Thurston Park group continues talks on south entrance

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Hikers on Bridge in Thurston Park (Photo courtesy: Town of China)

by Mary Grow

China’s Thurston Park Committee members spent part of their Jan. 16 meeting talking again about the possibility of opening a southern entrance to the 400-acre park in northeastern China.

The unpaved Yorktown Road runs north from the Mann Road, in China, through the park and across the Albion town line. Town voters discontinued the road in March 1956, but they kept an easement allowing public use.

The current entrance to the park from the north is down a steep hill, partly in Albion, that needs frequent repair. Albion does not maintain it; committee chairman Jeanette Smith explained that China money can’t be used outside town limits.

The southern end of Yorktown Road is Maurice “Steve” and Dawn Haskell’s driveway. The Haskells prefer not to have the road repaired and maintained for park access.

When Smith proposed last fall that committee members confer with the Haskells, Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood recommended they first consult select board members. At the Dec. 20, 2024, select board meeting, board members unanimously approved committee members reaching out to all landowners near the Yorktown Road at the south end of the park (see the Jan. 2 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

Two of those landowners, Jerry Smith and Kathryn Kellison, came to the Jan. 16 meeting. They said they are reluctant to have access to their property improved, fearing trespassers and vandalism.

Jeanette Smith said road improvements would consist of adding gravel, ditching and where necessary installing culverts. The road would not be paved.

Opening a south entrance would not create through traffic on Yorktown Road. As at the north end, there would be a parking lot and a gate just inside the park boundary, she said.

Park hours are dawn to dusk, Smith said. There are no plans to plow the south entrance in the winter.

An alternative to improving the Yorktown Road as a southern entrance has been discussed: making a new right-of-way. Smith said that would be a complicated and costly undertaking.

She assured Jerry Smith and Kellison she would keep them informed of developments that might affect them

Jerry Smith and another guest, China Historical Society member Tim Hatch, mentioned other former roads, no longer maintained or even traceable, that might have run into the park, including one from Palermo. Smith concluded she needs to talk with more people.

The meeting included Hatch’s presentation on the history of the park, which opened formally on May 31, 2014. The town had owned much of the land since the 1950s.

The first parcel was a gift from Everett Thurston, because, Jeanette Smith said, when he and his family were down on their luck, town officials helped them out. More land was acquired through tax foreclosures, Hatch said, and one small piece was purchased.

Some of the landowners in what is now the park were members of China’s Black population. The Talbot cemetery, one of two identified Black cemeteries in China, is just outside the eastern end of the southern park boundary, at the Palermo town line.

Voters who responded to a pre-2014 survey and then approved the park did not want it to increase taxes, Smith said. Consequently, funding has come from grants, occasional fund-raising efforts and China’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) money. Much of the labor of creating and maintaining trails and other facilities has been volunteer, including Eagle Scout projects.

Smith is waiting to find out whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approves funds for repairs after the December 2023 storms, before she proposes a 2025 TIF fund request.

She is researching other funding sources, including the new $30 million trail fund Maine voters approved in November 2024.

A top priority project is designing and building a handicapped trail near the north end of the park and adding a handicapped toilet. Smith has approached the builder of the park’s other toilet facilities about taking on the new project.

On another topic, committee members briefly discussed plans for China’s Ice Days, Feb. 14 through 16. Smith said the park will host an Owl Prowl the evening of Friday, Feb. 14, and, if snow conditions permit, sledding the morning of Saturday, Feb. 15.

The next Thurston Park Committee meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 20, in the portable building behind the China town office on Lakeview Drive.

China planners approve permits for retail store, rebuilding boat landing

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by Mary Grow

China Planning Board members approved both applications on their Jan. 14 agenda, the one from the town after an unusually complex discussion.

The meeting began with a short public hearing on a proposed retail store at 363 Route 3. There were no comments from anyone present or on line, and codes officer Nicholas French, attending virtually due to illness, said he had received none.

After action on the town’s application, board members reviewed the Route 3 application, presented by engineer Steven Govoni, president of Skowhegan-based Wentworth Partners & Associates. Govoni was speaking for the developer, Calito Development Group, of Torrington, Connecticut.

Govoni made an initial presentation at the board’s November 2024 meeting. The public hearing was first scheduled for Dec. 10, but a snowstorm led board chairman Toni Wall to cancel the meeting. Govoni thanked her, saying driving had been dangerous Dec. 10.

Board members compared plans for the store with the 15 criteria in China’s ordinance, found that the criteria were met and unanimously approved a permit, with the usual reminder that there is a 30-day appeal period.

The single-story, 9,100-square-foot steel building will replace the two-story wooden building that most recently housed Grace Academy Learning Center (closed in June 2022). Govoni said the store will use the existing septic system and a new well, which requires state approval.

There will be two bathrooms, one for staff and one for the public.

Planners asked if town would support homeless veterans housing

At the Jan. 14 China Planning Board meeting, resident and former select board member Robert McFarland and his business partner, Darren Desveaux, of Waterville, asked whether board members think the town would support a housing project for homeless veterans, including a vocational rehabilitation facility.

The two have organized a nonprofit organization, yet to be named, and are considering buying land on Pleasant View Ridge Road, at the McCaslin Road intersection. MacFarland said their project would replicate one near the Togus Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Codes Officer Nicholas French said more than three individual housing units would constitute a subdivision, even if the land were not divided into lots.

Govoni said the Central Maine Power line across the back of the property limits placement of buffers from neighboring properties, so they will be the existing lawns, not the trees often required. Because the neighbors are also commercial establishments, board members were satisfied.

In reply to the criterion about hazardous materials, Govoni said there will not be enough to require preventive measures under state law.

He said the store is part of a “national brand” that has its own safety standards and protocols, sometimes stricter than state laws.

He did not name the “national brand.”

The application from the Town of China was to move more than 100 cubic yards of earth. The earth-moving is part of rebuilding Town Landing Road in South China.

The plan select board members have endorsed involves paving the short road that runs to the boat landing on China Lake, with the paving sloped to send run-off into ditches with check-dams, and at the lake a buffer strip and an improved launching area.

As directed by the town manager, codes officer French had filled out the application, because, he said, he was the most knowledgeable person except for those who will do the work. At the Jan. 14 meeting, he answered planning board members’ questions virtually. The application asked for evidence that the project met the same 15 criteria applicable to the Route 3 retail store.

Rebuilding the road is intended to minimize run-off into China Lake. French reminded planning board members the town has been legally required to take action for 20 years. Selectboard members have discussed the landing at several meetings in the last couple years.

French had left blank the reply to the first criterion, whether the project meets all applicable laws and rules. He said the town has a state Department of Environmental Protection permit by rule, and the project meets town requirements.

Board member Michael Brown objected to leaving an answer blank, leading to a 15-minute discussion of whether the application should have been presented by the town manager or a select board member, instead of the codes officer.

Replies to other criteria included references to the proposed check-dams in the proposed ditches and other planned work beyond moving more than 100 cubic feet of earth. For example, French wrote that the project would enhance the value of neighboring properties, and in discussion mentioned the paved road – not part of the work applied for, protested board member Dwaine Drummond.

In another answer, French referred to crushed rock to be placed near the lake. Again, not relevant, Drummond said. With French’s approval, Wall deleted the reference from her copy of the application.

After almost an hour, the permit was approved, conditional on a required flood hazard application that French said he needs to create. The ordinance requires a flood hazard document only for structures, not for road improvements, he explained.

During the public comment period at the end of the Jan. 14 meeting, several abutters who had watched on line objected to some of the board’s conclusions. They reminded planning board members of the requirement to prepare detailed written findings supporting their decision.

At previous meetings and hearings, neighbors have urged select board members to limit the landing to hand-carried canoes and kayaks, minimize signage and otherwise try to keep their neighborhood quiet.

The next regular China Planning Board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28, in the town office meeting room.

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: China schools (Continued into the 20th century)

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by Mary Grow

As mentioned in previous articles about 19th-century Maine elementary schools, in 1894 the state legislature passed a law that began, “The school districts in all towns in this state are hereby abolished.”

The law further directed towns to take over “all school-houses, lands, apparatus and other property owed and used by the school districts hereby abolished.” The property thus taken was to be appraised and district taxpayers reimbursed.

No school was closed by the new law. But in the future, town meeting voters, on the superintending school committee’s recommendation, could close or relocate schools.

The law further required each town to provide at least 20 weeks of schooling a year, and to raise at least 80 cents per inhabitant in local school money, or lose its state funding.

Textbooks continued to be a town responsibility. If a student lost, destroyed or damaged a book, the parent or guardian was expected to recompense the town. If the parent or guardian did not comply, the cost would be added to his next tax bill.

The 1975 China bicentennial history says the main goal of the 1894 law was “to improve primary education by making possible larger consolidated schools which could readily be graded.” In addition to fewer school buildings with more students, other hoped-for effects were standardized school years and school sizes.

A side effect was the need to provide transportation for students who no longer had a schoolhouse within walking distance. The China history named the cost of transportation as a reason “voters were not particularly happy” with the new law.

The history says an immediate effect of the law was to close five schools, supposedly permanently (including China Neck Road with its dilapidated building, mentioned last week; your writer guesses those students went to nearby China Neck school), and six more for “part of the year.” The following sentence says in 1894 15 schools operated “at least part of the year,” only three fewer than in 1893.

The history also summarizes China’s 1894 education budget. The $3,502.39 for “school-houses and furniture” probably included paying districts for their buildings. Voters appropriated $128.80 for textbooks and $90.50 for repairs.

Another $2,604.86 to support schools included “$2,227.85 for teachers’ salaries, $237.80 for transportation, and $139.21 for ‘wood and incidentals.'”

In 1895, voters discontinued five more schools and ordered the selectmen to “dispose of” three of the buildings. They then reversed course and re-established one school whose building they’d just voted to get rid of, plus one discontinued in 1894. The result was 13 schools in 1895.

That year, teachers’ salaries cost $1,808.45, and transportation only $131.50. The history comments that school officials failed to explain to voters how they had reduced “both the number of schools and the transportation costs,” an achievement they were unable to repeat in future years.

Over the next two decades, the history describes repeated rearrangements, including building new school buildings. The result was a gradual reduction in the number of operating schools in town: 12 in 1903; between eight and 10 from 1910 through 1925, as some were closed and others reopened; seven in 1927; six in 1930; and five from 1936 to 1949.

These last five were the four village schools, in China Village, South China, Weeks Mills and Branch Mills, and the (Pigeon) Plains schoolhouse in southeastern China, on Dirigo Road north of Weeks Mills Village.

School consolidation was “difficult to achieve in China,” the history says. “Some of the small rural schools could not be closed without incurring high transportation costs and parental wrath.”

The Hanson District school, in the east-central part of town, was one example.

The history says this school was closed in 1894. At the March 1900 town meeting, voters authorized buying a lot and building a new schoolhouse, “at a cost of almost $400.” The building was not finished until October; school reopened on Oct. 29, and the so-called fall term ran until March 1901.

In 1906, “new seats were installed” – and attendance fell below eight students, the minimum prescribed by state law. For the next three years, 1907, 1908 and 1909, school officials recommended keeping the school open, and voters approved, because of the new building and the “great distance” to any other school.

The Hanson school apparently continued, with “a bare minimum attendance” through the spring of 1913, when it was finally closed, “and the students transported to Branch Mills,” the village in extreme eastern China shared with Palermo.

Not even the four village schools had consistent high enrollments. Branch Mills, especially, the history says, tended to attract few students. In 1901 and 1902, its average enrollment was 12, compared to around 45 in the China Village School at the north end of town.

By 1901, the history says, the China Village school was “divided into…a primary school and a grammar school,” the earliest example mentioned of a graded school. By 1915, all China schools were graded.

The history suggests that transferring school management from districts to the town did little to alleviate three other problems mentioned repeatedly in discussions of Maine education in the 19th and early 20th century: truancy, poorly maintained buildings and undertrained teachers.

The history quotes school superintendents’ complaints about truancy in 1913, when George Paine “calculated that out of the 145 day school year, the average attendance was only 47 days”; and in 1928, when Carl B. Lord’s annual report reminded parents that children aged from seven to 16 “must be in school, unless they are ill or excused from attendance by the State Department of Education.”

By the 20th century, superintendents complained less often about unsafe and drafty buildings and more about inadequate flooring, furnishings, lighting and sanitary facilities. Despite annual expenditures on buildings running around $500, “there was always more work than money.”

In 1912, for instance, the history says every classroom still had double desks, “although the teachers thought single desks would be more conducive to quiet study.”

And, a footnote says, “At least, there were desks; in 1906 superintendent [Gustavus] Nelson had reported that some of the students in the China Village primary school had been sitting on dry goods boxes.”

In 1922, the Weeks Mills schoolhouse got “new desks purchased by the community” – whether double or single, the history does not say. That same year, three schools “were screened by the efforts of the teachers and pupils.”

The Vassalboro bicentennial history cites a 1922 state law that required schools to eliminate “those little buildings out back:” privies. China apparently complied gradually. The history mentions (but fails to describe) “approved toilets” added in South China in 1924. In 1926, Superintendent Lord said the Lakeside and Chadwick Hill schools needed toilets connected.

Electricity was added in China’s five remaining schoolhouses in 1937 and 1938. In 1938, Superintendent Lord wrote that three of the five had lighting that was nearly up to state standards, three had “satisfactory school desks,” one had running water and “none has sanitary toilets.”

State laws required increased teacher training, and China teachers’ qualifications increased accordingly. So did salaries, though the history comments that “school superintendents seldom thought them high enough.” Until at least the early 1930s, teachers were paid only for the weeks they actually spent in a schoolroom.

As mentioned above, transporting students became increasingly expensive as the number of schools decreased. In 1899, the China history says, the legislature required towns to provide transportation, authorizing each town’s school committee “to decide which students should be transported.”

This unfunded mandate – to use a modern term – meant that in 1899, “China spent $328.80 for transportation and therefore could afford to provide only twenty-four weeks of school.” The history quotes the school committee’s report: committee members tried to balance transportation and schooling, and “We have not responded to all the calls for transportation; we could not.”

Transportation contracts went to the lowest bidders, the history says, and “drivers supplied their own vehicles.” The earliest conveyances were open pungs (one-horse sleighs). In 1904, China’s school committee required “all permanent transportation supported by the town” to use covered vehicles.

In the 1920s, “cars or converted trucks” began to replace horses.

The China history gives Superintendent Lord credit for starting the movement toward a single consolidated China Elementary School in 1931, when he recommended starting a building fund. The Depression postponed his plan, but he continued to argue for it from 1936 on.

Voters rejected the idea for years. Not until March 1946 did they make the first appropriation, against the town budget committee’s advice.

China Elementary School on Lakeview Drive opened in April 1949, and the remaining five primary schools were closed.

Carl Burton Lord

Carl Burton Lord served as school superintendent in China from 1924 to 1953 (according to the China bicentennial history) and in Vassalboro from 1924 to 1955 (according to the Vassalboro bicentennial history). The Carl B. Lord Elementary School, in North Vassalboro, which opened in 1962, was named in his honor.

(Your writer does not know why the two towns shared a superintendent for almost three decades. The Vassalboro history says by 1935, Vassalboro, China and Winslow had formed a school union; Wikipedia says School Union #52 was dissolved in 2009, when the legislature mandated a statewide reorganization.)

Despite Lord’s importance in these two towns, on-line information is scarce. Sources say he was born May 13, 1894, in either Liberty or Kennebunk. His parents were William A. Lord (1867 – 1945) and Sarah Jane or Sadie J. (Weagle) Lord (1871 – 1936). They died in Vassalboro and are buried in Nichols Cemetery.

Carl Lord was the oldest of William and Sadie’s three children. He graduated from Colby College, Class of 1915.

He married Mildred Bessie Clarke, of Washington, D. C., on Tuesday, June 10, 1919. She was born in June, 1899, in Washington and died May 22, 1992, in Waterville.

Carl and Mildred had two children, Bernice Mae (or May) (Lord) Peterson, born May 9, 1920, and died Aug. 15, 2021, and John William Lord, born in 1922, Colby Class of 1948, died Oct. 4, 2006.

Carl Burton Lord died in North Vassalboro in July 1969. He is buried in the North Vassalboro Village Cemetery, as are his widow, his younger brother Maurice and members of Maurice’s family.

Main sources

Grow, Mary M., China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984)
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971)

Websites, miscellaneous.

Erskine Academy first trimester honor roll

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Grade 12

High Honors: Emmett Appel, Emily Bailey, Bryana Barrett, Noah Bechard, Geneva Beckim, Rylan Bennett, Octavia Berto, Jayda Bickford, Kaleb Bishop, Lauryn Black, Brooke Blais, Olivia Brann, Lauren Cowing, Kaden Crawford, Lillian Crommett, Gabrielle Daggett, Trinity DeGreenia, Aydan Desjardins, Aidan Durgin, John Edwards, Ryan Farnsworth, Josiah Fitzgerald, Hailey Garate, Ellie Giampetruzzi, Kaylene Glidden, Brandon Hanscom, Serena Hotham, Kailynn Houle, Alivia Jackson, Ava Kelso, Sophia Knapp, Jack Lucier, Owen Lucier, Eleanor Maranda, Jade McCollett, Abigail McDonough, Shannon McDonough, Madison McNeff, Addison Mort, Thomas Mullens, Makayla Oxley, Noah Pelletier, Elsa Redmond, Justin Reed, Lillian Rispoli, Laney Robitaille, Carlee Sanborn, Joslyn Sandoval, Aislynn Savage, Achiva Seigars, Jordyn Smith, Zoey Smith, Larissa Steeves, Katherine Swift, and Clara Waldrop.

Honors: Daphney Allen, Ava Anderson, Carter Brockway, Paige Clark, Madison Cochran, Dylan Cooley, Andra Cowing, Brady Desmond, Lucas Farrington, Wesley Fulton, Addison Gagne, Keeley Gagnon, Abbi Guptill, Jonathan Gutierrez, Landen Hayden, Montana Johnson, Rachel Johnson, Rion Kesel, Bodi Laflamme, Chase Larrabee, Shelby Lincoln, D’andre Marable, Lilas Moles, Elijah Moore, Colin Oliphant, Gavyn Paradis, Ava Picard, Victoria Rancourt, Carter Rau, Nathan Robinson, Kyle Scott, Emily Sprague, and Parker Studholme

Grade 11

High Honors: Connor Alcott, Emily Almeida, Addyson Briggs, London Castle, Nathan Choate, William Choate, Drew Clark, Timothy Clavette, Madeline Clement-Cargill, Claire Davis, Sylvia Davis, Joshua Denis, Audryanna DeRaps, Lauren Dufour, William Ellsey Jr., Jacob Faucher, Ethan Frost, Madison Gagnon, Stephen Gould, Kolby Griatzky, Madison Griffiths, Aiden Hamlin, Evan Heron, Mia Hersom, Halle Jones, Kasen Kelley, Talula Kimball, Timothy Kiralis, Kayle Lappin, Jacob Lavallee, Ava Lemelin, Jaden Mizera, Jack Murray, Elijah Nelson, Bayley Nickles, Jordyn Parise, Ruby Pearson, Jacoby Peaslee, Abigail Peil, Elijah Pelkey, Isabelle Pelotte, Emily Piecewicz, Taisen Pilotte, Hannah Polley, Logan Poulin, Desirae Proctor, Owen Robichaud, Brynna Rodrigue, Kameron Rossignol, Jackie Sasse, Autumn Sawyer, Edward Schmidt, Benjamin Severy, Kathryn Shaw, Madelynn Spencer, Abigail Studholme, Leah Targett, Donovan Thompson, Kammie Thompson, Addison Turner, and Finnegan Vinci.

Honors: Savannah Baker, Gavin Bartlett, Anders Bassett, Lucas Berto, Julia Booth, Brock Bowden, Addyson Burns, Benjamin Carle, Lillian Clark, Lucas Crosby, Mason Decker, Charles DeSchamp, Riley Dixon, Solomon Fortier, Willow Haschalk, Cadence Homstead, Easton Houghton, Aidan Huff, Jacob Hunter, Alexus Jackson, Natthaya Khositanont, Savannah Knight, Bernhard Kotter, Nathaniel Levesque, Kloie Magoon, Brayden McLean, Paige McNeff, Parker Minzy, Tucker Nessmith, Phoebe Padgett, Jackson Pelotte, Chase Pierce, Joeseph Pilsbury, Allianna Porter, Alexander Reitchel, Leahna Rocque, Eva Simmons, Nichala Small, Blake Smith, Benjamin Sullivan, Phoebe Taylor, Kamryn Turner, Charles Uleau, Oryanna Winchenbach, Ella Winn, Addison Witham, Brody Worth, and Maddilyn York.

Grade 10

High Honors: William Adamson IV, Isaac Audette, Olivia Austin, Ashton Bailey, Jeremiah Bailey, Linnea Bassett, Luke Blair, Jackson Blake, Silas Bolitho, Madeline Boynton, Cassidy Brann, Delaney Brown, Liam Burgess, Olivia Childs, Hunter Christiansen, Botond Csaszi, Jilian Desjardins, Ryley Desmond, Robin Dmitrieff, Logan Dow, Isabella Farrington, Gianna Figucia, Audrey Fortin, Aina Garcia Cardona, Adalyn Glidden, Bailey Goforth, Cody Grondin, Madison Harris, Eva Hayden, Lilly Hutchinson, Reid Jackson, Johanna Jacobs, Ivy Johns, Callianne Jordan, Sawyer Livingstone, Jasai Marable, Annie Miragliuolo, Alexis Mitton, Jacoby Mort, Molly Oxley, Caylee Putek, Gabriel Ratcliff, Sovie Rau, Tayden Richards, Lailah Sher, Bryson Stratton, Gabriel Studholme, Sabrina Studholme, Kaleb Tolentino, Carter Ulmer, Tyler Waldrop, and Eryn Young.

Honors: Ariana Armstrong, Delia Bailey, Benjamin Beale, Lucas Beale, Hailey Boone, Seth Bridgforth, Logan Chechowitz, Khloe Clark, Owen Couture, Slayde Crocker, Connor Crommett, Bradley Cushman, Landen DeCosta, Kiley Doughty, Kelsie Dunn, Delaney Dupuis, Gavin Fanjoy, Danica Ferris, Madison Field, Annabelle Fortier, Nicholas Gould, Kaylee Grierson, Addison Hall, Camden Hinds, Spencer Hughes, Evan James, Peyton Kibbin, Chantz Klaft, Maverick Knapp, Mason Lagasse, Bryson Lanphier, Matthew Lincoln, Jack Malcolm, Kate McGlew, Gaven Miller, Kienna-May Morse, Emi Munn, Lauryn Northrup, Madeline Oxley, Layla Peaslee, Bryson Pettengill, Teagan Pilsbury, Noah Pooler, Dylan Proctor, Samuel Richardson, Colton Ryan, Lucas Short, Ian Smith, Hellena Swift, Malaya Tagalicud, Braeden Temple, and Isabella Winchenbach.

Grade 9

High Honors: Joshua Bailey, Hunter Baird, Madeline Berry, Ella Beyea, Dominic Brann, Nicholas Carle, Ryan Carle, Lily Chamberlain, Jack Coutts, Ryleigh French, Jasmine Garey, Shelby Gidney, Kolby Glidden, Rachel Grant, Naomi Harwath, Christina Haskell, Bristol Jewett, Colbie Littlefield, Dylan Maguire, Stella Martinelli, Lainey McFarland, Ava Miragliuolo, Annabella Morris, Grant Munsey, Lexi Pettengill, Angelina Puiia, Jakobe Sandoval, Parker Smith, Khloe Soucy, Maxine Spencer, Ethan Studholme, Reid Sutter, Benjamin Theberge, Audrey Tibbetts, Hannah Tobey, Kayleigh Trask, Kallie Turner, Kinsey Ulmer, Sorrel Vinci, Mackenzie Waldron, and Leah Watson.

Honors: Clifton Adams IV, Landon Alexander, Torren Ambrose, Dawson Baker, Brooke Borja, Mackenzie Bowden, Aiden Brann, Jackson Bryant, Kenneth Cobb, Daegan Creamer, Dylan Dodge, Heleana-Marie Doyon, Taylor Gagnon, Tyler Gagnon, Riley Gould, Myla Gower, Amiah Graves, Bruce Grosjean, Griffin Hayden, Baylee Jackson, Josephine Kelly, Gabriella Lathrop, Marlin Lawrence, Dorothy Leeman, Bella Lefferts, Madison Levesque, Mason Marable, Mason Mattingly, Alexander Mayo, Orin McCaw, Ayla McCurdy, Max McKenlogue, Annaleysha McNeil, Grace Oxley, Paige Perry, Carter Peterson, Nolan Pierce, Reed Pilsbury, Brandon Piper, Camryn Prosper, Kenzie Pyska, George Roderick, Thomas Roe, Jacob Rogers, Jacob Shanholtzer, Jaylynn St. Amand, Leigha Sullivan, Eli Vallieres, and Reid Willett.

China select board begins preparing for annual town meeting

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by Mary Grow

China select board members have started preparing for the June 10 annual town business meeting, and it will not be a return to the pre-Covid open meeting that some residents would like to see.

China’s official town meeting, by state definition, is in November, when voters elect town officers by written ballot. The annual June meeting is usually referred to as the town business meeting.

Until Covid, voters assembled to discuss and vote on multiple articles, mostly dealing with expenditures, policies and procedures. Since Covid, the June meeting, too, has been by written ballot.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood shared a pre-meeting schedule at the board’s Jan. 13 meeting. It assumes a June 10 written-ballot vote, and select board members supported the assumption.

Their main reason is that more people vote when written ballots are used. Board chairman Wayne Chadwick and other members want lots of residents’ opinions.

Resident Sheldon Goodine spoke in favor of an open meeting. His view is that if most people don’t come, “those who do can run the town.”

Hapgood recommended that one June 10 article asks voters to repeal China’s quorum ordinance. She has received legal opinions that state law does not allow China to have such an ordinance. The ordinance, adopted before 1990, currently requires at least 100 registered voters be present to start an open meeting.

According to Hapgood’s schedule for this spring, the select board and budget committee will meet jointly Monday, Feb. 3, for an initial presentation on the proposed 2025-26 town budget. Select board members need to approve a final set of ballot questions at their April 7 meeting.

At the Jan. 13 meeting, board members appropriated funds and approved a committee to keep the proposed community garden project moving forward. At the request of James Hsiang and his wife, Judith Chute Hsiang, they allocated $200 from their contingency fund to pay for lumber for the raised beds, and transferred $1,033 left in the China for a Lifetime Committee account to garden funding.

They also revitalized the committee, appointing as its members both Hsiangs, Eric Austin, Saige Bird, Sandra Isaac, Marie Michaud, Karen Stankis and, as an advisory member, select board member Jeanne Marquis.

In other appointments, select board members made Bird a member of China’s recreation committee and Milton Dudley a planning board member.

Another expenditure approved Jan. 13 was $11,220 for Bryan Moore, of Pro Tree Service, Inc., of Vassalboro, to take down most of the Reading Tree in the China School Forest behind China Primary School, leaving a 30-foot stub. Storm damage has made the tree a potential liability for the town, Hapgood said.

Hsiang considered the price high and asked board members to seek another estimate. Chadwick explained the complexity of the project requires a crane. Moore’s estimate includes $4,350 for 10 hours work with a crane, at $435 an hour.

Hapgood said the $11,220 will come from the community forest reserve fund, which currently has about $34,000.

Broadband Committee chairman Robert O’Connor reported on an arrangement with Direct Communications, formerly Unitel, in Unity, and the Waldo Broadband Group that will result in a new fiber line running for 17 miles through China and offering a fiber broadband connection to 584 “locations.”

In return, China will contribute the already-approved $370,000 in TIF (Tax Increment Financing) money.

The bulk of the TIF money was to be spread over 10 years. Hapgood assured select board member Edwin Bailey that the fund can afford to spend it immediately.

O’Connor said this project is scheduled for the spring of 2025. It might be followed by a second phase that would improve broadband service throughout China, if a Direct Communications application for a state grant is successful.

As the Jan. 13 meeting ended, Hapgood reminded everyone that China municipal services will be closed Monday, Jan. 20, for the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday.

Select board member Thomas Rumpf summarized town-wide events planned for China Ice Days, beginning Friday, Feb. 14, and running through Sunday, Feb. 16. The schedule will soon be publicized widely.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, Jan. 27.

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: China elementary schools

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Dr. Daniel Adams

by Mary Grow

What is now the Town of China was settled in 1774, starting on the shores of China Lake, and promptly incorporated as Jones Plantation.

On Feb. 8, 1796, the Massachusetts legislature made it a town named Harlem. On Feb. 5, 1818, the legislature incorporated southern Albion and northern Harlem into a town named China. In January 1822, after much local debate, the Maine legislature added the rest of Harlem to China.

The China bicentennial history says Harlem’s first school opened in 1795, before the town existed officially. It was on the east side of China Lake, either in a house or in a log cabin built especially for a school; Rev. Job Chadwick was the teacher.

Orrin Sproul, who wrote a section on China’s schools in Henry Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history, said Chadwick taught for several successive terms.

At the second Harlem town meeting, in June 1796, voters raised $200 for schools (and $300 for roads) and instructed the selectmen and constable to allocate the money. As in other towns, school districts were created, and frequently rearranged. The bicentennial history says there were eight by 1807, when town meeting voters added a ninth on China Neck, the area bordering Vassalboro that lies west of the north end of China Lake’s east basin. In 1814, Harlem had 16 school districts.

These districts were run by school committees elected by district residents. The committees were empowered to buy land, build schoolhouses, hire teachers, decide how long school terms were and spend the budget. The history says the first “town-wide supervising school committee was apparently elected in 1802.”

Daniel Adams, identified as an M.D., first published his Adams’s New Arithmetic, which has a very long subtitle, in 1810. The subtitle reads Arithmetic, in Which the Principles of Operating by Numbers Are Analytically Explained, and Synthetically Applied.

School funding was approved annually, the history says, but sometimes not spent and reallocated. Two examples from Kingsbury’s summary of early town meeting actions: voters at a March 12, 1798, town meeting approved a motion “to pay for the town’s stock of powder out of last year’s school money”; and at a March 7, 1800, meeting, voters agreed “to pay for running out town line, out of last year’s school money.”

According to the China history, Jonathan Dow hosted a February 1803 town meeting at which voters were asked to use the 1801 school budget to build a schoolhouse. Instead, they raised $50 to buy Dow’s house (the history does not say where it was) and used the 1801 money to convert it to a schoolhouse.

Finally, Kingsbury quoted from town records, on May 21, 1804, voters agreed “to take school money for the year to build school houses.” In districts lacking a building, schools “were taught in rooms fitted up” in private houses.

As in other towns, students provided their own textbooks, (“a financial burden on the family,” the history comments). Rev. Chadwick had three main texts: “Noah Webster’s spelling book, the Psalter, and Adams Arithmetic.”

(Wikipedia says the Psalter is “a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints.” Psalters date from the Middle Ages, and “were commonly used for learning to read.”

(The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History website says Noah Webster first published his American Spelling Book, commonly called “the blue backed speller” for its blue cover, in 1783. His goal was to “divorce the American educational system from its British roots” by legitimizing American spellings.

(Daniel Adams, identified as an M.D., first published his Adams’s New Arithmetic, which has a very long subtitle, in 1810.)

* * * * * *

The new Town of China that was created in February 1818 included some of Harlem’s school districts – the rest were added four years later – plus either one or two from southern Albion.

Voters at China’s first town meeting on March 2, 1818, elected a three-man “select school committee” to redraw district lines, and nine school agents. The select committee obligingly recommended nine districts, and voters at an April 6 meeting approved.

As in other towns’ records, district boundaries were defined by property lines – District 8, for example, included “all the lands and inhabitants North of John Sewalls and Samuel Strongs south lines,” the history says.

A list and a map of districts make District 8 the Parmenter (Parmeter) Hill District. The schoolhouse was in the southeast corner of the intersection of Pleasant View Ridge and Mann roads, in the lowland north of Parmenter Hill, near China’s eastern border with Palermo.

The April 6, 1818, voters also appropriated $400 for schools. Two years later, voters combined two districts, reducing the total to eight, each with a three-man committee. On March 5, 1821, they replaced the district committees with district agents; increased the town school committee to seven members; and appropriated $150 to be divided among districts according to student population.

The 1821 meeting also voted “to set off the people of colour” in a separate school district. A footnote in the history says in 1820, Harlem and China had 24 colored people in a total population of 894. The colored families lived in the northeastern part of town; the history says “There are no further references to a colored school district.”

Adding the rest of Harlem to China in January 1822 “more than doubled” the number of school districts, and set off 30 years of rearranging that the history summarizes, with the number of districts varying from 17 to 26. An 1852 reorganization left the town with 22 districts, a number the history says remained stable until an 1894 Maine law eliminated the district system in favor of town schools.

Among the rearrangements was one in March 1835 allowing China Friends (Quakers) to have their own school district, at their own expense. In March 1836, voters sent them back to their previous district, whether at the Friends’ request the history does not say.

In two cases, children were allowed to attend school not merely in a different district, but in a different town, apparently by redefining school district boundaries across town lines. In 1848, a family in China’s District 15, in the southwestern part of town, was allowed to use Vassalboro’s District 14 school. In 1857, China voters accepted Albion voters’ decision to send children of an Albion family to China’s northeastern District 7 school that was closer to their house than the Albion one.

As in other towns, the length of time schools were open varied widely, depending mostly, the history says, on how much money voters approved. Summer terms might be five weeks or 12 weeks, sometimes with a July vacation; winter terms could run from nine to 20 weeks. Summer school attracted mostly the youngest students, because those old enough to help on the farm did so.

The 1872-73 town supervisor, A. T. Brown, commented in his annual report that short terms and long breaks meant “long and wearisome” review as each term started, so that students did the same lessons over and over. His suggested remedy: have parents help children go over their lessons during vacations.

The bicentennial history says some terms in some schools had more than 100 students, often in one room with one teacher. The village school in Weeks Mills, in southeastern China, had 162 students enrolled for the 1857-58 winter term.

In 1858-59, “the winter term teacher was allowed an assistant”; but the school committee report found the building overcrowded and under-ventilated. A new room was added in the summer of 1860, to accommodate 125 enrolled students “(average attendance 100).”

In the 1860-61 winter term, Weeks Mills students were divided into a lower and an upper school, with two teachers. For more than 25 years, the school was divided a lot of the time; sometimes, parsimony prevailed, and a single teacher was responsible for 50 or 75 students.

The 1860 Weeks Mills schoolhouse still stands, owned by the Town of China and restored in 2010.

The bicentennial history notes that truancy was a common problem. In many cases, parents encouraged children to stay home. In District 16 (in southwestern China, north of District 15, between the southern end of China Lake’s east basin and the Vassalboro town line), supervisor Charles Dutton found three students when he visited the school in the fall of 1879.

Parents told him that “they simply were not ready to have their children gone for five or six hours a day.” Dutton ordered the school to remain open, at district residents’ expense, and “the students soon appeared.”

Town reports show truant officers were elected for the first time at the 1888 town meeting, the history says.

Teachers’ experience and ability varied widely, the history says. “Probably the majority…were young men and women barely out of district schools themselves.” But there were also teachers with years of experience, if no formal credentials; and the history mentions graduates of the normal schools (early teachers’ colleges) at Farmington and Castine, and Colby College students.

Occasionally a local school offered advanced subjects that reflected teachers’ abilities and interests. Latin and algebra were taught at intervals in several schools in the 1860s and 1870s; the Colby College sophomore who taught the winter 1878-79 term in the China Village school offered algebra and trigonometry.

Teachers commonly moved from school to school, although, the history says, some stayed in the same school for many years. As in other towns, they were not well paid, “and the discrimination [in pay] against women was flagrant.”

Men were usually paid by the month, women by the week. The history cites 1850-51 salaries: nine men were paid, on average, $17.68 a month, while 25 women (“two designated as Mrs., the rest as Miss”) averaged 1.68 a week.

Town school committees’ and supervisors’ reports in China (again, as in other towns) frequently criticized maintenance of school buildings, referring especially to winter cold. The history quotes supervisor Dana Hanson on the China Neck Road (District 3) schoolhouse in 1857: “The plastering having fallen from the ceiling, permitted the heat to take an aerial flight, while Boreas [the Greek god of the north wind], from without, forcing his way inward through numerous horizontal and perpendicular openings, prevented a vacuum.”

The same winter, the history notes, the China Neck district (District 2) farther south on the dead-end road had a brand-new “neat and commodious” building. The building Hanson criticized was apparently the one that burned in 1863, requiring a new one in 1864.

The China history goes into more detail than other sources about the response to Maine’s August 1890 state law that required towns to provide free textbooks. In preparation, China’s March 1889 town meeting appointed a committee whose members made recommendations about continuing or changing books then in use in 10 required subjects: “algebra, United States history, geography, hygienic physiology [a state requirement since 1885],…penmanship,” reading, spelling, arithmetic, grammar and bookkeeping.

The committee also recommended the town buy books for these 10 subjects and lend them to students. Students who wanted different books, or books on other subjects, provided them at their own expense.

After the March 1890 town meeting approved the committee report, local officials arranged with textbook publishers to trade in old books for credit on new ones, sometimes breaking even, sometimes paying “only a few cents per book.”

“The prices of the new textbooks ranged from 21 to 75 cents each,” the history says. In 1890, China spent “a little over $500” on textbooks; in 1891, the cost was $862, including a new “intermediate physiology text”; “by the end of 1892 China owned 1,730 texts.”

Main sources

Grow, Mary M., China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984)
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892)

Websites, miscellaneous.

Stormwater solution highlights power of collaboration for China Lake

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stormwater runoff before

Submitted by Jennifer Syer

A serious runoff problem that was dumping phosphorus-laden water into China Lake has been resolved, thanks to teamwork that saw private landowners, nonprofits, and government agencies joining forces with the goal of protecting the lake’s water quality.

The issue originated with a culvert that drained runoff under Lakeview Drive from 40 acres of woodland east of the road. In 2015, new owners of what would become The Cottages at China Lake installed an additional culvert to direct runoff from the roadside into a plunge pool near the shoreline. Over time, the pool filled with sediment and vegetation. “The water would rush straight into the lake, untreated and uncontrolled,” said John Perron, a Cottages owner and member of the property’s buildings and grounds committee.

stormwater runoff after

Recognizing the problem, Perron and Cottages’ association president Mike Stillman contacted Scott Pierz – then head of the China Region Lakes Alliance (CRLA), and former president of China Lake Association – who they knew had previously been involved in shoreline protection at the property. “It was really time to take up the task,” Pierz said.

He brought in CLA, which then reached out to the state Department of Environmental Protection and Kennebec County Soil and Water Conservation District for additional help.

“This was a highly collaborative effort,” said CLA President Stephen Greene. “Everyone had the lake’s best interest in mind.”

Eventually, Boyd Snowden, of Snowden Consulting Engineers, was brought into the fold to design a site plan, which was developed over a year’s worth of visits, planning and permit approvals. The final design included a plunge pool, catch basin and vegetated buffer to trap sediment and slow runoff before it reached the lake.

“We didn’t just stop at the basics,” said Snowden, who has been designing storm-water containment systems for more than 30 years. “We added a meadow buffer to provide the best treatment possible.”

Funding came from multiple sources. Maine DEP authorized KCSWCD to allocate $14,000 through a federal grant* aimed at reducing phosphorus in China Lake. CLA contributed $9,321, matched by the Cottages’ 20 owners, while CRLA provided $5,000.

Construction began in October 2024 after permits were secured. Over the course of a week, W.D. Chadwick Construction installed the multi-tiered system, which now filters the runoff, trapping sediment from running into the lake – and fueling algae growth and harming water quality. Fieldstone Gardens, of Vassalboro, supplied plants for the buffer area.

Pierz expressed confidence that the Cottages’ association will maintain the system and continue improving shoreline protections. Greene praised the project as a model for collaboration between private owners, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and contractors.

“This project shows how teamwork and a shared goal can solve complex problems,” Greene said. “The China Lake Association is proud to have been a part of a solution that will benefit the lake for decades to come.”

  * Funding for this project, in part, was provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Section 319 of the Clean Water Act. The funding is administered by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection in partnership with EPA. EPA does not endorse any commercial products or services mentioned.

Four Seasons of Giving: Local event brings joy to families in need

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On Monday, December 16, China Four Seasons Club President Tom Rumpf, left, presented the Town of China with a check for $1,400, proceeds from the Four Season of Trees event. Accepting the check was Sydney Laird, Deputy Clerk for the Town of China. (photo courtesy of Tom Rumpf)

by Sandra Isaac

The China Four Seasons Club recently held its annual “Four Seasons of Trees” event. The event, held over three weekends in late November and early December, showcased more than 13 beautifully decorated trees with unique themes – including all four seasons, which inspired the event’s name – and over 23 gift baskets, all generously donated by local businesses and community members. The community came out in full force, purchasing raffle tickets for a chance to win these festive items. Winners were announced during a live Facebook event, adding an exciting twist to the proceedings.

What many people may not know is the remarkable impact this event had on the local community. Thanks to the overwhelming support and participation, the China Four Seasons Club raised enough funds to donate $1,400 to the Town of China’s Christmas Assistance Program. This program, managed by town employees, plays a vital role in brightening the holidays for local children whose families may be facing financial difficulties, ensuring that every child has something special to open during the holiday season.

The China Four Seasons Club extends heartfelt gratitude to everyone who contributed to this year’s success. From those who donated trees and baskets to the volunteers who worked tirelessly to organize the event, and of course, to the community members who purchased raffle tickets – your support made a difference. These collective efforts will undoubtedly bring joy to local children and their families this holiday season.

CHINA: Seeking second access to Thurston Park main topic at committee meeting

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Hikers on Bridge in Thurston Park (Photo courtesy: Town of China)

by Mary Grow

According to the minutes of the Dec. 19, 2024, meeting of China’s Thurston Park Committee, seeking a second access to the park from the south was a main topic of discussion.

Currently, people driving into the almost-400-acre recreation area in northeastern China have access only from Albion on the north, via the discontinued Yorktown Road that runs through the park south to China’s Mann Road. The steep hill, partly in Albion, on the dirt road frequently washes out and needs expensive repairs.

Committee members hope lessening reliance on the north entrance would save money. Park users have asked for better access. And committee members believe a second access is necessary in case of a medical emergency or a fire in the park.

The southern end of Yorktown Road passes close to Maurice “Pete” and Dawn Haskell’s home. Committee members wanted to start by talking with the Haskells; Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood advised them to ask for select board approval first.

Committee members also talked about applying for state funding under the measure Maine voters approved Nov. 5 to improve trails, and discussed where they might want to build new trails. They decided the next trail in the park should be handicapped-accessible, and an accessible toilet should be provided.

Committee members are waiting for FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) money to reimburse some of the clean-up costs after last December’s storms. They hope to have money from that source; from China’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) fund; and from their annual town budget request, which they decided to leave at $13,000 for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Depending on funding, they suggested adding a new trail and improving two existing trails for mountain biking. Members of NEMBA (New England Mountain Bike Association) have been to the park and are interested. Committee members also plan to participate in China’s February 2025 Ice Days, as they did in 2024 (though lack of snow ruined some of their plans).

The next Thurston Park Committee meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in the portable building behind the China town office.

CHINA: Thurston Park, emergency medical services select board topics

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by Mary Grow

At their Dec. 20 meeting, China select board members unanimously approved Jeanette Smith’s proposal to have the Thurston Park Committee she chairs reach out to the park’s southern neighbors about opening an access road from that end.

The former Yorktown Road runs from south to north through the almost-400-acre park and into the neighboring town of Albion. Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said when voters discontinued the road on March 2, 1956, they reserved a public easement over it, giving the public the legal right to use it and China the legal right to maintain it, assuming voters approve funds.

The north entrance to the park, the only one currently used, is down a steep hill on a dirt road that needs frequent repairs.

Smith explained that two-tenths of a mile on the hill are in Albion. Albion officials are not interested in contributing to maintenance, although, she said, Albion residents use Thurston Park.

The south end of the road serves as the driveway from Mann Road to Maurice “Pete” Haskell’s home, before continuing north past the Haskell property and others into the park.

Committee member Scott Monroe said about 10 years ago, China officials considered road improvements that would create park access from the south. At that time, he said, the Haskells, foreseeing increased traffic past their house, hired a lawyer who threatened court action. Town officials dropped the idea.

Smith would like to try again, this time starting by talking with the Haskells about ways to meet their and the park’s needs, like relocating the right of way farther from their house, or having the south entrance be for walkers only.

Park use is increasing, she said, citing recordings from trail cameras, and users say on surveys they would like a southern entrance.

Select board members discussed options and costs – Smith is investigating possible grants – before giving the committee the go-ahead. Hapgood offered the town office as a meeting place, if desired, and said she would attend if invited.

In other business Dec. 30, recently re-elected State Representative Katrina Smith attended the meeting to ask if anyone wanted to bring a local issue to her attention. As a proponent of local control, she explained, she avoids involving herself in town matters; but she would be glad to hear what issues the legislature might help with.

Select board member Jeanne Marquis and chairman Wayne Chadwick promptly asked about funding for emergency medical services, and what happened with the legislature’s January 2024 Blue Ribbon Commission report. Smith said she is working with other area legislators on the issue.

Hapgood asked Smith to look into changing the county budget process, to avoid surprises like the major increase in the Kennebec County budget in 2024. She invited Smith to report to the select board at intervals during the 2025 legislative session.

On another topic, board member Blane Casey reported eight contracts for different pieces of the planned new records storage vault at the town office had been sent out on Friday, Dec. 27; six had already been returned.

Board members unanimously reappointed Town Clerk Angela Nelson for another two-year term. They appointed resident Kenneth Molfetta a member of the comprehensive plan committee, the recreation committee and the Thurston Park committee.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, Jan. 13, 2025.