which is the first Maine municipality to install a modular wood pellet boiler system, and Waterville High School had the foresight to make such significant infrastructure investments,” MDOC Commissioner Bill Beardsley said. “Local officials not only are supporting their own residents and taxpayers, but they also are making an important contribution to Maine’s forest-product industry and our energy independence.”
