Selectmen Keep 'Dual Fuel' at Schools

The town's public schools will keep their "dual fuel" capability under a vote by the Board of Selectmen last week.

First Selectman Sherri Steeneck and Selectman James Walsh both favored installing another oil tank at Holland Hill School to replace a 33-year-old underground oil tank that has to be dug up and removed under state order.

But the days of 10,000-gallon oil tanks buried on school properties appear to be over.

Walsh's and Steeneck's first preference was for a 330-gallon tank that could fit inside Holland Hill School. If that wasn't possible, they favored a 275-gallon tank inside the school. And if that wasn't possible, they wanted a 330-gallon tank to be outside the school, but above ground.

The last two oil tanks installed at schools were buried by Burr Elementary School and McKinley School and each was 10,000 gallons, according to town officials. An oil tank scheduled to be delivered to Fairfield Woods Middle School, which is undergoing a $24.2 million expansion and renovation, also is 10,000 gallons, though Walsh asked William Sapone, chairman of the Fairfield Woods Building Committee, to try to stop delivery of a tank that large.

"I'll go back and check on that and see if we could change that," Sapone said.

Walsh's and Steeneck's decision to keep oil tanks at schools as an alternative heating source if gas lines break affects more than just Holland Hill School.

Dave Fryer, the school district's maintenance director, said 10 more schools have underground oil tanks that are due to be removed. "The following 10 are all about the same age, so they're going to be coming up quickly," he said.

The cost to remove Holland Hill's underground oil tank and replace it with a much smaller oil tank is $100,000.

But most of the expense associated with removing and replacing oil tanks lies in their removal and ensuring that oil hasn't seeped out of the tanks and contaminated the ground, according to Cullen.

Documents from the school district estimate the cost of removing 10 more oil tanks at $1 million.

Walsh asked Fryer to investigate whether the town could save money by doing all 10 at once, instead of spacing them out to avoid a large hit to the town budget in a single year.

Sal Morabito, the school district's director of construction, safety and security, said he believed the district planned to space the removals out over three years.

The Representative Town Meeting last month had approved $100,000 to replace Holland Hill's oil tank after Supt. of Schools David G. Title said he'd leave it up to the selectmen to decide whether the oil tank should be replaced, and, if so, how large it should be and where it should be located.