by Mary Grow

The China Planning Board has postponed action on Parris and Catherine Varney’s application to host commercial events in the barn on their Neck Road property to the Oct. 25 board meeting.

A public hearing on the application at the board’s Oct. 11 meeting drew more than two dozen people, mostly residents of Neck Road and fire roads off it. The majority of those who spoke opposed the application. Planning Board Chairman Frank Soares began the hearing by inviting the Varneys to respond to questions a neighbor submitted in advance. The Varneys said:

• They plan to host events like weddings, wedding and baby showers, birthday parties and conferences. They foresee a maximum of four events a month, mostly from May through November and mostly on weekends.
• Most events would last from four to six hours, after a day or two of preparations. They plan an 11 p.m. closing time for all events.
• The only thing outside the barn, besides the portable toilets they intend to provide, might be a tent, for example if a couple wanted to exchange vows outdoors. They plan no outdoor music and no fireworks, hayrides or other features that would extend beyond their property.
• They expect those attending to park in the grassy field behind the barn, not along the road.
• They would be willing to notify neighbors in advance of each event.

Most of the 20 or so people who spoke at the hearing expressed concerns about adverse effects on the neighborhood, including noise, erosion of the parking area, traffic congestion and the lack of local law enforcement to deal with problems that might arise. The project, they argued, did not belong in a residential and agricultural area on a narrow dead-end road.

Because the Varneys intend to allow liquor at their events, several neighbors fear guests who overindulge will drive recklessly or trespass on neighbors’ properties. Two of the three people supportive of the application asked if the applicants and the neighbors could work out a compromise to allow the business without undue disturbance.

After half an hour of testimony, Soares closed the hearing and board members voted to table the issue until Oct. 25, to give themselves time to consider issues raised and the Varneys time to consider modifying their plan.

Codes Officer Paul Mitnik presented a second, unrelated issue involving discomfort in a rural area, saying he had received numerous complaints about odors from Ralph and Linda Howe’s Dirigo Road property. He and former Codes Officer Scott Pierz said after the China Planning Board rejected the Howes’ application for a biodiesel plant on Dirigo Road in 2005, they received a permit for the plant in Oakland, and are storing waste from the Oakland facility in the barn on their China property. Soares asked Mitnik to seek legal advice on what, if any, authority the town has over the waste lagoons.

Planning Board members unanimously approved the only other application on their Oct. 11 agenda, giving Dylan Fortin a permit for an auto repair business at his home at 427 Pleasant View Ridge Road. The permit is conditional on a letter from China Village Fire Chief Timothy Theriault saying Fortin’s property has adequate access for emergency vehicles; Fortin said Theriault gave him a verbal assurance.

by Mary Grow

Priscilla Adams ended her 32-year career with the United States Postal Service Sept. 30. Her last day as China Village Postmaster was followed Oct. 1 by a retirement party organized by her husband Scott that gave another 100 or so friends and relatives a chance to wish her happiness.

Retirement is bittersweet, Adams said. She looks forward to time for herself, to work in her garden and to take day trips, starting with the Fryeburg Fair Oct. 3. She expects to watch more of her grandsons’ basketball games in southern Maine – and, she said happily, “If it’s a blizzard out and I don’t feel like coming home, I don’t have to.”

On the other hand, she’ll miss the people who enlivened her days behind the post office counter, miss the long talks and listening to people’s stories and problems.

Adams was appointed China Village Postmaster on February 1, 1997. Before that, she worked as PMR (Postmaster Relief, postal-speak for substitute) and sometimes Officer in Charge at other area post offices.

The worst part of her career, she said, has been going through so many changes, which have been difficult for employees and sometimes for customers, like the introduction in 2001 of the E911 system that changed the name and the box numbers in what’s now the China Village post office.
Adams has seen the switch from a manual typewriter to a computer, from a fan scale to an electric scale, from stamps that had to be licked to self-adhesive stamps, from any stamps at all to a postage meter.

She’s watched the price of stamps, box rentals and other services go up – and this February had the rare opportunity to see them go down a bit, for the first time, she believes, since the 1940s.
Two or three years ago, when the Postal Service cut back hours in many post offices, including China Village, there was a rumor that the China Village office would be eliminated when Adams retired.

Just a rumor, Adams is quite sure – the office is valuable not only to its 225 boxholders and other China residents, but to people from surrounding towns where post office window hours are shorter or less convenient.

Adams’ duties, official and unofficial, have included distributing mail and selling stamps, keeping the building clean, collecting lost items, putting up posters for lost pets and helping start people’s cars.

“It’s been a great working experience,” she summarized. “I like helping out people. There’ve been good times and bad times, ups and downs, but I’ve had a lot of fun.”

Becky Tesseo, who also works part-time at the post office in South China, has taken over the China Village office until a new postmaster can be found. Tesseo doesn’t know how long she’ll be in the north end of town – maybe a month, she said.

As Priscilla Adams’ retirement party wound down Oct. 1 in the China Baptist Church Vestry Fellowship Hall, people began assembling in the adjacent church for the funeral of Eleanor Foster, Postmaster from 1956 until 1982, when she retired and Joyce Whitney was appointed. Foster died Sept. 19 at the age of 96.

Foster and her husband Bill lived next door to the post office while Foster worked there and for many years afterwards. Adams said for the first few months of her tenure, they had a standing joke: she would ask Foster, “Do you want to be my PMR?”

Foster would pretend to consider for a moment before replying, “No thanks.”

by Mary Grow

China voters will choose among seven candidates for three positions on the Board of Selectmen at Nov. 8 local elections.

For other town boards, there are no contests and one empty line on the ballot, for Budget Committee secretary.

Candidates for selectmen, in alphabetical order as listed on the draft ballot, are Albert Althenn, Joann Austin (incumbent), Wayne Chadwick, Neil Farrington (incumbent), Jeffrey LaVerdiere, Robert MacFarland (incumbent) and Raymond Robert.

Running without opposition are incumbent planning board members Toni Wall (District 2), Thomas Miragliuolo (District 4) and Frank Soares (member at large); incumbent budget committee members Thomas Rumpf (District 2) and Timothy Basham (District 4) and potential new member Valerie Baker (member at large); and Dawn Castner for representative on the Regional School Unit #18 board of directors.   If elected, Baker and Castner will succeed Jonathan Vogel and Robert Bennett, respectively.

China polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, in the former portable classroom beside the town office on Lakeview Drive.

by Mary Grow

Five members of China TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Committee continued discussion of plans to improve recreational access at the head of China Lake’s east basin at their Sept. 26 meeting.

Engineer Mark McCluskey of A. E. Hodsdon presented updated cost estimates that include:

•  $387,500 to build a bulkhead and fishing platforms along the lake side of the causeway, expand parking and add erosion control measures, making the area safer for boaters and fishermen;
• $350,000 to replace the deteriorating bridge across the inlet with a new bridge including a sidewalk;
•  $585,600 to build a new fire station for the China Village Volunteer Fire Department, which has no room to expand its present building just west of the head of the lake; and
•  $210,000 for miscellaneous costs, including engineering, legal and permit fees.

Committee members unanimously endorsed the idea of a new bridge.  McCluskey said the traffic lanes could not be widened much without significant environmental impacts.  As planned, he said, the work will require an application to the state Department of Environmental Protection; he offered to schedule a pre-submission meeting with DEP staff as soon as possible.

Residents near the causeway are to be invited to a meeting to hear about project plans, either the meeting with DEP staff or a separate TIF Committee meeting.  No definite dates were fixed until McCluskey reports back.

The first step in the committee plan for the causeway project is acquisition of a six-acre lot across Causeway Street from the boat landing.  A Nov. 8 local ballot question asks voters to appropriate $10,000 from the TIF account for the purchase.

Landowner Susan Bailey has been reluctant to sell at that price, but at the TIF meeting Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux said she might have changed her position.

Committee members talked briefly about two other issues, but with two members absent made no decisions.

First was the possible acquisition of the former Fairpoint building on Route 3. L’Heureux had an email from South China resident Rick Fischer asking if the idea had been abandoned.  Committee Chairman Amber McAlister said no, just postponed.

Selectman Neil Farrington, in the audience Sept. 26, urged the committee to recommend buying it.  His vision is a daycare that would serve both children and senior citizens; others suggested other uses for the large story-and-a-half building.

The issue of lake access has been on the committee’s agenda for several meetings.  It was agreed that Irene Belanger, who is a selectman and a TIF Committee member, will ask the Board of Selectmen to create a new lake access committee.

A prior lake access committee recommended acquiring the former Candlewood property on the east shore of China Lake, but voters rejected the plan.   At that time no TIF money was available.

TIF funds are taxes paid by Central Maine Power Company on its expanded power line through China; by state law the money must be used for economic development, including recreational development.   A new China Village fire station is probably not eligible for TIF funds, according to the Sept. 26 discussion.

In addition to the request for $10,000 for the land at the head of the lake, the Nov. 8 ballot includes a request for $50,000 in TIF money for recreational trail maintenance.  A public hearing on local ballot questions is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17.