Maryland’s last coal-heated public school, Fort Hill, to get natural gas conversion

For nearly 90 years as temperatures dropped, crews have worked in shifts around the clock to feed coal into and remove ashes from boilers at Fort Hill High School. As Maryland’s last public school heated by coal, new boilers at Fort Hill will mark the end of an era to make way for needed change. Jay Marley, a mechanical engineer, is supervisor of maintenance and construction at Allegany County Public Schools. Earlier this month, the Board of Education gave him approval to award a roughly $4.7 million bid to Carl Belt, Inc. of Cumberland to replace one dated natural gas and two coal boilers with state-of-the-art natural gas systems, and provide new HVAC in the school’s gymnasiums, and locker, weight and wrestling rooms.