Biomass boiler goes online at Paris school

Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School is now being heated by its $2 million biomass boiler.

The boiler was fired up Thursday, Superintendent Rick Colpitts said. He will lead dignitaries on a private tour of the boiler area Tuesday. The public is invited to view it and other energy saving measures at the school Wednesday.

"It's going very well," Colpitts said Monday. The school building will generally only be heated by the backup oil burners in early fall and late spring when the temperature is higher because it is more efficient at those times, he said.

On Tuesday evening, representatives from Siemens Industry, Inc. of Scarborough, which was hired to implement the energy saving programs will attend the private viewing, along with representatives of the furnace manufacturer, local officials and former superintendent Mark Eastman, who spearheaded the boiler project.