Entries by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board takes first look at 2023-24 budget

by Mary Grow Vassalboro select board members held their annual preliminary budget review the afternoon of Feb. 7, proposing several new expenditures and letting new town manager Aaron Miller show how quickly he is mastering the finances of a town he’s served only since Jan. 2. No decisions were made on 2023-24 budget recommendations. Discussions […]

Vassalboro select board discusses improvements to town office, other on-going issues

by Mary Grow At their Feb. 2 meeting, Vassalboro select board members continued discussion of better outside lighting and handicapped accessible front doors at the town office; improvements at the transfer station; and other, mostly on-going, issues. They made a decision on the town office lighting, and expressed approval of Ben Gidney’s suggestion regarding parking […]

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Weather events

by Mary Grow James North and Ruby Crosby Wiggin, quoted last week, were not the only local historians to mention the Year without a Summer. And 1816 was not the only unusually cold spell – though it was the longest spell of (fairly) consistently cold weather – recorded in the central Kennebec Valley since the […]

China transfer committee approves two documents for select board consideration

by Mary Grow At their Jan. 24 meeting, members of China’s Transfer Station Committee unanimously approved two documents for forwarding to the select board. One is a revised Solid Waste Ordinance, prepared with help from Jessica Cobb, of the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments. It combines two existing ordinances, titled Solid Waste Disposal Ordinance and […]

China town manager presents initial town budget

by Mary Grow China select board members began their Jan. 29 meeting by hearing Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood’s initial presentation on the 2023-24 town budget, with four budget committee members joining them (three others were unable to attend). Members of both boards will review the thick budget books Hapgood prepared, with, she said, much help […]

Vassalboro select board, WPA officials meet

by Mary Grow Vassalboro select board members, Webber Pond Association leaders and other interested parties held the joint meeting they planned back in November 2022, on Jan. 25. At the Nov. 10 select board meeting, Association president John Reuthe and Department of Marine Resources staff member Nate Gray said the lake had poor water quality […]

China planners consider three documents at meeting

by Mary Grow China Planning Board members considered three documents at their Jan. 24 meeting. They agreed to continue discussion of amending the Board of Appeals Ordinance (which is Chapter 9 of the Land Use Ordinance) at their Feb. 14 meeting, with members of China’s board of appeals and select board invited to participate (see […]

VASSALBORO: School, day care provider reach agreement

by Mary Grow After several months’ discussion, at their Jan. 17 meeting Vassalboro School Board members approved a lease agreement for the daycare that Jennifer Lizotte runs at Vassalboro Community School (VCS). The daycare has operated without a formal agreement for years. The agreement runs into the spring of 2024, when it is to be […]

Vassalboro select board listens to ARPA spending suggestions

by Mary Grow Vassalboro select board members preceded their Jan. 19 meeting with a 45-minute public hearing to collect suggestions for spending federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds in the 2023-24 fiscal year. During the meeting, they rediscussed some recommendations from their Dec. 8, 2022, meeting, added a few more items and after another […]

Vassalboro planners to forward draft ordinance on solar development to town attorney

by Mary Grow After their Jan. 17 meeting, Vassalboro Planning Board members have a draft ordinance section that would regulate commercial solar development in near-final form. They plan to forward it to the town attorney for her review. Board members and representatives of the Main Street Maine coalition, the residents near a suggested solar site […]