The Haines Senior Center lost a low-cost heat source when the Haines Borough replaced a large woodstove in the building in late summer with a pellet heater. The center had operated the woodstove with donated firewood.
“They used it all winter every year,” said senior Susan Tandy, who has gone for lunches at the center since 2011. “It was nice. It kept the building toasty warm.”
The soapstone-clad woodstove was a secondary source of heat, used to supplement a pellet-burning boiler that was put in the building about three years ago. The Haines Borough is still studying whether the switch to pellets at the center saved money overall.
Tandy said she assumed the woodstove helped reduce the cost of heating the building. “I’m sure it kept the price of oil (or pellets) down. You can turn the heat off when you’ve got the woodstove on.”
Anne Hanssen, who managed the center until late summer, said she never wrote a check for firewood during her 10 years on the job.
Borough facilities director Brad Ryan said his understanding was that the woodstove was old and becoming unsafe and that the change may have been made to put in a heater that was easier for seniors to operate.
Senior meal program cook Jasmine Taylor said the new stove heats up faster than the woodstove and is easy for employees to operate.
But Tandy said several of the men who attended lunches enjoyed tending the woodstove.
Ryan was unable to say why the stove was replaced with a pellet-burning stove instead of a wood-burning one, given that firewood was donated for decades.
Manager David Sosa said he also did not have information about the decision to replace the wood-burner with a pellet-burning heater.