by Mary Grow

Only two members of China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee, chairman Brent Chesley and member Jamie Pitney, attended the Oct. 28 meeting. Though no decisions could be made without a quorum, Chesley and Pitney heard reports from TIF fund recipients.

Martha Wentworth, chairman of the China Recreation Committee, was the only one in the audience hoping for action. She had applied on behalf of the committee for $12,500 in TIF funds to help install a self-service kayak and paddle board rental kiosk near the boat landing at the head of China Lake’s east basin.

Wentworth presented the idea to select board members at their Jan. 29, 2024, meeting. They asked for more information.

The company offering the service is Rent.Fun, based in Northville, Michigan. Its website shows two Maine sites, in Westbrook and Norridgewock.

Wentworth explained that the company would provide four kayaks and four paddle boards, with paddles and lifejackets, in a secure cage. People could rent the equipment. The town would pay an upfront fee; the company would assume some operating costs, including, she said, liability insurance; and she expected the town to recoup its investment within five years.

CRLA executive director steps down

China Region Lakes Alliance head Stephen Greene announced Oct. 28 that CRLA Executive Director Jessie Mae MacDougall has resigned, for personal reasons, after a few months on the job. CRLA will soon be advertising for a new person for the part-time, seasonal job.

Pitney said he will review TIF rules and let Wentworth know if contributing to the kiosk is an allowable use of TIF funds. If it is, she plans to present more information to supplement her application.

Those reporting on use of previously authorized TIF money were Pitney, speaking for the China Broadband Committee; Thomas Rumpf, for the China Four Seasons Club; Jeanette Smith, for the Thurston Park Committee; Stephen Greene, for the China Lake Association and China Region Lakes Alliance; and Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood, for the town.

— Pitney said the cooperative effort with Idaho-based Direct Communications and its Unity, Maine, subsidiary, formerly Unitel, to get grant funding for broadband expansion to underserved and unserved parts of China continues. The current path is a federal program called Broadband Equity and Diversity, or BEAD; the State of Maine has completed preliminary steps and is continuing.
— Rumpf said the Four Seasons Club has used TIF funds to bring two more of China’s ATV and snowmobile trails up to new state standards. He is seeking grants for the troublesome Bog Trail, which uses the former narrow-gauge railroad line.
— Smith reported two Thurston Park trails substantially improved and receiving praise from visitors, who are increasingly numerous. Storm damage has been almost all cleaned up; trail markers are scheduled to be put up this fall; picnic tables and benches are on order; and improving handicapped access is a priority.

On Oct. 27, Smith said, the park hosted its first fun runs, a one-mile and a three-mile. More than 20 people took part, she estimated.

— Greene reported the Courtesy Boat Inspection program, intended to keep invasive plants out of area lakes, ran all summer. The Youth Conservation Corps, whose members do shoreline erosion control projects, was less active, for lack of employees. No one had an answer to Pitney’s question: why are fewer high-school students seeking summer jobs?
— Hapgood said China’s TIF-funded summer intern, Gracie Stagnito, “did some great work” and China Community Days, partly TIF-supported, had been successful again.

Chesley and Pitney proposed Monday, Dec. 9, as the TIF Committee’s next meeting date. Chesley will see if the other members are available that evening.

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.