by Mary Grow

At their Sept. 13 meeting, China selectmen unanimously approved the Recreation Committee’s plan to spend about $5,000 from the recreation reserve account for an ice rink this winter, and commended Chairman Martha Wentworth and the rest of the committee for their activity.

Wentworth explained plans and answered numerous questions from board members.

The committee proposes buying a removable rink, made of hard plastic boards. Wentworth has half a dozen volunteers to set it up this fall after soccer and football teams are done and to take it down in the spring before baseball teams need the field. She plans to store the boards in the soccer storage garage.

The rink will be on the town-owned south ballfield on the China Middle School grounds, so the ballfield lights will be available for evening skating, probably either Fridays or Saturdays. Wentworth envisions the rink as primarily for family use, mostly in the daytime. A few hours might be set aside for hockey players one day a week, she suggested.

She had talked with South China Fire Chief Richard Morse about providing the estimated 9,600 gallons of water to fill the rink, and sending firefighters back to flood it when the ice gets too rough. She expects other volunteers, from the recreation committee and from local organizations interested in selling hot cocoa and other refreshments to skaters, to keep the premises clean.

Trash cans and winterized portable toilets will be on site.

Because of the location, no additional driveway plowing will be needed for access. Wentworth is looking for volunteers (preferably; the committee will pay if necessary) to clear the ice after snowstorms. She said she is talking with two people already.

Asked about insurance, she said adding ice-skating would not increase the town’s premium unless officials decided to insure the rink structure itself, for an estimated $100 a year.

Wentworth cited advantages of using an on-land rink instead of clearing an ice-skating area on China Lake: it’s a “more controlled environment”: some people are apprehensive about the solidity of the lake ice; and the field allows for organizations to sell refreshments and for loudspeakers to play skating music.

Ronald Breton, chairman of the selectboard, added that skaters on the field would not have to watch out for speeding snowmobiles.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood suggested the ice rink might be eligible for federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. Wentworth had heard of another possible source of grant funding.

In other business, Hapgood announced that the town-owned lot on Lakeview Drive has been sold, for $83,000, but the closing is postponed until sometime in October because the title company has such a backlog of business.

Selectmen postponed action on bids to install heat pumps at town buildings to their next meeting.

After discussion with Codes Officer Jaime Hanson, selectmen voted unanimously to have the town attorney begin the process of taking a Winding Hill Road landowner to court for long-running uncorrected violations of town ordinances and state laws.

The Sept. 13 meeting began with the annual public hearing on state-proposed amendments to the appendices to the General Assistance Ordinance, adjusting the amounts of aid in different categories. There was no public comment. Selectmen later adopted the changes unanimously.

Kennebec County Sheriff’s Deputy Ivano Stefanizzi attended the meeting and reported that he has been welcomed by most residents, both as he patrols town roads and during the past summer when he and colleagues patrolled on China Lake.

Hapgood issued a reminder that the first half payment of 2021-22 China property taxes is due at the town office by the close of business Thursday, Sept. 30. Interest on late payments begins immediately.

She read Town Clerk Angela Nelson’s report that tax payments are coming in well, with some people paying for the entire year.

Assessor Kelly Grotton’s report added that if people believe their property is assessed, and therefore taxed, higher than it should be, the deadline for filing a request for an abatement is Feb. 17, 2022. Any appeal of personal property taxes must be accompanied by a complete list of such property.

Public Works Foreman Shawn Reed reported, via Hapgood, that his crew has been preparing roads for paving in South China Village and elsewhere in the southern part of town. Pike Industries plans to start paving in China Sept. 23, if there are no rain delays between now and then.

Irene Belanger retiring

At the Sept. 13 China selectmen’s meeting, long-time Selectman Irene Belanger announced that she is retiring this fall, and resigning from most of the other boards and committees on which she serves, because of her husband’s health. Other board members commended her for her long service to the town.

The next regular China selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 27. Their first meeting in October will be Tuesday evening, Oct. 12, because Monday, Oct. 11, is the Indigenous Peoples Day holiday.

by Mary Grow

China selectmen learned at their special meeting Sept. 2 that it takes at least two lawyers to draft a proper ballot question asking voters if they will authorize selectmen to issue a bond – and a third lawyer to explain the result.

The local referendum question China voters will be asked to vote yes or no at the polls Nov. 2 is more than 200 words long. It has four sections; one section has two subsections.

The China Broadband Committee (CBC) requests the bond issue to provide funds to build new internet infrastructure in China. CBC member Jamie Pitney, who is a lawyer, drafted the first version of the ballot question.

At the Sept. 2 special selectmen’s meeting, town attorney Amanda Meader zoomed in to explain that the Maine Bond Bank, from which town officials intend to seek a loan, needs authorizations worded in specific ways. She had referred Pitney’s wording to a bond expert, and she and Pitney had further refined that lawyer’s draft before it came to the selectmen at their regular meeting Aug. 30.

When selectmen reviewed the proposed question, board member Wayne Chadwick had a problem with the first sentence. It begins: “Shall the Town vote to a) approve the acquisition, construction and equipping of a broadband system to be owned by the Town and built by contractors” and goes on to specify maximum cost ($6,485,850) and other parameters.

The bond issue has a maximum of $5,608,700. Grants are supposed to cover the rest of the cost.

To Chadwick, who readily admits he is not a lawyer, the wording sounded as though if voters said yes, selectmen were obligated to set up the new system. CBC members have repeatedly set two conditions for going ahead with the project: enough residents must sign up for the proposed new service to make it financially sound, and grants must be obtained.

Meader pointed to two phrases farther along in the document that she said allowed selectmen to refuse to apply for the bond if conditions were not met.

One section she cited authorizes selectmen to accept money from grants and other sources as they determine “are necessary and proper.” Selectmen could find that no grants or other funds were “necessary and proper,” she said.

The other section says selectmen can delegate to the board chairman (Ronald Breton) and the town treasurer (Becky Hapgood) the power to issue the bonds and “in their discretion” to establish schedules and other details. Their “discretion” includes the possibility of finding they cannot carry out the responsibility, Meader said.

Meader described the wording of the ballot question as “convoluted” and “cumbersome.” To make the intent and effect clear to non-lawyers, she proposed, and selectmen accepted, a fourth section. It says that voters further:

“[R]equire the Select Board to vote to determine whether in their own judgment and discretion there is sufficient subscribership to proceed with the bond issue.”

After more than an hour’s discussion Sept. 2, the wording was accepted on a 4-1 vote, with Chadwick voting against it because he opposes the whole idea.

The earlier version of the article carried a selectmen’s recommendation of “Leave it to the People,” adopted on a split vote at the Aug. 30 selectmen’s meeting. Irene Belanger, Blane Casey and Janet Preston voted in favor of the recommendation; Breton and Chadwick were opposed, believing the board had a responsibility to offer advice.

Breton raised the question of changing the recommendation at the special meeting. Hapgood ruled, with Meader’s support, that only the three board members on the winning side of the prior vote could make a motion to change it.

Preston moved to make a recommendation that voters approve the bond issue. She called it “a very low-risk opportunity for the town,” given the previous discussion.

Chadwick seconded her motion. The selectmen have more information from their discussions at meetings than the average voter has, and therefore should provide guidance on the ballot question, he said.

Chadwick voted against Preston’s motion, which lost on a 2-3 vote, with Belanger and Preston in favor.

Casey then moved selectmen recommend that voters not approve the bond issue. His motion passed 3-2, with Breton, Casey and Chadwick in favor.

Selectmen agreed to put the question on the Nov. 2 ballot and to include the negative recommendations from the selectmen and budget committee, with the numbers on each side after the recommendations (3-2 for the selectmen, 4-1 for the budget committee at an Aug. 23 meeting).

The next regular China selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 13.

by Mary Grow

Members of China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee spent much of their Aug. 23 meeting trying to understand the state-required policy on board and committee meetings that are not entirely in-person.

Pre-Covid, Town Manager Becky Hapgood explained, the state right-to-know law assumed, and required, that when a board or committee met, members and the public were in the meeting room interacting face to face.

During the pandemic, emergency provisions allowed remote meetings. The emergency has expired, and the legislature has passed a law returning to almost the pre-Covid normal. However, there are now two exceptions, Hapgood and TIF Committee member Jamie Pitney explained:

— An entire board may meet remotely in an emergency, like a pandemic or a blizzard; and
— A member, with notice to the chairman who in turn notifies as many other members as possible, may participate remotely in case of “illness or temporary absence that causes a board member significant difficulties in travel.”

The Maine Municipal Association distributed information to municipalities that Hapgood said repeated the legislative wording and said that each separate board and committee must adopt the policy, or something similar enough to be legal.

A member participating remotely who qualifies for one of the exceptions to personal attendance is counted as part of the quorum and may vote, Hapgood said. If the TIF Committee did not have a remote meeting policy and a renewed shut-down prohibited in-person meetings, the committee could not meet.

Qualification to participate remotely was the issue. There was consensus that someone who tried to Zoom in because he or she did not feel like driving to the meeting, or because he or she had child-care responsibilities at home, did not qualify.

When TIF Chairman Tom Michaud is spending the winter in Florida, there was agreement he has difficulty traveling to a meeting in the China town office. But, Pitney, pointed out, Michaud chooses to go to Florida; so maybe he should not be allowed to participate remotely.

Committee members debated a hypothetical case: a committee member calls the chairman to say he or she has to work late, either can drive to the meeting but is unlikely to arrive before it adjourns, or can Zoom in from the office. They did not decide whether the situation authorized remote participation.

Despite the lack of clarity, TIF Committee members adopted the policy on a 6-0 vote.

They spent less time on tax increment financing business. Hapgood said the state Department of Economic and Community Development has not yet approved the amended TIF program local voters adopted at the June 8 town meeting, so no money has been disbursed under it.

No accurate fund balances are available, because the audit for the fiscal year that ended June 30 is not finished.

The causeway project is done and paid for, Hapgood said, except for one minor step that cannot be done until late in the fall. She updated board members on the single outstanding loan from the Revolving Loan Fund that is part of China’s TIF.

Michaud’s wife Marie has resigned her secretarial duties; when no one volunteered to replace her, Michaud proposed members take turns preparing minutes, starting with himself. He also asked for a vice-chairman to run meetings when he is unavailable. James “J. J.” Wentworth was elected unanimously.

The next TIF Committee meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20.