W E D N E S D A Y
August 31, 2022 Vol. 43, No. 5 ONE DOLLAR @wednesdayjournalinc
@wednesdayjournal
JOURNAL @oakpark
of Oak Park and River Forest
ACT Special Section INSIDE
Will OPRF go geothermal as athletic fields are dug up? Short term costs vs. long term climate benefit discussed By BOB SKOLNIK Contributing Reporter
How green does Oak Park and River Forest High School want to be? And at what price? That’s what the OPRF District 200 Board of Education will have to decide in the coming weeks. The school board is planning to vote at its Sept. 8 meeting whether to go with a geothermal heating and cooling system with a heat pump for its Project 2 capital plan to build a new four story athletics and physical education wing at the southeast portion of the current building. Next summer OPRF is planning to tear up its current baseball and softball fields to build a new 400-meter track. If the board chooses the geothermal option, that would be the time to bore into the ground and install 133,000 feet of linear pipe underground because that is when the fields are expected to be torn up to build the new track. The district’s architects estimate that geothermal
Wall of Fame
Sara Jean Stevens gives Betty White star billing on North Boulevard train embankment STORY ON PAGE 15 SHANEL ROMAIN/Staff Photographer
See GEOTHERMAL on page 7
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