Joann Austin is retiring from the China Board of Selectmen on Nov. 1, with a year left of her current term, because, she said, she has been sick all summer.

Board Chairman Neil Farrington announced her pending resignation at the Aug. 21 board meeting. Board members accepted her decision with deep regret. Former Selectman Robert MacFarland led a round of applause from the audience in appreciation of her many years of service.

Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux said nomination papers for a one-year term as selectman would be available Aug. 22. Signed papers will be due by 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, along with all other papers for candidates’ names to appear on the Nov. 7 local ballot.

Nomination papers are already available for two two-year terms on the Board of Selectmen (Irene Belanger’s and Ronald Breton’s terms end this year); three two-year terms on the Planning Board (representatives from District 1, currently James Wilkens, and District 3, currently Milton Dudley, and the alternate position held by Ralph Howe, elected from the town at large); and three two-year terms on the Budget Committee (Chairman Robert Batteese, District 1 representative Kevin Maroon and District 3 representative Sheryl Peavey).

by Mary Grow

China selectmen have unanimously approved a 2017-18 tax rate of 15.9 mils, or $15.90 for each $1,000 of valuation, an increase of 40 cents per $1,000 over last year’s rate.

Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux said at the board’s Aug. 21 meeting the main reason for the increase is lower state funding for education, requiring local property owners to make up the difference. Also, he said, the homestead exemption for primary residences goes up from $15,000 to $20,000, saving a little money for homeowners but adding to taxes on businesses and seasonal homes.

Selectmen heard a presentation on school spending plans from new Regional School Unit (RSU) #18 Superintendent Carl Gartley, one of three preliminary discussions of Nov. 7 local ballot items.

RSU #18 proposes seeking approval from voters in its member towns (Belgrade, China, Oakland, Rome and Smithfield) for a $14 million bond issue for repairs and updates to several school buildings plus a new athletic complex for Messalonskee High School.

Gartley, a former Erskine Academy teacher and China Middle School principal, shared a table showing that more than $2.4 million of the total amount borrowed would go to China schools, mostly for improvements to the older middle school.

If the bond issue is approved and the work is done, he said, the long-discussed possibility of closing the middle school and enlarging China Primary School would be put off for at least another 20 years.

China Middle School is the second most costly project on Gartley’s list, exceeded only by the $2.8 million earmarked for Oakland’s Williams Elementary School.

Selectman Ronald Breton objected to the bond issue, especially to the plan to include $3 million for the new athletic complex which, he said, very few China students would use.

“My responsibility is this town,” Breton said, urging that the $3 million be made a separate proposal. He added when one of the RSU #18 directors so moved at a board meeting, at Breton’s instigation, the board voted 9 to1 against the proposal.

Gartley fears if the two issues are separated, voters will reject both. He disagreed that China gains less from RSU membership than the other towns; the town has gained academically, in terms of district financial support for building renovations and especially in special education, he said.

He remembered when he was a principal in China searching for appropriate placements for special education students – Erskine Academy, a private school, is not obliged to accept them – and sometimes finding only an expensive alternative that required long bus rides for the student. Now, he said, any RSU #18 student can attend Messalonskee High School.

The second possible Nov. 7 ballot question, to be discussed again at the next selectmen’s meeting, is Board Chairman Neil Farrington’s proposed question that, if approved, would require all nonprofit agencies asking for town funds to provide a financial statement demonstrating their need for the money.

Selectmen considered whether a ballot question is necessary, since a financial statement requirement has been an off-again, on-again policy, and whether information about past spending or future spending plans would be more useful.

A third question likely to be on the ballot is a request, probably for up to $8,000, to create a fire pond on Neck Road, partly on Tom Michaud’s land and partly on an adjoining lot. Michaud said he and China Village Fire Chief Tim Theriault have discussed plans, and selectmen said the other landowner does not object.

Selectmen asked L’Heureux to draft both questions for discussion at their next meeting. They have until mid-September to get local ballot questions in final form.

In other business, L’Heureux reported the state Department of Economic and Community Development approved China’s request to amend its Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program. The changes, supported by voters at the March town business meeting, add the new Central Maine Power Company substation off Route 3 to the TIF base and extend the program from 20 years to 30 years.

Selectmen unanimously approved former board member Robert MacFarland’s plan to replace the supporting beams under the former Weeks Mills schoolhouse. MacFarland estimates the cost for the repairs plus adding a handicapped-access ramp to the back of the building at $9,100. L’Heureux recommended payment from the bicentennial fund and the selectmen’s contingency fund.

The board unanimously authorized TIF Committee member Frank Soares to apply for a state grant to enlarge the boat launch at the head of China Lake’s east basin. The committee is also seeking engineers’ plans for a new causeway bridge just west of the boat landing, Michaud said.

Michaud said the next TIF Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, Aug. 28. Selectmen rescheduled their next meeting, which would fall on the Labor Day holiday, to 8 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 6.

 

by Mary Grow

China selectmen and representatives of the South China Volunteer Fire Department spent part for the Aug. 7 selectmen’s meeting sorting out auditing requirements, with specific reference to the importance of the transition from one fiscal year to the next. China’s fiscal year ends June 30 and the new one – 2017-18 currently – begins July 1.

Fire Department Treasurer Fred Glidden told selectmen he presented several invoices dated in June for payment after July 1 and was told they could not be paid. They were 2016-17 bills and according to auditing practice, that year’s books are closed and cannot be reopened, and prior-year bills can’t be paid from current-year funds.

Had the department ended FY 2016-17 with a surplus that went into its reserve fund, the bills might have been paid from reserve in July, Town Manager and Treasurer Daniel L’Heureux said; but there was not an adequate balance carried forward.

Glidden said he already paid two of the bills from departmental funds, raised through donations and fundraisers, and intended to bill the town for reimbursement in this fiscal year. Fine, L’Heureux said, as long as the bill to the town is itemized.

For the remaining bills, the manager recommended getting new invoices dated in July. They would then fall under the current year’s budget.

When Glidden and Fire Chief Richard Morse objected that they had carried bills forward in past years, L’Heureux said sometimes there are such irregularities, until the town’s auditor spots them and requires correction.

In a related matter, Glidden said LD 150, sponsored by State Representative and China Village Fire Chief Tim Theriault, takes effect Nov. 1 (90 days after the state legislature adjourned for the year). LD 150 repeals the $1,000 limit on the municipal appropriation that can be given to an organized volunteer fire department in a lump sum and adds a requirement that the purposes of the appropriation be itemized.

In other words, after Nov. 1 this year, and at the beginning of subsequent fiscal years, China’s three volunteer fire departments can request a check for their annual appropriation and do their own spending, instead of submitting bills bi-weekly to the town office.

Neil Farrington, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, advised Glidden and Morse to make sure if they choose that option, they will continue to share the town’s discount on purchases like diesel fuel and heating oil. Selectmen asked L’Heureux to investigate the question.

In other business, L’Heureux said he hopes to be able to recommend the 2017-18 tax rate at the selectmen’s Aug. 21 meeting. He is waiting to hear whether the state will approve China’s application to add the new Central Maine Power Company substation off Route 3 to the town’s Tax Increment Financing Program. Whether the value of the new substation is in the TIF program or the regular tax base will affect the rate he recommends.

Selectmen reaffirmed their intention to offer the basement of the old town house beside the town office for rent to a nonprofit group. They authorized L’Heureux to do necessary repairs and maintenance.

L’Heureux said the Thurston Park II Committee did not endorse the proposal for selective timber cutting on an additional approximately five acres in the town-owned park, so only the work originally planned will be done.

L’Heureux and Farrington repeated their request for volunteers for the vacant budget committee position, the 2018 Bicentennial committee and other town boards and committees.