MORROW COUNTY — Federal stimulus dollars to address the COVID-19 pandemic continue to flow into Oregon and the Morrow County School District is the latest beneficiary.

On Thursday, Oct. 21, the district announced it received a $2.4 million grant from the Oregon Department of Education’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, a program backed by federal stimulus, to upgrade its heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.

According to a press release, the district studied its heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems at school facilities in Boardman, Irrigon and Heppner and found they needed upgrades, such as new heating pumps, an airflow rebalance and new controls to improve ventilation and monitoring. The district anticipates these improvements will result in lower cooling and heating costs and a more consistent indoor temperatures during the summer and winter months.

“We all become very aware of how an HVAC system is working when the weather gets cold and especially when the electric bills come in,” Morrow County Superintendent Dirk Dirksen said in a statement. “The Morrow County School District will be able to make substantial upgrades to our systems in our older buildings using federal dollars. This will create a better learning environment for our students while allowing us to spend less time and money keeping aged systems up and running.”

The district expects to complete all the HVAC projects by summer 2022 while staff will look to address other HVAC projects not solved by the grant.