by Mary Grow James North and Ruby Crosby Wiggin, quoted last week, were not the only local historians to mention the Year without a Summer. And 1816 was not the only unusually cold spell – though it was the longest spell of (fairly) consistently cold weather – recorded in the central Kennebec Valley since the […]
by Mary Grow At their Jan. 24 meeting, members of China’s Transfer Station Committee unanimously approved two documents for forwarding to the select board. One is a revised Solid Waste Ordinance, prepared with help from Jessica Cobb, of the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments. It combines two existing ordinances, titled Solid Waste Disposal Ordinance and […]
by Mary Grow China select board members began their Jan. 29 meeting by hearing Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood’s initial presentation on the 2023-24 town budget, with four budget committee members joining them (three others were unable to attend). Members of both boards will review the thick budget books Hapgood prepared, with, she said, much help […]
by Mary Grow Vassalboro select board members, Webber Pond Association leaders and other interested parties held the joint meeting they planned back in November 2022, on Jan. 25. At the Nov. 10 select board meeting, Association president John Reuthe and Department of Marine Resources staff member Nate Gray said the lake had poor water quality […]
by Mary Grow China Planning Board members considered three documents at their Jan. 24 meeting. They agreed to continue discussion of amending the Board of Appeals Ordinance (which is Chapter 9 of the Land Use Ordinance) at their Feb. 14 meeting, with members of China’s board of appeals and select board invited to participate (see […]
by Mary Grow After several months’ discussion, at their Jan. 17 meeting Vassalboro School Board members approved a lease agreement for the daycare that Jennifer Lizotte runs at Vassalboro Community School (VCS). The daycare has operated without a formal agreement for years. The agreement runs into the spring of 2024, when it is to be […]
by Mary Grow Vassalboro select board members preceded their Jan. 19 meeting with a 45-minute public hearing to collect suggestions for spending federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds in the 2023-24 fiscal year. During the meeting, they rediscussed some recommendations from their Dec. 8, 2022, meeting, added a few more items and after another […]
by Mary Grow After their Jan. 17 meeting, Vassalboro Planning Board members have a draft ordinance section that would regulate commercial solar development in near-final form. They plan to forward it to the town attorney for her review. Board members and representatives of the Main Street Maine coalition, the residents near a suggested solar site […]
by Mary Grow And the year without a summer Before this series moves on to describe the year without a summer, one more flood needs mention and another a description. The Fairfield Historical Society’s bicentennial history says a March 2, 1896, freshet took out the last remaining of the three 1848 covered bridges between Fairfield […]
by Mary Grow After the China select board’s Jan. 17 meeting, town manager Rebecca Hapgood reported that most of their decisions, as assessors and as select board members, involved individual property tax issues. Topics of town-wide importance were a potential new fire engine, on which no action was taken, and a committee appointment. China Village […]