Vassalboro voters have chosen John Melrose to fill out the remainder of the late Philip Haines’ term on the Board of Selectmen.
In a three-way race, Melrose received 517 votes, Larisa Batchelder received 320 and Lewis Devoe received 169, according to Town Clerk Cathy Coyne.
Melrose, 66, chairs the Vassalboro Budget Committee and has extensive experience working with municipal issues on the regional and state level.
China voters re-elected one of two incumbent selectmen, re-elected a former selectman and added a newcomer to the board in a Nov. 7 contest that featured eight candidates for three seats.
Irene Belanger and former Selectman Robert MacFarland were elected to serve two-year terms, with 595 and 490 votes respectively. Incumbent Ronald Breton received 402 votes and Frederick Glidden 370.
For a one-year position to fill out Joann Clark Austin’s term, Donna Mills-Stevens was elected with 401 votes. Wayne Chadwick got 347 votes, Ralph Howe 125 and Randall Downer 124.
In the only other contest on the ballot, Kevin Michaud defeated Stephen Hadsell for the District 1 Planning Board position, by a vote of 625 to 269. Michaud succeeds James Wilkens, who, like Austin, is retiring. Three local referendum questions were approved, as follows:
Budget Committee Chairman Robert Batteese and District 1 representative Kevin Maroon were re-elected without opposition. Town Clerk Rebecca Hapgood will announce results of write-in votes for Planning Board District 3, Planning Board alternate member and Budget Committee District 3 soon.
China Planning Board members continued reviewing the definitions section of the land use ordinance at their Oct. 24 meeting, going through the third and fourth letters of the alphabet.
Retiring Chairman James Wilkens again shared definitions from four other Maine town for comparison. Fairfield, Readfield, Windham and Winthrop all list definitions that are not in the China ordinance – “communications tower” and “demolition,” for example; and China’s ordinance includes definitions not found in the other four ordinances, like “condominium” and “conversion.”
“Campground” generated considerable discussion, with board members distinguishing among public campgrounds that charge a fee, private campgrounds where landowners let visiting friends and relatives park recreational vehicles and storage areas where people keep their campers when they’re not in use.
Board members found most of the definitions satisfactory. A few need to be updated or perhaps revised after board members look more closely at where the terms are used in the ordinance.
Resident Linda O’Connor proposed they reconsider their two-weeks’-ago discussion of whether a definition of “Airbandb” should be added, since to her the term means a marketing or advertising system, not a physical property. Board members agreed with her view.
At the end of the meeting, the other board members thanked Wilkens for his 13 years of service on the board. Wilkens thanked them for making the job pleasant and secretary Tracy Cunningham for her excellent minutes.
The next planning board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, Nov. 14. On November 7, China will voters will choose between two candidates for the District 1 Planning Board seat that Wilkens is leaving, Steven Hadsell and Kevin Michaud.
There are no names on the ballot for the District 3 seat currently held by Milton Dudley or the alternate position elected from the town at large and currently held by Ralph Howe. Dudley has said he is running as a write-in candidate. Howe is on the ballot as a candidate for the one-year term on the Board of Selectmen.
China’s polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 7 in the portable classroom behind the town office on Lakeview Drive.
Regional School Unit (RSU) #18 officials are presenting voters in the five member towns – Belgrade, China, Oakland, Rome and Sidney – with a $13.9 million bond issue that they hope will be approved at the polls Nov. 7.
Voters in China also have local elections and three local referendum questions, including one asking approval to spend money.
At the first of a series of hearings on the bond issue, on Oct. 23 at China Primary School, RSU #18 Superintendent (and former China principal) Carl Gartley explained what the bond money would be used for. About $10 million will be spent to repair and update school buildings; $3.9 million will help build a new athletic complex at Messalonskee High School in Oakland.
A Facilities Committee composed of community members, RSU staff and the state Fire Marshal recommended funding priorities, Gartley said. The two China schools are slated to get almost $2.4 million worth of work, mostly at the older China Middle School.
Gartley said the committee’s tasks included catching up on work postponed after the 2008 financial downturn, emphasizing safety and looking toward future needs. Since 2010, he said, state funding has decreased and voters continue to resist local tax increases. As a result, in the last eight years China’s school budget has gone up by 6.61 percent, or an average of 0.83 percent per year, not enough to keep up with rising prices. Building maintenance has suffered, despite the RSU applying for and receiving loans from the state’s revolving loan fund.
Proposed improvements at China Middle School include a reorganization and expansion of the gymnasium, a new boiler, a new Americans with Disabilities Act compliant back entrance, paving and interior and exterior lighting upgrades.
China Primary School is slated to get roof repairs to stop leaks, a generator for the boiler room and paving and lighting. Modern lights should reduce costs, Gartley added.
Gartley calculated the cost of the bond in terms of additional taxes on a China house valued at $100,000: $49.10 a year, or $4.09 a month, averaged over the life of the bond.
The Messalonskee athletic complex is needed, Gartley said, because the current facility lacks handicapped access and other amenities. He emphasized that the complex would be for youth sports, gym and health classes and community use, not just for high-school sports teams.
China’s three local ballot questions ask voters if they approve:
The proposed fire pond would be an enlargement of an existing pond just south of the intersection of Neck and Stanley Hill roads, with permission of the two landowners involved. The project would include an area for fire trucks to load water.
During selectmen’s discussions of the questions, Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux said many of the nonprofit groups who seek town support already provide the information that would be required if voters approve the second question.
The town’s tower might be competing with privately-owned area towers. People said, however, that companies seeking to rent tower space look primarily for a location that meets their needs; so the town tower would be requested when no other was as suitable. Selectmen have not talked about criteria for choosing tower users or fees to charge.
Selectmen and the budget committee recommend voters approve all three questions. China polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Nov. 7 in the former portable classroom behind the town office.
Joann Clark Austin
Joann Clark Austin has devoted a significant part of her adult life to public service, approximating 25 years of serving, volunteering or in an elected public office position. Her last day in public office will be on November 1, 2017. Joann’s “getting involved” has had a fundamental meaning to her; a genuine concern for her local community expressed in working for its betterment and caring for those in need within it and having the consciousness of a concerned citizen; the consciousness of a town mother or town father.
This idea of hers, being a town mother, incorporates a sense of understanding how one’s interests are reliant upon the community as a whole. Traditionally the town mother or town father concerned themselves with the investment each had made in the community, whether in public office, business or family. Their (town mothers and town fathers) time and energy were tied to a community in some way.
Joann believes the investment of oneself in community requires an individual to see how her/his personal interests relate directly to community and its members and also to have information on the community and how its needs fit into larger political contexts such as the state of Maine or the nation. To have such information about one’s community in these contexts, Joann believes it requires civil practices that allow for shared conversations on what is the common good. This motivation of Ms. Austin, to perform public service, is driven within a moral context to make the world a better place. Indeed, Joan Clark Austin has made this local community a better place over a long and rewarding life of information gathering on community, many conversations, and service to others. Joann, on behalf of all the citizens in the Town of China, we are GRATEFUL.
/s/ Dan L’Heureux, China Town Manager
/s/ Select Board members Chairman Neil Farrington, Irene Belanger, Ronald Breton, Jeffrey LaVerdiere
Ralph Howe, one of the four candidates for a one-year term as selectman, is involved in a legal controversy with the town, which will come before the Board of Appeals at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2. Board of Appeals meetings are open to the public. Howe is appealing rulings by Codes Officer Paul Mitnick that he has expanded his business, Bio Renewable Fuels Corp (BRF), without planning board approval and is therefore in violation of town ordinances. Through his lawyer, Howe claimed at the Oct. 2 selectmen’s meeting that he has not expanded the business, and since previous Codes Officer Scott Pierz approved what he is doing, he does not need a permit now. In the appeals board filing, Howe’s attorney, Kristin Collins, of Preti-Flaherty, writes that BRF has had wastewater treatment lagoons and storage tanks on the property at 168 Weeks Mills Road since 2012.
BRF was not required to get a commercial permit to start operations and, Collins writes, received a 2012 building permit to add 4,400 square feet to an existing building and a 2015 building permit for a 25-by-40-foot water treatment building “without being required to obtain approval of a new or expanded commercial use.”
Collins writes that BRF has a state waste discharge license that “covers the entire property and all of BRF’s wastewater disposal and treatment activities at the property.”
Two dozen China voters took advantage of a chance to meet and question candidates for local office at an Oct. 22 forum sponsored by the China Village Library.
Attending were all eight candidates for three seats on the board of selectmen and one of the two candidates for planning board District 1.
Candidates for two three-year terms as selectmen are:
Steven Hadsell and Kevin Michaud seek the District 1 Planning Board position from which James Wilkens is retiring. Hadsell was not at the forum.
Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux moderated the hour-and-a-half hour presentation and discussion, which repeatedly came back to two themes: China’s future should include more small businesses to meet local needs and to add to the tax base; and selectmen are not all-powerful, but are instruments of the voters’ will, so voters should educate themselves about town affairs, attend more meetings and express their views. Belanger endorsed small businesses, and pointed out that larger ones whose owners were respectful of neighborhood and town needs and wishes could also fit in – for example, the once-opposed Hannaford supermarket.
Breton recommended businesses, affordable housing, a health care clinic, children’s programs and maybe a youth center.
Glidden listed small machine shops or a meat market as examples of businesses that might be welcome.
MacFarland thinks China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) money should be used to promote small businesses. He would like to see local businesses provide the services for which residents now travel to Waterville and Augusta.
Chadwick supports both more housing and small business, but pointed out few small business owners can afford to provide the benefits that will attract young workers. Downer would like to see diverse residential development as a contributor to the tax base.
Howe said China’s reputation for being anti-business should be corrected. He believes TIF money and grants should be used to attract investors for projects like senior citizens’ housing near Hannaford, and that TIF funds should be used in ways that encourage repayment, not for projects like the causeway bridge. He called for an end to the Not in My Back Yard (NIMBY) attitude. Mills-Stevens thinks China should take more opportunities to seek state and federal grants, an area in which she has expertise. She proposed more local business and entertainment, like parks and a community center. The town-owned former subdivision near the north end of Lakeview Drive might be a good site for such improvements, she suggested.
Michaud called for making the town more business-friendly, suggested trying to get more use out of the China Conference Center buildings on Neck Road and proposed “small manufacturing where appropriate.” Retiring Planning Board Chairman Wilkens asked all the candidates whether, when quality of life and location of a new business conflicted, their priority would be quality of life or business. He got four different answers:
Glidden, Mills-Stevens, Downer and Michaud would all choose quality of life, with Downer adding “under the rule of law.” Howe replied that a “business was a greater public benefit than a handful of negatively impacted neighbors.”
Breton said firmly, “Both” and did not expand his answer.
Belanger, MacFarland and Chadwick said each decision would have to be made on a case-by-case basis.
Asked more specifically about zoning as a means to separate residential and business areas, only Downer and Michaud were willing to consider it, with the understanding that it would be complicated to define and implement if voters approved it.
Discussion of business development led to a discussion of China’s comprehensive plan. The 2008 plan needs to be updated in 2018, Belanger said.
To objections that the 2008 plan was never implemented, Belanger and Breton said selectmen and an Implementation Committee proposed several measures and voters consistently rejected them.
Chadwick and Howe said the plan is too long and contains too much that is irrelevant to China. Belanger replied most of the irrelevant material is required by the state – and, she said, towns without a state-approved plan are disadvantaged when they apply for state grants.
Proposals for encouraging participation and educating voters included several candidates’ recommendation that the town collect email addresses, perhaps at the polls, and send email notices of selectboard, planning board and other meetings. Use of social media was also recommended.
A suggestion of notices in the Central Maine newspapers was countered by Howe’s suggestion that the money they would cost be used instead to subsidize mail delivery of The Town Line, which Breton said selectmen made the town paper some years ago when it was mailed weekly.
Howe thought coffee and donuts would be an inexpensive way to make residents feel more welcome at board meetings, and MacFarland, less seriously, proposed “a keg of beer.”
Glidden and Chadwick were pessimistic about getting people routinely involved. People are too busy to come to a meeting unless an issue affects them, Glidden said. Downer suggested that before each town meeting, warrant articles and explanatory material be posted on the website, so voters would arrive informed and meetings might be shorter.
Chadwick, Howe and MacFarland all called in their opening statements for “common sense in spending” taxpayers’ money. Former Selectman MacFarland thinks board members do use common sense and do a good job of carrying out voters’ policies; Chadwick and Howe see room for improvement.
Glidden and Mills-Stevens also had reservations. Mills-Stevens said selectmen listen to residents but don’t always follow through and Glidden cited examples of their acting against voters’ will, for example by installing cameras at the transfer station.
China voters will decide among the candidates at the polls on Nov. 7. There are also state questions, three local referendum questions and a school bond issue on the ballots. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the former portable classroom behind the town office on Lakeview Drive. Absentee ballots are available through Thursday, Nov. 2, at the town office.
Vassalboro voters will choose among three candidates to serve on the Board of Selectmen until June 2018, finishing the late Philip Haines’ term. The candidates are Larisa (Reese) Batchelder, Lewis (Lew) Devoe and John Melrose.
When Batchelder ran unsuccessfully for the selectboard in June, she was 38 years old, a resident of Main Street, in East Vassalboro, since December 2015. She listed her occupation as co-owner of Cozy Barn Antiques and mentioned her education in political science.
Her goal in running for selectman, she said, was “to open communication between the community and the board of selectman. I want to have an open mind when listening to the community and only make decisions after they have been heard, not before.”
She added, “I want to be sure that our small town government is free of cliques that can hinder good choices and cause favoritism. My aim is to vote according to the law and the people of Vassalboro of whom I would represent.”
Devoe, 69, is a Gray Road resident who has lived in Vassalboro for 38 years. He is a veteran, and is retired after 34 years as first a Maine Facilities Manager for New Balance factories, warehouses and retail stores and then a Maintenance Process Manager for Scott Paper Company.
He has been a state-licensed master electrician for 44 years and has experience in planning, project management, security, loss prevention, safety and environmental issues. He and his wife Deb have three grown sons.
Devoe listed three goals he would pursue if elected selectman: understand and oversee budgets using his business skills, like experience with utility costs; increase publicity for meetings and agendas; and coach town employees on ways to reduce energy costs.
Melrose, 66, lives on the Bog Road and has been a Vassalboro resident for 41 years. He recently retired from the Eaton Peabody Consulting Group, after a 44-year career working with municipalities that included seven years with the Maine Municipal Association, 20 years running his own company, Maine Tomorrow, and eight years as Governor King’s Commissioner of Transportation. Governor LePage has appointed him chairman of the Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which is in charge of the Amtrak Downeaster.
Melrose thinks Vassalboro benefits from good leadership on the board of selectmen and the school board. He believes town officials and residents can “creatively solve problems through consensus” while keeping the tax rate low and providing good services. If elected, he plans to use his experience to “constructively build on these strengths of our community.”
Vassalboro polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 7 at the town office. Absentee ballots are available at the office during office hours until Nov. 2.
Vassalboro selectmen approved nine annual renewals of junkyard and auto hobbyist permits, after receiving no comments at a short Oct. 19 hearing that was part of their regular meeting.
Auto graveyard/junkyard permits went to James Cogley, Ron’s Parts Inc. on Main Street (Route 32); Dale Clement, Bondo’s Garage on Taber Hill Road; Bill Pullen, Freddie’s Service Center on South Stanley Hill Road; Stanley Garnett, Garnett’s Motors on North Belfast Ave (Route 3); Olin Charette, Weeks Mills Garage on Riverside Drive (Route 201); and Voit Ritch, Autowerke on Route 3.
Auto hobbyist permits were approved for Keith Lemieux on Priest Hill Road, James Jurdak on Baker Road and Robert Dore on Church Hill Road.
Most of the other business on Oct. 19 consisted of authorizing expenditures for other town bodies.
Steve Polley received approval to buy a shipping container for storage of recreation equipment, using money from the Recreation Committee’s donation fund.
Polley presented price quotes ranging from $3,700 to more than $4,000. Town Manager Mary Sabins said he needed the selectmen to waive the requirement in the town purchasing policy that any purchase over $2,500 be bid out.
Selectmen agreed getting the quotes met the spirit of the policy and unanimously authorized Polley to go ahead.
Polley commended Road Commissioner Eugene Field for “a great job” grading the parking lot at the recreation fields.
Selectmen also authorized the Vassalboro Volunteer Fire Department to use $2,800 from sale of an old fire truck to buy a new base radio. Voters at the June town meeting authorized selectmen to approve spending the money on equipment for the department’s new truck; selectmen figured fire department members know their priorities.
In other business, board members reviewed Sabins’ draft revised lease with the Vassalboro Historical Society for continued use of the former East Vassalboro schoolhouse and approved forwarding it to society officials.
Board Chairman Lauchlin Titus reported on a Vassalboro Sanitary District meeting earlier in the week at which officials presented plans for connecting Vassalboro’s sewer system with Winslow and Waterville. He said they told affected residents who will be asked for easements to allow minor work on their land and who will be able – but unless septic systems are failing, not required – to hook into the expanded system.
The next regular Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting will be Thursday evening, Nov. 2. The board currently has two members; on Nov. 7, Vassalboro voters will choose one of three candidates – Larisa Batchelder, Lewis Devoe and John Melrose – to finish the final year of the late Philip Haines’ term on the board.
Vassalboro School Board members discussed two main topics at their Oct. 17 meeting, the potential dissolution of Alternative Organizational Structure (AOS) 92 (the school unit combining Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow) and Maine Educational Assessment (MEA) scores for Vassalboro Community School students. The first issue is full of uncertainties; the second pleased them.
AOS Superintendent Eric Haley shared estimated financial consequences if the AOS were to dissolve. Assuming existing funds were divided among the three member school boards in the same proportion as each municipality contributes to school funding, and further assuming Vassalboro were to contract with a remodeled AOS business office in Waterville, Haley projects Vassalboro would gain financially.
Business services, which could be done in-house or by contract with Waterville or some other center, could include payroll, accounts payable, and support for special education, curriculum, transportation, technology and maintenance. Were the AOS to dissolve and were Waterville to become a school business center, some of the AOS staff who currently perform these services might stay on – or might not.
State law proposes creation of regional service centers, known as SMLCs – School Management and Leadership Centers. At a conference earlier this fall, lawyers advised superintendents not to rush to create or join an SMLC, since state law has been known to change.
School board members discussed other assumptions and various leadership combinations. For example, the Vassalboro school might have one person who was both principal and superintendent, or a full-time principal plus a part-time superintendent, with the latter perhaps shared with another town. Any change, Haley said, will require preparation of a plan that is approved by the local school board(s), the state Department of Education and, in Vassalboro, a local referendum. Haley is thinking about a June 2018 referendum vote in Vassalboro, and is also thinking about preparing two 2018-19 budgets, one with and one without the AOS. One change at Vassalboro Community School is certain: Principal Dianna Gram is retiring at the end of the school year.
Gram shared with school board members charts illustrating Vassalboro students’ scores on the MEA tests taken by grades three through eight last spring. In general, scores compare well to neighboring schools’ scores and to state expectations, in both this year’s scores and improvement over last year.
The best score was earned by sixth-graders on the English Language Arts and literacy test: 70 percent scored at or above state expectations. Seventh-graders did almost as well on the same test, scoring 69 percent at or above expectations.
Fifth-graders had the lowest scores in both language and mathematics. Gram suggested possible explanations and plans for further investigation. She reminded board members that each year students move in and out, so there are different students in each grade.
The “state expectations” to which student performance is compared are described on the state Department of Education (DOE) website by phrases like “understanding of essential concepts” and “understanding of knowledge and skills needed to reach learning targets for achievement relative to” Maine standards.
In response to an inquiry, AOS Curriculum Coordinator Mary Boyle forwarded a 300-page DOE report describing how the standards were established by panels of educators following a protocol. The document is “eMPowerME ELA/Literacy and Mathematics Assessment Standard Setting Report,” prepared in August 2016.
School Board Chairman Kevin Levasseur congratulated students and staff on the good scores. Gram thanked board members for their support and Boyle for help with curriculum improvement.
In other business, school board members appointed Betty Bowen, of Vassalboro, as a bus driver and accepted the resignation of driver Eric Green, who was praised as “one of the best” by Assistant Principal Aaron McCullough.
The next Vassalboro School Board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, Nov. 14, a week earlier than usual because of the Thanksgiving holiday.