Eldred Township supervisors weighed several upcoming large expenses Wednesday night - new furnace, roof and playground equipment.

Gary Hoffman, the chairman of the supervisors, said the furnace in the municipal building is more than 30 years old and needs to be replaced. They can’t get parts for it any more.

Supervisor Blaine Silfies asked about the plans to do repairs to the roof. A new roof that spans both the municipal side of the building and the post office side. He said maybe they should combine the projects together.

Borough secretary Ann Velopolcek asked if he is thinking the borough may want to pursue an LSA grant for the combined projects, because that wouldn’t be available until next year.

Hoffman said, “The furnace may not last until next year. That’s the problem, wintertime.”

“It has been acting up a lot,” Velopolcek said.

Hoffman said the borough saved money a couple years ago to replace the roof, but it’s not enough to cover both projects completely.

“To do this furnace and the roof, we would forego doing the roof over the garage,” Hoffman said.

Resident Robert Boileau asked if the water in the municipal building is heated by the furnace, because there could be a cost savings by switching to an electric water heater.

Velopolcek said yes, the furnace does heat the water, which requires running the heater in the summer.

The furnace heats five zones, and there is radiant heating in the floor of the garage, she said. The furnace is about the size of one that would be in a house, and runs on oil.

Supervisor Scott Clark said he thinks they should keep the new roof and furnace as two separate projects. He suggested they get some quotes for the cost of both projects. Silfies and Hoffman agreed.

The supervisors also discussed replacing some of the equipment at the public playground near the community center.

Silfies said the cost for the parts to replace the bridge and a couple steps is about $6,000. He said they have discussed getting a professional design of the playground done, and then invest in the new design.

Clark said, “It doesn’t make much sense to sink $5,000 into something if a year down the road, we’re ripping it out because it doesn’t fit with the concept design.”

Hoffman thinks investing in the playground is a good idea.

“The playground is used. Kids are here all the time,” he said. “We talked conceptually about pavilions over there, maybe a walking trail over there, cardio trail.”

Hoffman said that there are nice baseball fields elsewhere that the kids use, and he thinks this space could be turned into something that is usable for people of all ages.

Silfies said he heard the area medical centers have contributed funds for playground equipment when there is a concept design.

Velopolcek, who is also a member of the parks committee, said that she has seen new public playground equipment in catalogs and it starts around $20,000 and goes up to about $50,000 for even low cost equipment.

“If you have a piece of equipment that you can repair for $6,000, I think that’s a steal. You’re not going to replace it for anything close to that,” she said. “I’m not opposed to the idea of designing or redesigning the playground and getting new equipment, but I still think it would be cost effective and not a bad plan to fix the equipment that we have.”

Hoffman said that when they move forward with replacing the playground equipment, they should apply for some grants in order to replace it all at one time or in phases.

The supervisors decided to table the purchase of replacement parts, and look into getting a concept design possibly from Hanover Engineering, the township engineer.