Staff member: New multi-stage chiller, paid for by 6-cent sales tax, improved ice facility efficiency

A staff member said the city’s new multi-stage chiller, funded by a voter-approved 6-cent sales tax, has been more efficient and has sped cooling at the municipal ice facility. "This is a multi-stage chiller," the staff member said, adding that the unit was "barely running right now on one stage" and will engage more stages "as it calls for demand."

The staff member said the chiller replacement was paid for by "that 6-cent sales tax" after the old system became obsolete and parts were no longer available. "Our old chiller system was obsolete. We couldn't get parts for it anymore. It was failing," the staff member said, noting the sales-tax measure was "voted in" by voters; the transcript does not provide vote tallies or the date the measure passed.

In a walkthrough of the mechanical room, the staff member described the control center and several key components. They said the facility uses an in-floor heat system under the ice to prevent the ground from freezing and causing a runaway temperature drop: "When you have a subfloor heat, it prevents that and keeps the cold up above the freeze the ice."

The staff member also detailed how two large pumps move chilled glycol from the chiller to the floor and back in a closed loop: glycol is super-chilled, pumped to the floor where it helps freeze concrete to produce the ice surface, then returns to the chiller to be re-cooled. "It essentially boils down to moving energy," the staff member said, summarizing that the system removes energy to make cold and adds energy to warm surfaces as needed.

A questioner asked about financing and received the sales-tax response. The staff member characterized the voter approval as broad community support that enabled the upgrade and continued provision of amenities. The transcript does not identify the speaker by name or title beyond the functional label used here, and it does not specify the exact ballot language, date, or vote tally for the 6-cent sales tax measure.

Next steps or planned follow-up (scheduling, maintenance contracts, warranty terms, or capital budget entries) were not described in the transcript.