The Gloucester School Board voted last week to spend about $258,000 to purchase a new chiller unit for Gloucester High School. The decision came during the board’s July 14 electronic meeting.

School division director of operations Bryan Hartley said the broken chiller “runs a significant portion” of GHS. He said the present unit has a life expectancy of about 15 years and was installed in 1997.

Hartley said a company had estimated a repair cost of $35,000 with no guarantees that the system would not go down again due to other issues. He said if the system went down in warm weather, it would take a week to fix it again and the school most likely would have to close.

Hartley said he had been able to locate a new three-phase chiller that the division could purchase for $258,000. He said the chiller would usually cost over $300,000 but due to a pandemic-related cancellation the company was offering it at a reduced cost.

Hartley did caution that the unit might not line up with ...