by Mary Grow China Planning Board members used their Aug. 10 meeting for final reviews of documents they submitted to China selectmen ahead of the Aug. 16 selectboard meeting. Both are proposed ordinance changes that need voter approval: an amendment to the shoreland zoning section of the town Land Use Ordinance to bring China regulations […]
by Mary Grow Vassalboro selectmen have set the 2021-22 tax rate: 14.48 mil, or $14.48 for each $1,000 of valuation. The town website says the 2019-2020 rate was $14.35 for each $1,000, so the new rate is an increase of 13 cents for each $1,000. The assessor gave selectmen four rate choices at their Aug. […]
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 […]
by Mary Grow Four members of China’s new Transfer Station Visioning Subcommittee defined their job and planned how to start doing it at their initial meeting Aug. 11. Chairman Chris Diesch, of Palermo, said the group needs to develop two documents: a brief mission statement telling what the transfer station is for, and a vision […]
by Mary Grow Writer’s note: Samuel Francis Smith is mentioned in enough local histories that writing a few paragraphs about him seemed obligatory, even though his connection with the central Kennebec Valley was brief. Samuel Francis Smith (Oct. 21, 1808 – Nov. 16, 1895) is best known as the man who in 1831 wrote America, […]
by Mary Grow Vassalboro Planning Board members approved both items on their Aug. 3 agenda. The major one was an application from landowner Linda Butterfield and the Maine Rivers organization to remove the Morneau Dam on Outlet Stream and replace the nearby Mineral Springs Road bridge. The project is the final step in opening Outlet […]
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 […]
by Mary Grow At their first in-person meeting Aug. 5, after months of zooming, China Broadband Committee (CBC) members spent almost three hours revising documents they intend to present at the Aug. 16 selectboard meeting. The background papers and financial charts will accompany a request to selectmen to ask voters on Nov. 2 to approve […]
by Mary Grow The Asa Bates Memorial Chapel, also called the Ten Lots Chapel, in the southwestern part of Fairfield, was built between 1916 and 1918 and added to the National Register of Historic Places on Oct. 31, 2002. PART ONE: TEN LOTS Ten Lots is the name given to an area in northern Oakland […]
by Mary Grow The China Broadband Committee’s (CBC) second public informational session, held July 29 and publicized as Brownies and Broadband, drew a small audience and a lively discussion, just like the first one (see The Town Line, July 15, p. 3). There were indeed brownies, and other desserts, and CBC Chairman Robert O’Connor brought […]