by Mary Grow China Planning Board members’ Aug. 9 meeting was only two minutes longer than their Aug. 4 public hearing on proposed amendments to Chapters 4 and 11 of the town Land Use Ordinance (see The Town Line, Aug. 11, p. 3). They voted unanimously to forward the amendments to the select board in […]
by Mary Grow At their Aug. 11 meeting, Vassalboro select board members set the 2022-23 tax rate at 14.4 mils, or $14.40 for each $1,000 of property valuation, a decrease of eight cents per $1,000 over the 2021-22 rate. Assessor Ellery Bane offered board members several choices of rate. They considered two possible reductions or […]
by Mary Grow This article is for people who enjoy an occasional glimpse into someone else’s life – nothing scandalous or earth-shaking, just odds and ends about the ordinary lives of people in another time. The main source is Henry D. Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history. The Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 was first […]
by Mary Grow China select board members had two main items on the agenda for their Aug. 8 special meeting. China Broadband Committee (CBC) members asked them to put on the Nov. 8 local ballot a memorandum of understanding leading toward expanded broadband service in town. Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood asked them to put on […]
by Mary Grow China Planning Board members held an Aug. 4 public hearing to explain changes in the town’s land use ordinance that are expected to be on the Nov. 8 local ballot. At five minutes, the hearing might be the shortest on record. Four residents were in the audience: Brent and Cathy Chesley, who […]
by Mary Grow China select board members spent a long Aug. 1 meeting going over a long agenda, with board member Janet Preston presiding in the absence of Chairman Ronald Breton. Ongoing issues included the proposed local fireworks ordinance; broadband expansion; the planned town office addition; using American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money to help […]
by Mary Grow Previous articles have talked about some of the natural resources in the central Kennebec Valley, notably clay and granite. Renewables, like timber, fur-bearing and other game animals and fish, have been ignored – would an enterprising reader like to tackle one or more of those topics? This piece will cover a varied […]
by Mary Grow – “Augusta has been abundantly supplied…with the best of granite, easily quarried, and of convenient access,” Augusta historian James North wrote…
by Mary Grow China select board members were joined by local, out-of-town and out-of-state spokespeople for broadband service at the July 18 select board meeting. Robert O’Connor, chairman of the China Broadband Committee (CBC), had shared with select board members and town attorney Amanda Meader a proposed memorandum of agreement (MOU) with Direct Communications, based […]
In James North’s detailed history of Augusta, the first mention of a brickyard is in a list of businesses active in August 1792 in what was then Hallowell…