by Mary Grow

At their May 19 meeting, China select board members were presented with a proposal to have Hometown Heroes banners in town.

Resident Jacinth Allard, who was unable to attend the meeting, had proposed to Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood that China join other area towns – Clinton and Benton were mentioned – with flags honoring individual veterans. With Hapgood’s encouragement, Allard provided select board members with information on the program.

Hapgood explained that each flag has a photograph of the service member and relevant information. Allard had presented two pages showing flags in a variety of colors and designs.

Veterans’ families are expected to pay for their flag and the hardware to hang it. Permission to attach the flags to power poles, and municipal approval, are needed.

Allard had approached Central Maine Power Company and was waiting for a reply, Hapgood said.

Select board members unanimously approved the idea and voted to continue to follow up with Allard.

The other major issue May 19 was left over from the board’s April 22 meeting: approval of remaining TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Committee’s recommendations (see the May 1 issue of “The Town Line,” p. 3). On April 22, board members ran out of time before acting on the town’s three requests; Hapgood added them, plus one, to the May 19 agenda.

Board members unanimously approved $490 for Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce dues and $15,000 for the 2025 China Days celebration.

They approved another $15,000 for a 2025 summer intern, on a 4-1 vote, after a discussion of past interns’ usefulness. Hapgood supports the idea, and board members Edwin Bailey, Blane Casey, Jeanne Marquis and Thomas Rumpf agreed, despite some reservations. Board chair Wayne Chadwick argued that since past interns had brought in no new businesses, it is time to scrap the program.

A request for $7,504 for Kennebec Valley Council of Government dues was postponed two weeks, as members wondered what KVCOG has done for the town to justify the money. Hapgood and audience members mentioned collective purchasing (culverts and road salt, for example) and help with planning.

In other business May 19, select board members:

— Approved draft mission statements from the town’s transfer station committee and building committee.
— Accepted a bid for this summer’s roadside mowing, choosing Pierce Works, LLC, of China over a competitor whose proposed hourly rate was called “too open-ended” and “worrisome.” Hapgood said Pierce had the contract last year.
— Accepted the low bid for carpentry for the new vault at the town office, from Foote Construction, of China. Casey abstained, because he was involved in arranging for the bidding.
— Appointed ballot clerks and set town clerk’s and registrar’s hours (the normal town office hours) in preparation for the June 10 annual town business meeting.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, June 2. Board members hope to be done by 7 p.m., so they can accept invitations to tour China’s three fire stations after the meeting.

by Mary Grow

China Road Committee members spent their May 8 meeting talking about two roads and a parking lot in the northwestern end of town and a bridge in Branch Mills, on the eastern boundary.

The roads are Maple Ridge, which runs from Vassalboro northeast through China into Winslow, and Neck Road, which dead-ends on the west shore of China Lake, north of The Narrows, the water connection between the lake’s east and west basins. At their April 22 meeting, China Select Board members asked road committee members’ advice on resurfacing part of Maple Ridge and the end of Neck Road (see the May 1 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).

Director of Public Services and committee chairman Shawn Reed said ideally, a section of Maple Ridge Road through a boggy area should be rebuilt, but rebuilding would cost too much. By consensus, committee members recommended a shim coat to level and strengthen the roadway plus a surface paving coat.

They recommended the same treatment for the end of Neck Road, using for the surface coat LCP. LCP, the Maine Department of Transportation website says, means Light Capital Paving, or maintenance surface treatment, usually 5/8 inch of paving with, Reed said, extra asphalt in the mix.

The China Baptist Church parking lot near the causeway at the head of China Lake’s east basin is used by boaters and swimmers as well as church-goers. Pastor Ronald Morrell joined committee members in discussing options for improving it.

They decided the best choice, for people using the lot and for water quality in China Lake, would be to install catch basins for runoff and have the lot repaved.

The town has bids for paving the parking lot, a part of the paving bids on which select board members postponed action on April 22. Road committee members expect local contractors to bid on the installation of catch basins, to be followed by repaving.

Reed said state inspectors recently pointed out several problems with the Branch Mills bridge over the west branch of the Sheepscot River – not serious enough to close it or even to impose a weight limit, but needing attention.

The main issue is that the road surface has been repaved repeatedly without removing old paving. Weight has increased, and drains are too far below the paving and curbing not far enough above it.

Reed plans to consult with a state transportation official, seeking advice on whether to plan repairs or to start a reserve fund for a new bridge.

The present bridge dates from 1931, committee member Dale Peabody said.

by Mary Grow

China select board members got updates on the community garden and Thurston Park, accepted Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood’s idea of contracting with a professional grant-writer and presented the annual Spirit of America award for volunteerism at their May 5 meeting.

Planning Board chairman Toni Wall received the award – to her surprise – in recognition of her years of work on the board, during which she has spent a great deal of extra time creating and updating town ordinances.

Hapgood proposed connecting with a professional grant writer in Liberty to see if he could help China find and apply for outside funds. His fee is $60 an hour, she said, and she proposed contracting for 10 hours of research.

Board member discussed how much direction he should have, seeking the happy medium between learning about grants they didn’t want and missing information on grants they hadn’t realized could be useful. They unanimously approved spending up to $600.

Thurston Park committee chairman Jeanette Smith again raised the issue of access to the park. Currently, people drive in from the north, over the unpaved Yorktown Road coming south from Albion. The road is so bad that people keep asking for access from the south end; landowner resistance is a problem there.

Hapgood said she has been discussing the road with Albion officials. Smith is seeking cost estimates for paving the China section of the north approach. Select board member Edwin Bailey suggested the grant-writer might be helpful.

James Hsiang presented an update on the community garden, sponsored by the China for a Lifetime Committee and located on the town-owned lot south of the town office complex. The wooden raised beds have been built, the soil to fill them is due soon and two volunteers will spread it in the beds, he said.

Lakeview Lumber, in China, donated lumber for a 6-by-8-foot garden shed. Hsiang asked for, and select board members unanimously granted, permission to build the shed on the town’s land.

About half the almost three dozen beds are still for sale, Hsiang said. If not all are sold by the deadline he is about to set, he plans to use some to raise vegetables for the China Food Pantry.

Hsiang plans a variety of summer events, not all garden-related, to bring visitors to the community garden.

The select board meeting was followed by a short recess, during which the ever-increasing group enjoyed cookies and cupcakes. By the time the public hearing on the June 10 warrant articles started, more than two dozen residents had filled the meeting room, a turn-out Hapgood and select board members greeted with pleasure.

This hearing was on the already-approved warrant on which voters will act at the polls on Tuesday, June 10. Some of the questions raised at the hour-and-a-half hearing dealt with timing: why not a hearing before the warrant is final, while changes can be made?

The answer, from officials and other audience members, was that the warrant had been discussed for months at publicized meetings of the select board and the budget committee: residents’ comments would have been welcome.

Several people again proposed going back to the pre-covid open town meeting, so that voters could ask questions before they voted and perhaps amend some of the articles.

Select board chairman Wayne Chadwick, and others, replied that too few people attended the open meetings, 100 or so compared to 1,000 or so who voted by written ballot.

“One hundred informed people versus one thousand uninformed people,” former select board member Joann Austin protested.

South China Fire Chief Richard Morse asked what happens if voters reject an article, for example voting not to appropriate funds for town administration. Art. 13 asks voters to approve (as in prior years) a statement that if an article does not pass, the amount appropriated in the current fiscal year “shall be deemed adopted” for the new FY beginning July 1.

In other words, Hapgood and Chadwick said, defeating an article authorizing an expenditure does not reject the purpose, just the funding. Should such a thing happen, select board members would have to try to get by on the previous budget; or dip into surplus; or call a special town meeting to re-present a request for money.

The manager clarified a related issue: the terms “undesignated fund balance,” “unassigned balance” and “surplus” all mean the same thing, the money China has available as emergency back-up. As of June 2024, China’s surplus was about $1.8 million, she said.

Hapgood and board members explained meanings of and reasons for specific warrant articles about which questions were asked. The recording of the hearing is on the website, chinamaine.org, under Live Streaming, May events.