by Mary Grow

Weeks Mills residents Marilyn Reed, Dwaine Drummond and Kyle Pierce attended the Oct. 21 China select board meeting to ask board members to try to get the speed limit reduced through their village in southeastern China.

The Maine Department of Transportation sets speed limits. Town officials can request an MDOT review, and select board members voted unanimously to do so.

Their request will focus on Deer Hill and Weeks Mills roads. The former comes into the village from the east and meets the latter, which continues west.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said the part of the road through the village, where a bridge crosses the west branch of the Sheepscot River, used to be posted at 25 miles an hour. That was an error, she said, and the section is now unmarked, which means, as a rural road, the speed limit is 45 miles an hour.

Pierce, who contacted Hapgood, said school buses and large, heavily loaded trucks travel dangerously fast for a narrow, hilly road. She is especially concerned about safety on the bridge, which is a center for recreational anglers.

Drummond added that vehicles going down the steep hills easily exceed the 45-mile-an-hour limit. Drivers routinely ignore stop signs, he said. He urged more enforcement, as well as a lower speed limit.

Hapgood could not predict whether MDOT personnel will limit their review to the roads town officials request, or what action they will take.

In other business Oct. 21, Hapgood reported Palermo voters had approved the revised transfer station agreement with China at an Oct. 17 special town meeting, by a vote of 48 to 15. Consequently, she said, she rescinded the November 2023 letter canceling the inter-town agreement; Palermo residents will continue to share China’s transfer station.

The manager had no new information about the planned records storage vault at the town office (see the Oct. 10 issue of The Town Line, p. 3). The Municipal Building Committee is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 24, in the town office, to review the plan and proposed implementation.

Hapgood had contacted Delta Ambulance directors about the organization’s finances, as select board members consider whether to pay their entire 2025 Delta bill in advance, for a discount (see the previously cited Oct. 10 article). Only two directors had responded, she said.

Because board chairman Wayne Chadwick was late getting to the Oct. 21 meeting, Blane Casey acted as chairman. Other board members praised his handling of the meeting.

The manager announced that the town office will host a Halloween celebration, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 31.

The next regular select board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4.

On Tuesday, Nov. 5, local and state voting will be in the former portable building behind the town office, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

by Mary Grow

China voters have a two-sided local ballot on Nov. 5, local elections on one side and five referendum questions on the other.

For elections, there is one contest on the ballot: five men are running for three seats on the select board, incumbents Blane Casey and Brent Chesley, and Edwin Bailey, Tod Detre and Thomas Rumpf. For more information, see the recording of the Oct. 9 candidates’ forum, available on the library’s Youtube channel; or the summary in the Oct. 17 issue of The Town Line, p. 2.

There is one other name on the ballot, Timothy Basham for re-election to the budget committee, unopposed.

For the Regional School Unit #18 board of directors, Melissa Cowing has declared herself a write-in candidate. As of Oct. 20, Town Clerk Angela Nelson was unaware of any other write-in candidates.

The referendum questions are as follows.

The first question asks if voters want to amend the town’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing District) Ordinance. Proposed changes would eliminate some originally-listed uses for TIF money that have been appropriated once or never; add funding for an extension of the causeway work at the head of China Lake’s east basin, the first local TIF project to be finished; and rearrange other allocations.

The second question proposes amendments to China’s Budget Committee Ordinance. The main substantive change would eliminate the districts from which four of the seven committee members are now elected, and eliminate elections in favor of appointment by the select board.

The third question asks voters to add a Development District map to the land use map. Wording describing the district is in Appendix A of the Land Development Code; if voters approve, the map will be added.

The fourth question asks approval of amendments to sections of the Land Development Code prepared primarily by planning board members. A copy of the ordinance, with changes in red, is on the town website, chinamaine.org, under Planning Board, under Officials, Boards & Committees.

Board chairman Toni Wall and codes officer Nicholas French have described almost all the changes as non-substantive, aimed at updating and clarifying the ordinance language, including incorporating revised state requirements.

One change shortens the ordinance, by eliminating a section on regulating timber harvesting in shoreland, resource protection and stream protection districts. With voter approval, regulatory authority will be transferred from town officials to the Maine Forest Service.

The final question, presented by citizens’ petition, asks approval of a 180-day moratorium on any new power lines through China. A response to the proposed north-south line to bring power from Aroostook County windmills to this area, the moratorium is intended to give local officials time to develop appropriate ordinances to regulate such development.

China’s Nov. 5 voting will be in the former portable building behind the town office, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Vehicle access will be from Alder Park Road, south of the town office complex; the driveway off Lakeview Drive will be closed for the day.

The China town office will be closed all day Nov. 5.

Albert Church Brown Memorial Library in China Village (photo courtesy of library Facebook page)

by Mary Grow

Candidates’ opening statements, summarized, in the order given.

Raegan LaRochelle, Augusta, Democratic candidate for state Senate District #15, is a Cony High School graduate with an MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree who works as an economic development consultant and owns a commercial cleaning business. She served on the Augusta City Council and is currently state Representative for House District #59 (part of Augusta).

LaRochelle’s Republican opponent, Richard Bradstreet of Vassalboro, was unable to attend the forum.

Katrina Smith, Palermo, Republican House District #62, incumbent and candidate, was born in Appleton, majored in sociology at Gordon College, in Massachusetts, and has worked in banking, education and real estate. She is finishing her first two-year term in the Maine House.

The program at the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library in China Village lasted more than two hours. It was followed by refreshments and informal discussion.

Pamela Swift, Palermo, Democratic candidate for House District #62, earned a bachelor’s degree in veterinary science before switching to human medicine. After 20 years as an obstetrician/gynecologist, she now raises sheep. She is serving her second term on the Palermo select board and volunteers in town organizations.

Timothy Basham, candidate for re-election to the China Budget Committee, is a self-employed arborist who wishes more residents would volunteer for town boards.

Tod Detre, candidate for China select board, is an Ohio native who has lived in China for 13 years and works in computer science in the University of Maine system. He believes select board members should do better at listening to town advisory boards and committees and at helping people.

Brent Chesley, China select board incumbent/candidate, is a native of Lincoln, Maine, and 20-year China resident. He studied engineering at the University of Maine and co-owns Wyman & Simpson, Inc., a Richmond-based construction company. He ran successfully for select board two years ago after a disagreement with a former China codes officer made him want to ensure all residents are treated fairly.

Edwin Bailey, China select board candidate, is a China native and graduate of Erskine Academy, in South China, and Thomas College, in Waterville. He worked as a truck driver and self-employed builder and ran a redemption center on Route 3 for 16 years, where “I learned to treat people fair.” He has served on the town planning board and is now on the building committee; if elected to the select board, his goals would be to learn, to cut taxes and to help people stay in their homes.

Thomas Rumpf, China select board candidate, was born in Poland Spring and has lived in China since 1988; he chairs the town Budget Committee. He worked as a welder for many years before switching to estimating steel construction; he has a business management degree. He opposes the proposed Budget Committee Ordinance amendment that would allow select board members to appoint that committee’s members (who are now elected); a main goal if elected to the select board would be to reverse the present order and have Budget Committee members review town budgets before, not after, select board members.

Blane Casey, China select board incumbent/candidate, came home to China after his birth at Waterville’s Thayer Hospital, in 1959, and has lived here ever since, except for a short time in Windsor. He and his wife built a residential construction business that expanded to commercial. His four years on the select board have been “an eye-opener”: if re-elected, his goal is to help families and the elderly with their financial struggles.