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Geothermal Case Moves to Litigation

The geothermal saga continues. After failed mediation on October 16, 2024, the Board of Selectmen discussed the issue during a special meeting on November 6, 2024, in which they went into executive session. At the regular meeting that followed, First Selectman Bill Morrison said that the Town of Stafford was unable to reach an agreement with the designer and builder of the geothermal system, Trison Construction. 


Trison has now brought suit against Stafford in Superior Court (you can see the case documents here), and the matter has been turned over to the town’s counsel. Here’s the short version according to the court documents: In 2015, Trison Construction designed and installed a geothermal heating system that was supposed to heat Stafford schools and immediately ran into issues on the site. By December 2015, the town could not maintain the proper hot water temperatures to heat the buildings. Trison says it performed work outside its original scope to address the alarms and compressor failures and is seeking payment for the outstanding balance of the original contract, $101,778.53, and $157,222.00 for change orders. They seek additional interest on these amounts.


The geothermal system, however, does not work correctly and has not delivered the savings and service. According to a statement from the town attorney earlier this year, Stafford claimed the system was failing and still needed to use its boiler system to heat the buildings. Then, in 2019, Stafford retained van Zelm Heywood & Shadford to perform a preliminary project review. That process determined that “the ground source heat pump (‘GSHP’) systems as designed and installed were poorly integrated with the existing building HVAC systems and have inadequate capacity.”


Morrison, who is unable to speak freely on the pending litigation, told the Stafford Free Press, that not much was happening with the case before he came into office: “I wanted to get it moving again, and that’s where it’s at.” There is more waiting to come. No court dates have been scheduled.

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