FAYETTE — Selectmen will hold a public hearing Monday to discuss the proposed purchase and installation of a wood pellet boiler at Fayette Central School.

There will also be talk about more hours for the code enforcement officer and what to do about some roads for which no legal evidence can be found that the town accepted them.

The hearing is at 7 p.m. Sept. 19 at Starling Hall on Route 17.

The issues are expected to go before voters at a special town meeting at 7 p.m., Monday, Oct. 17, at Starling Hall.

At the June town meeting voters approved borrowing up to $225,000 through a school construction bond to install a commercial wood pellet boiler intended to heat the elementary school, Town Manager Mark Robinson said Thursday. The cost is to cover the total project. Bids would be solicited, he said.

There was some debate about the alternate heating method at the town meeting, Robinson said, and he just wants to make sure people understand how long the payback is.

If people are still OK with the plan, they will move ahead, Robinson said. The bond would be for up to 18 years at practically zero percent interest, he said.

If the town borrowed the maximum, Robinson said, it would cost about $12,500 a year to pay back.

The school burns 9,000 gallons of fuel per year at a price of $3.50 a gallon in a boiler that is 83 percent efficient, Robinson said.

The school uses about a billion BTUs yearly at a cost of $31,500 to taxpayers.

“To replace 95 percent of those BTUs with wood pellets at 83 percent efficiency would take 72.3 tons of pellets at $189 per ton at a total cost of $13,014 and 450 gallons of fuel at $3.50 for $1,575,” he said. “Total fuel cost estimated after installing pellet system would be $14,589.”

The yearly fuel savings assuming today’s fuel prices for Fayette is $16,911, he said.

“A boiler project for Fayette with a budget of $200,000 would be expected to save Fayette $222,775 over the 25-year life of equipment,” Robinson said.

“You do this not because it’s going to be a huge savings immediately. You do this to free dependence on foreign oil,” he said.

The school has two oil-fueled boilers, and they will be kept as an alternate heating source and will add years to existing boilers.

The Planning Board is also requesting $12,000 more for the code enforcement officer, Robinson said. The money would come from undesignated surplus

The Discontinued Road Committee has come up with 17 roads for which the town cannot find any paperwork that the town went through the proper process that gave it the legal authority to maintain them, he said.

Some of these roads have been maintained for 30 or so years, he said.

Townspeople will have to decide which direction they want to take.

The roads that are currently maintained by the town with no apparent historical evidence of layout or original record of town owners are:

* Bamford Pond Road from Richmond Mills Road to Jarius residence

* Lovejoy Shores Road

* Oak Hill from former Taliaferro House to the intersection of Norton Road

* Baldwin Hill Cut Road

* Jackman Mill from Route 17 to intersection of North Road

* Richmond Mill Road near intersection of Paddleford Road West to intersection of South Road

* Watson Heights with exception of intersection of Tilton Pond Road to intersection of Jackman Mill and East roads

* Phillip Davis Road, also known as Bufferfactory Road and Batchelder Road

* Gile Road

* Jed Davis Road

* Knox Hill Road

* Limberlost Road

* Morris Springer Road

* Norton Road

* Russell Road

* Tom Surrey Road

* Palmer Road

dperry@sunjournal.com

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