by Mary Grow At a March 2 meeting, China Planning Board members unanimously voted to forward their recommended version of the Board of Appeals Ordinance to the select board, scheduled to meet March 6. The decision was not reached without yet another argument – they started in January – about the relationship between the select […]
by Mary Grow Henry Sewall, part one The fourth early Augusta settler, prominent citizen and diarist your writer promised to introduce was Henry Sewall (Oct. 24, 1752 – Sept. 4, 1845). His diary poses a puzzle. James North, whose history of Augusta was published in 1870, relied heavily on it from the 1780s through the […]
by Mary Grow The Vassalboro Historical Society (VHS) has a new tool, and VHS president Jan Clowes is excited about using it and about sharing it. It’s called a Bookeye scanner, and it takes pictures of documents and transfers them to a computer, from which they can be read, downloaded, printed and otherwise used without […]
by Mary Grow At a Feb. 16 meeting, five members of China’s Thurston Park Committee talked mostly about money to repair and improve the entrance road and trails and add amenities. Committee chairman Jeanette Smith reported that China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee had cut the request for $44,000 in 2023-24 for trail work in […]
by Mary Grow Daniel Cony Daniel Cony (Aug. 3, 1752 – Jan. 21, 1842) has been mentioned in previous articles in this series in various contexts, including as the founder of Augusta’s Cony Female Academy and the man after whom Cony High School is named. He was profiled in the Sept. 2, 2021, issue of […]
by Mary Grow District #15 State Senator Matthew Pouliot visited the Vassalboro select board’s Feb. 16 meeting to speak briefly about legislative issues and to ask what’s important to Vassalboro officials and residents. He began with the state-wide need for affordable housing and the problem of balancing responses to state issues with local control. The […]
by Mary Grow At their Feb. 7 meeting, Vassalboro Planning Board members approved reuse of the East Vassalboro Country Store; continued discussion of the proposed solar ordinance; postponed two applications on their agenda because applicants were not present; and rejected an unusual request to pre-approve a new business. Tim and Heather Dutton applied in January […]
by Mary Grow Vassalboro school board members discussed various topics at their Feb. 14 meeting, excluding the 2023-24 budget. The budget will be the topic of a Tuesday, March 7, workshop, set to begin at 5:30 p.m. instead of the usual 6 p.m. at Vassalboro Community School (VCS). Principal Ira Michaud reported on both ends […]
by Mary Grow After the China select board held a Feb. 13 public hearing on proposed amendments to the Board of Appeals Ordinance (Chapter 9 of China’s Land Use Ordinance) and invited members of the planning and appeals boards to participate, planning board members devoted their Feb. 14 meeting to a workshop on the ordinance. […]
by Mary Grow Ballard Last week readers met James Howard, one of the first settlers at Cushnoc (which became Hallowell, which divided into Hallowell and Augusta) and some of his family members; and your writer promised information on other pre-Augusta settlers, Ephraim Ballard, Daniel Cony and Henry Sewall. Thanks to her habit of keeping a […]