Fair / 54° F
Schools: ‘Where excellence is expected’
Published 7:40am Wednesday, October 20, 2010Ice arena
During my recent operating levy referendum presentations, I have received a number of questions regarding the School District’s use of the proposed ice arena.
The usage of the ice arena would be very similar to the current way we are doing business, whereby we lease the ice arena according to the district’s use of the facility. There would be three agreements with the City of Fergus Falls.
The first agreement would be a Ground Lease between the District and the Port Authority to allow the construction of the ice arena on School District property. The School District would retain ownership of the land and building.
The second agreement would be an Operating Lease, which is the current way we are doing business with the City, whereby we lease the ice arena according to the district’s use of the facility.
The final agreement would be a License Agreement between the School District and the City for use of the School District’s chiller to create ice.
I also received questions about the size and cost of the chiller. The cooling needs of the Kennedy Secondary School dictated the size of the chiller system.
The Kennedy Secondary School will consume about 250 tons of cooling capacity whereas a typical ice arena consumes about 80 tons to maintain two sheets of ice. Simply stated, the Kennedy Secondary School’s cooling need is three times larger than the ice arena.
When winter arrives and the cooling demands at the Kennedy Secondary School are low, plenty of capacity is available to create ice for the proposed arena.
The selection of an industrial chiller system to provide cooling at the Kennedy Secondary School was based on two key assumptions: lower operational cost and long life span of the system.
Low operational cost is vital in avoiding educational dollars being used towards purchasing energy. Long life is vital because it is very costly to replace major mechanical systems.
A thermal ice storage system using an industrial chiller was selected. During off-peak times the chiller creates ice in storage tanks by sending cold fluid through a series of pipes located inside the tank to freeze water.
During the day, fluid is pumped through the pipes in the tank chilling the fluid, which is pumped to the Kennedy building to chill the air entering the building. The now warmed fluid is returned to the storage tank whereby the ice gradually thaws. The water in the tank is again made into ice during the evening using lower off-peak electrical rates to achieve significant energy savings. And because electrical energy is purchased using education dollars, the less energy consumed results in more funds available for education.
A thermal ice storage system was a better selection for the school district than a commercial air conditioning system. A commercial air conditioning system is rated for a 20-year service life with periodic maintenance compared to the industrial chiller’s 50 years.
A similar-sized commercial air conditioning system would cost $600,000 or $30,000 per year cost over the 20-year life span. This compares to the industrial chiller’s $750,000 cost or $15,000 per year cost over the 50-year life span. The $150,000 lower cost of a commercial air conditioning system is outweighed by the 30-year longer life span of the industrial chiller and the industrial chiller costs less to operate.
Building dedication
A special thanks is extended to all who participated in the Kennedy Secondary School Dedication Ceremony last Sunday. The building was dedicated to the community on Sunday, Oct. 17.
Our Chamber Singers sang the National Anthem followed by the guest speakers. Student Council Chairperson Jordan Rasmusson, Principal Dean Monke, School Board Chair Melanie Cole, Mayor Hal LeLand, Lisa Workman, Chamber of Commerce, State Senator Dan Skogen, State Representative Bud Nornes, representatives from ATS&R Architects and RA Morton all spoke about the building project.
A ribbon cutting ceremony and tours of the facility concluded the ceremony.
Jerry Ness is the superintendent of District 544 schools.
