A nearly $1 million stimulus grant will allow the Perry County School District to switch to a wood-burning heating system to save on heating costs.

The district is one of seven statewide that received the grant from the Missouri Department of Conservation. The department invited schools from 24 counties in heavily forested areas, included Perry, Bollinger, Wayne and Butler counties, to apply for the grant.

The Perry County district will receive $970,000 to replace the system at the high school, said superintendent Kevin Dunn. He said the switch is estimated to save the district $30,000 per year. It will also extend the life of some of the high school's aging equipment.

"This may save us from replacing a furnace in three to four years," he said. The current natural gas furnace will be used as backup, he said.

He said the district formed a committee to oversee the bidding and selection of an engineer firm. The firm, he said, will oversee the phases of the project.

All the projects are scheduled to be complete by June 15, 2011, he said.

The other schools receiving money are Southern Reynolds County School District, Steelville School District, Rolla Junior High School, Gainesville School District, Eminence Elementary School and Mountain View-Birch Tree Liberty High School.

The program, known as Fuels for Schools, will create about 30 jobs statewide, said John Tuttle, forest products programs supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation. Yearly savings at the other schools ranges from $22,000 to $41,000, he said.

The schools were chosen according to economic need and the feasibility of putting the system in the building, which was evaluated by an engineering firm, Tuttle said. The money, he said, will also construct a building to house the wood-burning unit, which will hook into the pipes of the current system. Pipes and HVAC improvements will be made as needed, Tuttle said.

"If they need to upgrades some because they're old, the money will pay for that," he said.

Wood-burning systems have gained popularity in western states where the U.S. Department of Agriculture partnered with the states to promote their use.

A conveyer belt feeds the wood into the furnace continually. A computer and fans control how much and how fast the wood burns, Tuttle said. The system uses smaller, unhealthy trees from forest thinning and residue from logging and sawmills.

The department targeted schools in areas where the project would benefit the local economy.

"We selected those counties because they're heavily dependent on the forest product industry," he said.

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