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Orrington Acting to Conserve Energy at School

Posted on: Friday, 4 November 2005, 21:00 CST

By Nok-Noi Hauger, Bangor Daily News, Maine

Nov. 4--ORRINGTON -- They're turning off the lights and curtailing extra bus trips at Center Drive School and considering turning on the heat later -- all in an effort to conserve energy.

"We're looking at going on a night setting earlier, reducing our night [heat] setting back 5 degrees and having it come on later in the morning," Superintendent Allan Snell said Thursday. "For electricity, we're making sure lights are turned off and we're keeping a record of consumption of hours."

With the high price of gasoline and heating oil this season, school officials have been stressing energy conservation since before school started, Snell said.

"From July through October, we've actually averaged about 4,500 kilowatt hours per month less use," he said.

The Orrington School Committee discussed ways to conserve energy during its regular meeting on Tuesday. Part of the conversation included reducing the building heat from 68 degrees to 65 degrees Fahrenheit, a plan Snell suggested, but after discussing the idea, the board decided it wanted more information before making a decision.

"We're considering that, but I want to talk with the people who installed our heating system" to ensure a cost savings before moving ahead, Snell said.

Orrington has a bus contract that covers labor and the buses and pays a reduced rate at the pump for gasoline.

"The school department buys the gasoline," Snell said. "The reason for that is we can buy it cheaper than the [bus] contractor can buy it because we don't pay federal or state tax."

And the school department receives a "reduction off the pump price from our supplier," the superintendent said.

During the meeting, the school committee also decided to post school grounds in the spring with signs that require dog owners to have their pets on leashes and that make "the dog owner responsible for cleanup," Snell said.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Bangor Daily News, Maine

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Source: Bangor Daily News (Bangor, Maine)

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