by Mary Grow

China selectmen have set the tax rate for the current fiscal year, after a presentation by Tax Assessor William Van Tuinen at the Aug. 16 Selectboard meeting.

The new rate Van Tuinen recommended and selectmen approved is 14.40 mil, or $14.40 for each $1,000 of taxation. The rate for the year that ended June 30, 2021, was $14.90 per $1,000, selectmen said.

Van Tuinen warned property-owners not to expect lower bills, however. Tax bills depend on the value he has assigned to property multiplied by the tax rate; and because house prices have risen so dramatically, he increased building valuations by 16 percent.

He used building values for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2020. Since house prices have continued to rise, another upward revaluation is likely in a year.

Van Tuinen explained that by state law, an assessor needs to keep valuations close to market prices. If the difference gets too large, the state penalizes the town, by reducing various state financial contributions.

China is expected to spend more than $9.5 million in the current fiscal year, with more than half going to the school budget. By Van Tuinen’s figures, a little under $7.1 million will come from property taxes, the rest from other sources, including an anticipated $500,000 in state revenue sharing.

At the June 8 town meeting, voters approved a list of other revenue sources – revenue sharing was then estimated at $335,000. They also set tax due dates: the first half payment is due Thursday, Sept. 30. Town Manager Becky Hapgood expects bills will be mailed out before the end of August.

Selectmen followed up on another town meeting vote at their Aug. 16 meeting, the one authorizing them to sell the former subdivision on the east side of Lakeview Drive through a licensed real estate agent and to put the proceeds “in an assigned fund to reduce the mil rate in the fiscal year following the sale.”

After discussion, they voted unanimously that Lucas Adams of Adams Realty should handle the sale. Adams proposed a seven percent commission and, Hapgood said, he offered to work with Lindsey Harwath, head of the People’s Park organization seeking to raise funds to buy the land, and to reduce his commission if the group succeeded.

Adams valued the land at between $80,000 and $100,000. Selectmen split the difference and voted, again unanimously, to set $90,000 as a starting price.

Selectman Janet Preston asked whether the other board members had a goal for the property – did they favor the park (which she supports), or were they willing to see it become whatever a buyer wanted, even if the use did not benefit the town?

Sell it to the highest bidder, Selectman Wayne Chadwick said. He and fellow board member Blane Casey are dedicated to keeping taxes down; both reacted to the approved mil rate by commenting they need to budget more tightly this year.

Chadwick then made a third motion, to put the property on the market immediately while the market is up, rather than waiting to give the People’s Park group time to seek pledges and grants. That motion was approved on a split vote, with Chadwick, Casey and Irene Belanger in favor and Breton and Preston opposed.

Two other major items on the Aug. 16 agenda were proposed questions for the Nov. 2 local ballot.

Board members postponed action on the planning board’s requests and did not discuss the draft Solar Energy Systems Ordinance or the proposed shoreland zoning changes. (See related story, p. 8).

They debated the China Broadband Committee’s (CBC) request to ask voters to approve a bond issue for more than half an hour, discussing first whether to ask voters to weigh in at all and, after they agreed to that, whether there should be a Selectboard recommendation to approve or reject the article.

If the issue goes on the ballot, voters approve and selectmen borrow the money, currently anticipated to be $5.6 million, it would be used by Axiom Technologies to build new broadband infrastructure.

Chadwick was the only board member to vote against putting the bond issue on the Nov. 2 ballot. He thinks town government should not be in the telecommunications business.

Casey agreed with Chadwick, and Breton has strong reservations about the CBC’s plan. But both argued that after CBC members have worked so hard, they deserve a vote.

The selectmen’s recommendation on the article will be “Leave to the people,” or similar wording. Chadwick and Breton opposed that decision; Chadwick would have recommended not to approve the bond, and Breton thought selectmen should offer guidance.

“They [voters] didn’t elect us to dump it on them,” he said.

Less controversial agenda items included:

— Accepting the highest of seven bids for the old grader, $13,250 from Baker Machine, in South China;
— Reappointing Belanger as the town’s representative to the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments’ General Assembly, with Preston the alternate; and
— Renewing the license for Wildwood Pawn Inc., outside China Village.

Hapgood presented preliminary information she had collected on heat pumps for the town office and transfer station. Chadwick suggested other local venders she could contact.

The next regular China selectmen’s meeting will be Monday evening, Aug. 30.

by Mary Grow 

Money was the theme for many of the topics at the China selectmen’s Aug. 2 meeting – quite a lot of money, much of it potentially outgoing.

The China Broadband Committee’s planned request for a bond issue of around $6 million is the biggest proposed expenditure. CBC members did not have all the information they hoped to present and were not upset when Selectboard Chairman Ronald Breton recommended postponing action to Aug. 16. (See CBC story in August 5, 2021, issue of The Town Line, page 3).

CBC member Neil Farrington briefly listed advantages of better broadband service to town residents, from students learning remotely to senior citizens using telemedicine, and to existing and future businesses.

CBC Chairman Robert O’Connor promised information to selectmen as soon as possible, to give them time to review it and, he hopes, on Aug. 16 ask voters to authorize the bond issue on Nov. 2.

On a second matter, resident Stephen Greene asked that as selectmen prepare to carry out the voter-authorized sale of a town-owned lot on Lakeview Drive, they keep him and Lindsey Harwath informed; and that they consider saving money by omitting a broker and selling directly to the People’s Park Harwath is organizing.

Residents seeking more information about the proposed People’s Park or considering supporting the project are invited to contact Lindsey Harwath. She is currently collecting monetary pledges to help buy the land. She can be reached at harwlin@gmail.cm or at 207-314-4850.

Harwath and others are raising funds to buy the 39.3 acres for a recreation park. In response to Breton’s questions, Greene said donors would form a nonprofit organization that would be responsible for managing and maintaining the park, with no town obligation (unless town officials offered help). Under nonprofit ownership, the land would become tax-exempt.

Selectman Janet Preston, who has supported the park idea for months, pointed out selectmen could postpone action to give Harwath’s group more fund-raising time; they could always sell later.

Selectman Wayne Chadwick favored a prompt sale “while the market’s booming,” and did not approve of nonprofit ownership that would take the property off the tax rolls.

Town Manager Becky Hapgood read the warrant article voters approved at the June 8 town meeting directing selectmen to sell the land through a licensed real estate agent. She had requested expressions of interest from 11 residents in the real estate business; two replied, one proposing a seven percent commission and the other an eight percent commission.

Breton asked Hapgood to ask the town attorney for a legal interpretation of the warrant article and to ask a realtor for an estimated market price for the land. He then encouraged a motion to postpone action until the information was available. Board members approved postponement unanimously.

Selectmen renewed the town contract with Waste Management, Inc., operators of the Crossroads Landfill, in Norridgewock, for disposal of demolition debris and bulky waste, despite hefty fee increases.

The per ton fee will increase from $62.92 to $71 for the first year of a five-year contract, with four percent increases each of the following years.

Peter Lachapelle, listed on line as the company’s Public Sector Representative, joined the selectmen virtually and said the main reason for higher fees is “a huge capacity issue driving [disposal] rates through the roof,” especially in the Northeast. Landfills are closing, and no one wants a new one in his or her backyard, he said.

In addition, his business, like others, is raising wages to attract employees and paying higher prices for materials.

Asked twice by Breton, “Can’t you do better than that?” Lachapelle said “No.”

As a city councilor in his home town of Rochester, New Hampshire, he sympathized with the selectmen’s position, he said.

Selectmen were unaware of any alternative and unanimously approved the contract, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2022.

They also approved renewal of the roadside mowing contract with Frederick Drew’s Aggressive Cuts, LLC, of Hermon, for three years. Hapgood said the company will mow 47.29 miles of town (not state) roads, starting as soon as the weather permits. Rain flattens the grass so it can’t be mowed, she pointed out.

The vote on the mowing contract was the only non-unanimous decision of the evening. Blane Casey voted no, because he thought the board should have put the contract out for bid. Chadwick commended Drew’s company for the quality and price of the work in past years.

In other business at the Aug. 2 meeting, selectmen unanimously approved Hapgood’s recommended uses of some of the unspent funds from the fiscal year that ended June 30 to carry forward for pending expenditures or add to reserve funds. One of her recommendations is to buy more security cameras for town properties.

Assessing agent Kelly Grotton’s report, read by Hapgood, said selectmen should have the information they need to set the 2021-22 property tax rate at their Aug. 16 meeting. The preliminary indication is that for properties that have not changed in a year, land values will remain about the same and building values will increase noticeably.

As the meeting ended, Breton commended resident Scott Pierz for his service as president of the China Lake Association and the China Region Lakes Alliance. Pierz has resigned both positions because, he said, the CRLA has hired him as its new executive director, responsible for carrying out the programs he has helped create and oversee for years.

Greene is the new China Lake Association President.