President Jo Ann Gora will ask the Indiana state legislature for money to renovate or to replace Ball State University's heating plant because the more than 60-year-old plant needs an update.
Most heating plants like Ball State's only last 40 to 50 years, Gora said at Thursday's University Senate meeting.
Gora will ask the state for almost $100 million, $48 million of which will go to capital projects like the heating plant.
"I'm not hopeful we're going to get all of the money we ask for, but I hope for at least some funding from the state," Gora said.
The plant has several boilers, and the proposal will go before the General Assembly proposes the replacement of two of the coal-burning boilers, Kevin Kenyon, associate vice president of facilities planning and management, said.
"The plant meets our current permit requirements, but it needs to be replaced," Kenyon said. "It's inefficient and it's not clean."
Heat plant upgrades have been in the plans for years, but its gotten to the point where replacing the boilers is necessary, Kenyon said.
This is the first time Ball State has asked for state money to replace boilers in the plant, but it may not be the last.
The state is not endowed with very much money right now, and Indiana and Purdue universities are also looking to replace boilers in their plants, James Lowe, director of engineering and facilities assessment, said.
"The question is, how much money is the state going to have to give to Ball State?" Lowe said. "We're just at the point right now, because of emissions issues and capacity issues, that the time is right to ask for the money."
The heat plant is long overdue for an update, James Eflin, associate professor of natural resources and environmental management, said.
"Ball State has been a major contributor to poor air quality in this area," Eflin said, " but the millions of dollars it's going to take to update it is a high price tag."
Researching the heat plant and making the information public was a platform of Ben Tietz's Student Government Association platform.
SGA Vice President Michael Piercefield said he began working with Lowe to determine the state of the boilers after a student asked the Tietz slate to look into it in Spring 2004.
"The plant burns less than a third of what its allowed to burn," Piercefield said. "They do a lot more to keep it clean than they have to."
State legislators will ultimately decide whether or not taxpayers should sacrifice money for better air quality. Rep. Tiny Adams, D-Muncie, could not be reached for comment.
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