BETHEL – The SAD 44 board has signed a lease-purchase agreement with Gorham Savings Leasing Group so the Telstar Middle/High School complex will have new boilers before the onset of cold weather.

School Superintendent David Murphy said the cost is $238,960. The new boilers will replace the original boilers in the school, which were installed when it was built in 1968.

“It would be too costly to continue to repair the old boilers because any repairs on them now would be only a temporary fix anyway and would become a continuing process. It is better to go with new rather than continue to try and repair the old,” Murphy said.

Beginning next year, the annual payment will be $54,358 and interest rate will be 4.53 percent, he said.

“The funding will come from the district’s capital improvement account,” he said, “and will not require any additional money.”

Two years ago, the present units broke down and caused the school to close. That resulted in makeup days being scheduled at the end of the year.