by Mary Grow

China selectmen unanimously approved buying another second-hand portable classroom, adding a comparatively small sum to the money they’d already spent at their Sept. 16 meeting.

Town Manager Dennis Heath said Regional School Unit (RSU) #18 Superintendent Carl Gartley offered to sell the 50-by-14-foot building to the town for $1, with the town to pay moving costs from Oakland. The manager recommended buying it and siting it on the town office lot to use as a police office; he intends to discuss the exact placement with Codes Enforcement Officer Bill Butler.

The building has a new roof and a heating system, he said. If it were near the portable classroom behind the town office, officers could use the just-installed toilet facilities there.

From the audience, Budget Committee member Wayne Chadwick reminded selectmen they would need to pay for a concrete pad, electricity and probably other costs.

Robert MacFarland, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, said he had seen the building and believes, “with a little bit of cleaning up,” it would be useful for an office and storage. MacFarland estimated the total cost of moving and adapting the building at less than $10,000.

In the past, China bought two extra portable classrooms, the one behind the town office used mainly for voting and committee meetings and one selectmen passed on to the South China Library. That one is now on a slab on Jones Road.

The unusually high expenditure warrant selectmen approved at the beginning of the Sept. 16 meeting totaled more than $1 million. Heath said it included the Kennebec County tax and the monthly school budget.

Also on the warrant was a $52,440.54 payment to Central Maine Power Company to install three-phase power at the transfer station, a long-awaited improvement that will allow installation of the new pre-crusher. Money is to come from the transfer station capital expense fund and the selectmen’s contingency fund. Selectman Ronald Breton congratulated Heath on negotiating CMP’s original price down by more than $16,000.

Selectmen did not accept a revised schedule for town office fees Heath said office staff recommended. After a 15-minute discussion, they voted unanimously to leave fees as they are with two exceptions: changes in fees for notary services and use of the office FAX.

After the meeting, Heath recommended that he delay posting the fee schedule until selectmen review it again at their Sept. 30 meeting.

Neil Farrington, one of China’s representatives on the RSU #18 board of directors, came to the selectmen’s meeting with a proposal to use the South China Legion Hall for community events sponsored by the China for a Lifetime Committee, and stayed to answer school-related questions.

There are two main reasons for school budget increases, he said. One is employee salaries and benefits that go up annually by contract. The other is social, the growing need for special education services. This year RSU #18 has hired an additional social worker and a drug counselor, he said.

In other business:

• Board members unanimously appointed Nancy Beadling a member of the China for a Lifetime Committee.
• They again tabled action on Mike Rackcliffe’s application for a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) revolving loan because they had not received requested information from the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments, which assists with China’s loan program (see The Town Line, Sept. 12, p. 3).
• China Lake Association spokesman Tom Michaud said the association had contracted with Chadwick’s firm, W. D. Chadwick Construction, of South China, for erosion control work on Fire Roads 13, 27 and 35, with Fire Road 35 to be done this fall if possible.
• Michaud reported that lakefront property owners who had LakeSmart erosion control barriers installed this summer had contributed $2,500 to the program (see The Town Line, Aug. 8, p. 2 and Aug. 29, p. 2, for examples of LakeSmart award recipients).

The next regular China selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30.

Construction continues on the addition to the China Middle School. The work is being performed by Blane Casey, of Augusta, and although they have come across some structural issues it is expected the work will still come in within the budget that was planned, according to Carl Gartley, Superintendent of Schools for RSU #18, of which the China schools are a member. The total cost of the expansion project will be between $1.5 and $1.6 million.

The project includes adding locker rooms, redoing the stage and music class area, adding practice rooms for music classes, adding storage for cafeteria tables, redoing the gym floor and upgrading the HVAC system, repairing the roof and other fire code improvements to meet compliance of new laws.

by Mary Grow

China selectmen in their capacity as the town’s Board of Assessors agreed unanimously on the 2019-2020 tax rate, which is $16.30 for each $1,000 of valuation, 50 cents per $1,000 higher than the previous year’s ($15.80 per $1,000).

The new rate was recommended by assessor William Van Tuinen and Town Manager Dennis Heath at the Aug. 28 assessors’ meeting. It is a compromise between the lowest rate needed to meet town obligations and the highest allowed under state law, by Van Tuinen’s calculation.

Balancing costs and revenues, China needs to raise almost $6.9 million from taxation. An absolute minimum tax rate would be $16.17 per $1,000; state law allows up to $16.98 per $1,000.

By town meeting vote, China taxes are due in two installments, the first by Friday, Sept. 27, 2019, and the second by Friday, March 27, 2020. The interest charged on late payments is nine percent annually, beginning immediately after each due date.

Heath said the increase for 2019-2020 is due to a higher school budget. He calculated the school budget at almost three-quarters of total spending from taxation.

by Mary Grow

China’s Nov. 5 local election ballot will show one contest and four vacancies.

Incumbent Irene Belanger, Wayne Chadwick and Todd N. Tolhurst are candidates for two seats on the Board of Selectmen. Incumbent Robert MacFarland is not seeking another term.

There are no candidates on the ballot for any of three planning board positions: District 1 (the northwestern part of town; Kevin Michaud is the incumbent); District 3 (the southeastern part of town; Ralph Howe is the incumbent); and the alternate-at-large position, whose representative can come from anywhere in town and which is currently vacant.

For the budget committee, Chairman Robert Batteese and District 1 representative Kevin Maroon are unopposed for re-election and there is no name on the ballot for the District 3 position Chadwick currently holds.

Dawn Marie Castner is unopposed for re-election as a Regional School Unit (RSU) #18 director from China.

China selectmen and planning board and budget committee members are elected for two-year terms. RSU #18 directors serve for three years.

by Mary Grow

China selectmen dealt with a wide variety of issues at their Sept. 3 meeting, including approving local referendum questions for Nov. 5 voting and reviewing recommendations from town committees and organizations.

The Nov. 5 local ballots will include elections for the Board of Selectmen, Planning Board and Budget Committee; five questions dealing with medical marijuana businesses; and a voters’ choice question on town office hours.

Under the latest state law, a municipality must “opt in” to allow anyone to open a medical marijuana facility covered by the law. China’s ballot has questions drafted to match state definitions, asking if voters want to allow:

• Medical marijuana registered caregiver retail stores;
• Medical marijuana registered dispensaries;
• Medical marijuana testing facilities; or
• Medical marijuana manufacturing facilities.

The final related question asks whether, if any of the previous four questions passes, voters want to set a minimum 1,000-foot separation between property lines of the medical marijuana facility and any pre-existing public or private school.

The last ballot question asks voters to choose between two proposed three-hour extensions of town office hours: Saturdays from 8 to 11 a.m. (the current schedule) or Thursdays to 7 p.m., three hours beyond the usual 4 p.m. closing time.

In other business:

• Selectmen unanimously accepted the budget committee’s recommendation that town funds be moved from two separate financial institutions (one handling the Doris L. Young Scholarship Fund, the other managing other town funds) to Bar Harbor Bank and Trust.
• They unanimously accepted the lower of two bids for trail work for the Four Seasons Club, $24,500 from Chadwick Construction, of China. Money comes from Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds.
• They postponed a decision on the Revolving Loan Fund subcommittee’s recommendation to approve a loan to Buckshot Power Sports, operated by Mike Rackcliffe, until they get a financial assessment report from Kennebec Valley Council of Governments, whose staff help implement loans. Two residents praised Rackcliffe’s Tobey Road recreational-vehicle business.

Selectmen again discussed the question of volunteer firefighters’ stipends, which they and China’s three fire chiefs have debated for almost two years. Weeks Mills Chief William Van Wickler thought the issue was settled after he submitted a stipend calculation formula to the Maine Department of Labor. Department officials called China’s plan “not contrary to the intent” of Maine’s wage and hour laws, he said.

However, Town Manager Dennis Heath is still waiting for a reaction from the federal Department of Labor, and Selectman Ronald Breton has questions. Heath proposed the chiefs and the two selectmen who worked on the issue schedule another meeting; Van Wickler said he will coordinate it.

Heath reported that tax bills would be mailed the first week in September and were on the town website (which says they were mailed Sept. 5, as promised). By town meeting vote, the first half payment of 2019-2020 taxes is due by Friday, Sept. 27.

The manager also announced a survey about transfer station use, to run through September. It too is on the China website.

The next China selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, Sept. 16.