by Mary Grow Many local histories find the arrival and expansion of electricity and telephone service noteworthy, especially in Maine’s smaller communities. As most of us learned in grammar school, Benjamin Franklin is credited with discovering electricity in 1752, by flying a kite into a thunderstorm with a metal key attached to the wet string. […]
by Mary Grow In Nov. 3 local elections, China voters re-elected two incumbent selectmen and chose Blane Casey to fill the seat vacated by Donna Mills-Stevens. Results of the five-person race for three positions, reported by Town Clerk Angela Nelson well after 11 p.m. on Election Day, were as follows: Blane Casey, 1,445 votes; incumbent […]
by Mary Grow Members of China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee spent most of their Oct. 27 virtual meeting reviewing a list of past and planned future activities. Pending items include proposed amendments to the town’s TIF document that, if approved by voters, will make the list longer, for example by authorizing funding assistance to […]
by Mary Grow Vassalboro selectmen got rid of one item of continuing business at their Oct. 28 meeting: they learned that the Vassalboro Conservation Commission seems on the way to reviving itself, and decided they did not need to discuss its future again. An issue raised at their Oct. 15 meeting, use of the town […]
by Mary Grow The previous article talked about postal service in the southern part of the central Kennebec Valley. This article completes the story with summary postal histories of Sidney, Fairfield, Benton, and Clinton, plus miscellaneous notes. As mentioned in last week’s article (see The Town Line, Oct. 15), Henry Kingsbury found Sidney had six […]
by Mary Grow The Covid-19 grant that is paying for the weekly newsletters from the China Town Office has run out, but Town Manager Becky Hapgood and a majority of the selectmen would like the newsletters to continue. Hapgood told selectmen at their Oct. 26 all-zoom meeting that mailing the newsletters costs about $520 a […]
by Mary Grow Both items on the China Planning Board’s Oct. 20 agenda needed some explaining, but once the situations were clear board members quickly agreed on unanimous approvals. The first issue dealt with a subdivision on Fire Road 51, off Lakeview Drive (Route 202), originally established by Rick Fischer’s parents and, Board Chairman Tom […]
by Mary Grow The five candidates for three seats on China’s Board of Selectmen answered questions at an on-line Oct. 18 forum sponsored by the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library in China Village. When ballots are counted after the polls close Nov. 3, three people will be elected to serve two-year terms as selectmen. The […]
by Mary Grow China selectmen heard reports from town departments (submitted in writing and read by Town Manager Becky Hapgood) and considered various issues at their Oct. 13 meeting. They made three decisions: They appointed Frederick Anderson, Dale Peabody, Shawn Reed and Joshua Crommett to the Road Committee. They accepted with appreciation a $5,000 grant […]
by Mary Grow Four residents, three of them young parents who said they were speaking for others, attended the Oct. 15 Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting to protest closing the town-owned ballfields in East Vassalboro. Zachary and Melissa Olson said groups of parents and children had been using the fields, with their own sports equipment and with […]