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District hears geothermal project progress and presents student internship program tied to work
Summary
Contractor Verity updated the board on the geothermal well field and introduced two student interns participating in on-site learning; the board and Verity discussed timing for well completion and how IRA tax-incentives could apply if system energizes in early 2026.
Oak Park - River Forest School District 200 heard a quarterly update on its geothermal well field and a report on a related internship program during its March 20, 2025, meeting. Verity (the project contractor) reported that well drilling had accelerated with improved weather and that well‑field installation was on track for completion of the drilling phase in April with full field completion and turnover to the district expected by July.
Two student interns from Oak Park-River Forest High School described their roles with Verity. Isabella Kessel, a student in the program, said the interns had learned about construction safety and the geothermal system’s basics and added, “PPE stands for personal protection equipment,” while outlining site-protection measures the interns observed. Intern Connor Chazowski said he hopes to learn blueprint and design processes and that Verity will arrange site visits to other renewable projects so students see a range of engineering responses in the field.
Verity staff provided technical details the board asked to record: the school’s subsurface well field design includes 240 wells (each 18 inches in diameter, spaced about 20 feet apart) with an aggregate rated capacity discussed in the presentation as roughly 6,106 tons (district representatives described that as the system’s overall potential tonnage). The contractors reported 23 wells completed at the time of the presentation, with about 45 percent of the well field installed as of the meeting. During colder weather crews averaged about 18 wells per week; improved conditions increased average daily productivity.
The project team reported removal of an abandoned pipe discovered in the field; Verity absorbed the cost to remove that obstacle, project staff told the board. The schedule presented by the project manager called for drilling and messy work to finish in April, drainage restoration and turf reinstallation in May and June, with tie‑up work into early July to meet athletic-field availability needs.
The meeting included a discussion of the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) tax incentives. Verity and the district’s advisers described a safe‑harbor precedent under which projects that achieve specific energization and placed‑in‑service milestones during a tax year can qualify for credits. Verity said the recommended path would be to aim for partial or full system energization in February 2026 and then use the district fiscal‑year window (June–July) to file for applicable credits to accelerate receipt of incentive payments. Verity noted that tax-credit payments can have multi‑month processing (estimating a four‑to‑six‑month payment timeframe after filing), and that eligibility details continue to develop at the federal level.
