by Mary Grow

The Oct. 28 China candidates’ forum at the China Village library gave the four candidates for three seats on the Board of Selectmen, plus retiring Selectman Neil Farrington, a chance to talk about their visions for the town’s future. After introductory statements, a question and answer session led to expanded answers and new topics, including some of the five local referendum questions.

China voters will elect town officials and decide the local referenda, along with state elections and referenda, on Nov. 6. China polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the portable classroom behind the town office.

All four local candidates are long-time China residents; Wayne Chadwick, Jeffrey LaVerdiere and Donna Mills-Stevens are businesspeople, Ronald Breton a retiree; all have some experience on local boards and committees. All think China needs growth, both economically, including services, and in population, especially young families. Speaking in alphabetical order, they emphasized the following points.

BRETON offered the most detailed list of things he would like to see done, including encouraging beneficial new businesses, adding health-related services and assisted living units for senior citizens, creating a youth center “to give kids something to do in town,” expanding high-speed internet access, reviewing the Land Use Ordinance, continuing to protect China Lake and Three Mile Pond and continuing recycling despite the drop-off in prices for recycled materials.

CHADWICK’s initial emphasis was on more responsible town spending and shrinking town government rather than growing it. LAVERDIERE, one of two incumbents seeking another term, also favors more control of town spending. He thinks selectmen should look at government from a business perspective, for example by trading equipment less frequently. He agreed with Breton on reviewing the Land Use Ordinance and commended the Alewife Restoration Initiative (ARI) as one reason “China Lake is doing pretty well.”

MILLS-STEVENS, also an incumbent, said her first year on the board and conversations with neighbors showed her some of the issues and problems; if re-elected she expects to contribute to solutions. She favors encouraging small businesses, like antique shops and a local farmers’ market; thinks the town needs a community center, centrally located and ideally near China Lake; and sees the new causeway and expanded access to the head of China Lake as another way to bring more people to town, “maybe more than we want sometimes.”

NEIL FARRINGTON, retiring from the selectboard and running unopposed for an open seat on the Regional School Unit (RSU) #18 Board of Directors, said after 14 years as a selectman complaining about the size of the school budget and the lack of information selectmen get about school matters, he decided to become a school insider. He plans to keep selectmen updated on directions the school unit is taking, programs and reasons for expenditure requests.

There seemed to be no opposition among the candidates to expanding and improving internet service. Breton, Chadwick and LaVerdiere spoke in favor of senior housing and health facilities, as long as the town assisted a private developer, for example with tax breaks, and did not own the facilities.

Later discussion returned to the topic of a community center, in response to audience questions and in relation to the Nov. 6 referendum question asking voters to appropriate $5,000 for preliminary study of using the town-owned property near the north end of Lakeview Drive. Opinions became more complicated.

All four candidates for selectman support allocating the requested $5,000 for exploration. Breton is most enthusiastic about going on, assuming satisfactory results, to create a community center. The emergency services building which is also part of the question got little discussion; LaVerdiere thinks it would be too expensive.

Chadwick is the principal opponent of a community center, citing other meeting places available in town and telling Breton activities for young people could be expanded without an expensive new building. His suggestions sparked unanswered questions about how hard it is to book school facilities – Farrington will find out – and whether and how much the town would pay for other alternatives, a question Mills-Stevens said selectmen should investigate.

Audience member Justine Knizeski objected to the two-part question, saying it should have been limited to asking for exploratory funds, instead of also prejudging possible uses. Farrington pointed out an error: the property in question is about 34 acres, not the 39.11 acres specified in the question.

On the issue of economic development, there was broad agreement among panelists and audience members about encouraging small and home-based businesses and services and not inviting big-box stores.

Chadwick, without endorsing big-box stores in general, put in a good word for the South China Hannaford, which many people now find convenient. Bigger stores “have their place if they’re well thought-out and planned,” he said.

Audience member Ann Austin, who heads the China Food Pantry, commended Hannaford for frequent donations. Such community involvement is not typical of every large corporation, she added.

In response to Jodi Blackinton’s question about getting more people involved in town business (related to the referendum question about the Quorum Ordinance), panelists and audience members repeated, with variations, many of the suggestions made at the Oct. 25 selectmen’s hearing. There was no consensus and limited optimism.

by Mary Grow

At their Oct. 22 meeting, China Tax Increment Finance (TIF) Committee members finally put to rest the question of whether to recommend that voters buy Susan Bailey’s property near the head of China Lake’s east basin. Their decision: no.

The property consists of a small parcel across Causeway Street from the boat landing, where landing users habitually park, and a larger piece across Routes 202 and 9. In November 2016 China voters appropriated up to $10,000 to buy the smaller piece to provide additional town-owned parking close to the boat launch.

Since then, TIF Committee members have learned that the two parcels are indivisible, and that the state would not approve using any part of the larger one for boat launch parking because users would have to cross the busy highway. Left with the alternatives of no purchase or asking voters to spend $120,000 for the entire property, committee members voted 7-2 to advise selectmen to abandon the idea (Tom Michaud and Jim Wilkens were opposed).

Wilkens said if Bailey were to sell the whole property to someone else and the new owner wanted to reopen negotiations with the town over the smaller piece, the question could be revived.

The unused $10,000 will go into China’s undesignated fund balance (also known as the general fund or surplus).

In other business Oct. 22, Michaud and Town Manager Dennis Heath updated the rest of the committee on replacement of the old causeway bridge just west of the boat landing. Arrival of the concrete culvert has been delayed to Oct. 26, Heath said, with installation now scheduled for Oct. 29.

The timber mat at the bottom of the old structure was in good shape, he said. Rocks were added to extend and slightly raise the base for the new culvert.

“All in all it looks like things are going pretty well,” he summarized.

Michaud said the second phase of the causeway project will consist of a walkway along the head of the lake. For the present, he recommended against the proposed floating “fishing bridge,” saying it would be one more thing to maintain; boaters and swimmers would be tempted to use it; and the walkway will offer ample room for fishermen.

Committee members heard two requests for TIF funds. They agreed to recommend that selectmen put a request for $52,000 for continued work in Thurston Park on the March 2019 town business meeting warrant. Thurston Park Committee Chairman Jeannette Smith said if voters approve, the money would be used to continue improving what is now Trail One and work on Trail Two, the former roads looping off the main road that runs north-south through the park. Smith said Aislinn Sarnacki intends to include Thurston Park in her new guide to dog-friendly hikes, scheduled to be published next spring. Already, Smith and TIF Committee members said, out-of-towners are using – and praising – the park.

The second request was from Landis Hudson of Maine Rivers, seeking funding for the Alewife Restoration Project (ARI) that is intended to let alewives swim from the Atlantic Ocean into China Lake. The money would be combined with other funding sources to install fishways at three dams on Outlet Stream in Vassalboro.

Committee members agreed that China’s TIF program and state law limit TIF expenditures to within town boundaries. They therefore rejected Hudson’s request and encouraged her to ask selectmen to ask voters in March 2019 for non-TIF town funds. By consensus, committee members accepted H. David Cotta’s suggestion that they send selectmen a letter of support for ARI funding. Chairman Frank Soares volunteered to write the letter.

They also agreed that the subcommittee overseeing the causeway project should have the additional responsibility of reviewing TIF-funded projects, like Thurston Park, during and after the work. Soares suggested a 30-day notice before a funding application is submitted would be useful, to give time for a pre-inspection if desired.

Heath gave committee members a financial update, showing a balance of more than $626,000 as of June 30, 2018. He estimated that incoming revenue of almost $348,000, less obligations during the 2018-19 fiscal year, would leave a little more than $311,000 in the TIF account as of June 30, 2019.

The next TIF Committee meeting is currently scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 15.