TIF committee continues recreational plan for head of lake (China)

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by Mary Grow

Five members of China TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Committee continued discussion of plans to improve recreational access at the head of China Lake’s east basin at their Sept. 26 meeting.

Engineer Mark McCluskey of A. E. Hodsdon presented updated cost estimates that include:

•  $387,500 to build a bulkhead and fishing platforms along the lake side of the causeway, expand parking and add erosion control measures, making the area safer for boaters and fishermen;
• $350,000 to replace the deteriorating bridge across the inlet with a new bridge including a sidewalk;
•  $585,600 to build a new fire station for the China Village Volunteer Fire Department, which has no room to expand its present building just west of the head of the lake; and
•  $210,000 for miscellaneous costs, including engineering, legal and permit fees.

Committee members unanimously endorsed the idea of a new bridge.  McCluskey said the traffic lanes could not be widened much without significant environmental impacts.  As planned, he said, the work will require an application to the state Department of Environmental Protection; he offered to schedule a pre-submission meeting with DEP staff as soon as possible.

Residents near the causeway are to be invited to a meeting to hear about project plans, either the meeting with DEP staff or a separate TIF Committee meeting.  No definite dates were fixed until McCluskey reports back.

The first step in the committee plan for the causeway project is acquisition of a six-acre lot across Causeway Street from the boat landing.  A Nov. 8 local ballot question asks voters to appropriate $10,000 from the TIF account for the purchase.

Landowner Susan Bailey has been reluctant to sell at that price, but at the TIF meeting Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux said she might have changed her position.

Committee members talked briefly about two other issues, but with two members absent made no decisions.

First was the possible acquisition of the former Fairpoint building on Route 3. L’Heureux had an email from South China resident Rick Fischer asking if the idea had been abandoned.  Committee Chairman Amber McAlister said no, just postponed.

Selectman Neil Farrington, in the audience Sept. 26, urged the committee to recommend buying it.  His vision is a daycare that would serve both children and senior citizens; others suggested other uses for the large story-and-a-half building.

The issue of lake access has been on the committee’s agenda for several meetings.  It was agreed that Irene Belanger, who is a selectman and a TIF Committee member, will ask the Board of Selectmen to create a new lake access committee.

A prior lake access committee recommended acquiring the former Candlewood property on the east shore of China Lake, but voters rejected the plan.   At that time no TIF money was available.

TIF funds are taxes paid by Central Maine Power Company on its expanded power line through China; by state law the money must be used for economic development, including recreational development.   A new China Village fire station is probably not eligible for TIF funds, according to the Sept. 26 discussion.

In addition to the request for $10,000 for the land at the head of the lake, the Nov. 8 ballot includes a request for $50,000 in TIF money for recreational trail maintenance.  A public hearing on local ballot questions is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17.

Selectmen add 14th item to November 8 ballot (China)

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by Mary Grow

China selectmen have added a 14th article to the warrant for the Nov. 8 local election (for a summary of the first 13, please see The Town Line, Sept. 22 , p. 6 ).

At a special meeting Sept. 22, Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux said the board voted unanimously (with Neil Farrington absent) to ask voters to appropriate from the Development Program Fund $10,000 to purchase land at the head of China Lake’s east basin across Causeway Street from the boat landing.

The Development Program Fund is fed by tax revenue from the expanded Central Maine Power Company line, money set aside in a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plan and spent by voters on recommendation of a TIF Committee and the selectmen.      The proposed purchase is a preliminary step in the committee’s plan to expand water access at the head of the lake to make it safer for fishing and boat launching.  The committee has had an engineer study the area; future additional steps include providing fishing platforms over the water connected by a trail, additional parking and runoff control measures.

The land the committee is asking voters to buy is owned by Susan Bailey, with whom L’Heureux has been negotiating a sale price.  He said Bailey continues to ask for more than $10,000.  The parcel, which is mostly wetland, is assessed at $1,700, according to discussion at selectmen’s and TIF Committee meetings.

The special selectmen’s meeting was followed by a budget committee meeting at which L’Heureux said the committee recommended voters approve all but one of the seven monetary articles on the Nov. 8 ballot.      The manager said the committee unanimously recommended approval of three items: spending $12,000 from surplus to buy land behind the town office off Alder Park Road; appropriating $50,000 from TIF funds for recreational-trail maintenance; and buying the Bailey property.  Six members supported putting Palermo’s annual transfer station payment in a new transfer station capital fund; taking $3,800 from surplus to assess senior citizens needs; and adding $5,000 to the police budget.

Only three members supported the manager’s request to move $100,000 from surplus to the capital equipment and repair reserve fund, with three opposed and one abstaining, L’Heureux said.  The main objection was concern about reducing the undesignated surplus below the committee’s target level.

Selectmen voiced a similar concern at their regular meeting Sept. 19.  L’Heureux told them that in the eyes of bond rating agencies, moving the $100,000 from one account to another would not affect the town’s credit rating.

Selectmen have scheduled a public hearing on the Nov. 8 questions for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17, at China Middle School if the all-purpose room is available.  The next regular selectmen’s meeting is set for 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3.

Board discusses expanding pre-K program (Vassalboro)

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by Mary Grow

At their Sept. 20 meeting, Vassalboro School Board members continued discussion of expanding the four-year-old (student) or pre-kindergarten program that’s beginning its second year at Vassalboro Community School.

The current program, which still had two openings as of Sept. 20, is affiliated with Head Start and therefore has income guidelines.  New school board member Libby Mitchell would like to have all four-year-olds able to enroll if their parents want them to.

AOS (Alternative Organizational Structure) #92 Superintendent Eric Haley said he had researched the question after August’s initial discussion.  He found that whether to start a program for four-year-olds is a local decision; the program requires state approval.

If Vassalboro were interested, he said, a letter of intent would need to be sent to the state commissioner of education by Jan. 1, 2017.  The letter would not commit the school department to follow through.

The first year of the new program would be financed by local funds.  The state would begin reimbursing the town the following year.  This year, Haley said, Vassalboro received $100,000 in state reimbursement for last year’s four-year-old students.

Committee members decided they should try to determine how many local parents would be interested in sending their four-year-olds to school.   They discussed possible ways to conduct a survey.

Mitchell said she believes educating four-year-olds is “a public responsibility,” and children should be able to start school before kindergarten regardless of income.  She does not believe sending four-year-olds to school should be mandatory, and she is not committed to a full-day (versus half-day) program.

Principal Dianna Gram said because Vassalboro’s four-year-old program is new, there is not yet evidence to determine whether it helps youngsters’ education.  Assessments are ongoing, she said.

In other business Sept. 20, school board members accepted the resignation of kindergarten teacher Pamela Blais and appointed kindergarten teacher Sarah Woodard and Educational Technician II Christian Wilkens.

The meeting was preceded by an informal gathering with new staff members.

The next Vassalboro School Board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18.

Sidewalk plowing estimates not pleasing to selectmen

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Road Foreman Eugene Field collected a lot of information on estimated costs of plowing sidewalks for the Sept. 22 selectmen’s meeting.  The information did not make board members happy, and they took no action.

The issue came up earlier in September during discussion of a pending Nov. 8 request to voters for funds to put in sidewalks in East Vassalboro.  Selectmen had just learned that the town is supposed to maintain the existing sidewalks in North Vassalboro, including plowing and sanding.  Vassalboro would also be expected to maintain East Vassalboro sidewalks.  (See the Sept. 15 issue of The Town Line, p. 6, for more details.)

Field talked with public works personnel in other Maine towns, researched different kinds of equipment and questioned a local contractor.   A lot of towns do not break out sidewalk maintenance in their public works budgets, he said, making an annual cost hard to get.

One town, he said, reported spending around $3,500 a season for sidewalk maintenance, excluding the operator’s pay.  The local contractor estimated he could do East and North Vassalboro on a three-year contract for a total of around $30,000.

Prices for a trackless sidewalk machine ranged from around $25,000 for a used one to $110,000 or more for a new one.  Alternatives like loaders and tractors are estimated to cost from $35,000 up.   Some of the machines would have other uses, Field pointed out.

Selectmen held lengthy discussions on two other topics at the Sept. 22 meeting, without resolving either.

Kent London and Jan Clowes of the Vassalboro Historical Society would like to renegotiate or at least clarify the 1992 lease between the society and the town that allows the society to use the former East Vassalboro school as a museum and defines responsibilities for the building and grounds.

Town voters have been appropriating $3,000 for the society every June; the town deducts appropriate charges, for example for mowing the grounds, and sends the remainder to the society at the end of the fiscal year.  London commented that the remainder decreased to around $900 last year, mostly because mowing charges increased.      He and Clowes also said that in the 1990s, the recreation department used part of the building and made a contribution in return; the department moved out and its contribution ceased, but, London and Clowes said, most of the grounds are used for parking for the boat landing, a recreational rather than historic activity.

Selectmen asked Town Manager Mary Sabins to talk with Clowes and Field about what they would consider a fair deal for the historical society.

Selectmen, resident Bernard Welch, Codes Officer Richard Dolby and town attorney Alton Stevens discussed a consent agreement between the town and Welch to resolve Welch’s violations of local ordinances.  Welch admits the violations but considers the combined fine and reimbursement for attorney’s fees too high.

Selectmen asked Sabins to continue discussion with Welch and Dolby.

The one decision board members made was to accept Field’s recommendation and buy a new John Deere loader from Nortrax, a Florida-based company with a Maine office in Westbrook.  At a cost of approximately $126,400, including a $3,000 option Field chose, the bid was the lowest of four received.   At the June 6 town meeting, voters authorized spending up to $165,000 for a new loader.

The next regular Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Oct. 6.

IF WALLS COULD TALK, Week of September 22, 2016

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Katie Ouilette Wallsby Katie Ouilette

WALLS, you simply must tell our faithful readers about all you would talk about this week, if  you could talk.  I am amazed at all that has happened for you in just one week!

Well, WALLS, you know me well and know, for sure, that this great-grandma absolutely loves to have busy young-ones frolicking around.  Most of them were our great-granddaughter Reese’s age, but after he got his bare feet, her brother Owen Paine showed that he wanted to climb steps.  Grandma Linda and Grandpa “Tiger” Holt kept very busy being busy.  One young student whom I was so thrilled  to talk to sings, plays the violin, tap-dances, and even created a very unusual scrapbook. She will soon appear in a play in Waterville! Frankly. WALLS, her life reminded me of when I was very young and the same path was followed.  Oh, the birthday cake that Reese made was perfect.
Yes, WALLS, I know you are eager to tell about the Skowhegan Heritage Council’s hosting the 10th “Last Rose of Summer” Day.  This year, as usual, all the Heritage groups in Somerset County were invited.  Gail Kay, the chairman of Skowhegan Heritage Council was in charge of the council’s guest book and energetically told of the work that she and her husband painted the walls of the Dudley Corner School.  Yes, faithful readers, the Skowhegan Heritage Council has been diligent over these many years in restoring the Dudley Corner School, which not only schooled students, but the schoolhouse was, at one time, a meeting house for town meetings, was home to Boy Scout meetings and even has bragging rights to having Knights of Columbus meetings there.  Former Skowhegan Town Manager Pat Dickey encouraged fund raisers for the work done to the school’s exterior and for the erection of the present historic sign.

Yes, WALLS, it is time for you to tell of the piece-de-resistance to the LAST ROSE OF SUMMER DAY event held at the Margaret Chse Smith Library, on September 14.  Skowhegan’s Senator Margaret Chase Smith definitely did everything possible for her Skowhegan and Maine people.  Well, the red rose decorated the table….a single red rose was centerpiece.

There was also sheet music of  Piece I Leave With You  centered with the red rose, as, surely Senator Smith leaves us ‘peace’. Oh, yes, there were lots of red, white and blue plates filled with cookies and there was iced tea to drink, but the best of the best was music by Robert Choinier.  Senator Smith loved music and surely she was looking down from her “special fluffy cloud’”and smiling.  Yes, Senator Smith surely loved the variety of songs played by Robert and which echoed through the rooms of the senator’s former home and who called this magnificent house “home in Skowhegan.” Yes, David Richards, though working in his office for UMO, joined us, as did Angie, John and other members  of the senator’s team.  Oh, WALLS wonder if you know the red rose is our national flower and why?

Heather Johnson, executive director of Somerset Economic Development, stopped by en route from Jackman and said she remembers Senator Smith’s waving from her favorite porch chair to people driving past her house and her waving a “welcome” to those whom she loved so much.

Now, WALLS, the latest news you should bring to our faithful readers.  Fr. John Massie announced that Father Rasle will be highlighted at the Madison Historical Society’s Museum, on Old Point Avenue, in Madison, on Sunday afternoon.

Oakland News: Alumni hold annual banquet

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The Oakland, Williams, Messalonskee Alumni Association, which started in 1920 as the Oakland Alumni Association, held their annual banquet on August 13 at the Waterville Elks hall with 150 alumni and guests in attendance.  Attendees ranged from Bernard Bulmer of the Williams High School class of 1940 to Amelia Gallagher who will graduate in the Messalonskee High School class of 2020. Elizabeth Larsen daughter, of Lee Ann Doran Larsen and Mark Larsen, received the Educational Aid Award for 2016. There were 12 alumni and guests from the Williams High class of 1946 celebrating their 70th reunion and 18 from the Class of 1966 celebrating their 50th reunion.  The Eagle Award was presented to Irene Roderick Belanger from the class of 1959.  This award is presented each year to someone who has shown outstanding service and commitment to their community. Irene served many years on the planning board in China and is presently on the selectboard as well as representing China on many local and state committees.  The 2017  banquet will be held on August 12 at the Elks Lodge.

Kennebec Historical Society’s annual meeting program: “Historic Bridges of Maine”

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The story of Maine’s Historic Bridges is more faceted than you might think.  Why are bridges located where they are?  Who built them?  Why do they look the way they do?  Amanda Taylor, architectural historian, will provide a presentation based on the publication Historic Bridges of Maine: 350 Years of Bridge and Roadway Design.  She will discuss the unique ways in which Maine’s bridge builders overcame geography and environmental influences to provide travel throughout the state.  The talk also showcases several specific historic bridges in Maine and detail how their builders chose creative solutions to difficult crossings and how technology changed design and construction.

The speaker, Amanda Taylor, is an architectural historian for Kleinfelder, an international engineering and architecture firm with an office in Augusta.  In recent years, she has documented historic resources related to the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge in Kittery, Masse Saw and Grist Mill in Vassalboro, and Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad Freight House in Belfast.  She has spent much of the last four years completing historic resource surveys throughout Maine.

The Kennebec Historical Society Annual Meeting Program is open to the public and will take place on Wednesday, September 28, 2016, at 6:30 p.m. at the Viles Arboretum, located at 153 Hospital Street in Augusta.  The public program will be preceded at 5 p.m. by a potluck supper and at 6 p.m. by the society’s annual business meeting.  Any members that wish to attend the potluck supper are invited to bring a dish to share.  Please note that the annual meeting program is not the society’s monthly program.

First place winners in Freeport

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Abby Dudley

Huard’s Martial Arts student Abby Dudley, 10, of Winslow, captured first place in both forms and fighting at the Pine Tree State Karate Championships at the Freeport High School on September 10.

 

Mikayla Achor

Mikayla Achorn, 6, of Waterville, took first place in both forms and fighting at the same competition.

Photos by Angela Poulin, Central Maine Photography staff

Unity College students trek to newest U.S. national monument

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Several dozen Unity College students and staff visited Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument on September 10, in advance of a Unity College talk later this week by Lucas St. Clair, the successful advocate for creation of the national monument.

The goal of Saturday’s outing was to get to know Maine’s newest destination and to scout recreational, curricular, and other opportunities afforded by the new designation. Members of Unity College Student Activities led 33 Unity College students – clad in hunters orange Katahdin Woods and Waters T-shirts – and other members of the Unity College community on hikes, a visit to the ranger station in Millinocket, and other local attractions as part of the trip.

Students and staff who trekked to Katahdin Woods and Water National Monument. Contributed photo

Students and staff who trekked to Katahdin Woods and Water National Monument.
Contributed photo

“We had been following developments on the formation of the national monument quite closely,” Unity College President Dr. Melik Peter Khoury said. “When we heard this exciting news, we wanted to be among the first to bring our students there to check out the possibilities.”

Khoury called the monument designation “a powerful act of philanthropy, of private and public entities working together to share the awesome responsibility of stewarding our natural resources for future generations.”

On August 24, President Barack Obama signed an executive order under the Antiquities Act creating the 87,500-acre Katahdin Woods & Waters National Monument. The move capped a multi-year campaign that balanced values of conservation and industry in an area riven by the collapse of numerous paper mills.

Obama’s order praised the land as rich in culture, natural beauty, and “significant biodiversity,” designated the area a national monument, and directed the National Park Service to manage it for a diverse range of public use.

The monument encompasses the Katahdin region, already a popular destination for outdoor recreation and home to a wide diversity of wildlife, spectacular mountains (including Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak), important historical resources, and areas of great cultural significance. The monument contains opportunities for hiking, camping, mountain biking, fishing, hunting, and snowmobiling; those uses are fully protected and enhanced under the president’s order.

“Not every place in the country has an environment where a new national monument is formed. Our students have a bird’s-eye view of it,” Unity College Associate Professor of Parks and Forest Resources Tom Mullin said. “This is really a perfect live example of conservation in action – a chance to see how preservation works, both at a policy level and on the ground, only two hours from campus.”

The field trip came in advance of a talk on the Unity campus this week by the person who spearheaded the drive to create the national monument.

Elliottsville Plantation Inc. President Lucas St. Clair, who led the successful campaign to have his family’s land declared a national monument, will speak at the Unity College Center for the Performing Arts, 42 Depot St., Unity, as part of the annual Maine Woods Forever roundtable, 10:30 a.m. Friday, September 16. The event – a partnership between Unity College and Maine Woods Forever – is free and open to the public and the media.

“America’s Environmental College continues to help convene conversations that matter deeply to the people of Maine,” Khoury said of St. Clair’s talk. “With academic programs ranging from Wildlife Biology to Adventure Therapy and Parks and Forest Resources, Unity students and faculty are in the perfect position to help evaluate and experience the economic, environmental, and social impact of a major initiative like the new national monument.”

“Because Maine is our classroom, I’m looking forward to talking with Mr. St. Clair about the educational opportunities that could accompany formation of the national monument,” Khoury said. “This is truly a significant development for anyone who loves Maine, appreciates our natural resources, and understands their importance to Maine’s economic and social health.”

“As an educator, I’m excited to hear more about the process that led to this historic decision,” Mullin said. “Our students will benefit greatly hearing from Lucas how a major national monument came to be, and how it will be implemented going forward.”

Local referendum and election of officials on November 8 ballot

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro voters will have two local referendum questions and one local election on a Nov. 8 ballot, in addition to state and national decisions.

The referenda ask if voters will approve amendments to the town’s shoreland zoning ordinance and will appropriate up to $58,600 from surplus toward a $293,000 project to build sidewalks in East Vassalboro, with a federal grant covering the bulk of the cost. If the audience at the Sept. 8 public hearings on the two questions was representative of the town, the second question will be the more controversial.

The election is for Vassalboro’s representative on the Kennebec Water District, for three years. Gary Coull currently holds the position. Nomination papers are available at the town office; signed papers must be returned to the town clerk by Monday, Sept. 26, for candidates’ names to appear on the ballot.

Copies of the proposed shoreland zoning ordinance amendments are available on the Vassalboro website. Major changes involve rules for enlarging shorefront camps and houses that are too close to the water to meet current requirements.

Vassalboro now limits expansion to 15 percent of the existing structure, defined by floor area or volume. The proposed ordinance would allow up to 30 percent expansion, defined by floor area only. Depending on and varying with the distance between the building and the water, there are other size and height restrictions conforming to state standards.

At a Sept. 8 public hearing, Codes Officer Richard Dolby and planning board members emphasized that the changes, most of which copy recent changes in state guidelines, would make it easier for many waterfront property owners to enlarge their homes or camps.

“The [planning] board has gone a long way to utilize the allowances that the state thinks are reasonable,” Dolby said.

Veteran board member Douglas Phillips called the proposed ordinance “far less restrictive” than the current one and “a welcome change for people who have shoreland property.”

If voters reject the changes on Nov. 8, the current ordinance will remain as it is.

A second public hearing, on the request for funds for East Vassalboro sidewalks, found the audience of about 30 people divided into three groups. Some people want the sidewalks; some cannot see where they would fit in the built-up area; a few object to spending town money on a project that would benefit only a small section of Vassalboro.

To the last group, sidewalk proponent Holly Weidner replied that more than 2,500 vehicles go through East Vassalboro daily, bringing people from all parts of town and outside to the boat landing, library, Grange Hall and other public buildings. Sidewalks would make the area safer not only for residents but for drivers and cyclists.

Patrick Adams, manager of bicycle and pedestrian programs for the state Department of Transportation, emphasized repeatedly that no decisions have been made about finding space for a sidewalk. His role, he said, is to balance needs of motorists, pedestrians and cyclists to maximize safety for everyone.

The state will rebuild Route 32 in the next few years (the original 2018 date might be pushed back to 2019) and will add five-foot shoulders on each side, creating a wider vehicle pathway that will encourage drivers to go faster, he said.

Residents said drivers already routinely ignore the 25-mile-an-hour limit, leading to a discussion of enforcing speed limits as a complementary or alternative way to increase safety. Enforcement, too, costs money; it is not a permanent solution and would be paid for entirely by the town, Weidner said.

Because houses are close to Main Street on both sides, people were concerned that a sidewalk would come almost to homeowners’ front doors, would eliminate parking space for their vehicles in their driveways and would limit parking at the post office (if the sidewalk were on the east side of the street).

Adams said if Vassalboro voters approve the sidewalk project on Nov. 8, the first expenditures will be for planning. Only then will engineers decide which side of Main Street can better accommodate a sidewalk and how to adjust it to existing conditions. He believes most of the work can be done within the existing road right-of-way.

Vassalboro will participate in design work, and if the result is not satisfactory, “the town” could opt out of the project and the remaining expenditures, Adams said. He declined to define “the town,” saying that deciding if the selectmen, voters or some other body should approve or reject the design was a local decision.

A new issue in the sidewalk debate is maintenance. Vassalboro has not maintained existing sidewalks in North Vassalboro, which long-time local residents concluded date from the 1960s. However, earlier in the day Adams told selectmen the town would be required to plow and sand and as necessary repair East Vassalboro sidewalks.

He explained that because federal money will help with the project and because the federal government is becoming fussier about maintaining projects, the state will also become stricter.

Because selectmen just learned of the maintenance requirement, they had not discussed potential methods or costs, Selectman Lauchlin Titus said. Board members plan to collect information in time to provide estimates before the Nov. 8 decision. According to a fact sheet prepared for the hearing, Vassalboro received a Federal Transportation Enhancement grant in 2013 for safety improvements in East Vassalboro, including sidewalks. The current plan calls for sidewalks on Main Street from the boat landing to the Grange Hall and on Bog Road to the library. (ep)

Federal funds require a 20 percent match from Vassalboro. By piggybacking on the state’s Route 32 reconstruction, the state will pay for the shoulders that would otherwise have been part of the sidewalk costs. Titus said the Vassalboro Budget Committee endorsed the $58,600 appropriation on a 7 to 3 vote at an Aug. 25 meeting. The project has also divided the selectmen; Titus and board Chairman Philip Haines support it, Robert Browne thinks it is a costly non-solution to traffic problems in East Vassalboro.

Completion of the state project will be followed by five-year moratorium on any additional construction, including town projects.

The two public hearings were followed by a short Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting at which the board approved the ballot questions for Nov. 8. Board Chairman Philip Haines thanked planning board members for their work on the shoreland ordinance.

The next regular Vassalboro selectmen’s meeting will be Thursday evening, Sept. 22.