by Mary Grow

Members of China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee approved their proposed 2019-2020 expenditures unanimously at a Jan. 28 meeting.

The total to be taken from TIF revenues is a little more than $457,000. The largest amount, more than $200,000, is designated for Phase Two of the causeway road project at the head of China Lake’s east basin.

The committee had no update on plans for Phase Two, which is intended to make the area between the new bridge (Phase One) and the boat landing more usable for fishing and other recreation.

Town Manager Dennis Heath said Phase One will be finished in the spring, when the final coat of paving is applied to the road. At the same time, he said, the town plans to grant the China Baptist Church trustees’ request to fill potholes in their parking lot caused by construction equipment parked there.

The next-largest expense category in the TIF budget benefits China Lake: $50,000 to the China Lake Association’s LakeSmart program, half designated for improvements to three camp roads identified in 2016 as sources of run-off, and $20,000 to the China Region Lakes Alliance.

If voters approve the budget as presented, Thurston Park is slated to get $52,000 for maintenance and the China Four Seasons Club $50,000 for trail work.

Frank Soares, temporarily abandoning the TIF Committee chairman’s gavel to speak for the club, said the trail work will be spread over two years, repairing two sections of the power line trail north of Cross Road, parallel to Lakeview Drive.

TIF money comes from taxes paid by Central Maine Power Company on the power line and the substation in South China. Committee member Stephen Nichols commented it seemed fair to use CMP’s money on CMP’s right-of-way.

In other business, committee members talked about the revolving loan fund being developed with the assistance of the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments and decided they should meet with the KVCOG staff member involved in the program.

They scheduled their next meeting for Monday evening, Feb. 25.

by Mary Grow

At their Jan. 22 meeting, China selectmen unanimously authorized Town Manager Dennis Heath to have an appraisal done on part of Susan Bailey’s much-discussed property at the head of China Lake’s east basin. The manager expects the appraisal to give selectmen a basis for further negotiations with Bailey.

Bailey owns two pieces of land: about 6.2 acres across Causeway Street from the boat landing, used for unofficial parking, and a larger piece on the far side of Lakeview Drive. Selectmen and Tax Increment Finance (TIF) Committee members would like to acquire the smaller piece and make the parking official.

In the past, they were told that the two parcels could not be separated. Heath said at the Jan. 28 TIF Committee meeting they now can be, because after the house on the larger property burned, the insurance paid off the mortgage on the whole property.

Heath also told the TIF Committee getting the appraisal is “a little more complicated than I would have liked.” He is seeking a commercial appraisal; the first appraiser he heard from would have charged $2,800, compared to Heath’s initial estimate of $500 or so. Heath is seeking other quotes.

In November 2016 voters approved using up to $10,000 in TIF funds to buy the smaller piece. At the Jan. 22 selectmen’s meeting, Heath said the town’s valuation is about $1,700, because only about half an acre is dry enough to be usable.

Selectmen also approved unanimously Heath’s proposal to get a design and cost estimate for adding a climate-controlled records storage space, probably a new 12-by-12-foot room on the south side of the town office meeting room.

The current area is about four-by-eight feet, Heath estimated, and is full. State law requires municipalities to keep a variety of documents, some forever. The proposed new room would accommodate the present collection and future additions.

In other business Jan. 19:

• Heath announced the schedule of March pre-town meeting informational sessions on the 2019-2020 budget, as follows: Wednesday, March 20, at 6 p.m. at Erskine Academy, on Windsor Road; Sunday, March 24, at 2 p.m. at the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library, on Main Street in China Village; and Wednesday, March 27, at 6 p.m. in the town office meeting room. The annual town business meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, April 6.
• Board members reappointed Selectman Irene Belanger a member of the town Forestry Committee, with Belanger abstaining on the vote.
• In response to an earlier selectmen’s discussion of comparative costs of crushing glass versus adding it to the mixed waste in the hopper, Transfer Station Manager Tim Grotton reported crushing costs a maximum of $30 per ton, versus $92 per ton to treat glass as mixed waste.

Selectmen postponed action on three items: Heath’s draft policy for awarding China’s Boston Post cane, to allow time to make sure it conforms to the publisher’s original intent in 1909; Heath’s proposal to create a new parks committee, expanding the Thurston Park Committee’s jurisdiction to the town forest behind China Primary School; and the revised personnel policy they have deliberated at past meetings and a special workshop.

The next scheduled selectmen’s meetings are a regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 4, and a budget workshop at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5.

by Mary Grow

CHINA — The preliminary warrant for the April 6 town business meeting presented to China selectmen at their Jan. 17 budget workshop looks different from previous years’ warrants.

Town Manager Dennis Heath has reorganized expenditure requests into 18 articles (numbers 3 through 20 in the first draft). Some have familiar titles, like assessing, legal expenses, the transfer station and public works. Others are new combinations, like boards and committees and community support organizations.

Under each article are the usual lines for recommendations from the selectboard and budget committee. This year there is space to record each body’s vote so voters can tell whether it was unanimous.

More important, the warrant lists no details about the proposed expenditures. By contrast, in the March 2018 warrant, fire and rescue (Art. 13) took up most of a printed page, with the individual fire departments, China Rescue, stipends and dispatching listed separately.

Nor does the warrant list potential funding sources, like excise tax or unassigned fund balance.

Instead, a blanket statement before Art. 3 reads: “For Articles 3 through 20, please refer to the ‘annual budget’ included in the town report.” The town report is usually available at the town office and other public places a week or more before the town business meeting.

For the Jan. 17 selectmen’s workshop Heath had a detailed breakdown of each article that allowed board members to review proposed spending item by item. During the more than three-and-a-half hour meeting selectmen approved most items and recommended small changes in others.

Changes in spending Heath suggested included setting aside $25,000 toward the cost of a future town revaluation (the last one was in 2008, he said); increasing expenditures for dispatching emergency services in anticipation of the much-discussed regional change; appropriating $50,000 to rebuild the transfer station capital reserve account, depleted by the new precrusher-compactor and forklift; and appropriating a similar amount to rebuild the accrued compensation fund, depleted by departures of two long-term employees, former Town Manager Dan L’Heureux and public works head Gary Cummings.

The two longest discussions of the evening were with South China Fire Chief Richard Morse, China Village Chief Timothy Theriault and other firefighters and with Landis Hudson, executive director of Maine Rivers.

Selectboard Chairman Robert MacFarland wants the fire departments to give selectmen the stipend amount each volunteer receives, by name, for responding to calls. The firefighters saw no need to provide such detailed information, but reluctantly agreed to have it for the selectmen’s next budget meeting, scheduled for Jan. 29.

Hudson asked the town for $100,000 for two years’ work on the Alewife Restoration Initiative (ARI), aimed at reintroducing migratory alewives into China Lake. The money would be used toward the planned fishway at the Outlet Dam in Vassalboro, she said.

Selectmen would prefer a smaller request, perhaps for one year’s work. The issue was left open.

Currently the state trucks alewives into China Lake in the spring and they make their way out in the fall. Some of the groups involved in area lake restoration work credit them for helping improve water quality in China Lake and Three Mile Pond.

The next regular China selectmen’s meeting was set for Tuesday evening, Jan. 22, with the budget committee to meet the following evening and the Tax Increment Finance (TIF) Committee at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28. After the budget committee and TIF Committee make their 2019-2020 recommendations, selectmen will have the information they need to approve the town meeting warrant. They have scheduled a meeting for that purpose for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5.

by Mary Grow

On a 2-1 vote, the China Board of Assessment Review denied a request to reduce the valuation on ReVision Energy’s community solar farm at Three Level Farm on Route 32 North.

Four board members heard three hours of argument on the subject at a Dec. 18 meeting (see this article from Jan. 3). Three met again Jan. 10 to make a decision (the fourth person was out of state).

Chairman Dale Peabody began by establishing that no board member had a conflict of interest in acting on the project. He then reviewed the criteria for a successful appeal: the burden of proof is on the appellant (ReVision Energy in this case), who must prove the assessment was “manifestly wrong” in that it was either completely unreasonable or fraudulent, dishonest or illegal.

In addition, Peabody said, the appellant is required to provide an alternative valuation supported by credible evidence.

Peabody and fellow board member Harold Charles did not believe ReVision Energy met either requirement. They questioned the company’s figures on depreciation and on the end-date for the project and its final value; and they found the company’s belief that taxes should equal to no more than five percent of income unsupported.

Peabody added that the local board’s task was difficult, because there are not yet established criteria for making decisions about the value of community solar farms. He recommended companies and assessors get together and try to agree on some basic elements.

Meanwhile, he said, he found no evidence in ReVision’s presentation that assessor William Van Tuinen’s valuation was manifestly wrong.

Board member Sheri Wilkens voted against rejecting the appeal. She agreed that ReVision’s proposed cap on taxes was not adequately supported, but wanted a scientific basis for the varying figures presented on depreciation and final value.

Van Tuinen had never before valued a community solar farm, she pointed out, while ReVision brought an expert to the December meeting to defend its figures, Chief Counsel and Director of Development Steve Hinchman.

Expert, Charles agreed, but also “the guy who’s selling the thing.”

The difference in valuation is significant: Van Tuinen valued the community solar farm at about $275,000, while working backwards from ReVision’s five percent tax rate gives a valuation of less than $91,000.

Kristin Collins, ReVision’s attorney, said at the end of the Jan. 10 meeting that her client would wait to see the written document denying the appeal, with its statement of facts, before deciding whether to continue to court.