There are no grant opportunities to help pay to get geothermal energy at Lincoln Elementary School in Ottawa. Ottawa Elementary School Board Member Mary Ganiere asked Supt. Michelle Lee to look. She said a previous meetings that the best system for Lincoln would be geothermal energy to provide heating and air conditioning . Lee says she asked several groups like the North Central Illinois Council of Governments, other superintendents, and the Illinois State Board of Education.
The district could borrow two million dollars to get heat but it would cost another ten to twelve million to get air conditioning. Lee says that how much the district is allowed to borrow anyway and doesn’t recommend the board do that.
Board Pres. Brendan Donahue says the board doesn’t seem to be making any progress. He’s been wanting to find some type of solution now that all the other schools have air conditioning.
The board is hoping to find out next month when the deadline would be to install some type of temporary air conditioning like window units by next school year. Jefferson and McKinley Elementary Schools got air conditioning installed this year through state COVID relief funds. That means Lincoln is the only school without it.