China committee begins work on revising TIF document

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by Mary Grow

Four members of China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee started on their planned revision of the town’s TIF document at a workshop session May 13.

The group deliberately postponed any decisions, partly because some of the financial information they need is not yet firm, partly to give themselves time to consider the different points of view expressed.

One figure needing confirmation is how much TIF money is available to be allocated to projects, continuing and/or new. The amount currently expected to be on hand at the June 30 end of the fiscal year is more than $530,000.

The other important figure is how much income to expect from the TIF in 2024-25. The answer depends mostly on the 2024-25 tax rate, which has not yet been set.

For what is TIF money used, and from where does it come

The purpose of a Maine TIF (Tax Increment Financing) program is to expand employment, broaden municipal tax bases and “[i]mprove the general economy of the State of Maine.” Municipal programs need approval by the state Department of Economic and Community Development.

China’s TIF program was established by town vote on March 21, 2015, and amended on June 8, 2021. The current program extends to June 30, 2045, although funding for some of the specific activities in the program expires sooner.

Money for China’s program comes from taxes paid on Central Maine Power Company’s north-south power line through the town and, since the 2021 amendment, on its South China substation. The program estimates annual revenue declining slowly, from $366,209 in 2020 to $249,325 by 2045.

The 60-page TIF document, found on the website china.govoffice.com, under the TIF Committee under Officials, Boards & Committees on the right side of the main page, is the document current TIF Committee members are reviewing as they consider updates.

Most of the workshop session was spent discussing whether the amount in each of the categories into which TIF funds are divided should be increased, decreased or left alone. In the current TIF document, funding amounts in some categories have deadlines after which they disappear or decrease; the deadlines, too, were discussed.

Two categories, funding for economic development activities and for maintenance of recreational trails, are consistently spent each year. Committee members are considering recommending more money.

The activities account contributes to two events that bring people to town, China Days in August and China Ice Days in February. Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said if she had time and money, she has lots of ideas for more events that would publicize the town and help local businesses.

For example, she said, with a portable stage and money to pay entertainers, there could be music festivals and similar events all summer.

The trails account supports maintenance work by the Four Seasons Club, on town snowmobile and four-wheeler trails, and the Thurston Park Committee, on trails in the park. In recent years, the two groups’ requests have exceeded the total in the account.

Several accounts are never or seldom used, including money for job training; the revolving loan fund intended to help businesses; and matching grant funds. Defunding them might not be a good idea, however.

Committee members Jamie Pitney and Mickey Wing pointed out how little publicity the job training program has had, suggesting it might be used if people knew about it.

From the audience, Four Seasons Club President Thomas Rumpf proposed converting the loan fund to a small grant fund, to which a town business could apply, for example, to pay for a new sign. And the Four Seasons Club might ask for matching grant funds for a major trail rebuilding project, he said; not this year, because the state grants that would be matched are being used to repair storm-damaged trails.

Reviewing on-going projects, committee members foresee continuing to use TIF money for the South China boat landing. They anticipate requests from the environmental improvements fund as proposed work in China Lake and its watershed takes shape.

The “causeway project” that made major changes to the road, sidewalks and boat launch at the head of China Lake’s east basin is finished. However, committee members and Hapgood and Rumpf recommended improvements: a second dock and buffers on the docks to minimize damage to wind-blown boats; expanded parking where boat trailers neither block access to the four-wheeler trail or impede traffic on Causeway Street; and extended sidewalks.

A related question, not answered, was whether TIF money could be used for maintenance of TIF-funded projects, like putting in and taking out the boat docks.

Pitney, who is a lawyer, compared China’s TIF document and Maine’s TIF law and found several unclear areas. For example, he said, there is no definition or description of the kinds of grants that TIF funds can match; should someone apply for a match, he believes the application would need state review.

The next TIF Committee workshop is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 29.

Copies of annual town report now available at town office and other public places

Copies of China’s annual town report for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2023, are now available at the town office and in other public places around town.

Vassalboro select board looks at VSD finances in hour-long discussion

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by Mary Grow

The May 2 Vassalboro select board meeting featured an hour-long discussion among board members, Town Manager Aaron Miller, Vassalboro Sanitary District trustees and Megan McDonough and other VSD customers, with frequent references to information supplied by or to be sought from attorneys.

The goal is to find ways to manage VSD finances, especially repayment of the debt from connecting the Vassalboro sewer system to Winslow, without making already-high sewer bills even higher.

NOTE: The May 2 Vassalboro select board meeting again included an hour-long executive session with the town attorney, during which the recording of the meeting shows the empty meeting room. After a little more than two-and-a-half hours from the beginning of the meeting, board members returned for another quarter of an hour.

The agenda on the town website, www.vassalboro.net, includes a 29-page document titled “Outline of May 2 VSD-TIF-Discussion.pdf,” available for viewing or downloading.

The VSD serves about 200 of Vassalboro’s about 2,700 households, select board chairman Chris French said. Its lines run along Route 32 (Main Street) from East Vassalboro through North Vassalboro to the Winslow line, and along some side streets off Main Street.

The first topic was whether some of Vassalboro’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds could be allocated to the debt repayment. Miller and select board member Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., said Vassalboro’s TIF document says money must be spent in town; but they have not been able to get from VSD trustees an accurate figure on what proportion of the lines is in Vassalboro and what proportion is in Winslow.

Engineer Richard Green, representing the consultant that operates the VSD system, said the question shows a lack of understanding of how funding agencies work. Funds are allocated by purpose, not by geography, he said.

After more discussion of legal advice, TIF requirements, the difference between construction and debt service and related topics, Green said he could provide the information town officials initially requested in February.

Miller and select board members agreed they still need the town auditor’s input. A meeting of town and VSD officials and the auditor is tentatively scheduled for the end of May.

A second issue was how VSD trustees are chosen. Denico pointed out that the VSD charter allowing board members to elect new members contradicts state law.

State law, he and Miller said, requires an open election by sanitary district residents; they cited Title 38, Chapter 1105, in the Maine Revised Statutes. Denico said the town would cover the cost of VSD elections along with municipal election costs.

Trustee Rebecca Goodrich said VSD’s attorney thought the charter did not need amending. She planned to talk with the attorney again the next day.

After their executive session with the town attorney later in the meeting, select board members voted unanimously to ask the trustees to change their method of election as soon as possible.

The third major topic was other funding sources. Select board members suggested two: joining the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments to get grant-writing assistance, and creating housing districts to encourage residential (and associated commercial) growth in North and East Vassalboro, so more sewer users would share the costs.

McDonough urged acceptance of both ideas. Neither would provide prompt relief, everyone agreed.

The May 2 select board meeting began with a short presentation by Matthew Weaver, of Damariscotta-based First National Wealth Management, who said Vassalboro’s investments are doing well. The conservative investment portfolio had an overall return rate of 9.66 percent in the previous year, he said.

The other major topic for which select board members had time before the executive session was review of Miller’s draft warrant for the June 3 and June 11 town meeting. Select board members suggested minor changes.

After the executive session, Miller summarized a Delta Ambulance report for the first three months of 2024. The service responded to 97 percent of Vassalboro’s 911 calls, a total of 117; in 19 percent of the calls, no one was transported (and Medicare did not reimburse Delta for the call). Average response time was 14 minutes, 15 seconds.

Board members unanimously nominated Miller to serve another term on the Maine Municipal Association’s Legislative Policy Committee.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, May 16. Two topics postponed from May 2 are likely to be on the agenda: review of plans for the transfer station redesign, and updates to the town personnel policy.

CHINA TIF COMMITTEE: One of two applications meets funding requirement

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by Mary Grow

China Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee members found only one of two applications submitted to their April 29 meeting met the requirements for TIF funding.

Both requests, from the South China public library and The Town Line newspaper, were submitted under Project C.3 in China’s TIF plan, titled “Marketing the Town as a Business Location.”

Committee members recommended funding for The Town Line, but not for the South China library.

Committee member Jamie Pitney was unsure why either qualified as an example of marketing. Both are valuable assets to the town, he said, but neither does any active marketing; “they just sit there.”

After discussion among committee members and Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood, a majority agreed that some of what the newspaper does, without charging the town, could count as marketing. They mentioned the unpaid advance publicity for major events like China Days in August and China Ice Days in February, and the weekly lists of town events.

They therefore recommended to the select board a $3,000 appropriation for The Town Line operations. The vote was 4-0-1; Pitney abstained, saying he would like the town attorney’s opinion before making a decision.

The library’s request for $30,000 to complete work on its new building, at 27 Jones Road, was received with sympathy. “Nobody wants to make a motion to turn down a library,” Pitney commented.

Committee members tried to fit the request into some category eligible for TIF money, but they failed. They voted unanimously not to recommend TIF funding for the library.

As Pitney pointed out, TIF disbursements are governed by the state’s economic-development-based standards. The local committee’s options are therefore limited.

China’s current TIF document was approved by town voters on June 8, 2021, and by the state Department of Economic and Community Development on Nov. 18, 2021. Pitney suggested it is time for the committee to consider revisions. These could include recommending removing programs that are no longer used, adding programs included in updated state TIF standards and reallocating funding.

Committee members scheduled work sessions to consider revisions for 6 p.m., Monday, May 13; Wednesday, May 29; and Monday, June 10.

An amended TIF document would need approval by China voters, perhaps at the Nov. 5 elections, and by the state.

China select board authorizes assessor to update property valuations

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by Mary Grow

China select board members voted unanimously at their April 22 meeting to authorize assessor William Van Tuinen to update property valuations to bring them close to the state-required level.

Van Tuinen told board members that the State of Maine says China properties are assessed at an average 76 percent of market value. They should be close to 100 percent.

Town officials had two options, Van Tuinen said.

They could ignore the discrepancy. In that case, the state would impose a lot of changes, like reducing taxpayers’ homestead exemption (from $25,000 to about $19,000, he said) and veterans’ exemption; lowering tree growth and farm woodland exemptions; and reducing the value of the Central Maine Power company assets that fund China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) fund.

Or, select board members could approve higher valuations, either across the board or by categories of property.

Select board members chose an across the board valuation increase, authorizing Van Tuinen to calculate the percentage that would bring town valuations close to market values.

Higher valuations will not increase taxes. Tax bills are calculated by multiplying property valuation by tax rate, so a higher valuation will mean a lower rate, to bring in the same amount of money.

Town officials expect local property taxes to increase in 2024-25, because more money is needed than in 2023-24 to cover school and municipal expenses and the Kennebec County tax.

Because taxes are already expected to go up, select board members rejected Director of Public Services Shawn Reed’s request to replace one of China’s 10-year-old public works trucks from the 2024-25 budget.

Reed said the truck he wants to buy is currently out of production, and likely to stay out for months, because of a problem with the transmission supplier. O’Connor Motors, in Augusta, has four suitable trucks on hand. If China officials spoke for one immediately, it could be available in a year or so.

Reed could not estimate when another might be available. He pointed out that the States of Maine, too, has trouble getting trucks, and without trucks (and drivers), neither town nor state can guarantee to keep roads plowed.

Reed did not recommend buying a used truck. It would come without a warranty and likely with problems, he said.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood and Reed shared 2024-25 paving bids and recommendations from China’s road committee. Select board members awarded the bid to the low bidder, Maine-ly Paving, of Canaan, at a price of $93.25 per ton of paving mix. Reed said the company’s work for China last year was satisfactory.

Summer resident Eric Lind, vice-president of the China Lake Association, raised three issues: the high water level in China Lake; the recently-received federal water quality grant that requires a local match, in money or in kind; and the South China boat landing.

The lake’s water level is slowly going down, Lind said. High water has caused shoreline erosion that will damage water quality.

Select board members have talked at intervals for over a year about improving the boat landing. Lind asked when action was scheduled.

Hapgood said physical improvements need to wait until the water level goes down. There was agreement that the landing will remain unpublicized, encouraging local use only, and that only small boats will be allowed.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 6. It will be preceded by an ice cream social at 5:45 p.m. in the town office, followed by a public hearing at which voters can ask questions and make comments about articles to be voted on at the June 11 annual town business meeting.

China transfer station committee looks into relationship with Palermo

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by Mary Grow

China Transfer Station Committee members’ April 16 discussion of use and abuse of the waste disposal facility ranged from minutely detailed to widely philosophical.

Two issues dominated, the free for the taking building and relations with Palermo. Palermo residents share use of China’s facility under a contract that China Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood finds unsatisfactory.

The free for the taking building is intended as a swap shop, where people leave things they no longer use but believe other people would. Often, they’re right – station manager Thomas Maraggio said the great majority of items are picked up immediately.

However, as committee chairman Christopher Baumann said, free for the taking is not the same as free for the leaving. Transfer station attendants charge a fee for items they will pay to dispose of – couches were an often-cited example. If the person who left a paid-for item is still there when someone claims it, the fee is refunded.

Some people object to the fee, or try to smuggle in valueless things. Staff members or security cameras often catch them.

Committee member James Hsiang characterized such behavior as abuse of the system. Maraggio and committee member Rachel Anderson said instances are rare.

Most people believe someone else will use their discards, Anderson said – “Ninety-nine percent of people are well-intentioned.” However, the free for the taking building is small, with limited space to store things until a new user claims them.

The 17-year China-Palermo contract, signed June 3, 2016, calls for Palermo to pay an annual $18,000 fee to China, and for Palermo residents to buy special blue bags in which to put their trash. There is no provision for the annual fee to increase (or decrease) over the life of the contract. Disposal fees and bag costs can be adjusted, with six months’ notice to Palermo.

The agreement says identifying decals or window stickers are free. Therefore, when China bought new windshield stickers last year and charged $2 for them, committee and Palermo select board member Robert Kurek said Palermo residents would not pay.

An alternate system was approved, which does not satisfy everyone, leading to occasional arguments between Palermo residents and transfer station staff.

Maraggio said some Palermo residents come in without blue bags. Others bring their trash in black bags, park at the hopper and put each black bag into a blue one, thereby delaying others waiting to use the hopper and doubling plastic use.

The 2016 agreement allows either town to cancel on a year’s notice, for violation of the contract or for just cause. In November 2023, Hapgood sent Palermo the required year’s notice of China’s intent to cancel, citing Palermo residents’ actions.

The two towns’ lawyers are debating the issue.

At the April 16 meeting, Kurek described in detail complaints he received from China and his follow-up discussions with alleged offenders. His point was that the actions described did not amount to a “just cause” to cancel the contract.

He incidentally made the point that different parties’ accounts of the same incident were not always alike.

Baumann and other committee members thanked Kurek for his prompt follow-ups.

Committee member James Hines said China should punish individual repeat offenders, not all Palermo users. Benjamin Weymouth suggested mediation – which is not in the contract, Kurek pointed out.

Hsiang suggested instead of imposing penalties for misusing the transfer station, offering rewards for using it well. He proposed inviting users to enter a contest: each family would have its trash weighed, and every three months those with the least trash – thereby costing taxpayers least, and presumably recycling – would be winners.

Baumann asked Hsiang to develop a more specific plan, with an estimate of costs and time required, and share it before the next meeting, which is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 14.

VASSALBORO: After long meeting, committee agrees to recommend school budget

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by Mary Grow

By the end of an almost-three-hour April 16 meeting, Vassalboro Budget Committee members had agreed to recommend the 2024-25 school budget as presented by the school board, and to recommend rearrangements and reductions in the almost-final municipal budget.

The vote on the school budget was four in favor to three opposed, with two members absent. The decision was preceded by renewed discussion of issues reviewed the previous week (see the April 18 issue of The Town Line, p. 2).

Committee members’ goals as they debated the municipal budget were to provide needed services and to limit the expected tax increase. They considered using money from reserve funds and Vassalboro’s undesignated fund balance (informally called surplus) instead of from 2024-25 taxation, and eliminating or postponing some expenditures select board members proposed.

The $629,826 administration account was recommended with one change: by a six to one vote, budget committee members recommended against select board members’ proposed cost of living increase ($240), leaving a $500 increase intended for the incoming board chairman (see the Feb. 15 issue of The Town Line, p. 2).

Proposed road paving, and costs, were rearranged after public works employee Brian Lajoie presented suggestions. Lajoie reported the lowest paving bid was $93.25 per ton. Committee members unanimously recommended $510,000 for 2024-25 paving.

Other expenditures discussed included the proposed new skidstreer to plow the expected new North Vassalboro sidewalks (and for other uses year-round) and the proposed replacement loader.

Committee members voted six to one not to recommend buying a replacement loader in 2024-25. By the same margin, they voted to set aside $26,436 for the first payment on the skidsteer.

Future projects include putting up a new building to shelter equipment at the public works department lot on Bog Road, replacing the Mill Hill bridge and buying a new plow truck. Committee members discussed how much money should be set aside in what type of account; they voted unanimously to recommend a $100,000 plow truck reserve fund.

Committee chairman Peggy Schaffer tried to calculate recommended savings and the effect on the tax rate. Results were estimates, because the Kennebec County budget was undetermined as of April 16, and Vassalboro’s total valuation had not been set by the town’s assessor.

Valuation helps determine tax rate; the greater the total valuation, the lower the rate required to raise needed funds from taxation.

Select board members will prepare the warrant – list of articles to be submitted to voters – for the Monday, June 3, annual town meeting, where voters will approve the 2024-25 budget. The warrant includes recommendations from the two boards on municipal monetary articles, and from the school board and budget committee on school funding requests.

Vassalboro select board discusses road work, sanitary district

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Town attorney rules protest letter does not meet requirement for petition

by Mary Grow

The April 18 Vassalboro select board meeting was in sections. After an hour and a half discussing road work, Vassalboro Sanitary District customers’ communication and other matters, board members recessed for an executive session with the town attorney.

They then spent another half hour in open meeting talking about the draft warrant for the June 3 and 11 town meeting, before another short executive session.

The only action taken after either executive session was a prompt adjournment after the second one.

Proposed road repaving has been discussed repeatedly among select board and budget committee members, with information and recommendations from Brian Lajoie of the public works department. After the April 16 budget committee meeting, attendees thought they had agreed that the big project for the summer of 2024 would be repaving the Church Hill Road to the Augusta line.

At the April 18 select board meeting, Lajoie advised reconsidering. Central Maine Power Company plans to replace lines along that road, he said, and the company’s heavy machinery would chew up the new pavement.

Although, he said, CMP is supposed to pay for any damage, he still preferred to postpone the repaving.

Select board members therefore tentatively added back into the 2024 paving schedule several shorter stretches of town road. As of April 18, Art. 5 in the draft town meeting warrant allocates $570,000 for road paving.

The other road issue discussed was the state Department of Transportation’s (MDOT) planned replacement of the Meadow Brook bridge on Bog Road, about seven-tenths of a mile west of the four-way intersection in East Vassalboro.

MDOT Project Manager Gary Libby said the current schedule calls for the work to be bid out in December 2024 and done in the summer of 2025.

The plan is to replace the bridge with a box culvert. Libby described the culvert and the roadway above, which he said will have 11-foot travel lanes and three-foot shoulders, making it a bit wider than the current bridge.

Work will include installing a dry hydrant for the Vassalboro Fire Department. The department is to provide materials and oversee the contractor’s installation.

An on-line public forum in May, dates to be announced, will let residents ask questions and offer comments.

Libby expects work to start after June 15 and to take about six weeks.

MDOT’s proposed detour uses Taber Hill and Gray roads. Gray Road runs west from Route 32 to its intersection with Taber Hill, where traffic would make a sharp left turn to go south to Bog Road on the west side of the detour.

Board and audience members questioned whether trucks would have trouble with the sharp turn at the intersection, and whether increased traffic would be hard on Gray Road. Lajoie and others said Gray Road is scheduled for repaving this summer, and it does not have a very strong base.

Libby was willing to investigate a truck route following Taber Hill Road north to Oak Grove Road, where traffic could turn east and join Route 32 in North Vassalboro. The sight lines where Taber Hill Road joins Oak Grove Road would be one factor to consider, he said.

The Vassalboro Sanitary District discussion was sparked by what Town Manager Aaron Miller called a letter of protest from residents served by the District, who have repeatedly asked for help with high user fees. The document was intended as a petition, Miller said, but the town attorney said it did not meet requirements, and it lacked the needed 219 signatures.

Miller said he had advised the senders what to do if they wanted to submit an article for the warrant for the June 3 town meeting.

During the first part of their meeting, select board members:

— Appointed Albion resident Cindy Spaulding to the Vassalboro Cemetery Committee. Miller summarized her credentials and said current cemetery committee members were satisfied.
— Approved $15,000 in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds for the volunteer fire department for turnout gear (see the April 18 issue of The Town Line, p. 3).
— Agreed by consensus to postpone buying a new backhoe.

After the first executive session, they reviewed Miller’s preliminary draft of the town meeting warrant. As of April 18, the warrant had 41 articles to be acted on at the open meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Monday, June 3, in the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium.

Another three articles are to be voted by written ballot on Tuesday, June 11, at the town office, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Local elections will be held at the same time and place.

Town Clerk Cathy Coyne reported two incumbents submitted nomination papers for two positions on local boards: Christopher French for a three-year term on the select board, and Jolene Clark Gamage for a three-year term on the school board.

Miller said veteran moderator Richard Thompson has agreed to moderate the town meeting, for the last time; he plans to retire after this year.

Vassalboro select board postpones marijuana business, discusses roads, sanitary district

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Select Board chairman Chris French postponed the April 11 public hearing on the amended marijuana business ordinance to discuss, first, planned 2024 road work and second, the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s (VSD) financial problems.

Brian Lajoie, of the town’s public works department, and select board members discussed two road concerns: keeping up with the paving schedule, which calls for repaving about 4.5 miles of road annually; and paving Vassalboro’s few remaining gravel roads, short stretches that require extra winter maintenance.

The April 11 discussion was inconclusive, because Lajoie expected to open the bids on paving materials prices on April 16 and have a firm figure on a major part of the cost. He also volunteered to check out roads to make additional recommendations for repaving and paving.

Two other road issues are pending.

State Department of Transportation has revised its plan for a detour while the Bog Road bridge over Meadow Brook is rebuilt in the summer of 2025.

The bridge on Mill Hill Road over Seven Mile Stream needs to be replaced in the next few years, at a cost expected to be $2 million or more (see the Nov. 9, 2023, issue of The Town Line).

And, Town Manager Aaron Miller said, the state Department of Transportation has revised its plan for a detour while the Bog Road bridge over Meadow Brook is rebuilt in the summer of 2025. Miller expected a presentation at the select board’s April 18 meeting. (See the July 20, 2023, issue of The Town Line for an earlier discussion of this project, and of VSD finances.)

On a related issue, select board members unanimously awarded the bid for repaving the parking lot at the former East Vassalboro school, now the Vassalboro Historical Society headquarters and museum, for $36,000.

Three of the four sanitary district trustees talked with select board members about the ongoing effort to find a way to pay bills without raising already-high sewer rates even higher. The main issue is outstanding loans, money that funded the VSD’s connection with the Waterville Sanitary District’s disposal system, via Winslow.

Miller had a legal opinion that some of Vassalboro’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) money could help repay the loans. He, select board members and VSD board members talked about other possible funding sources. The topic will be on a future select board agenda.

The hearing on the Marijuana Business Ordinance lasted a little over half an hour. One obvious change is that the word “marijuana” has been changed to “cannabis” throughout the document, including in the title: it is now the Town of Vassalboro Cannabis Business Ordinance.

The current ordinance deals with commercial growing operations. It forbids any new ones in Vassalboro, and sets requirements and standards for those “grandfathered” operations that existed before voters approved the ordinance.

The proposed amendments are aimed primarily at providing more local knowledge about caregivers growing cannabis for medical use in town. By state law, a municipality cannot ban caregivers, but it can regulate them.

Two audience members had questions and comments.

An unplanned discussion April 11 was with Fire Chief Walker Thompson, who came to the meeting only to listen. When French asked if he wanted to speak, however, Thompson said his department is gaining six new members and could use money to outfit them.

A pair of “bunker pants” – the name for a firefighter’s turnout gear – and a coat cost around $3,500, Thompson said. In past years, grants have helped keep Vassalboro firefighters safely clothed; this year, the department’s application was unsuccessful.

French proposed allocating $15,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money for the fire department. He asked Thompson to get the required three price quotes for a purchase with town funds. Action is likely at the next select board meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 18.

Thompson reported, with pleasure, that the Vassalboro volunteer fire department now has 31 members.

China public hearing set on apartment application

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by Mary Grow

At their April 9 meeting, China Planning Board members scheduled a May 14 public hearing on Carrol White’s application for a permit to convert the former Silver Lake Grange Hall in China Village to four two-bedroom apartments.

Board members reviewed the application at their Feb. 13 meeting and would have approved it, except that White needed a variance from the China Board of Appeals to allow four apartments in a building on a small lot.

The board of appeals unanimously granted the variance at a March 28 meeting. Planning board chairman Toni Wall said that board’s members held the required second meeting to approve the wording of their decision just before the April 9 planning board meeting.

In other business April 9, Wall proposed spending part of the next couple months’ meetings discussing amendments to Section 6 of China’s Land Use Ordinance, which covers administration. Her goal is to make it easier for applicants to understand what information they need to provide.

Planning board members canceled their second April meeting.

Vassalboro school board reviews proposed 2024-25 budget

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro School Board members continued review of the proposed 2024-25 budget at an April 3 special meeting. At their regular meeting April 9, they discussed non-budgetary and budgetary issues, before joining the Vassalboro Budget Committee for a joint review of the proposed 2024-25 school budget.

The April 3 meeting, held despite an impending snowstorm, featured virtual participation by special education director Tanya Thibeau, director of maintenance and grounds Shelley Phillips, Vassalboro Community School principal Ira Michaud and assistant principal Tabitha Brewer.

The administrators explained their sections of the budget and answered board members’ questions.

At the April 9 meeting, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer presented a draft 2024-25 school calendar, which he said is very similar to the current year’s calendar except that there are fewer early release days – nine instead of 14.

School calendar very similar to last year’s except there are fewer early release days – nine instead of 14.

Michaud said teachers need time to discuss educational issues among themselves, but he realizes having students come home early inconveniences many parents.

Board members considered late start days instead of early release days, but doubted that plan would be any less inconvenient. They also discussed having early releases other than Thursday afternoons; Michaud said consistency seemed to help families plan.

Two budget issues were the addition of a second school counselor, and the reductions made from the initial proposed budget to the revised version approved unanimously April 9.

Michaud and Pfeiffer defended the need for a second counselor. Pfeiffer distributed a paper administrators prepared supporting the addition.

VCS currently has 410 students enrolled, and one counselor. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of at least one counselor for every 250 students, for adequate service.

Data from the 2023 Maine integrated health survey shows an increase over 2021 results in the percentages of middle school students who reported they had “felt sad or hopeless” for longer than two consecutive weeks or who had “serious thoughts of harming or killing themselves.”

A second counselor would allow more time for classroom work, building social and emotional skills, and for work with small groups and individual students in need of extra support.

Before 2022, VCS lost three school counselors in a fairly short time, the paper said. “All three cited the high student ratio” as a major challenge that discouraged them from staying.

Items deleted from the initial budget proposal included one teacher (by attrition); one educational technician; one bus driver and bus run (Pfeiffer said the change was in effect, after a driver resigned, and students were not getting home significantly later); new tables in the library; and new tile flooring in the lower-level classrooms.

Another move to save taxpayer dollars was allocation of $185,000, instead of the initially-proposed $135,000, from the school’s undesignated fund balance.

In other business April 9, Pfeiffer commented that some of the newly-installed ceiling fans were already being used as the weather warmed.

Michaud reported that Vassalboro cub scouts hosted the Kennebec Valley District Pinewood Derby at Vassalboro Community School the previous weekend, with “an excellent turnout.”

For the April 8 eclipse, glasses were distributed to all students and staff for safe viewing from VCS, on the buses or at their homes, Michaud said.

The next regular Vassalboro School Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 21.