by Mary Grow

China select board members began their Jan. 29 meeting by hearing Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood’s initial presentation on the 2023-24 town budget, with four budget committee members joining them (three others were unable to attend).

Members of both boards will review the thick budget books Hapgood prepared, with, she said, much help from the “phenomenal people” on the town office staff.

Select board members will make their recommendations on 2023-24 expenditures and submit them to the budget committee. Budget committee chairman Thomas Rumpf said his group will probably need two meetings to make recommendations.

Voters at the June town business meeting will make the final decisions. The new fiscal year begins July 1.

Select board members’ other long discussion Jan. 29 was over, again, the proposed revisions to China’s Board of Appeals Ordinance (Section 9 of the Land Use Ordinance). Select board member Brent Chesley drafted the revisions for the Jan. 3 select board meeting; they were forwarded to the China Planning Board with a request for review in time for discussion Jan. 29.

Planning board members, meeting Jan. 10 and Jan. 24, accepted the draft as one input into a revised ordinance they considered their responsibility to write. They scheduled a Feb. 14 workshop meeting to discuss the ordinance with members of the board of appeals, the select board and others interested.

At the Jan. 29 meeting, Hapgood protested that time is running out if a revised ordinance is to go to voters at the June meeting. Board members talked for three-quarters of an hour before agreeing to hold a public hearing on Chesley’s draft at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, before their next meeting.

Much of the discussion consisted of Chesley re-explaining his suggested changes.

Fellow board member Janet Preston thinks Chesley’s recommended procedural changes are fine. She fears his proposal concerning variances from ordinance requirements will make it easier to take actions that could harm China Lake water quality.

Chesley said the change will not make much substantive difference. Then why propose it? asked Preston.

If the ordinance revision makes it easier to replace failing septic systems on small lakefront lots, water quality will benefit, board member Blane Casey suggested.

Select board members scheduled a second public hearing for the 6 p.m. time slot on February 13, this one on the draft transfer station ordinance. Town Clerk Angela Nelson has posted copies of both draft ordinances on the town website, china.govoffice.com, under the select board, which is under the heading Officials, Boards & Committees.

A guest at the Jan. 29 meeting was Art True, Director of the Kennebec County Emergency Management Agency. He joined discussion of the notice from Somerset County officials that they will no longer dispatch emergency services after July 1. China has used the Somerset County PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point), for a fee, for years.

Hapgood had been surprised by the recent notice, and True referred to Somerset County officials as having dropped a bomb. He does not yet know what the successor plan will be; because five months is not a long time for a complex project, he suggested there might be “a Band-Aid” beginning July 1.

However, he promised, “There will not be a time that the phones will not be answered.”

Also present Jan. 29 was Kennebec County Deputy Sheriff Ivano Stefanizzi, who again issued a warning to beware of telephone scammers. Please, he asked, do not give out personal information, and do not send money in any form.

In other business Jan. 29:

• Board members unanimously accepted the lowest of three bids, $20,432.90 from Knowles Mechanical, of Vassalboro, for two heat pumps in the town office and two at the transfer station. Hapgood said voters authorized spending up to $22,000 in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds for the work.
• Board members unanimously accepted the lowest of three bids for a new roll-off container at the transfer station, $15,950 from East Coast Containers of Waterbury, Connecticut.
• They unanimously authorized taking up to $10,000 from the 2022-23 contingency fund for future legal expenses, if needed.

Hapgood issued a reminder that the two-cents-a-pound fee for brush brought to the transfer station is effective Feb. 1. She said the town office will be closed Feb. 20 for the Presidents’ Day holiday.

The manager expressed appreciation to China’s plow drivers, and to two transfer station employees who assisted them, for long hours of hard work during recent storms. “We have good people; we’re lucky,” she said.

Annual ice fishing derby slated for Feb. 17-19

Switching from his budget committee chairman’s hat to his Four Seasons Club president’s hat, Thomas Rumpf told attendees at the Jan. 29 China select board meeting that China’s 2023 Ice Days celebration will be from Friday evening, Feb. 17, through Sunday evening, Feb. 19. Planned highlights include a Feb. 17 supper at the Masonic Hall in China Village followed by snowmobiling if the weather cooperates; a cornhole tournament and skating on Feb. 18; and the annual ice-fishing derby, followed by fireworks, on Feb. 19. Details and tickets will be available very soon. (See The Town Line’s cover story in this issue.)

by Mary Grow

China Planning Board members considered three documents at their Jan. 24 meeting.

They agreed to continue discussion of amending the Board of Appeals Ordinance (which is Chapter 9 of the Land Use Ordinance) at their Feb. 14 meeting, with members of China’s board of appeals and select board invited to participate (see The Town Line, Jan. 12, p. 2, and Jan. 19, p. 3, for background on this issue).

Co-chairman James Wilkens expressed appreciation to the select board for raising the issue, although he objected – again – to select board member Brent Chesley drafting revisions; writing ordinances is the planning board’s job, he and other board members said.

Two days later, Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood forwarded to planning board and select board members an email from Maine Municipal Association Staff Attorney Susanne F. Pilgrim saying the task is shared.

The section of the Planning Board Ordinance defining the board’s general responsibilities says the board “shall prepare ordinances and amendments thereto” to be submitted to voters. But, Pilgrim pointed out, neither that sentence nor anything else in the ordinance grants the planning board exclusive authority to draft ordinances. She referred to a later section that says, “Amendments [to the Planning Board Ordinance] initiate from the Planning Board, Board of Selectmen, or by the people in the form of a petition.”

Pilgrim’s interpretation is, “…nowhere does the ordinance provide the planning board with the exclusive authority to prepare all draft ordinances. Nor does the Planning Board Ordinance preclude other bodies, such as the select board or an ordinance committee, from preparing ordinances.”

Planners are sympathetic to one Board of Appeals issue Chesley raised, the lack of time limits for action after an appeal is filed. They also approve of updating the nomenclature in this and other sections of the Land Use Ordinance – replacing “selectmen” with “select board” and “chairman” with “chair,” for example.

Once they have input from the Feb. 14 meeting participants and any other interested parties, they plan to propose amendments to the select board. That board is responsible for putting ordinance amendments on a local ballot, probably at the June town business meeting, for voters’ decisions.

The second document discussed was China’s comprehensive plan. Co-chairman Toni Wall had excerpted sections that refer to planning board duties and responsibilities; the other board members will review them for future discussion.

Wall had also reviewed China’s Planning Board Ordinance and marked appropriate nomenclature changes. Board members unanimously accepted them; assuming voters agree, “Board of Selectmen” quoted above will become “Select Board.”

In reviewing past board minutes, Wall said, she found other suggested changes, including adding a provision for co-chairs. Further discussion is likely.

Codes Officer Nicholas French said he has been approached with preliminary proposals for a solar farm and two subdivisions. No applications have yet been submitted.