CHINA: Solar company may expand array onto another lot

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by Mary Grow

At their Jan. 25 meeting, China Planning Board members continued discussion of two of their Jan. 11 topics (see The Town Line, Jan. 20, p. 3).

Since Jan. 11, they learned, China’s town attorney, Amanda Meader, has agreed that if SunRaise Investments leases more land adjoining the planned solar farm on the south side of Route 3, the company may enlarge the solar array.

The previously-approved array met lot coverage limits in China’s ordinance; a larger one would require more land. When SunRaise proposed the additional lease, Meader’s first reaction was that a 2016 Maine Law Court decision meant the new area could not count as part of the original lot.

However, SunRaise spokesman Scott Anderson said Jan. 25, he convinced Meader that the two situations are not comparable, and she withdrew her objection. SunRaise therefore was ready to submit an application for an enlarged project at the next planning board meeting.

The next question was whether the expanded project needed a new application or a revision of the previous one. A majority of board members asked for a new application, citing their and neighbors’ concerns about run-off, the small amount of tree-cutting that is planned and other possible effects.

The second left-over issue was ordinance amendments that board members hope select board members will put on the June 14 town business meeting ballot. At the Jan. 11 meeting, board member Toni Wall volunteered to prepare the documents selectmen requested: for each proposed change, the original, the marked-up copy and the final copy. She had them ready Jan. 25.

After another discussion about whether board members needed to re-review the documents, they authorized Chairman Scott Rollins to send them to the Town Manager and to the chairman of the select board. If select board members send them back with recommendations for changes, planning board members can re-review them then.

The proposed changes are amendments to two sections of the current ordinance and addition of a Solar Energy Systems Ordinance to regulate future applications like SunRaises’s. For SunRaise and other solar-farm applicants, planning board members have adapted other sections of the ordinance.

Codes Officer Jaime Hanson said the new SunRaise application is, so far, the only item on the board’s Feb. 8 agenda. The planning board normally meets at 6:30 p.m. the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, recently in the town office meeting room.

China TIF committee hears request from Thurston Park, broadband

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by Mary Grow

China Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee members reviewed two applications for 2022-23 TIF funding at their Jan. 27 meeting.

Jeanette Smith, chairman of the Thurston Park Committee, explained why her group is asking for $34,600. Jamie Pitney, a member of the China Broadband Committee (CBC) as well as the TIF Committee, explained the CBC request for $40,000 from two different packets of TIF money.

Committee members made no recommendation on either request. They plan to consider them together with requests received in December 2021, probably at the meeting they scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 9.

They also need a question answered: if money allotted for the current (2021-22) fiscal year is not spent by June 30, 2022, does it carry forward for the same purpose, or does it revert back to the body of the TIF fund?

Smith explained that money for a concrete pad for a storage building in Thurston Park was not allocated until November, when it was too late to start work. She doubts the park will be accessible in time to do the project by June 30 this year. If the 2021-22 allocation carries forward, the Thurston Park Committee’s 2022-23 request can be lowered.

Town Manager and TIF treasurer Rebecca Hapgood said she will find out where unspent funds go.

TIF Committee members had questions and comments for Smith, including a recommendation that her committee consider a prefabricated building instead of having a local contractor build one.

Pitney told the rest of the TIF Committee that $10,000 of the CBC request is for another year of service from consultants Mission Broadband. The $30,000 is for expanded broadband service that is part of the voter-approved TIF document. Committee members have no current proposal or project, but remain optimistic.

Last year’s delay in disbursing TIF funds was because China officials were waiting for state approval of the TIF amendments voters adopted in June 2021. The document is on the town website, china.govoffice.com, under the Tax Increment Financing Committee, titled “Second Amended TIF Program.”

TIF money, from taxes paid by Central Maine Power Company on its transmission line through China, does not count as general fund revenue. If it did, county and state officials would consider China richer, and would increase the county tax and reduce state aid to schools.

Pitney reminded fellow committee members that failure to spend TIF money eventually sends it into the general fund. TIF is a tax shelter, Pitney said; if funds are not used as intended, “the shelter has a leak in the roof.”

China select board looks at half a dozen proposals for 2021-22 town budget

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by Mary Grow

The main business at the Jan. 31 China Select Board meeting was discussion of the first half-dozen accounts in the proposed 2022-23 town budget.

The main decision made was on salary increases for town employees. In a series of split votes, with board Chairman Ronald Breton and members Blane Casey and Wayne Chadwick on one side and Jeanne Marquis and Janet Preston on the other, board members:

  • Rejected Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood’s proposed six percent increase;
  • Rejected Preston’s suggested four and a half percent increase; and
  • Approved a three percent increase for 2022-23.

The men’s main arguments were focused on saving taxpayers’ money. The women’s emphasized the national cost of living increase, six percent or more. No one criticized town employees.

There was disagreement about how many people are covered. The number is about 15, all the full-time employees except Hapgood, whose salary is negotiated separately, but not some part-time employees, like the animal control officer and the planning board’s secretary.

Hapgood’s draft budget included the six percent increases. Select board members therefore postponed recommendations on the administration and assessing parts of the 2022-23 budget, which include salaries, until she recalculates.

They unanimously approved Hapgood’s recommendations on amounts for town boards and committees, association dues and legal expenses for 2022-23.

The budget discussion at the Feb. 14 select board meeting is slated to begin with the volunteer fire departments’ requests.

In other business Jan. 31, select board members spent a quarter-hour arguing over Preston’s proposal to review employee health insurance plans every other year, instead of annually, unless premiums rise more than three percent in a year.

Preston and Marquis supported the proposal, which they said would lessen stress on employees. Breton thought all budget elements should be reviewed annually. Chadwick saw health insurance as a possible place to cut costs if town officials anticipated a financial bind.

No action was taken.

Board members unanimously appointed Paul Lucas a member of the Transfer Station Committee. That committee’s next meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8, in the portable building behind the town office.

Hapgood said information on PFAS contamination is now on the town website. It is under a new tab at the top of the left-hand column, labeled “PFAS Information.”

The manager commended the town’s plow truck drivers for their long hours during the weekend blizzard. Their work started around 8 a.m. Saturday, she said, and some drove most of the time until mid-afternoon Sunday. After the roads were clear, they still had town properties to finish cleaning up.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14.

Give Us Your Best Shot! for Thursday, February 3, 2022

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To submit a photo for this section, please visit our contact page or email us at townline@townline.org!

MMMM YUMMY: Emily Poulin, of South China, snapped this hummingbird enjoying the nectar of the flowers.

ENDURING: Joan Chaffee, of Clinton photographed this blue jay enduring the weather.

BLAZING SUNSET: Tina Richard, of Clinton, caught this blazing sunset last December.

Norman Black is Maine’s only recipient of the STACVA

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China Select Board Chairman Ron Breton, left, presents the Small Town America Civic Volunteer Award to Norman Black, a 30-year veteran of the Weeks Mills Volunteer Fire Department. (photo courtesy of Rebecca Hapgood)

Norman Black of South China is Maine’s only 2021 winner of a national Small Town America Civic Volunteer Award.

Select Board Chairman Ronald Breton presented Black with a certificate at the Jan. 31 select board meeting. Breton said Black, a China native, has been a member of the Weeks Mills volunteer fire department since he was a teenager and a member of China Rescue for 10 years.

The presentation was followed by applause and congratulations from the small audience.

Each year 100 STACVA awards go to people from towns or counties with populations fewer than 25,000, to recognize public service and public safety volunteers.

The STACVA is an annual program that honors 100 extraordinary public service volunteers in localities under 25,000. It spotlights the urgent need for citizens to fill critical civic volunteer roles including local government boards and councils, volunteer firefighters, EMTs, and the many advisory committees that support key local government functions.

Research shows that the percentage of people volunteering in small communities and rural counties has dropped substantially over the last 12 years. Civic volunteerism is the lifeblood of small town and rural America. STACVA is intended to help address this critical shortage by recognizing and supporting “hometown heroes,” and by promoting best practices designed to spur a force of new civic volunteers to fill these vital roles.

China is fortunate Maine’s only recipient resides within its boundaries. The winner is a lifelong resident of China who started volunteering in his teens for the Weeks Mills Fire Department. Over thirty years later, this recipient continues to serve the Weeks Mills Fire Department and has volunteered for the past 10 years for China Rescue as an EMT. The China Select Board is proud to present the Small Town America Civic Volunteer Award to Norman Black. Thank you for your service and dedication to the community.

Annual China Lake Ice Fishing Derby to culminate weekend town-wide festivities

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Folks enjoying last year’s event. (photo by Sandra Isaac)

by Sandra Isaac

The China Four Seasons Club and the China Village Fire Department are partnering again for the 3rd Annual China Lake Ice Fishing Derby to be held on Sunday, February 20. This year’s derby will be part of a winter weekend festival – “China Ice Days” – featuring town-wide activities starting on Friday evening and continuing all day on Saturday.

Sunday is still dedicated to the ice fishing derby with fishing limited to China Lake. The ice fishing derby will finish with a fireworks display after the derby’s award ceremony. All of the weekend’s activities will be open to the public.

“We are hoping that the ‘China Ice Days’ will be the winter equivalent of China Days held in the summer and hope to make it a regular part of the Annual Ice Fishing Derby,” said China Four Seasons Club President Tom Rumpf. “The additional weekend activities will be presented and managed by many of China’s wonderful organizations, highlighting our local resources and spotlighting what great assets the Town of China has.” Activities will include a lasagna dinner at the Mason’s Lodge, a snowshoeing scavenger hunt through the School Forest, sledding and a cardboard sled race at the Convention Center, ice skating, cornhole games, and more.

Rumpf continued, “The China Ice Days and the Annual Fishing Derby are a great way for individuals and families to come out and enjoy the outdoors and be part of a China area tradition. This is also Maine’s free fishing weekend. We will be following any state-mandated guidelines in place at the time and will be encouraging social distancing to help keep all participants safe. We will be asking all participants to wear face-covering while inside a building or if social distancing is not possible.”

Fishing derby weigh-in time will be at 4 p.m., on Sunday and all entries must be in the Fire Station Building [on Causeway Road] by 4 p.m. to qualify for a prize. Prizes will be awarded in the following fish categories: large and smallmouth bass, brown trout, brook trout, and pickerel. The children’s category will be perch and kids will be awarded prizes for the top five winners with the most perch caught. The lunker of the day – the largest fish overall – will be the derby’s top prize.

The first 75 kids who participate in the derby will receive special takeaway gifts courtesy of Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, The Maine Audubon Society and Jack Traps of Maine. These items will be available at the fire station starting at 5 a.m. on the day of the derby.  In addition, Central Church will be set up on the ice across from the Fire Station on Causeway Road to work with kids who are new to fishing and will supply those kids with traps and bait.

“We will also be giving away over 30 door prizes including a 40 volt lithium StrikeMaster Auger courtesy of Jack Traps of Maine and Brookfield Renewable Energy, 100 gallons of heating fuel from Augusta Fuel Company, 25 traps from Traps for Kids, plus many more prizes and gift certificates from great local businesses,” said Rumpf.

Tickets for the derby are available for $5 a piece or 3 for $10 at many local stores including China Variety & Redemption, Greg’s Restaurant, Harvest Time Bait, Lakeview Lumber, Maritime Farms and Tobey’s. You can also purchase tickets from members of the China Four Seasons Club and the China Village Fire Department.

The organizers have set up a Facebook page and a website to share information on door prizes, sponsors, and ticket information. Please visit https://www.facebook.com/China-Lake-Ice-Fishing-Derby or www.chinalakeicefishingderby.com.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Wars – Part 4

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The frigate Warren.

by Mary Grow

Revolutionary War veterans from Albion, China, Clinton, Fairfield

Note One: this article and next week’s will be about a few of the Revolutionary War veterans who lived in the central Kennebec Valley. Selection is based on two criteria: how much information your writer could find easily, and how interesting she thought the information would be to readers. There is no intent to disparage veterans who are omitted.

Note Two: Alert readers will have noticed in last week’s piece that artist Gilbert Stuart was misnamed Stuart Gilbert. Your writer accepts blame for carelessness; she also assigns blame to Mr. and Mrs. Stuart, for giving their son two last names, or two first names, depending on your perspective.

* * * * * *

Ruby Crosby Wiggin wrote that town and state records and cemetery headstones identify more than a dozen Albion residents who were Revolutionary War veterans. Two, Francis Lovejoy and John Leonard, were among early settlers.

Rev. Francis Lovejoy, grandfather of Elijah Parish Lovejoy, was in Albion by 1790. Wiggin found that he served initially in “Colonel Baldwin’s regiment” and later re-enlisted to fill the quota from his then home town, Amherst, Massachusetts.

(Colonel Baldwin was probably Loammi Baldwin [Jan. 10, 1744 – Oct. 20, 1807], who fought at Lexington and Concord in the Woburn [Massachusetts] militia. He later enlisted in the 26th Continental Regiment, quickly became its colonel and commanded it around Boston and New York City until health issues forced him to resign in 1777. Wikipedia identifies him as the “Father of American Civil Engineering” and the man for whom the Baldwin apple is named.)

Wiggin gave no information on John Leonard’s military service. By Oct. 30, 1802, he owned the house in which Albion (then Freetown) voters held their first town meeting. Wiggin wrote that he held several town offices between then and 1811, when his name disappeared from town records.

* * * * * *

A veteran who settled in what is now China, and whose story has been increasingly revealed in recent years, was Abraham Talbot (May 27, 1756 – June 11, 1840). In various on-line sources, his first name is also spelled Abram, and his last name Talbart, Tallbet, Tarbett, Tolbot and other variations.

Talbot was a free black man. He was an ancestor of Gerald Talbot, the first black man elected to the Maine legislature. Gerald Talbot’s daughter, Rachel Talbot Ross, is assistant majority leader in the current Maine House of Representatives.

Born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, to Toby (or Tobey) Talbot, also a Revolutionary War veteran, Abraham Talbot enlisted in the Massachusetts Line in July 1778 and served his nine months’ term at Fishkill and West Point, New York, until March 1779. He married Mary Dunbar in his home town on Sept. 3, 1787.

When he applied for his pension in 1818, he owned an acre of land in China with a small house on it. He and Mary were the only ones living there, although they had had eight children, born between December 21, 1787, and Feb. 16, 1805, in Freetown (now Albion).

William Farris (1755 – Oct. 19, 1841) was another veteran who in 1832 applied for his pension from China, having previously lived in Vassalboro from either 1796 or 1802 (sources differ). He was a native of Yarmouth, Massachusetts, and on Oct. 5 1775, married Elizabeth Burgess of that town.

An on-line history says he enlisted three times in three regiments: Nov. 1, 1775, for two months in Colonel Putnam’s regiment; February 1775 (a misprint for 1776, as the writer says he enlisted “again”) for two months in Colonel Carey’s regiment; and April or May 1776 for four months in Colonel Berckiah Bassett’s regiment.

His first terms were spent building fortifications in Cambridge and Dorchester, outside Boston. His third enlistment ended in the fall of 1776 on Martha’s Vineyard, “guarding the shore.”

Col. Rufus Putnam

(Colonel Putnam was probably Rufus Putnam [later a Brigadier General], a French and Indian War veteran who was instrumental in building the fortifications that forced British troops to evacuate Boston in mid-March 1776. Colonel Carey was probably Colonel Simeon Cary, commander of “the Plymouth and Barnstable County regiment of the Massachusetts militia,” which was at the siege of Boston. This writer failed to find Colonel Bassett on line.)

William and Elizabeth Farris had “at least eight children.” After she died around 1805, on March 18, 1806, he married a 22-year-old Vassalboro woman, Martha “Patty” Long. He bought a piece of land in Vassalboro in 1816, but was a China resident by 1832. His annual pension amounted to $33.33.

The China bicentennial history lists seven other early residents who were Revolutionary War veterans, including Joseph Evans. Evans, for whom Evans Pond is named, arrived in 1773 or 1774 and left his wife and children in the wilderness when he enlisted.

* * * * * *

Michael McNally (about 1752 – 1848), sometimes spelled McNully, was a veteran who ended his life in Clinton. He served in the Pennsylvania Line up to 1781. An 1896 on-line source says his descendants claimed that his role was driving the horses that pulled cannons.

Family stories reproduced on line give two accounts of his arrival in Pennsylvania: one says he was born as his family emigrated from Ireland, the other that as a youngster he ran away from home and crossed the Atlantic alone. He settled in Clinton around 1785 and “raised a large family.”

* * * * * *

The Fairfield Historical Society writers who produced the town’s bicentennial history in 1988 listed four early settlers who served in the Revolutionary army and 10 veterans who moved in after the war (eight from Massachusetts, one from New Hampshire and one from Georgetown, Maine).

The most prominent was William Kendall (1759 – 1827), referred to in one section as General William Kendall. The history says he enlisted from Winslow in March 1777 and obtained an honorable discharge in 1780. An on-line source says he was a drummer “in various New England regiments.”

Having bought most of the area that is now downtown Fairfield, including an unfinished dam and mill building, Kendall completed that project and added saw and grist mills in 1781. The village center was called Kendall’s Mills until 1872.

On Christmas Day 1782, Kendall paddled up the Kennebec to Noble’s Ferry (Hinckley) in his birchbark canoe and came back with his new wife, Abigail Chase. The couple lived first in a log house by the river at the foot of present Western Avenue, then in Fairfield’s first frame house and later in a large brick house at the corner of Newhall Street and Lawrence Avenue. The last housed Bunker’s Seminary (briefly mentioned in the Oct. 21, 2021, issue of The Town Line); it was torn down in the 1890s.

The Fairfield history says Kendall served eight years as a selectman. An on-line source adds that he was Kendall’s Mills postmaster in 1816, Somerset County Sheriff and a member of the first Maine Senate. He and Abigail had eight sons and three daughters. Kendall is buried in Fairfield’s Emery Hill Cemetery.

The cemetery, on the river side of Route 201 at the foot of Emery Hill, is near the site of the log house built by Jonathan Emery in 1771 that is called the first house built in Fairfield. Jonathan’s son David (born in Massachusetts Sept. 24, 1754) was one of the four Revolutionary soldiers who enlisted from Fairfield. The historians doubt the story that he enlisted in September 1775, inspired by Colonel Benedict Arnold’s troops marching up the Kennebec on the way to Québec, because dates don’t match.

They did find records showing that David Emery joined the Second Lincoln County Regiment on Mach 12, 1777. On Feb. 2, 1778, he transferred to the Continental Army, where he became part of General George Washington’s personal guard. After being mustered out Jan. 23, 1779, he came back to Fairfield and on April 5, 1782, married Abigail Goodwin. He died in Fairfield; one on-line source gives his date of death as Nov. 18, 1830, another as Nov. 18, 1834.

The other three early settlers who fought in the war were Josiah Burgess (1736 – 1828), a lieutenant from March 1776 to March 1779 in the First Barnstable Company from his home town of Sandwich, Massachusetts; his younger brother Thomas (1741 – 1820), who served in Josiah’s company for a week; and Daniel Wyman (1752 – 1829), who moved up the river from Dresden to Fairfield in 1774 and served three years in the Second Massachusetts Line. After independence, each Burgess brother served as a Fairfield selectman and Thomas was town treasurer for two years.

Jonathan Nye (November 1757 – September 1854) was born in Sandwich, Massachusetts, and is identified on line as serving as a private in 1775 and 1776 at Elizabeth Islands, first in Captain John Grannis’s company and later in Captain Elisha Nye’s company.

(The Elizabeth Islands are an island chain south of Cape Cod and west of Martha’s Vineyard; they compose the town of Gosnold, Massachusetts, named after the British explorer Bartholomew Gosnold, the first European to visit them, in 1602.

(John Grannis was a captain of marines, identified in several on-line sources as spokesman for America’s first whistle-blowers. In February 1777, nine shipmates aboard the frigate “Warren” chose him to jump ship and carry to the government in Philadelphia their charge that Esek Hopkins, in charge of the Continental Navy, was “unfit to lead.” The Continental Congress fired Hopkins.)

The Fairfield history says after Nye’s first one-year enlistment, he enlisted again from Sandwich in the spring of 1777. He was at Saratoga when Burgoyne surrendered and at Valley Forge during the winter of 1778. At some point he became a sergeant. He was honorably discharged at West Point March 7, 1780. After that, the history says, he enlisted yet again for short terms and served on privateers.

The on-line source names his first wife as Mercy Ellis from Sandwich. The bicentennial history calls her Mary Ellis, and says Nye married her “soon after his discharge [in the early1780s, then] and settled in Fairfield.” The history also says that in the spring of 1835, when Nye applied for one of the land grants Congress had just authorized, he said he had lived in Fairfield for 35 years, indicating he moved there in 1800. And in an account of the Nye family in another section of the book, Jonathan Nye is said to have moved from Sandwich to Fairfield in 1788, with his cousins Bartlett (August 1759 – 1822), Bryant and Elisha (Nov. 2, 1757 – 1845) Nye.

On March 18, 1820, Jonathan Nye married again, to Abigail Fish, who died in 1850. When he applied for a military pension in 1820, he said she was not strong enough to help with their farm, and he could not do much because of “blindness caused by small pox while in the army and a lameness in both knees.”

Col. Nathaniell Freeman

Jonathan Nye’s cousins Bartlett and Elisha were also Revolutionary veterans. Bartlett Nye, according to an on-line family history, served from July 2 to Dec. 12, 1777, in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and again for four days, Sept. 11 through Sept. 14, 1779, as a corporal in Colonel Freeman’s regiment responding to “an alarm at Falmouth [Massachusetts].”

(Colonel Freeman was probably Nathaniel Freeman (March 28, 1741 – Sept. 20, 1827) from Sandwich. He had a medical practice, became active in the Revolutionary movement as early as 1773, was a militia colonel from 1775 and a militia brigadier general from 1781 to 1791.)

Elisha Nye was also in Colonel Freeman’s regiment. He is listed on line as serving for several very brief periods in 1778 and 1779.

After the war, each of the brothers held political office. In 1812, Bartlett Nye was in the Massachusetts General Court, where he supported making Maine a separate state; his term had ended before the decision was taken in June 1819. Elisha, the Fairfield history says, “served as Representative from the County” in 1816, presumably also to the Massachusetts General Court.

Main sources

Fairfield Historical Society, Fairfield, Maine 1788-1988 (1988).
Grow, Mary M., China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984).
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Wiggin, Ruby Crosby, Albion on the Narrow Gauge (1964).

Websites, miscellaneous.

Consolidated Communications officials: Do not expect an offer to expand internet service

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by Mary Grow

Members of China’s Broadband Committee (CBC) heard a presentation from two Consolidated Communications officials at their Jan. 18 meeting. The speakers did not encourage them to expect an offer from the company to expand internet service to town residents.

Consolidated, which used to be Fairpoint Communications, serves some China residents, many fewer than are served by Spectrum, the town’s main internet provider. One estimate CBC members have used is that Spectrum covers about 70 percent of households and Consolidated 20 percent, leaving the remainder with no internet service.

Consolidated representatives Simon Thorne and Sarah Davis explained why China is not near the top of Consolidated’s expansion list.

Company decisions are based on project cost, the number of potential customers, the take rate (how many residents sign up for the service) and the presence or absence of competition, Davis said. When the company goes into or expands in a town, it uses a mix of financing, including grants, private financing the company obtains with the expectation of a profit and local money.

China’s population density is too low to offer enough profit to attract investors.

Rules for broadband expansion grants are a work in progress. So far, most grants are available for towns with no service at all, so China would not be eligible.

And voters’ rejection of the CBC’s request for a bond issue last November casts doubt on local interest in providing funds.

When CBC member Tod Detre suggested the company plans to start with “more profitable areas,” Davis replied, “You nailed it.”

Mention of last November’s bond issue vote led to a spirited discussion. Ronald Breton, chairman of the select board and a guest at the CBC meeting, said emphatically that China is still interested in broadband expansion. He pointed out that after the vote, select board members voted unanimously to continue the CBC.

Janet Preston, the select board member who serves “ex officio” on the CBC, reminded Breton that on the Nov. 2, 2021, ballot, the select board and the budget committee both advised voters to reject the bond issue. She thinks the recommendations were “influential.”

Detre added that before the vote, opponents of the bond issue incorrectly claimed it was unnecessary, because “Consolidated would bring fiber [connections to all houses] in a year or two.” Davis confirmed Consolidated had and has no such intention.

Replying to a question from CBC member Neil Farrington, Davis said Consolidated does have fiber lines in China. But, she said, they are configured for business, and to reconfigure them to serve individual houses would be about as expensive as starting from scratch.

CBC Chairman Robert O’Connor asked if China would be more attractive to investors if the town were to form a utility district with neighboring towns, like Vassalboro and Windsor. Davis said she would find out whether a district might be helpful.

Since Davis was unsure how long it will take to get information, CBC members scheduled two more meetings: 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, to be canceled if they have no new matters to discuss; and 4 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 17, for continued discussion with Davis and Thorne if information is available by then.

China town manager presents initial budget draft

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by Mary Grow

China town manager Rebecca Hapgood. (photo by Eric W. Austin)

China Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood gave select board and budget committee members her initial draft of the 2022-23 town budget at a special joint meeting Jan. 24.

Select Board Chairman Ronald Breton said there would be no question and answer session at the special meeting. Members of both boards were given time to read and consider the lengthy compilation of information before discussion begins at the Jan. 31 select board meeting.

After select board members make their recommendations, the budget committee will schedule its meetings, probably in March.

The important deadlines, Hapgood said, are April 11, when select board members need to sign the final warrant for the annual town business meeting, and June 14, the date of the meeting.

As of now, the meeting is planned as a written-ballot vote, not an open meeting.

Hapgood said she has two main goals as she considers next year’s budget: avoiding a local tax increase, and “showing loyalty to town employees,” especially those who have served China for years. She proposes a six percent pay increase for town employees.

Her documents included detailed information on past, current and proposed expenditures and revenues, explanations of changes she recommends for next year and miscellaneous information, like the number of employees (16) and their years of service (ranging from almost one year to almost 28 years).

In her initial presentation, she told committee members such things as the number of miles of town-owned road (46.48 miles), the number of cemeteries in town (31) and China’s population according to the 2020 census (4,408 people).

Select board members intend to devote part of their Jan. 31 meeting to budget discussion. The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., in the town office meeting room.

China select board focuses on transfer station issues

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by Mary Grow

China Select Board members’ January 18 discussion focused on transfer station issues. Board members adopted one major change and are leaning toward another.

The approved change will be to replace the placards now used to identify transfer station users with the stickers used before 2019. Under consideration is addition of a guard building at the entrance. Both are aimed primarily at making sure only authorized users bring trash to the facility.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood explained that China – and other municipalities – adopted the RFID (radio frequency identification) system in 2019 with a state grant, because state officials used the system to collect information. They have no objection to China’s discontinuing the system, she said.

The main disadvantage of the placards is that they get loaned to non-residents whose taxes do not contribute to the China transfer station.

Stickers will be pasted on users’ vehicles and will have the vehicle’s license plate on them. That combination, Hapgood said, should deter non-resident use. It might also increase excise tax collection, since China residents will be unable to register a vehicle elsewhere and get a China transfer station sticker.

She recommended charging a nominal fee, a dollar or two, and proposed implementing the system in April or May.

Board member Blane Casey moved to implement a sticker system, with a low price for year-round residents and a higher price for seasonal and Palermo residents (Palermo residents use China’s transfer station by contract), with Hapgood to decide the prices. Sticker locations are to be prescribed so as to be the same for all vehicles and visible to transfer station staff.

Board Chairman Ronald Breton was the only one to vote against the motion, because he wanted the prices set before the board acted.

Residents who have more than one RFID placard (because they own multiple vehicles) are entitled to a refund for each additional one – the first one was free. Hapgood estimated China will owe about $5,800 in refunds.

The guard shack, the manager said, would let one station attendant check stickers and loads, make sure no forbidden items are brought in, direct patrons to the right disposal areas for various items and collect fees. (The list of items for which fees are charged is on the town website, china.govoffice.com, under Transfer Station under Town Departments; it is posted at the transfer station.)

Hapgood believes adding entrance duty would not require additional staff, because the other attendants would spend less time inspecting, giving directions, collecting money and moving misplaced items.

Casey, who is a building contractor, was appointed to prepare a cost estimate for a building. Decision was postponed until he reports.

Breton is also concerned about the abuse of the free sand box at the transfer station. China residents are allowed two buckets of sand at a time during transfer station hours; Breton said people are taking more and are coming in when the station is closed.

Hapgood said security cameras are being upgraded. She accepted board member Wayne Chadwick’s suggestion that she ask the sheriff’s deputies who patrol the town to make a point of driving by the transfer station during non-operating hours.

Chadwick, also a contractor, said sand supplies are tight, at least partly because of the unusual weather. Sand “has been getting used like I’ve never seen,” he commented.

Two other pending transfer station issues are: how much to charge Palermo residents for the trash bags they buy and use to distinguish their mixed waste from China residents’; and whether and if so how transfer station hours should be changed.

The China-Palermo contract specifies the four categories of costs that justify changes in bag prices. One, the price China pays to buy the bags, has increased substantially in recent months.

Hapgood’s ongoing survey for residents, available on the town website, at the town office and elsewhere, includes questions about when people are most likely to visit the transfer station.

In other business Jan. 18, board members unanimously appointed Joel Nelson chief of the China Village volunteer fire department, succeeding Timothy Theriault.

They approved a revised town personnel policy, with minor changes recommended by town attorney Amanda Meader to be added to the final version.

They confirmed their next two meetings, a joint session with the budget committee to hear Hapgood’s 2022-23 budget presentation on Monday, Jan. 24, and a regular select board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 31.