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Committee questions geothermal payback and long-term maintenance unknowns
Summary
Members raised concerns about geothermal’s payback for a building of this size and about long-term maintenance and repair costs; proponents said geothermal reduces operating costs, but the committee left the item unresolved pending further analysis.
Committee members debated whether to remove geothermal heating/cooling to cut upfront cost. One member summarized research and said geothermal payback typically requires larger facilities and that repair/maintenance unknowns make payback uncertain for this project’s scale. "There's really no—not that it's impossible, but I would certainly not support...it wouldn't be wise financially either in the short term or long term for us to build a new fire station and then keep the existing fire station simply as storage," staff cautioned when discussing operations tied to facility choices.
Other members defended geothermal’s operating-cost reductions and longevity benefits but acknowledged the committee lacked a detailed lifecycle and maintenance analysis. The group agreed to flag geothermal as a contested item for H2M and the Select Board to consider as part of a broader operational-cost review.
