Kellogg voters pass levy to heat schools by wood waste, biomass

KELLOGG, Idaho – Kellogg School District voters have approved an $8.6 million levy to heat schools using waste wood and other biomass.

Seventy-six percent of district voters approved the bond Tuesday, said David Naccarato, a Siemens Building Technologies executive who has been working with Kellogg to plan the project.

When the $9.2 million project is completed next fall, Kellogg will be the second Idaho school – the first is Council – to use wood from the surrounding forest to heat its school buildings.

Kellogg’s project will be about twice as large as Council’s, Naccarato said.

Kellogg Superintendent Greg Godwin said the North Idaho district has paid as much as $16,000 a month for the gas used in its aging heating systems.

The $9.2 million bond includes funding for a biomass system that burns wood chips, spindly trees, and fibrous organic debris to boil water for steam heating in school buildings.

Taxpayers will have to repay only $8 million of the bond amount, with the balance coming from grants, subsidies and a $3.3 million energy cost savings guaranteed by Siemens over the course of the 21-year bond.

“We have a history of passing bonds and supplemental levies at a high percentage,” Godwin said Wednesday.

“The community recognized it as a good business decision and something that would have a positive impact on kids for many, many years.”

Siemens’ goal is to have most of the project finished by the beginning of September, Naccarato said. Construction is to start in January.

There are plenty of sawmills and fire suppression agencies around Kellogg with wood chips to donate for the boiler, Naccarato added.