The unofficial returns from the November 7, 2023, municipal election for the town of China are as follows:
For select board: Chadwick = 931, Marquis = 810.
Planning board: District 3/ Mather = 996, Alternate At Large/Tripodi = 978
Budget Committee: Chairman/Rumpf = 1,037, District 1/Maroon = 1,062.
All races were uncontested.
All write in positions will be determined later in the week.
The China election saw a turnout of 1,303 voters.
by Mary GrowAfter another 70 minutes’ discussion of the South China boat landing at their Nov. 6 meeting, China select board members again kicked the issue down the road (see The Town Line, May 25, p. 3; Aug. 3, p. 3; Oct 26, p. 2). This time, they added a road map.
On a 4-1 vote, with Janet Preston dissenting, board members approved a motion saying they, in cooperation with the China Lake Association, will continue investigating the town landing and will maintain it as a public boat launch, with improvements; if parking along the road contributes to erosion, they will ban parking; and they will adopt an advisory size limit on boats to be launched there.
The main issue with the landing is erosion into China Lake from Town Landing Road that leads to the lake. The road is gravel, the town-owned strip of land is not very wide and there has been inadequate ditching and other run-off diversion for many years.
Discussions have covered the value of a minimizing run-off into China Lake, which is a major contributor to area recreation and to China’s economy; neighbors’ concerns about traffic; the lack of room to park on the town property and of convenient other parking spaces; maintaining lake access for residents who do not own lakefront property and have used the South China landing for years; and providing access to a water source for volunteer firefighters and to the warden service for ice rescues.
Preston started the Nov. 6 discussion by presenting a summary of reasons to limit the landing to carry-in only, meaning people could launch only kayaks and canoes and vehicle traffic would be lessened.
Board chairman Wayne Chadwick and members Brent Chesley and Blane Casey disagreed with Preston, citing reasons to continue to keep the landing open to motorboats. Jeanne Marquis sided with Preston.
Chadwick invited audience members, present in person or virtually, to join the discussion, and several did.
The two sides disagreed over how large the boats are that currently use the South China landing and how congested China Lake’s other two landings are (that is, how much people currently using the South China landing would be inconvenienced by longer drives and longer waits).
There was agreement that run-off controls are needed, bolstered by opinions from two engineers. Town manager Rebecca Hapgood said the town had paid for a boundary survey of the town property, but the engineers had not cost taxpayers money.
There was also agreement that the landing should continue to be unpublicized. Opinion leaned toward paving the road, with appropriate slopes and diversions to prevent water from shooting down the pavement into the lake. A paved road would need less maintenance, several people said.
Select board members and China Lake Association representatives praised the past cooperation between the two groups and expressed willingness to continue to work together. After the vote, Hapgood said she will help organize their cooperation.
The Nov. 6 meeting began with two executive sessions with town attorney Amanda Meader. After the first one, select board members voted unanimously to direct her to draft a notice to Palermo town officials of China’s intention to end the two towns’ agreement letting Palermo residents use China’s transfer station (see The Town Line, Aug. 17, p. 3; Sept. 21, p. 3; and Oct. 26, p. 2).
After the second executive session, board members voted unanimously to reduce the fine for land use ordinance violations by Farmingdale construction company BHS, Inc., from $5,000 to $500.
In other business Nov. 6:
Because the meeting ran longer than usual, two agenda items were postponed, a report from Delta Ambulance and Chadwick’s recommended discussion of town-owned Bradley Island in China Lake’s west basin.
The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, Nov. 20, probably at 6 p.m.
South China Post commander Neil Farrington at the Veterans Monument.
The Boynton-Webber American Legion Post #179 has recently announced plans to expand the veterans memorial at the four corners in South China Village. The plan entails adding a brick pathway leading up to the monument, with the names of veterans engraved on each brick.
The GAR Hall which used to be at the location of the South China veterans monument.
“My idea for the brick walkway at the South China memorial is to honor our local veterans,” says Post #179 Commander Neil Farrington. “It really doesn’t matter if you served during a time of war or in peacetime. This project is meant to honor all area veterans.”
The site of the South China memorial has historical significance to the town of China. Originally, it was the location of a GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) Hall dedicated to a local hero of the Civil War, Captain James Parnell Jones, who was known as the “Fighting Quaker” for his bravery in that conflict. Later, in 1949, the spot became the site of the first American Legion Hall, in South China, before the current building on Legion Memorial Drive was erected in 1968.
A sample of the engraved bricks.
There is already a memorial at the town office for veterans who served in World War II, but Commander Farrington hopes this project will be an opportunity to honor those who served in other conflicts, including the Civil War, the Korean War, Vietnam, the Gulf War and the war in Afghanistan, as well as veterans who served during peacetime between 1953-1963, a period of service that often goes unrecognized.
The new pathway will be built using 180 bricks purchased by the public and engraved with the names and service dates of local veterans. The cost for a brick is $100, with twenty-percent covering the cost of the engraving and the rest going toward the cost of a new heating and cooling system for the Legion Hall. (The American Legion is a registered nonprofit and donations for the project are tax-deductible.)
Anyone in the area towns around South China is invited to purchase a brick to remember a friend or relative who served in active duty or the National Guard. There will be room for up to three lines of 20 characters per line on each brick.
Bricks can be ordered by mailing a check payable to American Legion Post #179, PO Box 401, South China, ME 04358. Interested parties can request an order form by email at peachclassof68@gmail.com (or download it here), or by phone at 462-4321.
Orders should be submitted as soon as possible, with construction expected to commence in the spring.
The lights here at the monument show the location of the planned brick expansion.
by Mary GrowChina resident Chris Harris presented a new proposal for his land on Route 3 to town planning board members at their Oct. 24 meeting. Board members advised on next steps, planning continued review in November.
At their June 27 meeting, board members unanimously approved Harris’s proposed self-storage units at 623 Route 3. Since then, Harris said, enough other self-storage businesses have opened to lead him to reconsider.
At the Oct. 24 meeting, he presented a preliminary plan to subdivide his property into four house lots. He already lives on one, plans a house on another and will postpone development on the remaining two.
Board co-chairman Toni Wall summarized some of the requirements in China’s subdivision ordinance, calling the application process “pretty extensive.” She and co-chairman James Wilkens agreed the area of the existing access driveway across Lot D to the Harris house needs to be deducted from Lot D’s lot area as the driveway becomes a right-of-way.
They also discussed the need to locate wells, septic system and probably house sites on each lot in a final plan. After the final plan is presented, board members will decide whether it is complete, and if it is, will decide whether to hold a public hearing.
The other major agenda item Oct. 24 was the draft revised Planning Board Ordinance, prepared by town attorney Amanda Meader.
Board members found much to like in Meader’s draft, but also had disagreements and questions.
Wall intends to redraft the ordinance to incorporate suggestions.
The next regular China planning board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, Nov. 14. The agenda is likely to include a public hearing on Novel Energy’s application for a community solar garden on Parmenter Hill Road (see the Oct. 5 issue of The Town Line, p. 2). The hearing was originally scheduled for Oct. 10, but was postponed because the planning board had no quorum that evening.
Damaris Mayans at the China build in 2022. (photo by Eric W. Austin)
Last year The Town Line ran a piece about Window Dressers, a grassroots, volunteer-run, nonprofit organization that trains, supplies, and supports volunteers to construct Insulating Window Inserts for residents who need help in keeping their homes warm.
Even though I did not get a response last year when I applied, this year volunteers came to my house and measured my windows for the inserts I desperately need.
I volunteered to construct my inserts and inserts for others for three days in the November 6 – 11 period that they will be doing this at the Olde Mill Place, 934 Main St., No. Vassalboro.
As the saying goes, “life happens”, and I had to call today to see if I could go in on November 7, at 12:30 p.m., instead of the 8:30 a.m. shift that I had signed up for in October.
During the conversation I heard that more volunteers are very much needed.
If you know anyone who has a few hours in a morning or afternoon, from November 7 – 11, to help construct insulating window inserts for those people who need help keeping Maine’s cold winter days and night outside, it will be very much appreciated.
Anyone who has the time can get contact details at https://windowdressers.org/
Another one of those great nonprofit positive things happening in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
You know more people than I do in this area, so thank you for contacting anyone who might have the time.
Roberta Barnes
Windsor
Above, a sawmill using a circular saw blade. Below, vintage circular saw blades.
Colby College historian Earl H. Smith found four more local inventors besides Hanson Barrows and Alvin Lombard, whose work was last week’s topic. They were William Kendall, of Fairfield, and Waterville; Laroy Starrett, of China and Newburyport, Massachusetts; and in the 20th century, Martin Keyes and Frank Bunker Gilbreth.
An on-line genealogy says Captain William J. Kendall, Jr., was born Jan. 2, 1784, in Kendall’s Mills. Kendall’s Mills, named after William, Jr.’s, father, was until 1872 the name for the part of Fairfield that is now the business district.
The Fairfield bicentennial history says the senior William Kendall was a Revolutionary War veteran. He is referred to as “General” Kendall, and Smith called him a “Revolutionary War general”; your writer found military records consistently say he was a private during the Revolution.
In 1780, he bought most of the area that is now downtown Fairfield and “took over” a saw and grist mill started two years earlier by Jonas Dutton. With it he acquired the first Fairfield dam that Dutton built between the west shore of the river and the westernmost island (now Mill Island).
The senior William Kendall married Abigail Chase on Christmas Day 1782. The Fairfield historians wrote that she lived upriver at Noble’s Ferry (near the present Goodwill School); Kendall paddled his birch-bark canoe to the ferry, where they got married, and let the current bring them back to Kendall’s Mills.
William, Jr., was born Jan. 2, 1784, probably in William Sr., and Abigail’s first house, “a log house near the river” close to the present intersection of Main Street and Western Avenue. An on-line genealogy lists the younger Kendall’s occupations as “millwright & mill owner, inventor.”
His first mill, according to the multi-authored chapter on businessmen in Edwin Carey Whittemore’s history of Waterville, was on Ticonic dam, south of the Waterville-Winslow bridge. No date is given.
A list of early patents found on line says Kendall’s patent for a “reciprocating sawmill” was issued Dec. 31, 1827. He was then from Waterville.
Smith agreed with the location, but not with the date. He wrote that there is disagreement over the first inventor of the circular saw, but probably the first one in Maine was “around 1845 in Waterville,” and was Kendall’s work.
Whittemore’s history accepts the 1827 date. Actually, 1827 might be late: another on-line source dates the patent to 1826, and Whittemore quotes a Jan. 4, 1827, Waterville newspaper article describing the Jan. 1 presentation of a gold medal to Kendall “in approbation of the improvement he has made in the circular saw.”
The newspaper report said Mayor Bolcom made the medal, which looked like a circular saw. (This statement makes sense only if “Mayor” is a first name rather than a title, as Waterville did not become a city until January 1888.)
The Waterville history says Kendall’s saw “was six feet in diameter, built of boiler plates riveted together; and the steel teeth, about three by four inches, were fastened in proportion by fifteen or twenty rivets for each tooth.”
Smith and the Fairfield historians agree on the importance of this invention. Smith said the circular saw “doubled the speed” of making logs into boards, with one circular saw doing the work of four up-and-down saws. Whittemore added that the saw turned a single pine log into “3310 feet of clear boards.”
Whittemore told the story of workers from a traveling “caravan” that charged 25 cents admission: the workers came to Kendall’s mill and contributed 25 cents each for a visit, “saying that it was more of a show to see the saw walk through a log than it was to see their own exhibition.”
The Fairfield historians wrote that the invention of the “circular log saw blade” “revolutionized the industry.” They added, “It is a sad commentary to note that General William Kendall did not live to see the success of his son’s invention, as he died that same year [Aug. 11, 1827, according to on-line sources].”
The Fairfield history says two generations of Kendalls ran the mills into the 1830s, when the family sold them.
In later years, Whittemore said, Kendall made “an invention pertaining to the casing of water wheels, which he patented” and installed in Fairfield and Waterville mills.
The on-line genealogy says Kendall married Sarah Chase, who was born Nov. 22, 1787, in Andover, New Hampshire, and died in Gardiner in January 1822, when she was only 34. The couple had seven children. Whittemore located the Kendall home “near the west end of Ticonic bridge.”
Kendall died Nov. 27, 1872, in Fairfield, according to the genealogy.
* * * * * *
With China-born inventor Leroy S. Starrett, the factual disagreements start with his name. Smith called him Leroy S. Starrett; a reproduction of patent number 47,875, issued May 23, 1875, calls the inventor “Le Roy S. Starrett.”
The China bicentennial history and on-line sources say Laroy S. Starrett. The Davistown Museum website lists him as “Laroy (often incorrectly recorded ‘Leroy’) S. Starrett.” (The Davistown Museum website says the museum in Liberty and Hulls Cove, Maine, that specialized in hand tools has closed.)
Find a Grave says his full name was Laroy Sunderland Starrett.
There is general agreement that Starrett was born April 25, 1836, in China, Maine. Find a Grave lists his parents as Daniel Dane Starrett (born Nov 25, 1802, in Francestown, New Hampshire; died Feb. 9, 1896, in South China), and Anna Crummett Starrett (born Jan. 27, 1803, in Boothbay; died March 3, 1875, in South China).
There is further agreement that one of Laroy Starrett’s job descriptions is “inventor.” Others include farmer, businessman, carpenter and tool manufacturer.
The China bicentennial history says when he was 17, Starrett began working for nearby farmers to earn money to help pay off the mortgage on the family farm. In 1855 or soon thereafter, he moved to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where he either worked for a local widow on her farm or rented a farm (sources again differ).
Though he was a successful farmer, winning prizes at the local fair, he soon turned his attention to inventing metal gadgets.
The Find a Grave website has a 28-item list of his patents. Some are specific, like his first and best-known, the meat chopper or meat cutter for which he received a patent on May 23, 1865. It is followed by “shoe studs and hooks,” Jan. 28, 1868, and a “combination square”, with the patent dated Feb. 26, 1879.
The Newburyport, Massachusetts, history website adds “a washing machine and a butter worker.” In all, Starrett received 100 patents, many for precision tools, a lot of which are still used today.
The “combination square” is probably the invention Smith credited to Starrett, describing it as a “combination square and ruler with a sliding head.” Smith added, “The tool, essentially unchanged, is still routinely found in toolboxes of woodworkers everywhere.”
The Newburyport website writer believed Starrett’s invention of the meat cutter in 1865 led the family to move from rural to downtown Newburyport. Citing city directories, the website says Starrett made and sold meat cutters from an address on Merrimac Street (shown on contemporary maps as paralleling the Merrimack River).
In 1867 and 1868, Starrett “was advertising the meat cutter/chopper a lot in the local newspapers,” the website says.
The story continues, “He was so successful that he left Newburyport to manufacture his inventions…in Athol, Massachusetts, which is in the upper western part of the state near Gardner.”
There, Wikipedia says, Starrett founded L. S. Starrett in 1880, so he could manufacture the combination square he had patented two years earlier “and other precision tools.” The company has steadily grown and expanded into an international business; websites list Douglas Arthur Starrett as the current CEO and president.
Douglas Arthur Starrett lives in Athol, Massachusetts; he is 72 years old, according to the most up-to-date site your writer found. Patient genealogical research suggests that he is the great-great-great-grandson of Laroy Sunderland Starrett.
Laroy Starrett and Newburyport resident Lydia Webb Bartlett (Sept. 4, 1839 – Feb. 3, 1878) were married in 1861. They had five children, a son born in 1862 and a second, born in 1869, who lived only 13 months, according to Find a Grave.
The youngest daughter was born Jan. 10, 1878, in Athol. Lydia’s death less than a month later left Starrett with a 15-year-old son and three daughters, one an infant.
The China history says Starrett was deaf from about 1904 on. Widowerhood and deafness did not end his career, or “his generous concern for others,” the history says. He supported charitable projects in Athol, and in South China gave the Chadwick Hill cemetery a $1,000 gift in 1916, another $600 in 1917 for perpetual care of the Starrett family lots “and an even larger sum in 1920.”
Starrett died April 23, 1922, in Saint Petersburg, Florida. He and Lydia are among several generations of the Starrett family buried in Athol’s Silver Lake cemetery.
* * * * * *
Next week: a bit of information about Martin Keyes and Frank Gilbreth.
Up and Down sawmills
The Fairfield historians explained that sawmills in the 1700s and early 1800s used an up and down saw. Milton Dowe, in his 1954 history of Palermo, gave a more complete description of such a saw.
He wrote that water coming over a dam powered a water wheel. Attached to the water wheel was a crankshaft connected to an “arm” connected to the saw frame.
The saw frame was rectangular, “about six feet long and eight feet wide…with the saw fastened in the center.” The saw itself was similar to an ice-cutting saw and was “about six feet long and seven inches wide.”
Dowe continued, “The frame holding the saw was set in guides in an upright position in such a way that the short arm from the crankshaft, as the waterwheel turned, would push and pull the frame up and down.”
A carriage held a log that was pushed forward “by a rachet on a feed wheel” each time the saw blade came down. Each log was sawed into boards about an inch at a time, Dowe wrote.
Fairfield Historical Society Fairfield, Maine 1788-1988 (1988).
Grow, Mary M,. China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984).
Smith, Earl H., Downeast Genius: From Earmuffs to Motor Cars Maine Inventors Who Changed the World (2021).
Whittemore, Rev. Edwin Carey, Centennial History of Waterville 1802-1902 (1902).
Websites, miscellaneous.
by Mary GrowAt an Oct. 25 meeting, three members of China’s board of assessment review unanimously upheld the board of assessors (also the select board), who on Aug. 28 denied Marie Michaud’s application for a property tax abatement.
Michaud believes her shorefront lot on the west side of China Lake is overvalued. She said the lake bottom in front of her property is weedy and muddy and the water is shallow, making the area unfit for swimming.
Select board members denied Michaud’s abatement request on a 3-2 vote. Michaud appealed to the board of assessment review.
Assessor William Van Tuinen answered questions about how he – or any assessor – determines property values, based on the property’s characteristics and on area selling prices.
There are three categories of lake frontage, he said. The highest, A, is for properties with a good view of the water and usable frontage. A lot with a buffer – conforming to recommended water quality protection practices – that blocked the view, or with less usable frontage, would be rated B.
Michaud’s lot Van Tuinen rated C, the lowest category, indicating he shared her opinion that it was not among the most desirable lots on the lake. He calculated the valuation and resulting tax bill using that rating.
After considering Van Tuinen’s information and lists of “comps” – supposedly comparable properties – presented by both parties, board members voted unanimously that the assessment was appropriate.
The board’s meeting, the first since February 2021, began with re-election of chairman Dale Peabody and secretary Harold Charles.
Albert Church Brown Memorial Library in China Village.
Three of the six candidates on China’s Nov. 7 local election ballot attended the Oct. 28 candidates’ forum at the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library, in China Village.
Moderator Louisa Barnhart, chairman of the library’s board of trustees, asked about the candidates’ favorite charities, their reading preferences and their positions on local issues.
Mobilized Recovery explained
Mobilize Recovery is a national organization with a branch in Augusta. Its purpose is to deal with the national addiction crisis, including preventing addiction and helping people already addicted to survive and to recover.
The Maine Recovery Advocacy Project Facebook page says:
“We are thrilled about the level of support we have received by Kennebec County and our awesome volunteers. We are now beginning to see that our first year’s goal of visiting 5,000 homes is well within our reach. We want to thank the Kennebec County Commissioners who provided the grant to enable us to do this project and thank all the 3,882 homes we have visited so far.
“We are encouraged to see so many people realize the importance of carrying Narcan in their purses, back packs, brief cases or glove compartment of their cars – even if they don’t know someone who uses drugs. You’ll never know when you might be able to save someone’s life.”
It adds details about achieving the 2023 goal:
“So far this year, we visited 3,882 homes, trained 1,592 people to use Nar[c]an and distributed 3,510 boxes of Narcan.”
The Facebook page says the physical address is 59 Bangor Street, Augusta; the telephone number is (207)593-6251; and the email address is courtney@recoveryvoices.com.
Nonprofit groups she supports include local organizations (China Lake Association, the volunteer fire department and China for a Lifetime); environmental organizations (Nature Conservancy and Sierra Club); and addiction recovery organization (Maine Recovery Advocacy Project and Mobilize Recovery).
Her favorite living author is non-fiction writer Johann Hari. Her favorite writer is the late Toni Morrison, especially her poetry.
Mather’s charities include the American Diabetes Association, the Salvation Army and the Boy Scouts of America. Her favorite writer is Brad Thor, author of the Scot Harvath thrillers.
He also supports the Masons and is a member of two local lodges; and the Red Cross, including as a platelet and blood donor. He spends his working hours reading blueprints and has little time for leisure reading.
The two policy questions Barnhart asked were about the proposed LS power line and about a future public beach on China Lake. Candidates added two more issues, lack of volunteers for town boards and organizations, and the need to entice more businesses to locate in China.
None of the three supports the LS powerline. Rumpf’s principal objection is “the very sneaky way it came about – the landowners were all taken by surprise.”
Marquis and Mather were concerned about the effect on China’s rural nature and environment, especially the potential loss of good farmland. Marquis emphasized she was speaking personally, not for the select board. Mather said her decisions as a planning board member would be based on ordinances, not on her personal views.
No candidate had a plan for providing public beach access to China Lake. All agreed a town-owned beach would make more work for the town’s public works department and would require additional insurance.
Marquis praised the Four Seasons Club beach on China Lake’s east shore. It is open to club members for what the club website says is an annual $35 general membership fee.
All three regretted the lack of volunteers for town boards and local organizations. Rumpf praised the excellent volunteers who keep the Four Seasons Club active, and said if there were more, the club could add projects and events.
He raised the issue of attracting business, calling China “business-unfriendly” and naming businesses that have moved to other towns. China officials do not offer tax breaks to new businesses; and they collect the state-mandated personal property tax on businesses, a requirement he said some Maine municipalities ignore.
Rumpf’s main argument was that more businesses would increase the local tax base. He acknowledged the need for regulation to protect local values.
Librarian Miranda Perkins’ video of the forum is available on line for interested voters, via a link on the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library website.
No contests on China ballot
There are no contests and no new names on China’s Nov. 7 local election ballot, though there are lines for write-in candidates.
For the board of selectmen, Wayne Chadwick and Jeanne Marquis seek re-election.
For planning board District 3 (southeastern China), Elaine Mather, appointed in late August to finish Michael Sullivan’s term, is a candidate for re-election. There is no candidate for District 1 (northwestern China).
For the budget committee, chairman Thomas Rumpf and District 1 candidate Kevin Maroon are unopposed for re-election. There is no candidate for District 3.
The position of budget committee secretary is also open, Trishea Story having resigned some months ago. Because that term does not end until 2024, it is not on the ballot.
Anyone interested in serving in an unfilled position is invited to call the China town office at 445-2014.
On Nov. 7, China polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the former portable building behind the town office on Lakeview Drive.
by Mary GrowAt their Oct. 17 meeting, China transfer station committee members reviewed the five-year plan for the facility and talked about relations with neighbors Palermo and Albion.
The plan includes repairs and replacements and a few minor additions, like a storage area for propane tanks and the previously-discussed lighting for the free for the taking building (both scheduled for 2024).
A main topic was what to do with the elderly skid-steer. Opinion leaned toward replacing it with a tractor, not another skid-steer; committee members listed things a tractor could do, for the transfer station and the public works department, that a skid-steer cannot do.
Director of Public Services Shawn Reed offered to look into prices of different-sized tractors.
Staff intends to do more checking on options and costs for other pieces of equipment that need repair or perhaps replacement. They are also investigating state grants.
Committee members considered investing in another storage building so transfer station staff can keep more recyclables, waiting for fluctuating prices to rise. They made no recommendation.
Palermo committee member Robert Kurek and China town manager Rebecca Hapgood sparred, again, over the new transfer station identification system scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 2024. Vehicles entering the facility will need a sticker on the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag with the vehicle license plate on the sticker.
The goal of adding the sticker identified with the vehicle is to eliminate Palermo and China residents’ habit of lending their RFID tags to out-of-towners who do not help fund the transfer station.
Hapgood plans to charge $2 a sticker. Kurek insists the China-Palermo contract says Palermo residents pay no new fees. The contract took effect Jan. 1, 2017, and runs for 17 years, a term Kurek said China officials chose to match their contract with the now-closed Hampden disposal facility.
Under the contract, Palermo pays China an $18,000 yearly fee, and Palermo residents pay for and use special colored trash bags. The bag price has been adjusted, and there is a formula for future adjustments.
Hapgood said China’s town attorney called the contract “one of the worst contracts she’s ever seen.” Committee chairman Paul Lucas called it “ridiculous.”
Hapgood’s suggested alternative to a sticker fee was to have each Palermo vehicle stopped at the entrance and checked to make sure it was entitled to enter. Lucas asked how the cost of the additional labor would compare to the cost of giving Palermo residents free stickers.
The discussion ended inconclusively. Hapgood intends another discussion with China select board members, and she and Kurek exchanged assurances that they’re still friends.
Transfer station manager Thomas Maraggio and Hapgood said fewer transfer station users are being rude to employees, though there are still instances Hapgood investigates.
Maraggio said the new agreement with Albion is working well. Albion residents are now allowed to bring some of the items excluded from the town’s curb-side pick-up to China, for a fee.
Hapgood reported China has hired a new town employee, who will work for both the transfer station and the public works department. The position was in this year’s budget, she said, especially to provide an additional plow driver so staff will be less exhausted by snowstorms.
The next China transfer station committee meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 14.
by Mary GrowChina select board members acted on three spending requests at their Oct. 23 meeting.
They held a long discussion about trucks with Director of Public Services Shawn Reed. Reed reported the previously authorized new town truck, once scheduled for September delivery, is not yet even “on the assembly line,” due to a series of delays (including a major fire at a supplier’s factory).
Reed would like to buy another truck, to replace a half-ton truck China bought in 2011 that has 185,000 miles on the odometer and needs work to pass inspection in December. Despite the shortage of both new and used trucks, he has found a replacement that will cost $65,862.25.
Town manager Rebecca Hapgood said the (unaudited) public works capital reserve fund balance is $150, 939.
Two China select board members have considerable experience with trucks, so there was a detailed discussion about the truck, including considering whether it could double as a plow truck, as Reed recommended.
The unanimous decision was to authorize Reed to buy the truck but not, for now, a plow to go on it. The plow might be considered next year, board members said.
Board members had three bids for each of two projects in Thurston Park, the 400-acre town-owned recreation area in northeastern China.
The relatively simple project is a 20-by-20-foot building to store park equipment. Board members accepted the lowest bid, from Reardon Brothers Construction, of Albion, for $19,763.59.
The other project is repairing Yorktown Road, the entrance to the park from the north. The area needing attention is partly in Albion and partly in China.
Hapgood had no definitive legal opinion on whether China officials can spend taxpayers’ money in another town to access China property. Bidders were therefore asked to submit a separate bid for each town’s part of the road, and select board members took no action on the Albion part.
For work inside the China town line, they again accepted the lowest bid, from S. D. Childs and Sons Excavation, of Palermo, for $30,700.
Returning to a previously-discussed issue, Palermo’s use of China’s transfer station, Hapgood presented a revised version of the new transfer station admission policy that goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024.
Since Palermo officials object to their residents being charged $2 for the new annual access permits that will be required for China residents, the new policy offers Palermo residents two options.
Board members approved the revision on a 2-1 vote, with Janet Preston and chairman Wayne Chadwick in favor, Brent Chesley opposed, Jeanne Marquis not yet present and Blane Casey excused from the meeting.
On a related issue, Hapgood reported that she had talked with town attorney Amanda Meader about terminating the 2016 transfer-station-sharing contract between China and Palermo. Termination by either party must be for breach of contract or just cause, and requires a year’s notice, she said.
Board members asked Hapgood to invite Meader to a board meeting to discuss the topic.
In other business Oct. 23,
One suggestion from earlier discussions, endorsed again by China Lake Association president Stephen Greene, is to limit the landing to hand-carried canoes and kayaks, minimizing vehicle traffic. Greene said grant money is available to work on the landing, and the lake association will contribute funds.
The Oct. 23 meeting was held at 5 p.m. as board members consider whether to change to that earlier time. The time for the next regular China select board meeting, scheduled for Monday, Nov. 6, in the town office meeting room, remains to be determined.
