Despite harsh weather, Gary Reed, the director of facilities planning and management, informed the Council of University Planning and Budget the Renewable Energy Center is “generally still on schedule” at Friday’s meeting.

The Renewable Energy Center, one of the biggest components of the Campus Master Plan, is now fully enclosed, Reed said. He added that construction on the gas boilers could also begin as early as March with the work on the biomass units beginning in May.

The next step for the Renewable Energy Center will be to purchase woodchip biomass boiler fuel at a cost of $42.08 per ton, which the Board of Trustees approved at its last meeting.

“We’d love to have someone closer, but when we collected bid and evaluated and scored, the low-cost bidder and best quality turned out to be this provider,” said William Weber, the vice president for business affairs.

However, the CUPB board members raised a concern over the fuel not coming from a local source.

Foster Brothers Wood Products from Auxvasse, Missouri will be supplying the wood products for the center.

The contract with Foster Brothers will run from Feb. 1, 2011 through June 30, 2015 at an estimated cost of approximately $5 million.

The ultimate goal is to be “100 percent fired up by early June, which is really close to the originally conceived time frame,” Reed said.

He added the university will “take a year for shakedown” before abandoning use of the current steam plant. By the summer of 2012, facilities, planning and management will unleash the demo project for the plant.

Earlier this month, workers completed the underground tunnel for the plant, although there is still some earthwork to be done, Reed said. However, this completion of the project meant there were no more road closures on Ninth Street.

“It was very much appreciated from the cooperation from campus,” Reed said. “We know it was difficult- the inconveniences were obvious.”

Facilities, planning and management is also continuing work on the honors college conceptual design. In addition, working with athletics on replacing the track and football field turf is also a priority.

Other future maintenance required will be to upgrade the electrical system in McAfee Gym

“The electrical system is maxed out due to old wiring,” Reed said. “We should be bidding this spring and getting something going later this summer.”

Shelley Holmgren can be reached at 581-2812 or meholmgren@eiu.edu.