The Jan. 28 special town meeting to let China residents act on an ordinance to create a moratorium on retail marijuana businesses in town could not be held for lack of a quorum.
China town meetings require 126 registered voters. With fewer than 100 assembled at 9:25 a.m., almost half an hour after the scheduled starting time, selectmen called off the meeting.
They will decide whether and if so when to present the idea to voters again.
Vassalboro selectmen heard two requests and one proposal at their Jan. 26 meeting. They granted one request and took the other two items under advisement.
Board members approved Frank Richards’ request that they write a letter to the president of the Kennebec Water District (KWD) Board of Trustees asking the district to support the project to restore alewives to China Lake, known as ARI (Alewife Restoration Initiative).
Richards is Vassalboro’s new representative on the board. One reason he sought the position, he said, was to try to get KWD to support ARI financially.
The current KWD position, as stated by General Manager Jeffrey LaCasse (see The Town Line, Jan. 19, 2017, page 8), is neither for nor against alewife reintroduction. KWD officials do not believe alewives are responsible for water quality improvements; neither do they believe the small fish will harm water quality.
Richards praised state Representative Timothy Theriault, of China, for introducing a bill, LD 55, co-sponsored by legislators from Winslow and Fairfield, that would impose a fee on KWD customers to go toward China Lake water quality restoration. (For another perspective on LD 55, see The Town Line, Jan. 26, 2017, p. 3. )
Selectmen agreed that board Chairman Lauchlin Titus and Town Manager Mary Sabins will draft a letter to KWD Board President Al Hodsdon.
The second request was from Holly Weidner, who asked selectmen as they prepare 2017-18 budget recommendations to reconsider the policy of flat-funding out-of-town social service agencies. Weidner argued that many of the agencies, like those dealing with sexual assault and domestic violence, perform valuable public safety functions and should be more generously supported. Selectman Phil Haines said selectmen and budget committee members constantly balance between the needs presented to them and the need to keep the local tax rate as low as possible.
Agency requests are included in the town meeting warrant, Sabins pointed out, giving voters the option to appropriate the full amount an agency wants when town officials recommend a lower amount.
Selectmen are scheduled to begin review of the proposed 2017-18 municipal budget at a workshop scheduled for 1 p.m., Monday, Feb. 13. The budget committee’s tentative schedule has social service agency requests to be considered the evening of Thursday, March 9.
The proposal at the Jan. 26 meeting, submitted by a representative of Maryland-based RealTerm Energy, was to replace current street lights with LED lights.
Paul Vesel, the company’s northeastern director of business development, gave selectmen and audience members a 33-page document describing plans for the change and projected cost savings.
In April 2016 selectmen heard another proposal on the same topic from Pemco & Company, LLC, of Florida.
In other business Jan. 26, Sabins reported on two initiatives from Vassalboro’s Senior Citizens Working Group. Members are still discussing provision of bus service in Vassalboro, she said, and they are planning a May 25 Senior Citizens Services Fair at which area organizations whose responsibilities include assisting seniors will be invited to distribute information about their services.
Selectmen approved a liquor license renewal for Natanis Golf Course, with board member and Natanis owner Rob Browne abstaining on the vote.
The next regular Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Feb. 9.
The Northern New England Chapter of SWANA (Solid Waste Association of North America) is announcing the availability of a scholarship for current undergraduates, graduate students, or high school seniors who have been accepted into an undergraduate program committed to a degree closely tied to Solid Waste Management, Environmental Science, Engineering or a related field of study.
The award is offered in remembrance of Steve Parker, a founding member of the SWANA Northern New England Chapter and long-term member of International Board of Directors. The scholarship is for $1,000 and is limited to students from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Applicants do not have to be SWANA members; however, if the applicant has identified a SWANA family member (parent, grand-parent etc.) their application may be submitted for consideration for additional scholarship funding from the International Board of SWANA for up to $5,000.
Please mail completed application to Kevin Roche @ecomaine, 64 Blueberry Road, Portland ME 04102. Completed applications must be returned no later than March 8, 2017. For questions you may contact Kevin Roche or Denise Mungen at 207-523-3100 or email mungen@ecomaine.org.
A copy of the application can be found on our website at www.swanachapters.org/nne.
Three students in the art program at Erskine Academy hold their watercolor paintings, which have been matted and framed with a grant from the Oak Grove School Foundation. Students’ artwork will be on display at the China Dine-ah. From left to right, Ally Clark Bonsant ‘17, Michael Haoming Shi ‘18, and Katherine Keller, ‘17. Photo by Emily Foss
This position requires experience in grant writing, and membership development and/or volunteer recruitment and supervision. In addition the curator will:
If you are interested please contact Jan Clowes, VHS President by e-mail at vhspresident@hotmail.com or by leaving a message at the museum at 207-923-3505.
China’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Committee is recommending selectmen ask voters at the March 25 town business meeting to allocate up to $897,923 for specific economic development projects, as follows:
The money would come from the TIF account, formally called the Development Program Fund, which collects taxes Central Maine Power Company pays on its expanded power line through China.
Currently, the TIF program is set up for 20 years, running from 2015 to 2035. The committee recommends selectmen ask voters to extend it to the maximum 30 years allowed by state law.
The committee further recommends asking voters to put tax revenue from the new CMP substation off Route 3 into a TIF, the same one if possible or a separate one if state law so requires.
The power line TIF gets about $265,000 each July 1, Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux told committee members. The town does not yet have the final valuation of the substation, so he cannot tell how much it would add.
The advantage of a TIF, selectman and committee member Joann Austin reminded the other committee members, is that the valuation of TIFed projects is shielded; that is, it does not count toward the town’s valuation as calculated by the state. Without the TIF, China’s valuation would be higher. A higher valuation in comparison to other municipalities results in higher county taxes and less state revenue sharing money and state aid for education.
The causeway project is the most complex of the proposals and generated the longest discussion Jan. 17. It involves improvements to the present boat landing, including expanding parking on the north side of the causeway east of the bridge; changes along the lake shore to provide better access for fishermen, including handicapped access; rebuilding or replacing the bridge; and perhaps relocating the China Village fire station to make more parking space west of the causeway.
A new fire station would probably not qualify for TIF money under state law. Whether a new bridge would qualify appears uncertain from committee discussions. L’Heureux said the state finds the present bridge, though old – built in 1930, he said – and narrow, is safe; committee member and former state legislator David Cotta doubted the state would contribute highway funds to replace it.
Several committee members, however, see a new bridge as key to the whole project. Jim Wilkens said the narrow bridge is already a safety hazard, with fishermen, including children, too close to passing vehicles, and increasing recreational use would make the situation worse. Cotta said the town might be held liable if officials promoted increased use despite a recognized hazard.
A further unresolved issue is what to do along the lake shore, and perhaps along the back of the expanded parking lot to reduce run-off into the wetland known as the Muldoon. Committee members discussed a pervious gravel lot versus a paved lot; for the lake frontage, consulting engineer Mark McCluskey has proposed sheet piling, but at the Jan. 17 meeting committee member Dale Worster recommended using landscaping blocks to make a terraced shoreline. Committee member Stephen Nichols said if the shoreline improvements are done before the bridge is replaced, they will be ruined when the shore is dug up for the bridge work.
The revolving loan fund would be administered by Kennebec Valley Council of Governments, whose staff helped committee members plan it. Wilkens and Cotta opposed recommending it to selectmen and voters, questioning whether local businesses need bridge loans and whether, if granted, they would be repaid.
The donation to ARI is based partly on the assumption that introducing alewives back into China Lake will improve water quality. The alewives supposedly eat tiny plants and animals containing phosphorus and take the phosphorus with them when they migrate back to the ocean in the fall, leaving less food for algae. Better water quality is an economic advantage.
Alewives’ role in improving water quality is hotly debated locally, with anecdotal evidence supporting it but scientific studies inconclusive. L’Heureux stressed that ARI’s goal is to restore historic fish runs, not specifically to affect water quality.
At the March 2016 town business meeting, voters approved two TIF articles for the current fiscal year. One appropriated the same amounts as recommended this March for FirstPark ($37,923) and CRLA ($15,000) plus $6,000 for administration, $2,500 for China Community Days, $650 for Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce dues and $5,000 for a bicentennial events coordinator (who has not been hired). The last three items were not discussed at the Jan. 17 TIF Committee meeting.
The second March 2016 article authorized selectmen to appropriate up to $50,000 “in the 2016-2017 fiscal year and thereafter” from TIF funds for technical, administrative and legal expenses associated with proposed economic development projects.
The draft warrant for the March 25, 2017, town business meeting includes all the 2016 items, with the Chamber of Commerce dues reduced to $500, plus all the Jan. 17 TIF Committee recommendations. Selectmen have not yet reviewed the proposed expenditures.
In November 2016 voters approved two more expenditures recommended by the TIF Committee, donating $50,000 to the China Four Seasons Club for trail work and authorizing selectmen to spend up to $10,000 to buy a piece of land near the boat landing as part of the causeway project.
L’Heureux said the land purchase is almost completed. During August 2016 discussion of the Four Seasons Club request, club President and TIF Committee member Frank Soares said he planned to ask for $30,000 a year in following years. Soares was not at the January 17 meeting and the issue was not mentioned.
The draft March 25 warrant does not include TIF funds for the Four Seasons Club’s trail work. It does include the traditional request to give the club part of the snowmobile registration tax refund the state returns to the town.
The TIF Committee is scheduled to meet again Monday evening, Jan. 30.
Many of us have journeyed into our pasts through the study of genealogy, but now we can have the information in our DNA – all three billion chemical letters of it – read, stored, and available for analysis. What will this mean? We stand on the verge of a medical revolution that enables scientists to pinpoint and neutralize the genetic abnormalities that underlie a number of medical conditions. Who has access to this information? (Insurance companies, prospective mates, employers?) One thing is certain: the era of personalized, gene-based medicine is relevant to everyone.
Join them at 6 p.m. on Friday, January 27, at the Palermo Community Center for a delicious potluck dinner. Bring a dish to share or contribute to the Food Pantry. After dinner, they’ll show “Cracking Your Genetic Code,” in the downstairs screening room. All are welcome, and it’s free. For more information, please call Connie at 993-2294.
PechaKucha Volume 23 will be held at Thomas College on Friday, February 3.
PechaKucha Night Waterville (PK WTVL) Volume 23 promises to be the most moving PechaKucha Night yet! Held in collaboration with the Camden Conference and Mid-Maine Global Forum, PK WTVL V23 will feature several presentations broadly associated with a refugees and global migration theme – including a presentation focused on helping others in times of helplessness, a very timely presentation indeed. This will be a night to remember, not a night to miss! PechaKucha Night Waterville is scheduled for Friday, February 3, 2017 in the Spann Student Commons at Thomas College with presentations starting at 7:20 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.
The PK WTVL Volume 23 presenters are Helene Farrar, Khristopher Flack, Dwight Gagnon, Kevin James, Dean Lachance, Argy Nestor and Lindsay Pinchbeck, Rachel Prestigiacomo, and Lyn Rowden. The event will feature a wide variety of stories including our attachment to our material possessions, healing hunger, and a different sort of colony – Puffins colonies to be precise. Joan Sanzenbacher will be the emcee. PechaKucha Night Waterville volume 23 will be a fantastic night of laughter, community, storytelling, creativity, and celebration!
PK WTVL is Waterville’s connection to a global storytelling network of creative people sharing their creative muse in 20×20 (20 images showing for 20 seconds each). For more than seven years, PK WTVL has brought thousands of area residents together in celebration of passions and creativity. The PK WTVL V23 event will take place on Friday, February 3, 2017 and a reception will take place from 6:20p-7:15p in the Spann Student Commons at Thomas College, 100 West River Road in Waterville. Complimentary refreshments will be provided along with a cash bar. All are invited to this free event! A snow date is set for 2/4/17; keep up to date by visiting the PK WTVL FB page.
PK WTVL is presented by a volunteer Team PK, Waterville Creates!, and the Waterville Public Library. Four events are held per year.
China selectmen began review of the 2017-18 municipal budget request at their Jan. 23 meeting, but ran out of time to finish it. They plan to continue discussion at a workshop at the town office Saturday morning, Jan. 28, immediately after the special town meeting.
Voters at the Jan. 28 special town meeting will consider a moratorium on retail recreational marijuana businesses in town. The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. at China Primary School, behind the Middle School on Lakeview Drive. A quorum of 126 voters is needed to open the meeting.
The municipal budget will be presented to voters at the annual town business meeting, scheduled for Saturday morning, March 25, at China Middle School.
Jan. 23 budget issues featured a discussion with China Rescue Unit members about whether stipends would help the group get more members.
Selectmen also appointed a planning board member and approved a Dirigo Road junkyard permit.
Neil Farrington, chairman of the board of selectmen, invited China Rescue representatives to share their opinions on the value of stipends. David Herard and Thomas Alfieri said payment in some form might help, but would not necessarily solve the problem.
Rescue now has eight members, Herard said. Most of them have full-time jobs out of town. Despite the lack of available members, the unit responded to 305 calls in 2016, covering between 80 and 90 percent of call-outs, he said.
The men cited two main reasons for the shortage of members. Herard said unlike portrayals on television, rescue is “not an easy job” and can be “very unpleasant.” Both said young people are not interested in unpleasant service rewarded only by gratitude. “The kids today don’t have that ethic,” Alfieri said bluntly.
The job can be time-consuming. A local rescue member responding to a medical emergency might end up assisting Delta Ambulance personnel on the way to the hospital, and need to find a ride home; stand-by can take hours at a house fire, days at a search for a snowmobiler missing in China Lake.
Farrington suggested allocating funds to pay $100 per day for a Rescue Unit member to be on call for 24 hours. Selectmen made no decision.
There are two vacancies on the planning board, the alternate position from which Fred Montgomery resigned in December and the at-large position from which Frank Soares resigned this month. Selectmen considered four candidates for the alternate position and appointed Ralph Howe of Dirigo Road.
Howe described himself as a businessman who is “pro-business if it doesn’t affect neighbors.” He advocated loosening regulations on business in rural areas. With reference to the shoreland ordinance changes voters rejected in November, Howe said if a building is to be converted from a seasonal residence to year-round use it must have a septic system that will protect the nearby lake.
Selectmen voted unanimously not to appoint a replacement for Soares, but instead to add a special election to the warrant for the March 25 town business meeting. They asked Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux to advertise again for candidates.
The junkyard permit was granted to Timothy Coston in succession to Russell Coston for property at 281 Dirigo Road. Coston said he needs it primarily to finish cleaning up a section of the property. Selectmen approved a June 30 deadline to complete planned work.
Messalonskee High School Gym – Financial Fitness Fair 2017. Contributed photo
On January 17, New Dimensions Federal Credit Union arrived at Messalonskee High School, in Oakland, and set up and put on a Financial Fitness Fair for around 720 students. The mission was to provide education on financial security and basic real-life budgeting concepts. The students chose a profession and were assigned an annual salary and credit score. They then visited several booths such as housing, furnishings, credit cards, autos, student loan debt, and more. The students rounded the booths complete with little twists such as the “Reality Wheel of life” that threw in real-life “curveballs” such as speeding tickets and cell phone repairs. The test was that they had to come back with a balanced budget at the end of the exercise which needed to include a savings plan.
New Dimensions FCU President/CEO, Ryan Poulin, met with Messalonskee High School to discuss the idea and ability to host a Financial Fitness Fair for the students. This was a huge undertaking. “The importance of educating our young people about financial stability and sustainability needs to be a priority. Not enough education is provided in this area and they are not always ready for the real world,” Poulin said.
Contributed photo