Commentary
Maximum Efficiency, Minimize Cost

To the CCS School Board,

I am sorry to be unable to attend tonight’s meeting, but I have to attend a Selectboard meeting scheduled for the same time.
After reading the article in The Charlotte News on 9/17/09, I noticed what I believe was a huge misstatement regarding the use of heating oil for the school building. Because my company, Patterson Fuels, has been the sole supplier of that product for your use, I decided to do some pretty simple research.
After a discussion with Martha Edwards in the CCS office, I asked for and received a printout of all the gallons and amounts for heating oil which was delivered to the school building. Following are the figures from the past five years.:
2004-05     21,265.5 gallons         $35,273.39
2005-06     15,801.7                     $24,648.96
2006-07     24,801.7                     $46,770.28
2007-08     23,312.0                     $71,236.27
2008-09     22,423.1                     $37,502.54
Total:        107,208.0                   $215,431.44

5 year avg:    21,441.6 Gallons            $43,086.29
Avg. cost
I believe that these figures more accurately portray the use and cost of heating oil for the school building and should be used in your article. I also believe you should give the age of the heating boiler that is in use and its percent of efficiency. If the unit is 20-30 years old and getting very low efficiency ratings, you should be getting a cost estimate to replace it and find out what kind of efficiency it would have and how much it would lower your heating cost.
Again, I am sorry for not being able to talk to the board face to face, but I hope that you will consider my opinion and do what you can to improve the efficiency of the building while keeping the taxpayer cost to a minimum.

Moe Harvey