China select board continues town meeting preparations

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by Mary Grow

CHINA, ME — China Select Board members continued town meeting preparations at their March 28 meeting, discussing at length three topics: asking voters to approve a moratorium on commercial solar development; the proposed 2022-23 municipal budget, with a focus on town employees’ pay; and 2022-23 expenditures of federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds, which need voter approval.

At the annual town business meeting June 14, China voters will not act on a new ordinance to regulate commercial solar development, because planning board members have not finished writing it. (See related story here.)

Therefore, Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said, she asked town attorney Amanda Meader about a moratorium on new solar projects, and Meader replied a moratorium would be a good way to protect town residents. The attorney was ready to draft the document if select board members approved the idea.

Three of them approved, outvoting the two who didn’t.

Wayne Chadwick objected immediately to “tying landowners’ hands for months because the planning board and the town didn’t do their job in a timely way.”

Blane Casey agreed. A landowner might lose his or her opportunity to lease property to a developer during the moratorium, he added.

From the audience, resident Brent Chesley said he thinks the draft ordinance really does need more work, for example, adding the requirement that a commercial solar developer provide money in advance to decommission and remove the installation at the end of its useful life.

He further reminded those present of resident Michael “Mickey” Wing’s testimony, during the March 22 public hearing on the draft ordinance, that the glass panels are considered hazardous waste until they’ve been sun-baked for 20 years. Wing, who runs the Waterville-based division of Casella Waste Systems, told the hearing audience that when a truck-load of panels got broken, the out-of-state supplier had to come and remove them, because the glass could not go to an in-state waste disposal facility.

Board chairman Ronald Breton agreed with Chadwick’s and Casey’s principle that people should be allowed to use their property as they wish, but he also agreed that Chesley had raised two issues needing attention to protect the town.

Breton, Jeanne Marquis and Janet Preston voted to have attorney Meader proceed with the moratorium draft. Casey and Chadwick voted no.

Hapgood expects that if the select board presents a moratorium to voters on June 14 and if voters approve it, it would apply only to commercial solar developments, not to panels for individual houses; and it would be effective for no more than 180 days from the March 28 action, unless the select board extended it.

Budget discussion briefly re-reviewed parts of proposed transfer station and public works expenditures, but the main argument, again resolved on a 3-2 vote, was over Breton’s proposal to add 1.5 percent to the previously-approved 3 percent wage increases for town employees.

Breton said the economy has changed since the early vote, and he has changed his position accordingly. He calculated if voters approve the additional pay, it would add $9,807 to the 2022-23 budget, not a major increase in an individual tax bill; and it would help employees pay higher living costs.

Casey started looking for other parts of the proposed budget that could be cut by a matching amount. Preston suggested using the $12,000 in the budget for select board members’ salaries; “none of us took this job for the pay,” she said. Hapgood expects increased revenues will cover the additional raises.

Casey and Chadwick again voted in the minority. Chadwick observed that taxpayers’ cost of living has gone up, too.

China has received $227,443.53 in ARPA money, Hapgood reported, and she expects a second payment in the same amount later in 2022. She presented a list of potential uses, some for the 2022-23 fiscal year and some for the following year.

After discussion, select board members approved recommending a total of $132,206 in expenditures for the June 14 ballot. The total might change, because Hapgood needs to confirm (or revise) at least one estimated cost.

Projects on the list as it stood at the end of the March 28 meeting are installing new generators at the town office and the old town house beside it; putting 911 numbers on every house; buying a digital sign to go in front of the South China fire station to provide town and fire department information; special payments to recognize employees who worked through the pandemic; a $5,000 fund for senior events; and a portable digital sign for speed control and for community announcements.

Hapgood said each expenditure would become a separate warrant article, so voters could approve or reject each one individually.

A new sign is proposed for only one of China’s three fire stations because only South China’s, on Route 32 South (Windsor Road), is on a state road, the manager explained.

The ARPA warrant articles were approved on a 4-1 vote with Casey dissenting.

Select board members briefly discussed other topics at the March 28 meeting.

They unanimously approved two revised schedules of transfer station user fees, one for residents of China and Palermo and one for users from all other towns. The new fees are effective April 1. All changes are increases, some more consequential than others.

For example, the cost of getting rid of king-size and queen-size box springs and mattresses doubles, from $5 to $10 each. The cost of disposing of a four-foot straight uncoated fluorescent bulb goes only from 12 cents a foot to 50 cents for the bulb. Twin and full-size mattress and springs charges and eight-foot fluorescent charges remain unchanged, at $5 and $1, respectively.

Casey reported on the recent Kennebec Regional Development Authority meeting at which he represented China. KRDA runs FirstPark, the business park in Oakland supported by central Maine municipalities.

There were “a lot of angry towns” represented, Casey said, because FirstPark hasn’t produced the revenue or jobs its promoters promised. However, he said, the message sounded positive: three lots are slated to become a solar farm (not a major source of jobs, he added); two or three other lots have potentially-interested buyers; and there was discussion of the possibility of selling the whole park to a private developer.

Select board members unanimously gave Hapgood authorization to seek bids on two mobile homes the town has acquired for unpaid taxes. They are located in a mobile home park on Chadwick Way, off Dirigo Road.

The manager said discussion of implementing the new trash-bag fees for Palermo residents continues.

Board member Preston said members of the China Broadband Committee (CBC), on which she represents the select board, plan a discussion with representatives of Direct Communications at the Wednesday, April 6, CBC meeting, scheduled for 4 p.m. in the former portable classroom behind the China town office. Direct Communications is the new owner of Unitel, the communications company serving Unity.

China select board members scheduled a special meeting for 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 4, to finish work on the warrant for the June 14 town business meeting. Their next regular meetings should be at 6:30 p.m. April 11 and April 25.

China budget committee, town manager review non-final budget

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by Mary Grow

CHINA, ME — China Budget Committee members and Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood spent two hours March 24 reviewing a non-final draft of the 2022-23 municipal budget.

Committee members made no decisions, but they got many questions answered. China Select Board members were scheduled to work on the budget at their March 28 meeting, and the budget committee is scheduled to meet again at 6:30 pm. Thursday, March 31, in the town office meeting room.

The public works account is one of the largest, at more than $1.4 million. Hapgood cited two important unknowns, one global and one local.

The global issue is where petroleum prices will go between now and the June 30, 2023, the end of the upcoming fiscal year. If the per-ton price of paving is too high when the town seeks bids, Hapgood said she would consider postponing scheduled work for a year.

The local issue is vehicle maintenance and repair. China’s driver/mechanic, Josh Crommett, resigned and has not yet been replaced. If his replacement can continue to do maintenance in-house, instead of sending vehicles out for work, the town will save money.

The proposed transfer station budget is more than $625,000. Hapgood explained proposed staffing changes and building maintenance issues. She told committee members two pending issues, whether to abandon the present RFID (radio frequency identification) system and go back to stickers and whether to build a guardhouse at the entrance, remain undecided.

Several other accounts generated brief discussion.

Committee member Michael Sullivan asked whether the China Broadband Committee was likely to make enough progress to justify a proposed $1,000 appropriation, or “Is their job impossible?”

Committee Chairman Thomas Rumpf replied that the committee’s reaching out to potential broadband suppliers seemed useful. After voters in November 2021 rejected the committee’s proposal to borrow money for expanded broadband service, select board members voted unanimously to authorize the committee to continue working.

Elizabeth Curtis asked why the Thurston Park Committee needed an appropriation from taxpayers in addition to the recommended allotment of Tax Increment Financing money. Hapgood replied that TIF rules did not allow TIF money to cover some necessary expenditures, like repairing washed-out roads or cleaning up storm-damaged trees.

Looking at the request for $49,500 for cemetery care, up from $34,000 in the current year, Hapgood said the recommended increase is to cover a backlog of maintenance and to pay a summer intern who will catalog graves. The town is responsible for taking care of about two dozen of China’s 30 or more cemeteries.

China voters will have a written-ballot town business meeting on Tuesday, June 14, with polls in the portable building behind the town office open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. As the budget committee meeting ended, Hapgood asked for members’ opinions on an open meeting, as in pre-pandemic days, versus a written ballot.

The reply was consensus that each has a major advantage and a major disadvantage. At an open meeting, people can ask questions, get correct answers and debate pros and cons; but a small minority of voters attend. More voters participate in a written ballot; but many are uninformed or misinformed about the questions they vote on.

Albion, Palermo, Windsor, China talk merger (2022 April Fool’s story)

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by Mary Grow

By 2024, central Maine might have a new town named Alpawich, combining the present towns of Albion, Palermo, Windsor and China.

The new town would have an area of 179.41 square miles, Maine’s largest town by far. Its population will be less than Augusta’s or Waterville’s, however.

The impetus for combining the four towns came from Palermo, as a proposal to merge with China to form a town to be named Chipal. Palermo officials had two motives:

  • The two towns share the village of Branch Mills, the West Branch of the Sheepscot River that runs through the village and Branch Pond north of the village (although China has only a small piece of the west shore); by contract, Palermo residents use China’s transfer station; combination into a single town government would simplify life; and
  • China, coming well before Palermo in the alphabet, beats Palermo in all kinds of lists, from apple sales through grant applications to zoos (neither town has one).

Windsor selectmen then expressed interest. Windsor too shares the Sheepscot, and alphabetically is more disadvantaged than Palermo.

A tri-town Combo Committee formed in the fall considered the issue alphabetically and recommended talking with Albion town officials. When the response was positive, the proposed town became Albchipalwin.

Too long, the members of the now-quadri-town ComboComm said. They proposed, and all four towns’ select boards accepted, Alpawich.

“We don’t mind being on the end,” China’s town manager said. “After all, we’re the largest town, in both area and population. You’ve heard of the tail that wags the dog, right?”

A Palermo Select Board member replied, “Hey, no problem if China thinks they run the show. We’ve shared their transfer station for years without throwing garbage at each other.”

Rather than submit the proposed merger to town meetings on different dates, the ComboComm recommended a referendum vote on state primary election day, June 14, 2022. The ballot question in each town will ask voters to approve the concept of combining with the other three towns and to appropriate a soon-to-be-determined amount to let the ComboComm hire a merger consultant.

The members of the four select boards have agreed that a simple majority in each town will determine whether the town becomes part of Alpawich; and that a membership of two out of four will create the new town (with an appropriately adjusted name).

ComboComm members and the consultant will design the new local government, deciding how many select board members will run Alpawich; how departments will be combined; and how costs of new signs, stationery and similar essentials will be divided.

As the internet replaces in-person interaction, committee members envision a single, central municipal building. The site remains undetermined.

Alpawich Hall would have municipal offices in the center. The educational side wing would be the k-8 school, plus a public library, historical society quarters and a museum, if local organizations express interest in consolidating. So far, they have not.

The medical side wing would house a clinic, a pharmacy, a veterinarian and insurance offices. The rear wing would be home to Alpawich Public Works and the Alpawich Solid Waste Disposal Facility.

For now, the existing transfer stations in China and Windsor would serve Alpawich residents. Fire and rescue units would be left as they are, to avoid increasing response time.

Proponents cite many advantages of consolidation. Combined contracting – with town attorneys and auditors, for example — and purchasing should save money. Their combined road mileage should attract lower bids from paving companies.

Some members of each select board also anticipate a larger town having more clout with state regulators, like the Departments of Environmental Protection and Transportation, according to a source who wished to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak on the matter.

County commissioners in Kennebec and Waldo counties have no idea what to do if Alpawich becomes reality. Albion, China and Windsor are in Kennebec County; Palermo is in Waldo County.

“Mostly the county lines run with town lines, like through Branch Mills,” one Kennebec County commissioner said. “Don’t know’s I’ve heard of a town that was in two counties.”

School administrators see many potential complications in the proposed change. Albion is in School Administrative District #49, based in Fairfield; China is in Regional School Unit #18, based in Oakland; Palermo and Windsor are in Regional School Unit #12, based in Somerville.

The RSU #18 superintendent is the least upset. “If there’s no more China, then there’s no more China in RSU #18,” he said. “They’re the geographic outlier. Talk about dogs and tails – they’re a detached tail.”

Assuming voter approval, the legislature would need to create the new town. Legislatively, since redistricting, China, Palermo and Windsor are in House District #62 and Albion is in District #63. The four towns are in four different state senate districts. “So if our reps pay attention to their voters, that’s four proponents in each house right from the get-go,” a committee member observed.

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IF YOU BELIEVED THIS STORY, YOU ARE AN APRIL FOOL!

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Wars – Part 12

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The Civil War left China, like Albion and other towns, deeply in debt, paying to outfit the soldiers and compensate their families.

by Mary Grow

Civil War

The United States Civil War, which began when the Confederates shelled Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861, and ended with General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, had the most impact on Maine, including the central Kennebec Valley, of any 17th or 18th century war.

Nonetheless, your writer’s original plan was to write only a single article about the Civil War. As usual, she found an oversupply of material that she hopes will interest readers as it interested her; but she still limits coverage to two articles, for three reasons.

The first and most important reason to downplay Civil War history is that unlike, say, the War of 1812, the Civil War is already familiar. Citizens who know nothing about the Sept. 13, 1814, bombardment of Fort McHenry (which inspired Francis Scott Key to write the poem that became the national anthem) recognize at least the names of battles like Bull Run and Gettysburg. Many people can name at least one Civil War general; few can name one from the War of 1812.

A second point is that numerous excellent histories of the Civil War are readily available, including books specifically about Maine’s role.

And the third reason is that this war is recent enough that some readers undoubtedly have memories of their grandparents telling stories of the generation before them who fought in the Civil War.

Any reader who would like to share a family Civil War story is invited to write it, attach photographs if available and email to townline@townline.org., Att. Roland Hallee. Maximum length is 1,000 words. Submissions will be printed as space permits; the editor reserves the right to reject any article and/or photograph.

* * * * * *

Maine historians agree that the majority of state residents supported President Abraham Lincoln’s decision to fight to preserve the Union. Those who initially disagreed, James W. North wrote in his history of Augusta, found themselves a small enough minority so they either changed their views or moderated their expression.

By 1860, the telegraph was widely used. News of Fort Sumter reached Augusta the same day, followed two days later by Lincoln’s call for 75,000 three-months volunteers, including one regiment from Maine.

On April 22, North wrote, the Maine legislature, in a hastily-called special session, approved enrolling 10,000 soldiers in ten regiments for three years, plus “a State loan of one million dollars.”

Augusta had filled two companies by the end of April. Other Kennebec Valley companies joined them; they camped and drilled on the State House lawn. The Third Regiment started south June 5, 1861; those soldiers were promptly replaced by others from other parts of Maine, volunteers succeeded by men paid bounties and in 1863 by draftees.

North wrote that the first draft in Augusta was held July 14 through 21, 1863, starting two days after the New York City draft riots began, with news arriving hourly. In Augusta’s Meonian Hall, eligible men’s names were drawn from a wheel by a blindfolded man named James M. Meserve, “a democrat of known integrity and fairness, who possessed the general confidence.”

The process began with selection of 40 men from Albion. Augusta followed, and, North wrote, the initial nervousness gave way to “a general feeling of merriment,” with draftees being applauded and congratulated.

Being drafted did not mean serving, North pointed out. Physical standards were strict; out of 3,540 draftees, 1,050 were “rejected by surgeon for physical disability or defects.” It was also legal to pay a substitute or to pay the government to be let off.

Augusta remained a military hub and a supply depot through the war, centered around the State House and Camp Keyes, on Winthrop Hill, at the top of Winthrop Street. There were large hospital buildings on Western Avenue, North wrote, which were so crowded by 1863 that the Camp Keyes barracks were also fitted up as hospital wards. The trotting park between the State House and the river was named Camp Coburn and hosted infantry and cavalry barracks and enlarged stables.

North described the celebratory homecomings for soldiers returning to Augusta when their enlistments were up, like the one in August 1863 for the 24th Regiment. The “bronzed and war-worn” men had come from Port Hudson, Louisiana, up the Mississippi to Cairo and by train to Augusta, a two-week trip. Greeted by cannon-fire, bells, torch-carrying fire companies, a band, state and city officials and “a multitude” of cheering citizens, they marched straight to the State House, enjoyed a meal in the rotunda and “dropped to sleep on the floor around the tables, being too weary to proceed to Camp Keyes.”

Historians describing the effects of the Civil War on smaller Kennebec Valley towns tend to emphasize two points: the human cost and the financial cost.

Ruby Crosby Wiggin found as she researched the history of Albion a record saying that “out of 100 men who went to war from the town of Albion, 45 didn’t come back.” She listed the names of more than 150 Albion soldiers, six identified as lieutenants.

By 1862, Wiggin wrote, the state and many towns offered enlistment bonuses. In addition, towns paid to equip each soldier. Total Albion expenditures, she wrote, were $21,265; the state reimbursed the town $8,033.33.

Wiggin concluded, “No wonder the town was heavily in debt at the close of the Civil War.”

The China bicentennial history says almost 300 men from that town served in Civil War units. The author quoted from the 1863 school report that said attendance in one district school was unusually low, “the large boys having gone to the war.”

The Civil War left China, like Albion and other towns, deeply in debt. The China history says when the State of Maine began tallying municipal costs and offering compensation in 1868, China had paid $47,735.34 to provide soldiers. The state repayment was $12,708.33, and town meetings were still dealing with interest payments and debt repayments into the latter half of the 1870s.

China town meetings during the war were mostly about meeting enlistment quotas, and, the history writer implied, by 1864 voters were tired of the topic. In July and again in December 1864, they delegated filling the quota to their select board.

When the late-1864 quota had not been filled by February 1865, voters were explicit; the history writer said they agreed to “sustain the Selectmen in any measures they may take in filling the quota of this town.”

The Fairfield historians who wrote the town’s 1988 bicentennial history found the list of Civil War soldiers too long to include in their book and noted that the names are on the monument in the Veterans Memorial Park and in the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) record books in the public library across Lawrence Avenue from the park.

Of Larone, the northernmost and likely the smallest of the seven villages that made up the Town of Fairfield for part of the 19th century, the history says, “Larone furnished her full quota of ‘boys in blue’. These averaged one for every family, three-fifths were destined never to see their homes again.”

Millard Howard, in his Palermo history, wrote that “The Civil War was by far the most traumatic experience this town ever experienced.” Of an 1860 population of 1,372, 46 men, “or one out of every 30 inhabitants,” died between 1861 and 1865.

Looking back from the year 2015, Howard wrote somberly, “No other war can remotely compare with it.”

He listed the names of the dead, with ages and causes of death where known. The youngest were 18, the oldest 44. More than half, 26, died of disease rather than wounds; Augustus Worthing, age 31, starved to death in Salisbury prison, in North Carolina.

Sidney voters spent a lot of town meetings in the 1860s talking about the war, according to Alice Hammond’s town history. As early as 1861, they approved abating taxes for volunteers.

As the war went on, voters authorized aid for volunteers’ families and monetary inducements to enlist for residents and non-residents, with preference given to residents. At an 1863 special meeting, they authorized selectmen to borrow money as needed “to aid families of volunteers.”

Hammond noted that Sidney was debt-free before the war, “but in 1865 it issued bonds for $24,000, a debt from which it recovered very slowly.”

Alma Pierce Robbins found from military records that 410 men from Vassalboro enlisted for Civil War service. From census records, she listed the 1860 population as 3,181.

As in other municipalities, voters approved wartime expenses. Robbins wrote that $7,900 was appropriated for bounties and aid to soldiers’ families in 1861. The comparable 1863 figure was $16,900. Perhaps for contrast, she added the 1864 cost of the new bridge at North Vassalboro (presumably over Outlet Stream): $1,057.82 (plus an 1867 appropriation of $418.62).

In Waterville, General Isaac Sparrow Bangs wrote in his chapter on military history in Reverend Edwin Carey Whittemore’s 1902 centennial history, recruiting offices opened soon after the news of Fort Sumter. A Waterville College student named Charles A. Henrickson was the first to enroll, and, Bangs wrote, his example “proved so irresistibly contagious at the college that the classes and recitations were broken up” and the college temporarily closed.

Henrickson was captured at the Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861. He survived the war; later in the Waterville history, Chas. A. Henrickson is listed among charter members of the Waterville Savings Bank, organized in 1869.

These Waterville soldiers became companies G and H in the 3rd Maine Infantry, Bangs wrote. After drilling in Waterville, they went to Augusta and were put under the command of regimental Colonel Oliver O. Howard. On June 5, Howard was ordered to Washington, “carrying with him, as Waterville’s first contingent, seventy-four of her boys into the maelstrom of war.”

Bangs spent years verifying the names of 421 men who either enlisted from Waterville or were Waterville natives who enlisted elsewhere. The names are included in Whittemore’s history.

Bangs added that the Maine Adjutant-General’s report says Waterville provided 525 soldiers. He offered several explanations for the discrepancy, pointing out the difficulties of accurate record-keeping.

Waterville paid $67,715 in enlistment bounties, Bangs wrote. Henry Kingsbury, in his history of Kennebec County, put the figure at $68,016 and said the state reimbursement was $19,888.33.

Linwood Lowden wrote in the history of Windsor that more than one-third of Windsor men aged 17 to 50 fought in the Civil War, most of them in the19th and 21st Maine infantry regiments.

Like other towns, Windsor paid bonuses to enlistees and, Lowden wrote, $2,663.87 “in aid to soldiers’ families…from 1862 through 1866.” He added that Windsor first went into debt during these years.

Camp Keyes, Augusta

A history of Camp Keyes found on-line says that the 70-acre site on top of Winthrop Hill, on the west side of Augusta, had been used as, and called, “the muster field” since before Maine became a state in 1820. It was still available, although the militia had become less significant, when the Civil War broke out.

On Aug. 20, 1862, Maine Adjutant General John L. Hodsdon designated the field one of Maine’s three official “rendezvous areas” for militia and volunteers and named it Camp E. D. Keyes, in honor of Major-General Erasmus D. Keyes, a Massachusetts native who moved to Kennebec County (town unspecified on line) as a young man. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1832 and fought in the Civil War until 1863, when a superior removed him from command, claiming he lacked aggressiveness.

(The other two Maine rendezvous areas were Camp Abraham Lincoln, in Portland, and Camp John Pope [honoring General John Pope from Kentucky], in Bangor.)

Thousands of Civil War soldiers from Maine passed through Camp Keyes. It also housed Maine’s only federal military hospital, named Cony Hospital in honor of Governor Samuel Cony.

After the war, the site remained a militia training ground. The State of Maine bought it in 1888. In 1893 the militia became the National Guard and continued to use the training ground, with Guard headquarters in the Capitol building until 1938.

The on-line site gives an undated description: “Small buildings were constructed of plywood for mess halls, kitchens, latrines, store houses, and lodging for senior military officers. Companies pitched their tents on pads that had been built.”

Main sources

Fairfield Historical Society Fairfield, Maine 1788-1988 (1988).
Grow, Mary M., China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984).
Hammond, Alice, History of Sidney Maine 1792-1992 (1992).
Howard, Millard, An Introduction to the Early History of Palermo, Maine (second edition, December 2015).
Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Lowden, Linwood H., good Land & fine Contrey but Poor roads a history of Windsor, Maine (1993).
Marriner, Ernest, Kennebec Yesterdays (1954).
North, James W., The History of Augusta (1870).
Robbins, Alma Pierce, History of Vassalborough Maine 1771 1971 n.d. (1971).
Whittemore, Rev. Edwin Carey, Centennial History of Waterville 1802-1902 (1902).
Wiggin, Ruby Crosby, Albion on the Narrow Gauge (1964).

Websites, miscellaneous.

China planners finish three ordinance changes

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by Mary Grow

CHINA, ME — China Planning Board members used their March 15 meeting to finish getting three proposed ordinance changes in final form. They hope to ask voters to approve them at the June 14 town business meeting.

The draft ordinances are amended versions of Chapter 2 and Chapter 11 of China’s Land Use Ordinance and a new Chapter 8 of the ordinance, adding proposed regulations for solar developments.

All three documents were to be posted on the town website, china.govoffice.com, for voters’ review. Board members scheduled a March 22 public hearing on the proposed changes.

As of mid-morning March 22, preliminary amended drafts were on the website, each labeled “Further changes will be posted shortly.”

The March 15 meeting let board members ask questions, consider some of the likely consequences of the changes they recommend and correct a few typographical errors. There was no disagreement over any proposed change; all votes were unanimous.

Most of the amendments to Chapters 2 and 11 were required to conform to state standards in areas where the China ordinance was less strict than state regulations. Board members recommended the new “Solar Energy Systems Ordinance,” because they found it difficult to fit rules for sets of solar panels into an ordinance intended to apply to buildings.

After the ordinance discussion, Codes Officer Jaime Hanson suggested board members consider recommending higher fees for solar developments. The town’s current fee schedule is based to a great extent on the amount of ground covered by impervious surface, he said. It does not fit an installation with very little ground contact, and does not reflect the amount of time he puts in on a solar project.

Board members were receptive. Hanson offered to see what other towns’ solar development fees are, to provide a basis for a recommendation to China Select Board members.

Board member Walter Bennett raised the issue of private roads so muddy as to be impassable, or almost so. Hanson and board members agreed that neither they nor other town officials have jurisdiction; owners of houses served by an ill-maintained road should form a road association or take other private legal action.

As of the March 15 meeting, planners intended after the March 22 hearing to hold their next meeting Tuesday evening, April 12.

China Village Volunteer Fire Department appoints new chief

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China Village VFD newly-appointed fire chief, Joel Nelson. (photo by Eric W. Austin)

by Eric W. Austin

CHINA, ME — Let me introduce you to Joel Nelson, China resident and the new fire chief for China Village Fire Department. He strikes an imposing presence on first acquaintance, standing over six-feet tall and broad-shouldered. Soft-spoken and thoughtful, Nelson told me a bit of his life in China and his plans for the China Village Volunteer Fire Department.

Nelson takes over from longtime fire chief and former state representative, Tim Theriault, who will stay on as deputy chief. Raised in Winslow, Nelson moved to China in 2016 with his wife Elana, who works as an occupational therapist. They are expecting their first child, a boy, within the next several weeks.

Nelson attended Winslow High School, graduating in 2004, before going to Kennebec Valley Community College, (KVCC), in Fairfield, and then Thomas College, in Waterville, where he completed a degree in Business Management. During the day, he works for Sheridan Construction, in Fairfield, as a project manager.

He brings a wealth of experience to the job. Aside from his background in business and project management, Nelson served with the Winslow Fire Department during high school and, since 2006, with the Albion Volunteer Fire Department, where he is currently deputy chief.

Nelson sees the volunteer fire department as an integral part of the community. He says, “We’re here in a time of need to help our neighbors and surrounding communities. Whether it’s an emergency or not, we’re here to support people and do what we can to help them.”

Nelson says there is a lot of work involved in running the department beyond just responding to emergency calls. That work includes monthly meetings, sending trucks out for annual pump testing, SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) testing, hose testing and training sessions for fire fighters. “There’s a lot of behind the scenes work that goes on here that people driving by don’t realize is going on,” he says.

The China Village Fire Department handles fire and emergency calls for everything north of Cross Road, while the South China Fire Department responds to calls south of that line, and Weeks Mills Fire Department covers Dirigo Road, Deer Hill Road and nearby areas.

While the China Village Fire Department has 24 members on the current roster, they are always looking for additional volunteers with the courage to fight fires and give back to their community. The squad meets every second Tuesday of the month when they discuss department business and conduct training sessions. Anyone is welcome to stop by to see what it’s all about. Prospective fire fighters will need to complete a 6 – 8 month (every other weekend) training course which, in recent years, has been offered by the fire department in Waterville. Support persons, who may not be directly involved in firefighting, but can help with fundraising for the department, or directing traffic at the scene of an accident, are also needed. Interested parties are invited to contact Nelson by phone, at 877-5911, by email at chinafd214@gmail.com, or through their Facebook page.

China planners unanimously approve application for solar expansion

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by Mary Grow

China Planning Board members have unanimously approved an application for an expansion of Sunraise Investments’ planned solar farm on the south side of Route 3, between South China Village and Dirigo Corner.

Board members held a very short public hearing on the revised application March 8. There were no comments from the sparse audience, and Codes Officer Jaime Hanson said he had received no comments before the hearing.

Board members reviewed the criteria the project needs to meet, with brief discussions of noise (none, once construction is complete, SunRaise representatives said); screening along the highway and between the solar panels and neighboring properties; and the effect on property values.

Board member Walter Bennett said a solar array “wouldn’t be an attractive thing to have next door to me.” Board Chairman Scott Rollins pointed out that one of the neighbors is leasing land to SunRaise.

Board members voted that Sunraise met all requirements for a revised permit allowing a larger project than initially approved.

The SunRaise review was followed by discussion of amendments to China’s Land Use Ordinance. Planners hope to present three separate changes to voters at the June 14 town business meeting.

One is a new Chapter 8 titled “Solar Energy Systems Ordinance.” Rollins reminded members that the town attorney had offered suggestions, and read some of them.

The board voted unanimously to forward the ordinance as it stands to the China Select Board, with a request that it be put on the June 14 town meeting warrant.

Members scheduled a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 15, to put the other two proposed amendments, to Chapters 2 and 11 of the Land Use Ordinance, in final form.

They intend to schedule a public informational hearing on all three documents. No hearing date was set.

Copies of the ordinances are on the Town of China website, china.govoffice.com. The Land Use Ordinance is under Ordinances, Policies and Orders. The draft solar ordinance and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection letter describing needed changes in the Land Use Ordinance are under Officials, Board & Committees, sub-heading “Planning Board”.

China transfer station committee agrees on formula for rate hike

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by Mary Grow

China Transfer Station Committee members agreed unanimously on two recommendations at their March 8 meeting.

They will ask select board members to provide help – perhaps an intern – to analyze data from the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system that keeps track of vehicles entering the transfer station. Committee Chairman Lawrence Sikora estimated the system has collected 70,000 “data points” – information that would be useful, Paul Lucas suggested, if select board members want to change transfer station hours with minimum inconvenience to users.

They further recommended, as part of a long discussion of the contract by which Palermo residents use China’s transfer station, amending the contract to simplify fee changes.

As it now stands, the contract provides a formula for increasing the price Palermo residents pay for the trash bags they are required to use for MSW (mixed solid waste). After months of discussion, there is consensus on recommending an increase from $2 to $2.70 per bag, effective April 1.

Robert Kurek, Palermo Select Board chairman and one of Palermo’s two representatives on the transfer station committee, intended to present the proposed price when his board met March 10.

The contract says the same process should apply to other price increases for specific items, like tires, electronics and furniture – a provision that contradicts the actual policy of having China transfer station staff recommend price changes and China Select Board members approve them.

Also, an extremely cumbersome policy, committee members agreed. They voted unanimously to recommend deleting it, retaining the provision that such fees apply to Palermo and China residents equally. Residents of any other town are charged more.

Other contract amendments are under consideration. For example, the contract specifies 30-gallon trash bags; standard bags are 33-gallon.

Kurek said he and China Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood want to specify that bag prices will be reviewed annually in January, according to an agreed formula, with changes if any to be effective April 1 of the same year.

Committee members discussed the latest development concerning the closed Hampden recycling facility. After a virtual meeting of representatives of involved municipalities on March 10, public reports said the facility should have a new owner by the end of June, although a new owner does not guarantee reopening.

There has been little progress on two projects at the China transfer station, putting a cover over the pre-crusher and buying a new loader. Manager Ronald Marois said he has estimates on a loader, higher than expected, and ungenerous trade-in offers on the town’s current machine that he is not inclined to accept.

The next China Transfer Station Committee meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 12.

China Broadband Committee (CBC) reaches no conclusion on expanded services

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Consolidated: expansion “not likely” in the short term

by Mary Grow

China Broadband Committee (CBC) members continued consideration of possibilities for offering residents expanded and improved internet broadband service at a March 9 meeting. They came to no conclusions.

Committee members have been talking with representatives of Spectrum Communications and Consolidated Communications, the two companies currently serving China residents. By March 9, a new element had been introduced with the announcement that Idaho-based Direct Communications has acquired Unitel, the family-owned company that provides telephone and broadband service to Unity residents.

CBC Chairman Robert O’Connor had talked with representatives of both Unitel and Direct Communications. He said some of Unitel’s lines run close to China’s boundary. He had sent information on China’s plans to Unitel and Direct Communications, but there had not been time for a reply.

John Dougherty, of Mission Broadband, consultant to the CBC, said Direct Communications is working with other Maine towns and offered to help explore possibilities for China. CBC members approved.

O’Connor had heard from Spectrum and Consolidated officials since the committee’s Feb. 17 meeting; there has been no major progress with either company.

He summarized correspondence with two Consolidated officials. One said expansion in China was unlikely “in the short term.” The other invited the CBC to develop a new Request for Proposals (RFP) and said Consolidated “will respond” with a “more competitive offer” than in previous correspondence.

Committee members decided to schedule their next meeting for 4 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, expecting by then more information from Direct Communications and perhaps from one or both of the other companies.

China select board reconsiders wage increase vote from six weeks ago

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by Mary Grow

Six weeks ago, at the Jan. 31 China Select Board meeting, board Chairman Ronald Breton and members Blane Casey and Wayne Chadwick outvoted Jeanne Marquis and Janet Preston to include a 3 percent wage increase for town employees in their proposed 2022-23 municipal budget. Marquis and Preston supported Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood’s recommended 6 percent raises and then a compromise 4.5 percent increase.

“Since then, the world has changed an awful lot,” Breton said at the board’s March 14 meeting. He is now ready to add 1.5 percent, to bring the recommended increase to 4.5 percent.

He does not want to raise local property taxes, however, sparking a discussion of where the money would come from.

Breton’s initial idea was to take $5,000 from the select board’s discretionary fund, currently recommended at almost $153,000; and to cut by 20 percent the recommended $92,000 for town assistance for community support organizations.

Community support organizations include the historical society, two libraries, two lake-related associations and a newspaper. The account also provides funds for volunteer firefighters and rescue unit members, in addition to the annual appropriations for each department.

Chadwick said American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds can be used for bonuses for employees who worked through the pandemic. He proposed one-time bonuses rather than a wage increase, and a review before the 2023-24 budget discussions.

Casey was willing to consider cutting the paving budget. He and other board members are well aware that current high prices for paving, fuel and other categories may require more upward budget adjustments; the town’s trash hauler has already added a fuel surcharge, Casey said. But Casey expects prices to go back down in a matter of months.

Preston and Marquis pointed out that Hapgood’s proposed 6 percent increase was in a balanced budget that did not raise local taxes.

A decision was postponed to the board’s next meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 21. By then Hapgood will have returned from vacation.

Also postponed until Hapgood is present was discussion of higher bag fees for Palermo residents who use China’s transfer station under contract.

Pending deadlines include:

  • The second payment of 2021-22 local property taxes is due at the town office by the close of business Thursday, March 31.
  • The deadline for submitting an application for a homestead property tax exemption is the close of business Friday, April 1, by state law.
  • An increase in transfer station fees for special items like tires and furniture – the list is on the town website, china.govoffice.com – is effective Friday, April 1.
  • The deadline for submitting bids to buy the town-owned 2006 Harley Davidson motorcycle is 3 p.m. ,Thursday, April 7.