China town meeting to be held via written ballot June 10

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China Town Officeby Mary Grow

China’s annual town business meeting will be held by written ballot on Tuesday, June 10. Polls in the portable building in the town office complex will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Absentee ballots are available at the town office until 4:30 p.m. Thursday, June 5, for voters unable to come to the polls.

Voters will act on 2025-26 municipal and school budgets, on two separate warrants. The municipal warrant was developed by China select board members with input from the town’s budget committee, municipal employees and other interested parties.

The RSU (Regional School Unit) 18 budget for 2025-26 was developed by school officials, including the 10-member school board. China’s representatives on the board are Dawn Castner and John Soifer.

China’s June 10 meeting begins with election of a moderator at 6:55 a.m. Following articles include action on proposed expenditures for the fiscal year that begins July 1; policy decisions; and four ordinance changes.

As in past years, major expenses are to run the town. Relevant articles include:

— Art. 4, requesting $1,208,981 for municipal services (town office employees and their services, with related items like insurance and software). The comparable figure in the June 2024 warrant was $1,184,525.
— Art. 7, $467,493 for public safety, including support for local fire departments and China Rescue, animal control, Kennebec County Sheriff’s Office services and Delta Ambulance. The article includes $154,280 for Delta Ambulance, as the 2025-26 fee to member towns will increase from $25 to $35 per capita. Art. 29 authorizes the select board to negotiate for ambulance service, in case Delta finances fail.

Last year’s public safety request was $420,931. Art. 28 in last year’s warrant was the same as this year’s Art. 29.

— Art. 8, $646,799 for the transfer station, down from $666,325 last year. Much of the change is due to rearranging staff-sharing with public works.
— Art. 9, $1,818,420, for public works (including appropriating state road funds), down from last June’s appropriation of $1,848,100 for the current year.

The largest proposed decreases in public works are for paving, capital equipment and truck repairs.

Town employees’ pay is part of the administration, transfer station and public works budgets. After debate among themselves and with budget committee members, the select board majority recommends a 3.5 percent cost of living increase. Board member Blane Casey voted against the increase as too generous and therefore does not recommend voters approve articles including town salaries.

After smaller appropriations requests come policy articles asking permission for the select board to carry out its functions – deal with foreclosed property, apply for and use grants, sign contracts, buy and sell items as needed. Budget discussions showed no striking changes from last year’s warrant articles.

Art. 32 is another appropriations request, for $30,000 to finish improving Town Landing Road in South China Village, primarily to reduce erosion into China Lake.

Voters are asked to amend two chapters of the town’s Land Development Code, to complete removal of unneeded provisions (Art. 31); to repeal two complete ordinances, one obsolete and one illegal; and to re-amend the Budget Committee Ordinance.

The Land Development Code amendments will match China’s ordinance with state requirements for timber harvesting, Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said.

The ordinance dealing with retail (as opposed to medical) marijuana facilities (Art. 30) should be repealed because it has been superseded by state law. China’s ordinance requiring a quorum for town meeting should also be repealed: it has been deemed illegal under state law.

The final article on the town warrant asks voters to amend the Budget Committee Ordinance to restore the committee membership to seven (instead of five, as in the version approved in November 2024). Committee members will continue to be appointed by the select board, not elected by districts (leaving untouched two other changes approved last fall).

The shorter RSU #18 warrant asks only two questions:

— Will China voters approve the FY 26 budget adopted by the RSU board and approved at the most recent RSU budget meeting (this question is the “annual budget referendum”)?
— Do China voters want to continue the annual budget referendum vote for another three years?

The 2025 RSU budget meeting was held the evening of May 22, in Oakland. If the second question is defeated this year, the final budget decision will be made at the annual budget meeting for at least three future years, without a follow-up referendum.

The RSU budget for 2025-26, found on the RSU website, totals $45,563,358.69. The document says this figure is an increase of $1,185,863.98, or 2.67 percent, over the current year’s budget.

China’s share is listed at $3,728,828.33 for local EPS (Educational Programs and Services) plus $2,249,442.19 in local additional funds, for a total of $5,978,270.52. The budget document says China’s EPS figure is a $241,301.99, or 6.92 percent, increase over the current year; the town’s local additional figure is an increase of $82,865.47, or 3.82 percent.

The total increase for China is $324, 167.46. At an April select board meeting, RSU Superintendent Carl Gartley explained the main reason is a legislatively-authorized increase in the Insured Value Factor, the amount allowed to private schools, like Erskine Academy, for facilities maintenance.

The annual school budget is divided among RSU #18’s five member towns – Belgrade, China, Oakland, Rome and Sidney – according to a formula based on student numbers and municipal valuations.

Vassalboro town meeting: Voters make no drastic changes to recommendations

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More than 100 voters attended Vassalboro’s town meeting on June 2. (photo courtesy of Aaron Miller)

Vassalboro’s annual town meeting, held Monday evening, June 2, in the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium, had many familiar elements.

More than 100 voters attended, as usual, including all of the select board and school board and most of the budget committee. They went through about the usual number of articles, 41 this time, in about the same amount of time, from 6:30 to 9:50 p.m.

As usual, many articles asked for funds for the next fiscal year. Amounts were in some cases higher than in the past, as voters pointed out. As usual, voters made no drastic changes in officials’ recommendations.

The frequent cries of “Can’t hear you!” were also familiar, as the microphone passed from speaker to speaker.

Two differences were a new (to Vassalboro) moderator, Jeffrey Frankel from Windsor, and at intervals a new tone, a repetition of the spring’s differences among the select board, budget committee and school board. Budget committee members participated more than usual, explaining their positions as a committee and occasionally as individuals.

Town Manager Aaron Miller had arranged for Frankel to run the meeting, since former moderator Richard Thompson has retired.

Miller’s introductory statement summarized proposed expenditures and explained why he and select board members recommend increases, especially in capital reserve funds, needed to avoid even larger future increases.

Miller said town officials intend to “factor” – increase all property values by a selected percentage – this year. Otherwise, he said, Vassalboro’s valuation will be so low that the town’s state revenue sharing and other benefits would be cut.

Town officials anticipate a tax increase for the fiscal year that begins July 1 (with the first quarterly payment due Sept. 29). However, Miller said, the figures calculated in the 2024 town report (page 19) are not final.

After Frankel’s election and preliminary explanations of procedures, voters elected five budget committee members for two-year terms. They are returning members Donald Breton, William Browne, Phillip Landry and Peggy Schaffer and new member, Ben Loiko.

Voters then approved a $2.9 million municipal budget, covering town departments, after a motion to reduce the recreation and library accounts by $35,000 – mostly aimed at the recreation director’s position — was defeated.

Five requests to raise money from taxes for capital reserve accounts (Art. 6) were debated individually. Voters approved $21,600 for a public works reserve account, without discussion; and accepted the budget committee’s lower recommendations on two plow truck reserves, $50,000 (instead of the select board’s $78,000) to replace truck #6 and nothing to replace truck #2; and added $11,250 to the capital improvement reserve.

They authorized $53,738 for a new backhoe at the transfer station, although the budget committee had recommended no money this year. Budget committee member Breton said the transfer station task force has not yet made recommendations that might affect the kind of equipment needed.

Budget committee member Frank Richards said the recommendation for no money was not unanimous. “If you go cheap, you sure get beat,” he quoted, recommending action now to get a three-year no-interest financing deal.

Former select board member Lauchlin Titus commented that he had served on the select board for 12 years and been off five – and remembered discussing the backhoe during his first year on the board.

After explanations by select board chair Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., and budget committee member Breton, $125,000, to be kept on hand in case the Mill Hill Road bridge fails before it can be replaced, was deleted from the capital reserve article. Instead of raising the money from taxes, voters approved transferring it from the existing surplus, under the following article.

In another familiar move, voters approved a motion to discuss and vote on Art. 8 through Art. 24 as a group. They approved all after a couple questions, giving town officials typical authorizations, amending the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s charter and approving more expenditures.

Art. 25, authorizing funds for “health and welfare outside agencies” was approved at the budget committee’s recommended level of $41,116.03. That sum excludes $4,000 for Window Dressers, a group that helps low-income area residents better insulate their windows. Local head Holly Weidner explained that funds are not needed next year, though she is likely to request money in 2026-27.

To pay Delta Ambulance’s 2025-26 bill, voters approved the budget committee’s recommended $46,932. Denico said the figure will cover the bill with the offered early payment discount. Select board members had recommended the undiscounted amount, fearing Delta’s bill would be due before the Sept. 29 tax payments come in and the town would be short of ready money.

School Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer introduced the 2025-26 school budget, reminding voters of the maintenance needs of the 33-year-old building in which they were sitting. School board members distributed a letter from board chair Jolene Gamage and a two-page explanation of relations between the school board and budget committee.

Budget committee member Dallas Smedberg chastised the school board for not sharing a detailed budget in time for budget committee members’ review. Gamage replied that budget committee members had been welcome at all school board budget discussions, and added that school board members themselves had not had all the figures they needed on time.

Voters then approved the $10.4 million school budget as presented. Frankel said state law required a counted vote on three articles: he counted one or two negative votes on Art. 38, none on Art. 39 or Art. 40.

Town meeting will reconvene at 8 a.m. Tuesday, June 10, in the town office meeting room. Voters will decide whether to affirm the 2025-26 school budget they approved June 2, and will conduct local elections.

To be elected are one select board member, two school board members and (because the amended Sanitary District charter was approved) five members of the Sanitary District board of trustees.

The list of candidates is on the town website, Vassalboro.net, under the absentee ballots notice and also under the Elections heading, subheading absentee ballots.

Planners approve only application before the board

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China Town Officeby Mary Grow

China Planning Board members approved the only application on their May 27 agenda and postponed everything else.

Natasha Littlefield, owner/operator of Littlefield’s Gym, in the former Farrington building, at 9 Legion Memorial Drive, in South China, applied to use office space in the building for her accounting business.

She’s run the business remotely from her home since 2013, she said. She plans no changes to disturb neighbors – no additional lights or noise, no changes to landscaping or parking, no additional employees, maybe a few more clients’ cars during the day.

The three planning board members present decided no public hearing was required. They found the application met all ordinance criteria and unanimously approved it.

The gym, Littlefield said, has about 150 members. It is open 24 hours a day, but seldom used between early evening and early morning.

The agenda for May 27 included discussion with members of China’s comprehensive planning committee and review of two draft ordinances, a new one to prohibit new high-speed power transmission lines through town and a new section of the subdivision ordinance.

Board chairman Toni Wall said she invited five comprehensive planning committee members to the meeting. None responded and none came.

Wall had not had time to continue work on ordinances.

The next China Planning Board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, June 10, in the town office meeting room. Wall said Town Clerk Angela Nelson does not expect the board meeting will interfere with voting in the adjourning portable building, or vice versa.

China’s June 10 annual town business meeting will be by written ballot, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Angry budget committee members confront select board

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Vassalboro Town Officeby Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members were confronted by three angry budget committee members at their May 29 meeting. (See the May 22 issue of The Town Line, p. 2, for related information.)

Committee chairman Peggy Schaffer, supported by members Douglas Phillips and Frank Richards, told select board members they failed to provide timely financial information this spring. As a result, budget committee members made recommendations they likely would not have made, had they been properly informed.

Schaffer’s main issue was the question of Vassalboro’s undesignated fund balance (commonly known as surplus), money in reserve for emergencies.

During the budget process, resident John Melrose and others recommended a municipality have enough money in reserve for three months’ expenditures.

Budget committee members did not know where Vassalboro’s reserve fund stood, so they hesitated to recommend drawing from it for 2025-26 expenses. They also wanted to minimize increasing local taxes. A third option was to recommend less spending than some members would have preferred.

The lack of information, Schaffer said, was because town officials had not received annual audit reports for either 2023-24 or 2022-23. Now that last year’s report is in town officials’ hands, it shows a comfortable surplus – information that budget committee members should have had when they began deliberations.

Now, Schaffer said, budget committee members might have to make amended recommendations from the floor during the June 2 annual town meeting, a process she does not like.

Richards was surprised that town officials did not have current figures on surplus in town accounts, instead of relying on audits.

Select board chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., said he began nagging the auditors in January. Their response: Other towns were three years behind getting their reports.

Town Manager Aaron Miller explained later that Vassalboro’s auditors, RHR Smith and Company, in Buxton, fell behind during the Covid epidemic – like many other Maine auditing firms, he added – and have been trying to catch up ever since. This spring, Vassalboro paid the company an additional $6,000 to complete the audit.

An additional complication is that Dawn Haywood is Vassalboro’s third bookkeeper since 2021, Miller said. Part of the bookkeeper’s job is working with the auditors.

Budget committee members Donald Breton and Dallas Smedberg also attended the May 29 meeting. Both asked procedural questions.

In other business May 29, Miller introduced summer intern Peter Lefresne, who will work 15 hours a week through August, courtesy of the internship program at the University of Southern Maine’s Muskie School of Public Service.

Board members voted unanimously to authorize engineer Jeff Senders to go ahead with long-discussed plans to redesign the traffic pattern at the transfer station.

They agreed to forward a draft revised TIF (Tax Increment Financing) document, prepared by board member Michael Poulin, to the town’s attorney for review. The outline of expenditures from Vassalboro’s TIF funds, derived from taxes on the gas pipeline through town, also needs approval from state officials and town voters before it can replace the present version.

In response to select board member Chris French’s repeated proposal to expand the select board from three to five members, Miller had found state requirements. Chapter 121, subchapter 2, Section 4A of paragraph 2526, says:

“A town may determine at a meeting held at least 90 days before the annual meeting whether 3, 5 or 7 will be elected to each board and their terms of office.

(1) Once the determination has been made, it stands until revoked at a meeting held at least 90 days before the annual meeting.
(2) If a town fails to fix the number, three must be elected. If a town fails to fix the term, it is for one year.”

Board members authorized the manager to draft a ballot question to be submitted to town voters.

Miller and Lefresne are looking into the possibility of installing an outdoor fitness park in Vassalboro. The manager showed a brief video from National Fitness Campaign and said a $50,000 grant is available toward the $250,000 cost.

Miller emphasized he does not plan to ask for tax money for the project. The idea might be “pie in the sky,” he allowed, but he saw no harm in looking into it. Farmington, Lewiston and Hampden have installed such parks, he said.

The manager is also exploring new ways, mostly technological, to communicate with residents. Denico recommended for now, putting more information, like town meeting reminders, on the Vassalboro Facebook page.

Discussion continued on two on-going topics, the town’s personnel policy and the foreclosed property adjoining the transfer station on Lombard Dam Road.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 5 (only one week after the prior one). After that, the board is not scheduled to meet until Thursday evening, June 26.

Vassalboro cemetery committee satisfied with summer plans

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Cemetery Committee members are satisfied with their plans for summer maintenance work.

Four members who met May 19 expect the annual professional help from Grave Stone Matters, in Hoosick Falls, New York, from July 10 to 14. Joseph Ferrannini is scheduled to repair stones in the large North Vassalboro Village cemetery, committee chair Savannah Clark said.

Clark said Town Manager Aaron Miller has arranged insurance for local volunteers, who can begin work when the weather permits.

Tree removal is scheduled for the Nelson Road cemetery, near the south end of Nelson Road, and the Farwell-Brown cemetery, on Riverside Drive not far north of the Augusta city line. Bids to do the work are due at the town office by 3:30 p.m. Monday, June 16, according to the town website.

Committee members settled two issues discussed previously.

The document titled “Trees and Stones: A Balancing Act in Vassalboro Cemeteries”, is now on the Vassalboro website, for public information. It is under the heading Cemeteries, the second item under “Rules for Vassalboro Cemeteries.”

This statement, approved by the town select board, makes it clear that the cemetery committee is responsible for trees in cemeteries, including removing those that are potential hazards to stones, fences or other structures.

In a related matter, David Jenney found a 2010 town ordinance, repeated in December 2023 cemetery rules, forbidding planting trees or invasive plants in any Vassalboro cemetery.

The second issue, raised at the committee’s April 28 meeting, was how deep cremains should be buried in cemeteries. Committee members’ research had found no law or other firm requirement. They decided to stay with what seems to be consensus: three feet deep preferred when feasible, but not a strict requirement.

Committee member Jane Aiudi had two more concerns.

Referring to a state law she found saying municipal authorities are responsible for marking veterans’ graves for Memorial Day, she asked what arrangements town officials have made to make sure the graves are properly marked.

Clark said later that currently, Vassalboro volunteer fire department member Don Breton (who served on the select board some years ago) has assumed the task.

Also, Aiudi was concerned with the reach of right-to-know laws. Committee members are aware that if three (or more) meet outside a meeting (at the supermarket, for instance), they cannot legally talk committee business: such discussions can only be held in a properly announced meeting.

Aiudi, citing a conversation with Miller, feared her telephone calls might be subject to right-to-know laws if she mentioned committee issues to anyone. Members also wondered whether, when they are working together on cemetery repairs, they can discuss what they’re doing.

Jody Kundreskas suggested they could talk about the work they were doing, but not about policy matters. Clark reminded the group that last year, at least some of their work days were publicized in advance for anyone who wanted to come.

The next regular Vassalboro Cemetery Committee meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, June 16.

Vassalboro town meeting will be held in two sessions

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Vassalboro Town Officeby Mary Grow

Vassalboro’s annual town meeting for 2025 will be in two sessions, eight days apart and in two different locations.

On Monday, June 2, voters will assemble in the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium, at 6:30 p.m., to talk about and vote on articles number one through 41. On Tuesday, June 10, polls will be open at the town office for written-ballot voting on Articles 42 and 43.

The open meeting decisions cover the 2025-26 budgets for the town and the school and a variety of policy issues. At the polls, voter will decide whether to affirm the 2025-26 school budget approved June 2; and they will elect municipal officials: one select board member, two school board members and five members of the Vassalboro Sanitary District board of trustees.

Vassalboro’s annual town meeting for 2025 will be in two sessions, eight days apart and in two different locations.

The town meeting warrant is on the town website, vassalboro.net. The list of candidates for local offices is also on the website, under the heading absentee ballots.

At the June 2 open meeting, the first article asks voters to elect a moderator to run the meeting. Richard Thompson, who has moderated Vassalboro’s meetings for years, has retired. Town Manager Aaron Miller said in April he has arranged for Jeff Frankel, from Windsor, to be available.

Art. 2 calls for election of five members of the budget committee. According to the website, current members whose terms end at this meeting are William Browne, Donald Breton, Dallas Smedberg, Peggy Schaffer, and Phillip Landry. Those elected last year and continuing in office to June 2026 are Frank Richards, Nate Gray, Douglas Phillips, Laura Jones and Richard Bradstreet.

Voters are then asked to approve 2025-26 tax due dates (Art. 3) and more than $2 million in non-tax revenues (Art. 4). Requests for expenditures begin with Art. 5, asking for more than $2.9 million to run town departments next year, and continue at intervals through many other articles.

Select board members began discussing expenditures in February. They and budget committee members held many long meetings, some including discussions with town employees and people requesting funds for organizations or otherwise affected by budget recommendations.

The two committees’ recommendations for capital reserve funds (Art. 6) disagree substantially. The budget committee majority does not recommend any funds be set aside for transfer station equipment or to replace plow truck #2; the select board recommends $53,738 and $50,000, respectively. For replacing truck #6, the select board recommends $78,000, the budget committee $50,000.

At their May 15 meeting, select board members made plans to amend Art. 6 and Art. 7 from the meeting floor. They plan to ask voters to take $125,000 to be used for the Mill Hill bridge (under Art. 7), if it fails before repairs are organized, from unexpended fund balance, not raise the money from taxes under Art. 6.

Select board and budget committee members also disagree on their recommendations for outside agencies (Art. 25) and Delta Ambulance (Art. 26).

Art. 25 includes $4,000 for the Window Dressers program, endorsed by the select board and not the budget committee. For ambulance service, select board members recommend voters appropriate the full bill, $154,665. Budget committee members recommend taking advantage of the early-payment discount, and therefore appropriating $146,932.

School board members reduced the first budget they sent to the budget committee by $75,000. The result is that both boards recommend the 2025-26 school budget totaling $10,414,498.24 (in Articles 28 through 41).

New this year is Art. 13, asking voters to approve amendments to the charter of the Vassalboro Sanitary District. This article is the result of months of discussion among town and sanitary district officials and several lawyers.

Other articles Town Manager Miller included in the meeting warrant ask voters to allow select board members to sign contracts, accept insurance settlements, grants and gifts and carry out other appropriate actions during the year.

Northern Light Inland Hospital ends clinical services

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On Tuesday, May 27, 2025, Northern Light Inland Hospital and clinical services ended. The facility, associated services, and most practices have been winding down services and working to transition patients to new care locations since announcing the closure earlier this year.

On Tuesday, May 27, 2025:

• The emergency department stopped accepting new patients at noon.
• All clinical services ended.

The following practices will remain open to serve patients and the community:

• Northern Light Primary Care, Unity, as part of Northern Light Sebasticook Valley Hospital
• Northern Light Walk-In Care, Waterville, as part of Northern Light Mercy Hospital
• Northern Light Primary Care, Madison, as a practice of Redington-Fairview General Hospital.

Many providers will continue to offer care in Waterville and the surrounding area at new practice locations, and many current patients can choose to continue care with their current provider. Letters have been mailed to established patients of closing practices advising on any action needed to continue care with their current provider or to transition care to a new provider/practice.

As a reminder, this closure does not affect Northern Light Continuing Care, Lakewood, which operates as a separate entity in Waterville.

Additional information about the closure, answers to frequently asked questions, and up to date information about providers, can be found at NorthernLightHealth.org/InlandNotice.

China resident proposes to have Hometown Heroes flags installed in town

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China Town Officeby Mary Grow

At their May 19 meeting, China select board members were presented with a proposal to have Hometown Heroes banners in town.

Resident Jacinth Allard, who was unable to attend the meeting, had proposed to Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood that China join other area towns – Clinton and Benton were mentioned – with flags honoring individual veterans. With Hapgood’s encouragement, Allard provided select board members with information on the program.

Hapgood explained that each flag has a photograph of the service member and relevant information. Allard had presented two pages showing flags in a variety of colors and designs.

Veterans’ families are expected to pay for their flag and the hardware to hang it. Permission to attach the flags to power poles, and municipal approval, are needed.

Allard had approached Central Maine Power Company and was waiting for a reply, Hapgood said.

Select board members unanimously approved the idea and voted to continue to follow up with Allard.

The other major issue May 19 was left over from the board’s April 22 meeting: approval of remaining TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Committee’s recommendations (see the May 1 issue of “The Town Line,” p. 3). On April 22, board members ran out of time before acting on the town’s three requests; Hapgood added them, plus one, to the May 19 agenda.

Board members unanimously approved $490 for Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce dues and $15,000 for the 2025 China Days celebration.

They approved another $15,000 for a 2025 summer intern, on a 4-1 vote, after a discussion of past interns’ usefulness. Hapgood supports the idea, and board members Edwin Bailey, Blane Casey, Jeanne Marquis and Thomas Rumpf agreed, despite some reservations. Board chair Wayne Chadwick argued that since past interns had brought in no new businesses, it is time to scrap the program.

A request for $7,504 for Kennebec Valley Council of Government dues was postponed two weeks, as members wondered what KVCOG has done for the town to justify the money. Hapgood and audience members mentioned collective purchasing (culverts and road salt, for example) and help with planning.

In other business May 19, select board members:

— Approved draft mission statements from the town’s transfer station committee and building committee.
— Accepted a bid for this summer’s roadside mowing, choosing Pierce Works, LLC, of China over a competitor whose proposed hourly rate was called “too open-ended” and “worrisome.” Hapgood said Pierce had the contract last year.
— Accepted the low bid for carpentry for the new vault at the town office, from Foote Construction, of China. Casey abstained, because he was involved in arranging for the bidding.
— Appointed ballot clerks and set town clerk’s and registrar’s hours (the normal town office hours) in preparation for the June 10 annual town business meeting.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, June 2. Board members hope to be done by 7 p.m., so they can accept invitations to tour China’s three fire stations after the meeting.

Vassalboro school board catches up on old business after budget sent to town office

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Vassalboro Community School

Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

With their 2025-26 budget recommendations in final form and forwarded to the town office, Vassalboro School Board members had time to catch up on other business at their May 13 meeting.

A main item was updating the Vassalboro Consolidated School building, opened in 1992. Tom Seekins, from Portland-based Energy Management Consultants, was invited to continue discussions started in January and February.

Seekins and board members developed a set of priorities, which Seekins had organized into four options. He estimated the cost of each, considering both prices of equipment and labor and projected savings from energy efficiency.

Timing was another element. Seekins discussed how long it should take to get various components, and how to schedule work to minimize interference with summer activities and fall classes.

Board members voted unanimously to authorize Energy Management Consultants to proceed with the first option. Seekins listed the following seven projects, which he called “critical upgrades to aging systems that impact energy efficiency, occupant comfort, and long-term facility resiliency.”

— A ventilation upgrade, consisting of replacing two 34-year-old air handlers with modern Energy Recovery Ventilation (ERV) units that will improve indoor air quality and save energy.
— Terminal equipment replacement, specifically replacing deteriorated, unreliable “cabinet unit heaters,” mostly in the corridors, with high-efficiency units.
— Installation of a modern – digital, instead of pneumatic (relying on compressed air) – building-wide Energy Management System (EMS) for better control and monitoring.
— Weatherization, especially, but not merely, replacing deteriorated exterior doors.
— Installation of a Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) system on the second floor, to provide, efficiently, year-round comfortable temperatures in rooms that now get too warm in summer.
— Adding modern lighting, easier to control and more efficient.
— Doing two indoor jobs: replacing the first-floor suspended ceilings and “targeted concrete repairs in the lower level.”

The company will prepare final plans, seek competitive bids and oversee work. The first payment from Vassalboro will be due as part of the 2026-2027 budget, not next year, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said.

Pfeiffer commended school board members for making the decision to go ahead with the work, calling them “good stewards of the building” who are trying to solve its aging problems before they turn into disasters.

Also pending, Pfeiffer said, are summer maintenance work, to include a lot of painting; installation of school zone lights on Webber Pond Road, according to recent information from the Maine Department of Transportation; and, with assistance from the town public works department, actions to reduce congestion on roads by the school as parents pick up children at the end of the school day.

Pfeiffer said later in the week he is consulting with others to develop a plan to improve the traffic situation. No decisions have yet been made.

Board member Jessica Clark, tracking relevant Maine legislative actions through her membership on the Maine School Boards Association legislative committee, reported that a bill to make the November election day a Maine holiday is “looking good” this year.

Town officials have talked of holding state elections in the VCS gymnasium. If they do, and if school is closed for the day, another day (like snow days) will have to be made up in June; and board members have discussed other complications (see the April 17 issue of “The Town Line”, p. 2). Having school closed for a state holiday would be simpler.

Pfeiffer reported for Finance Director Paula Pooler that the school system is still within its 2024-25 budget, and should be okay, narrowly, at the end of June.

Board members acted on numerous appointments as new teachers moved from probationary status onward.

The next Vassalboro School Board meeting will be postponed from Tuesday, June 10 (Election Day), to 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 11, so that board members will know whether voters have approved the 2025-26 school budget.

Vassalboro voters have the school budget on the warrant for their Monday, June 2, open meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. in the VCS gym. On June 10, when polls are open for written-ballot voting from 8 a.m.

Vassalboro select board receives satisfactory news on finances

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members got satisfactory news about town finances at their May 15 meeting.

Auditor Ron Smith, head of RHR Smith, Auditors, in Buxton, said the audit for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023, is done, and the audit for the year that ended June 30, 2024, will be shared in draft form within a week.

Vassalboro’s surplus account, about $1.7 million as of June 30, 2024, meets recommended standards; it would keep the town running for 90 days in a financial emergency. The Vassalboro school system’s separate surplus is also adequate, Smith said.

Smith was followed by Matt Weaver, from Damariscotta-based First National Wealth Management, who reported that Vassalboro’s investments are doing well so far this year, despite financial uncertainties.

“Overall, we’re please with how the portfolio’s performed,” he summarized.

Weaver recommended no changes in Vassalboro’s conservative financial strategy.

Much of the May 15 meeting was spent re-discussing the draft personnel policy with three town employees. Select board members heard their comments and answered their questions.

In other business, the public works crew was complimented on one project and authorized to go ahead with another.

Select board member Michael Poulin and Town Manager Aaron Miller praised the almost-finished pavilion at Eagle Park, on Route 32 (Main Street), just north of East Vassalboro Village. Public works employee Shawn Bragg said while the crew was working on the roof, a group of bicyclists stopped and had lunch there.

Conservation Commission members plan to add picnic tables made at Vassalboro’s Maine Adirondack Chairs, on Holman Day Road.

Miller said the school department had asked to have the public works crew help with a to-be-planned project to lessen congestion when parents pick up students at the end of the school day. Select board members authorized use of town employees’ time and town materials, if the work is approved by relevant state departments (transportation and, board member Chris French suggested, environmental protection).

Miller proposed taking advantage of an offer of a 150-hour summer intern to help in the town office, from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. The only cost to the town, he said, would be to send the person to an August workshop. Select board members approved by consensus.

French said a resident asked about mooring a boat in China Lake, near the East Vassalboro landing. Miller advised talking with Kennebec Water District officials, who are concerned about protecting the lake that is their water source.

French raised three issues for future discussion: updating town ordinances, updating the town’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) document and enlarging the select board. He has repeatedly recommended a five-person select board; perhaps, he suggested, the question could be put to voters in November.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 29. The preceding Monday, May 26, town functions will be closed for the Memorial Day holiday.