City of Fergus Falls Signs Letter of Intent to Buy Roosevelt Chiller System

The city of Fergus Falls has signed a letter of intent to purchase the Roosevelt Chiller System from the Fergus Falls Public Schools.

This chilling system is really designed to run an ice arena. According to City Administrator for Fergus Falls, Andrew Bremseth, the school district and the city have been trying to provide year-round ice/summer ice opportunities at the Community Ice Arena and this will help with that. He explained, “The capacity of the system that is in place, that is currently owned by the school and is supposed to chill the ice at the arena and also cool the school, it doesn’t have the capacity that it needs to do both.” Last summer, employees at the school had to switch cooling capacity back and forth in order to save the ice so people could enjoy that, while keeping the school cool so it was useable.

The city is purchasing the chilling system for $575,000. Bremseth said, “If we were going to go out and put in a chiller system today and we get a new one, we’d probably looking at closer to $1.3 or $1.4 million.” Bremseth mentioned that the city has a fund of approximately $1.2 million for the Community Arena from leftover donations when the building was built. That allows them to make purchase of chiller and still have resources for future needs. Bremseth added that this is a win-win because the school also benefits by getting the cash.

It will be the responsibility of the city and school to equally cover the costs and expenses dealing with the separation of the Roosevelt Chiller System and piping. The possible costs and expenses to enhance the system and piping will be the city’s responsibility. When the transfer is made (and after), the operational and maintenance costs will be covered by the city.

The school is looking at an entirely new chilling system.