China road committee meets to discuss foreman’s paving schedule

by Mary Grow

CHINA, ME — China Road Committee members met April 12 to discuss Road Foreman Shawn Reed’s proposed repaving schedule for 2022. They expressed no objections.

Reed’s list totals just under six miles in the north end of town. It includes about 1.5 miles on Pleasant View Ridge Road, starting from Lakeview Drive (Route 202); McCaslin Road (about half a mile); Dutton Road (a little more than a mile); Danforth Road (less than half a mile); Causeway Street (also less than half a mile); Peking and Canton streets (less than a quarter mile); a dead-end mile of Neck Road, south of the Stanley Hill Road intersection; and China’s share of Morrill Road (about three-quarters of a mile), which runs into Winslow.

After inspecting town roads this spring, Reed described Pleasant View Ridge Road as “really bad”; Peking and Canton streets as “falling right apart”; McCaslin Road as “terrible”; and the rest of the roads on his list as more than ready for repair.

However, Reed said, until the price of paving mix is known, it’s impossible to predict whether the town can afford to do everything on his list. He recommended select board members authorize seeking bids on paving mix as soon as possible. He plans again to consider bids jointly with neighboring Vassalboro, he said.

Once he has a price, he and road committee members can, if necessary, reconsider the list.

The April 12 committee discussion covered other town roads that will be on future lists; different types of paving; and the procedures for discontinuing existing town roads and for accepting new town roads. No decisions on these topics were expected or made.

Senior Day in China every Wednesday

China residents enjoy Senior Day, at the portable building near the China Town Office. (photo by Becky Hapgood)

CHINA, ME — Senior Day is held every Wednesday, from 10 a.m. – noon, in the portable building at the China Town Office. Residents of other area towns are welcome to join in the fun and camaraderie.

China transfer station members advise selectboard to buy new loader, soon

by Mary Grow

CHINA, ME — Members of China’s Transfer Station Committee voted unanimously at their April 12 meeting to advise China select board members to buy a new loader as soon as possible, before prices rise any more.

Road Foreman Shawn Reed told committee members the 25-year-old loader his public works department shares with the transfer station is showing its age, but still has trade-in value.

After talking with at least four companies, Reed recommended buying a Volvo loader. The price is $169,700, he said. Transfer Station Manager Ronald Marois said Volvo is offering $29,200 for the old loader.

Reed said he does not know how soon the town could get a loader if select board members approve. One is currently available, he said, but the dealer would not guarantee to hold it if another buyer got in ahead of China.

Reed saw no need to keep the old machine as a spare. If a new one broke down, he said he would expect fast service or a loaner from the seller.

A spare plow truck would be a different matter, he added, after last winter’s experience trying to plow four routes in town with two of China’s four trucks out of service.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said the transfer station’s capital reserve account had $50,250 in it as of June 30, 2021. Another $50,000 was approved in the current year’s budget, and the same amount is requested for 2022-23.

The other major pending project is a building to cover the pre-crusher at the transfer station. Committee chairman Lawrence Sikora and member Mark Davis had talked with metal building suppliers, without getting commitments. Two potential providers had waiting periods of 10 months and 18 months.

Given that delay, committee members have time to continue planning, Sikora concluded. No action was taken.

Another question left for more discussion is whether to recommend changing from the present RFID (radio frequency identification) system for making sure only Palermo and China residents (and a few authorized out-of-towners who pay out-of-town fees) bring waste to the transfer station. Committee and select board members are considering going back to the previous system of stickers on vehicles.

Hapgood asked for a recommendation by September, planning a select board decision in October to be implemented Jan. 1, 2023.

“There’s a lot of things to think about,” she commented.

A problem with the RFID tags is that some holders lend them to out-of-town friends, letting them use the transfer station at China taxpayers’ expense.

Committee members would like additional analysis of the data the RFID system collects (which does not identify individual users, they have emphasized, but does record, for example, how frequently each tag comes in). Sikora had started working with the information; Chris Diesch, one of Palermo’s two committee members, volunteered to take over.

In the latest development concerning the closed Fiberight plant in Hampden, to which China and other Maine towns and cities sent waste for recycling, Hapgood said the Municipal Review Committee (the organization representing the municipalities) asked members for financial backing for the proposed purchase of the facility. She declined on behalf of China.

Transfer station committee members scheduled their next meeting for 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 17.

China planners review proposed new solar ordinance

by Mary Grow

CHINA, ME — The three members of the China Planning Board participating in the April 12 meeting unanimously approved a change of ownership for a South China business.

Savage Nutrition is the new name of the former Backroad Nutrition at 341 Route 3. The business sells “Energizing Teas and Meal Replacement Shakes,” and is self-described on Facebook as a smoothie and juice bar.

Owner Suzanna Brennan told planning board members there will be no changes to the site, building or business with the change in ownership. “Same business, same product, same prices, just a new owner,” she said.

Board members were satisfied with the information provided and approved with little discussion. Walter Bennett asked Brennan about business hours: Monday through Friday 6 a.m. to 3 p.m., weekends 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., she replied.

The board’s agenda included review of proposed land use ordinance amendments and the proposed new Solar Energy Systems Ordinance, considering comments received at and after the March 22 public hearing on the documents (see The Town Line, March 31, p. 3). Chairman Scott Rollins led only a preliminary discussion, postponing detailed review and decisions until more board members were present.

A main issue in the land use ordinance debate is the limit on lot coverage by impervious surfaces in the shoreland zone. China has had a 15 percent limit that does not include driveway and parking areas; the Maine Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) requires counting such non-vegetated areas as impervious.

Many lots around China Lake are so small that buildings on them already cover 15 percent or more of the lot area. Such properties are “grandfathered” under existing ordinances; structures may be maintained, but cannot be expanded.

For residents whose buildings almost reach maximum coverage and who planned to add a shed or deck, adopting the DEP definition would ban such expansions.

Rollins, Bennett and Natale Tripodi all lean toward relaxing the lot coverage limit, changing it from 15 percent to the 20 percent DEP rules allow. Bennett, citing a March 22 proposal by resident Brent Chesley (who also attended the April 12 meeting), suggested 15 percent maximum for structures (fewer buildings would protect views of the lake, he said) plus 5 percent for driveways and other impervious areas.

Outside the shoreland zone, China currently has a 30 percent lot coverage limit. Planning board members were not sure whether DEP has jurisdiction outside shoreland and other protected areas.

Chesley reminded board members that the land use ordinance is not the only water quality protection measure affecting development in China. There are also the state Stormwater Management Law, which applies to any project in the state that disturbs more than an acre of land, and China’s Phosphorus Control Ordinance (Chapter Four of the Land Use Ordinance), which applies in the China Lake and Three Mile Pond watersheds.

During a brief discussion of the proposed solar ordinance, Bennett said board members need more information on effects and impacts of solar developments. They hear only from the developers, he pointed out.

Tripodi cited something he had read about solar arrays consuming too much land. He and Bennett find them unattractive and would like stronger provisions for screening them from view.

Bennett added that a solar development limits other possibilities. He would prefer to have businesses along Route 3 and not solar farms, for example. Board members joked about whether they could ban solar in some areas without invoking the dreaded “z-word” – zoning.

The discussion is to be continued at future meetings, with the hope more members of the public will attend or watch on line and add comments. Bennett suggested seeking approval for a board visit to the solar array on Route 32 North (Vassalboro Road).

The next regular China Planning Board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 26.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Blacks in Maine – Part 1

Headstone of Eliza Talbot and Sarah Freeman, in Talbot cemetery, in China.

by Mary Grow

So far, people in this history series have been almost entirely the group that is still Maine’s majority population: white people descended mostly from inhabitants of the British Isles, plus representatives of other northern and western European countries.

For example, Millard Howard wrote in his Palermo history that early settlers in that town came mostly from Massachusetts or New Hampshire, sometimes via coastal Maine. These settlers’ ancestors, he wrote, had usually been religious dissidents (Puritans especially) who emigrated from Great Britain in the 1630s.

This picture is incomplete. In addition to the Native Americans, who lived here for generations before Europeans arrived, the central Kennebec Valley has had a small Black population for almost as long as the Europeans have been here, and since the 19th century people from the Middle East and French Canada have created distinct minority cultures.

Readily available sources tend to provide only scanty information on these groups, and as readers will soon learn, what information is available is sometimes inconsistent.

An invaluable source on Blacks in Maine is H. H. Price and Gerald E. Talbot’s Maine’s Visible Black History: The First Chronicle of Its People, published in 2006.

(Gerald Talbot is a descendant of the Talbots who lived in the Town of China in the 19th century. He was the first Black member of the Maine legislature, and is the father of current House assistant majority leader Rachel Talbot Ross, of Portland.)

The book lists the following Black families among early China settlers: Brackley, Foy (also Foye or Fay), Freeman, Jenkins, Jotham, Seco, Sewall (also Sewell) and Talbot (also Talbert, Talbet, Tallbet, Tarbet or Tarbot).

Price and Talbot found that China had 24 Black residents in 1820 (of a total population of 894); 15 were men and nine women. In 1830 there were six Black families (headed by Peter Freeman, Enock Jenkins, Calvin Jotham, Ambrose Sewall, John Sewall and Ezekiel Talbot), totaling 29 people.

Other records showed that Abram Talbot and Ezekiel Talbot lived in Gardiner before they moved to China “by the 1840s.” If Abram and Abraham are the same man (as seems likely, but not certain; records show Abraham Talbots in multiple generations in the family), he was born in 1756 and died in 1850.

Abraham Talbot is described as “a former slave who owned a brickyard on the east side of China Lake.”

One man named Ezekiel Talbot was born in 1760, according to Price and Talbot. An on-line genealogy lists an Ezekiel Talbot who was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, on Dec. 21, 1787, and died in China, Maine, in 1879.

His parents are identified in this and other sources as Abraham Talbot (May 27, 1756 – June 11, 1840) and Molley or Mary Dunbar (1758-1850); they married in Bridgewater, now part of Brockton, in September 1787. An on-line site says the couple appears to have moved to China before 1800, “as he is enumerated in a collective district for the 1800 federal census which included Three Mile Pond, areas east of Winslow, and Freetown Plantation [later Albion].”

This Abraham Talbot was a Revolutionary War veteran, and he was living in China when he applied for his veterans’ pension on April 18, 1818.

Abraham and Mary Talbot had eight children, according to an on-line family history. Their births are recorded in Fairfax (now Albion), indicating that they lived in the area that was added to the north end of present-day China in 1816 and 1818.

The reference to the 1800 census cited above says: “Due to his status as a free black, the census record only gives the number of persons in Abraham’s household, which totaled 6 persons. As the couple had six children born by 1799, it would appear that two of their children died at an early age.”

Abraham and Mary’s oldest son was Ezekiel (also called Eschiel Tarbet), who was born Dec. 21, 1787 (in Massachusetts, or Maine?), and died in China in 1879. The third son was Abraham, born Feb. 28, 1792; the website says he married Edith Griffin Freeman, in Gardiner, in 1818. He was buying land in Portland in the spring of 1847, in partnership with William Jones; the two are called “mariners.” There is no evidence that he returned to China; he “was buried on 25 January 1862, in Portland.”

The Ezekiel Talbot who was born in 1787 married Eliza or Elizabeth Seco (see below for more about the Seco family). He was a farmer and a landowner; on-line sources list records of land transfers.

One source says Ezekiel and Eliza had three sons (Abraham and Mary’s grandsons), all born in China: Charles C., born in 1814; Alvin Austin, born in 1836; and Henry H., born in 1839. Another source adds a daughter named Sarah, and a son William appears in the 1850 census.

A 1984 Waterville Sentinel article says Ezekiel Talbot was a China resident in the 1830, 1840 and 1850 federal censuses. In 1850, the household was listed. Ezekiel was 65 years old and Eliza was 64. Alvin A. and William C., aged 19 and 17, were farmers; Henry H. was 10 years old; Sarah D. Augustine was 28, a sailor named Homan L. Augustine (Sarah’s husband) was 24 and Eliza J. Augustine was four years old.

On Nov. 5, 1852, the family history compiler found that Ezekiel sold a 50-acre lot bounded on one side by the Palermo town line to his son Alvin, for $200.

Charles C. married Margaret Crossman and moved to Aroostook County.

Alvin Austin, born about 1831 and in China in 1850, married Lucy Peters, in Boston, Massachusetts, in March 1855. The writer of the on-line family history surmises she must have died almost immediately, because the 1860 census listed Alvin as a laborer again living with his parents, in China.

Alvin also moved to Aroostook County, where he married his second wife, Georgia Ann Cornelison, from New Brunswick. He worked as a barber in Houlton and Bangor; the couple moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he died Dec, 22, 1901.

Henry H., born in or around 1840 (according to the on-line family history), spent his life as a farmer in China, never married and died of liver cancer Oct. 2, 1915.

Enough Talbots died in China so there is a Talbot cemetery, a small graveyard east of Yorktown Road on the China-Palermo boundary, just south of China’s Thurston Park. A legible stone marks the graves of Eliza Talbot and Sarah A. Freeman – although the dates do not match exactly, they are probably Ezekiel’s wife Eliza and her daughter Sarah (Augustine) Freeman. There are remains of three other stones in the same row, and two others separately (that might be footstones). Henry H. Talbot was reportedly buried “in a private cemetery,” perhaps the Talbot cemetery.

* * * * * *

Another Black cemetery is on the east side of China’s Pleasant View Ridge Road, west of the Talbot cemetery. This one holds graves of the Sewall and Seco families.

Among those buried there are Ambrose Sewall (1787 – Jan. 22, 1851) and his wife Mary (Shay) Sewall (died in 1849). Nearby is the grave of Griffin Sewall, son of Ambrose and Mary Sewall, who died Nov. 29, 1818, at the age of 17. (Another source gives Griffin Sewall’s dates as 1831 to 1848.) There are at least three more stones that appear to be from the same family.

Ambrose Sewall was a son of Elias and Amee Dunbar Sewall. Elias, born Aug. 1, 1751, in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, was a Revolutionary War veteran; an on-line source says he was listed in Harlem (now China) census records in 1800 and 1810, and died in China, date unknown.

Sharing the graveyard are at least seven stones that probably mark the graves of members of the Seco family. Between the two areas, the Waterville newspaper article says, in 1964 there appeared to be remnants of one or two more rows of graves.

According to the article, the Secos seem to have come to China in the 1850s (but Eliza Seco must have connected with Ezekiel Talbot earlier than that). Various other sources, including the 1860 census, describe two Seco families in China. One consisted of William, age 67 (born about 1793, in New Hampshire, and by 1860 blind), his wife Almira (Sewell), age 50 (born about 1809 or 1810, in Maine; one on-line source says she was the daughter of Ambrose and Mary Sewall) and seven children.

The other family included William Seco, Jr., age 30, his wife Elizabeth, age 27, and living with them seven-year-old Anna Talbot.

William, Sr., and Almira were married in December 1825 or thereabouts. An on-line source says he died Sept. 5, 1866, and she died March 23, 1879; both are buried in the Seco cemetery.

Fifteen Seco children are listed, born between about 1827 and 1850. William W. (the one who was still in China in 1860) was the third child/second son, born about 1830, in Waterville, died after 1879 in Michigan.

The oldest son was Charles L., born March 18, 1830, in Fairfield, and died about July 12, 1916, in Winslow; his grave is in Winslow’s Fort Hill cemetery. His first wife was Eliza Sewall, whom he married in Boston in 1852; his second wife was Olive E. Williams, whom he married in 1865 in Winslow.

Hiram was William and Almira’s fifth son, born about 1838. A 2015 story from the Bangor Daily News, found on line, says Hiram was described as a blacksmith in the 1850 census (though if the birthdate is anywhere near right, he would have been a very young blacksmith). Most of the other adult males were listed as farmers, the article says.

On March 29, 1863, Hiram Seco and Lydia Perkins were married in Gardiner. Lydia was born, in Brunswick, on March 18, 1838. The couple had five children, born between about 1865 and 1873; they named their sons Hiram, William and George and their daughters Lydia and Mary, in honor of older family members.

Lydia Seco (the mother) died Oct. 24, 1901, and is buried in Brunswick. Hiram died sometime after 1910, probably in Brunswick, and is the only one of William and Almira’s children specifically listed as buried in the Seco cemetery.

George W., William and Almira’s sixth son, was born, in Waterville, in May 1841. He apparently spent his life in China, because the newspaper article quotes a China town report: George Seco, widower, age 67, died Feb. 17, 1909, “and was buried in a private cemetery in the town.” Also buried in a private cemetery was four-month-old Alton W. Seco, who died Aug. 2, 1904. This “private cemetery” might well have been the Seco cemetery.

Ellis Island and Castle Island

April 17 has been designated National Ellis Island Family History Day. The web explains that the designation “encourages families to explore their ancestry and discover family who immigrated through Ellis Island,” which was the busiest point of entry into the United States from 1892 until 1924.

During those years, the website says, about 12 million immigrants came into the country through Ellis Island. One million arrived in 1907 alone; on April 17, 1907, the center processed 11,747 people, the busiest day on record.

After the first world war, the web says, the United States established consulates all over the world. One of their functions was to process immigrants, so Ellis Island was no longer essential. After 1924, the web says, the facility became a detention center for illegal immigrants, then a World War II military hospital and a later a training center for the Coast Guard.

Apparently there was a residual immigration center there, too, because the web says the last immigrant was processed on Nov. 12, 1954, the day the federal government closed Ellis Island. He is identified as “a Norwegian merchant seaman named Arne Peterssen.”

New York’s first immigration processing center was Castle Island, which was jointly run by New York City and New York State from August 3, 1855, to April 18, 1890. Some 11 million immigrants are recorded as coming through Castle Island.

When the federal government took control of immigration in 1890, Castle Island center closed. The web says a temporary site at the U. S. Barge Office “on the eastern edge of The Battery waterfront” was used while the federal Office of Immigration built the Ellis Island center.

The web lists castlegarden.org and ellisisland.org as on-line resources for lists of names and other information from each center.

Erskine Academy Renaissance awards

Seniors of the Trimester, from left to right, Aidan Larrabee, Samuel Worthley, Mackenzie Roderick, and Autumn Boody. (contributed photo)

On Friday, April 8, Erskine Academy held a Renaissance assembly to recognize second trimester award recipients.

Recognition Awards were presented to the following students: Parker Studholme, Andrew Shaw, David McCaig, Lauren Tyler, Balquis Hutami, and Damon Wilson.

In addition, four seniors received Senior of the Trimester Awards: Autumn Boody, daughter of Jessica and Lance Boody, of Washington; Samuel Worthley, son of Nancy and Peter Worthley, of Vassalboro; Mackenzie Roderick, daughter of Mike Roderick, of China, and Melissa Vail, of Augusta; and Aidan Larrabee, son of Carrie and Jeremy Larrabee, of China. Seniors of the Trimester are recognized as individuals who have gone above and beyond in all aspects of their high school careers.

In appreciation of their dedication and service to Erskine Academy, Faculty of the Trimester awards were also presented to Colleen Doucette, bus driver, and food service staff; and Marc Cote, guidance counselor.

Faculty of the Trimester, Marc Cote, left, and Colleen Doucette. (contributed photo)

China select board unanimously approves 38-article warrant

by Mary Grow

CHINA, ME — China select board members have unanimously approved the 38-article warrant for the June 14 annual town business meeting.

The April 11 select board meeting was preceded by a very short budget committee meeting, at which that board endorsed revised wording of two articles.

A public hearing on the warrant is scheduled for 6 p.m., Monday, May 9, before that evening’s select board meeting. All 38 articles will be voted by written ballot June 14, so the May 9 hearing will be the only official public assembly at which questions can be asked and answered.

Select board members further agreed that a straw poll will be conducted June 14 asking those who vote that day whether they prefer a written ballot or an open town meeting.

June 14 voting will be in the former portable classroom behind the town office, with a moderator elected at 6:55 a.m. and polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. As during previous elections, the driveway from Lakeview Drive will be closed; vehicle access will be off Alder Park Road just south of the town office complex.

In other business April 11, select board members unanimously accepted the higher of two bids for the Harley Davidson motorcycle (taken in part repayment of a business loan from the Tax Increment Financing [TIF] Fund’s revolving loan program). Michael MacFarland bid $5,100.

They unanimously approved Anita Smith’s request to use $16,465 from the current year’s budget for groundwork and a building in the China School Forest (which Smith proposed renaming the Community Forest at China School).

Smith, a retired China teacher and for many years a manager and guardian for the forest east of China Primary School, said she got three companies’ prices for a building that will become a winter classroom. She chose a 14-by-32 building made by Backyard Buildings, the Amish company in Unity, for $16,465, including delivery.

Smith told select board members she has volunteers – and welcomes more – to clear the building site. A gravel pad will be installed.

Central Maine Power Company said running electricity to the building site would cost $20,000, she said. Therefore she intends to add propane heaters and a portable battery-powered generator, as well as finishing the interior and adding enough gravel to the access way to accommodate propane trucks.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said there is more than $27,000 left in the 2021-22 budget to pay for the building.

Smith has requested $12,000 for the 2022-23 forest budget. The request is included in Art. 5 of the town meeting warrant, which asks voters to appropriate a total of $82,575 for town boards and committees.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 25. Hapgood issued a reminder that town departments will be closed Monday, April 18 for the Patriots’ Day holiday.

CORRECTION: This article has been updated. The size of the building at the China School Forest building was previously stated to be 13-by-42 feet. It should instead be 14-by-32 feet instead. (Correction supplied by Anita Smith.)

China Broadband Committee (CBC) members enthused about new expansion possibility

by Mary Grow

CHINA, ME — China Broadband Committee (CBC) members are enthusiastic about a new possibility for expanding internet service in China, and so are officials at the possible providers, the Unity-based telephone and communications company Unitel.

However, both parties emphasized during an April 6 discussion that nothing is guaranteed, and that financing is likely to remain a challenge.

They plan to meet together again at 4 p.m. Wednesday, May 4, in the former portable classroom behind the China town office.

Unitel was acquired in March by a company called Direct Communications, based in Rockland, Idaho. The web says Rockland had a population of 246 in 2019 and is currently estimated to have 277 residents.

Unitel’s Director of Internal/External Support, Jayne Sullivan, told CBC members that Direct Communications is a third-generation family-owned business, similar to Unitel, which was founded in 1902. Recently, she said, Direct Communications has been buying small companies like Unitel all over the country and helping them expand their broadband offerings.

Sullivan said Unitel officials welcome backing from Direct Communications. Unitel’s first fiber was installed in 2015, Director of Network Operations Michael Akers said.

Unitel and Direct Communications are working with other area towns. Some, like China, are beginning discussion, while some are drawing close to agreements. Akers said nine other towns are ahead of China.

Competition would not necessarily delay work in China if the town and the company reached an agreement and China officials and voters endorsed it. “We’re pretty nimble; we get a lot done quickly – sometimes,” Akers said with a smile.

Consensus was that the first step is for Akers and/or Lead Communications Technician Scott Turgeon, who also attended the April 6 meeting, to survey China to see what infrastructure is available and what is needed. Planning the survey involved discussion about ground-clearance requirements for wires on utility poles.

The new information, combined with results of the Hawkeye Connections survey in the summer of 2021 and other information CBC members have collected, will lead to a cost estimate. Akers intends to forward Hawkeye’s information to Direct Communications engineers in Idaho for analysis.

Financing was a major discussion topic. CBC members’ goal is to provide service to everyone in town who wants it without asking China taxpayers to pay part of the bill.

Funding options include China Tax Increment Financing (TIF) money (the revised TIF plan allocates $30,000 a year to broadband for the next 10 years); American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and other federal funds sent to the State of Maine, Kennebec County and the Town of China; and grant programs.

Most federal and state programs benefit areas that lack any service, or adequate service, and by many initial definitions of terms like “unserved” and “underserved,” China is considered adequately served. However, John Dougherty from Mission Broadband, the CBC’s consulting firm, said definitions are changing, in ways that might make China more grant-eligible.

Akers said Unitel works with Mission Broadband in other towns; he is pleased to work with them in China. He called Dougherty “the guy for the grants.”

China Primary School’s faculty lounge gets a nice face lift

Faculty at China Primary School enjoy their redecorated staff room. (photo courtesy of Melissa Robbie)

Submitted by Melissa Robie Calouro
Pre-K teacher at CPS

As most people are already aware, teaching young children is already an exhausting profession – but with quarantines, masking, and social distancing, the last couple of “Covid” years have brought teachers to a new level of exhaustion! Our China Schools Parent Teacher Organi­zation (PTO) noticed this and wanted to show their love and support in a way that would be useful to our staff every day.

They noticed our staff room was dated, plain, and downright gloomy – so a team of parents set out to revitalize our break space – as a surprise! They worked tirelessly gathering donations from area businesses and set to work over Christmas break to transform our break room into a truly magical and relaxing environment. They painted all the walls and cabinetry (including mailboxes!) in coordinating bright aqua and tranquil grays with a splash of sunshine yellow.

The newly-renovated staff room at the China Primary School, through the hard work of the school’s Parent Teacher Organization. (photo courtesy of Melissa Robbie)

They equipped the room with:

  • New coordinating curtains;
  • Two brand-new microwaves;
  • A brand-new Keurig – complete with coffees, teas, hot chocolate, insulated cups/lids, creamer and sugar;
  • A brand-new refrigerator, fully stocked with healthy snacks and lunch options as well as sparkling waters and sodas;
  • A popcorn popper with popcorn kernels, popping oil, and popcorn seasonings;
  • A dining room table with chairs adorned with a fruit bowl and candy dish;
  • Two comfy chairs to sit back in;
  • A side table with a lamp to provide soft lighting;
  • A bar with bar stools to increase capacity and aesthetic;
  • A gorgeous painting of the ocean (painted and donated by a CPS parent);
  • Silverware, kitchen utensils, kitchen towels;
  • Shelving with decorations.

Specific PTO members and their families who dedicated hours into planning and the physical transformation of our staff room:

Megan Randazza, Bobbie and Ben Weymouth, Rebecca & Tim DeWitt, Raigan and Curtis York, and Percy O’Clair.

Community Donors:

Lakeview Lumber – Monetary donation;
Bry-Ann Mattingly – a parent and local artist who painted and donated the gorgeous ocean painting;
Bruce & Kathy Plaisted – bar stools;
Central Church — 2 microwaves and new Keurig coffee maker;
China Schools PTO – money, time, ideas, and effort;
Home Depot – Gift card;
Lowe’s – 5 gallons of paint.

(photo courtesy of Melissa Robbie)

The school staff had many positive feedbacks for the project:

“Every single teacher who walked into that room this morning instantly felt the love! We are so incredibly lucky to have parents and a community like ours who make us feel so appreciated in these crazy times. I’m looking forward to many lunches and laughs with my coworkers in the beautiful space you all created for us!” – Alyssa Bentley, Fourth Grade Teacher, at China Primary School.

“Everyone is so blown away at seeing this wonderful expression of appreciation from our PTO and community! Thank you to all who contributed to this project. We appreciate your generosity, time, and efforts. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!” – Linda Bengtson, administrative assistant at China Primary School.

“This beautiful makeover was just the morale booster we needed. Thank you so much for all of the hard work and creativity that you all put into this project!” – Lori Maxim, fourth grade teacher, at China Primary School.

“What an amazing transformation! Thank you so much for creating such a peaceful, warm, and inviting space for us to enjoy. Every detail was completed with such love!” – Melissa Robie Calouro, pre-K teacher, at China Primary School.

“It was so wonderful to walk into this beautiful surprise! Thank you to everyone who helped make this project possible. We are so fortunate to have you.” – Kathy Jacobs, special education teacher, at China Primary School.

“Just incredible! My mouth seriously dropped when I walked in. Such a wonderful present. Thank you all so much for all of your hard work!” – Brittany Dunn, kindergarten teacher, at China Primary School.

“I don’t even have words for it! It felt like a whole different place. I’m still emotional thinking about it. Thank you to everyone who made this possible!” – Jennifer Gledhill, third grade teacher, at China Primary School.

Roderick receives MPA award

Mackenzie Roderick

CHINA, ME — Mackenzie Roderick, of China, a senior at Erskine Academy, has been selected to receive the 2022 Principal’s Award, Headmaster Michael McQuarrie announced. The award, sponsored by the Maine Principal’s Association, is given to recognize a high school senior’s academic excellence, outstanding school citizenship, and leadership.

Roderick is a consistent high-honors student in a highly competitive academic program that includes all classes taken at the honors or accelerated level and numerous Advanced Placement and Concurrent Enrollment courses with nearby colleges. She has received recognition and accolades from within and outside of the school for her standout accomplishments in the classroom, athletics, and voluntary community service. Roderick has been awarded for outstanding achievement in calculus and statistics, excellence in Spanish, top performance in student council, and she is the Valedictorian for Erskine Academy’s class of 2022.

“Mackenzie is universally respected and esteemed by the school community. She is an exemplary student, school and community citizen, and a fine representative of Erskine Academy and young people. Mackenzie personifies the school’s core values of scholarship, leadership, stewardship, and relationships,” noted Headmaster McQuarrie when making the award.