Forum at China library hears local candidates

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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.

CAMPAIGN 2024: Candidates address issues concerning Maine voters (Part 1)

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Waterville construction update: Webb Rd. bridge now open Ticonic Bridge update

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Webb Road: Construction on the Webb Road Bridge, in Waterville, is complete and open to traffic. The Webb Road intersects with the West River Road, and travels west towards Pond Road, in Oakland.

Ticonic Bridge, Waterville/Winslow: Starting on Wednesday, October 9, 2024, the project will be closing the Ticonic Bridge to all traffic between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. for construction activities requiring access to the entire bridge.

Drivers are encouraged to drive cautiously, observe signage in the work zone, and reduce speed inside the work zone. Westbound travelers should continue to utilize the posted westbound detour.

Cianbro Corp. reminds the traveling public all sidewalks on the Ticonic Bridge are closed for the public’s safety. Pedestrians should continue to use the pedestrian detour across the Two Cent Bridge. Pedestrians should not walk around barricades, down the active lanes, in lane closures, or inside the work zone.

Also, it is unlawful and unsafe to traverse the river via the rail bridge. Pedestrians have been observed doing so and are reminded of the dangers of such activity. Pedestrians must utilize the Two Cent Bridge for foot traffic.

China select board approves concept plan for new vault

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by Mary Grow

China select board members approved a concept plan for the new storage vault they’ve discussed for three years, and will have an engineer’s plan prepared as soon as possible.

Building committee chairman Sheldon Goodine presented the plan at the board’s Oct. 7 meeting, after he outlined it for the board on Sept. 23. The vault will be in a new room added on the south side of the town office building, close to the east end.

Goodine said the room would be 26-by-28-feet. Adding it would cover two windows in what is currently deputy clerk and assistant to the assessor Kelly Grotton’s office, and would require a corridor to a second east-end door.

Select board chairman Wayne Chadwick queried the price. Glad you asked, Goodine replied: about $80,000 less than the original plan, which he said would have cost around $267,500.

At the 2023 and 2024 town business meetings, China voters appropriated more than $255,000 from federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds for the vault.

Board members voted unanimously to ask Keith Whitaker, the engineer from Presque Isle based B. R. Smith Associates who has been working on the project, to convert the concept plan to an engineered plan. With that plan, they will decide whether to seek bids from contractors for the whole project or to act as the main contractor and seek bids for specific tasks.

The vault will provide storage space for paper records that the state requires municipal offices to keep forever. Whitaker said in earlier discussions that it needs to be all concrete, with temperature and humidity controls.

Another ongoing town project is relocating the ice rink from the school grounds to the town-owned lot south of the town office, on the north side of the intersection of Lakeview Drive and Alder Park Road. Town Manager Rebecc Hapgood said she, recreation committee chairman Martha Wentworth and Director of Public Services Shawn Reed inspected the lot recently and tentatively sited the rink, minimizing tree-cutting.

Hapgood revived another topic: in May 2023, after board and public discussion, select board members unanimously agreed to join the Community Resilience Project (CRP), a state program administered in this area by the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments.

Hapgood summarized progress on China’s seven chosen projects. The first, minimizing erosion at the South China boat landing, has been started, but work is delayed until spring by the unavailability of concrete planks.

The Thurston Park Committee has been working on improvements in Thurston Park, and town office staff are investigating digitizing town records. Board member Janet Preston has been looking for sites for electric vehicle charging stations.

Adding sidewalks in China Village appears prohibitively expensive. So far little has been done toward installing solar panels on the school forest building or improving public transportation.

Select board members appointed Melissa Cowing, one of China’s representatives on the Regional School Unit #18 board of directors. She will serve until the Nov. 5 election, succeeding T. James Bachinski, who has resigned. At the election, she is a declared write-in candidate for a full term on the board.

Hapgood asked board members’ opinions on Delta Ambulance’s offering member towns a discount if they pay their 2024-25 accounts in advance. Voters at the June town business meeting approved $110,200 as part of the public safety budget, based on Delta’s bill of $25 per resident. The manager estimated paying by the Nov. 1 deadline would save China about $5,500.

Hapgood said if Delta’s board of directors has a contingency plan in case the organization’s funding situation becomes unmanageable, she would recommend the pre-payment. She hopes to have more information before the next select board meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21.

Vassalboro planners OK ReVision Energy plan for community solar farm

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by Mary Grow

The four Vassalboro Planning Board members at the Oct. 1 meeting unanimously approved ReVision Energy’s plan for a community solar farm on Eileen Flanagan’s property, at 1026 Webber Pond Road.

As first presented in November 2023, the plan required a waiver from boundary setback requirements. A revised plan, submitted at the planning board’s February 2024 meeting, relocated the solar panels so no waiver was needed.

At the Sept. 3 meeting, ReVision spokesman Annalise Kukor said a final plan should be ready for Oct. 1. By then, she said, ownership might have changed; and it did.

The applicant is now Community Solar of New England, LLC (CSNE). This organization, Kukor said, is staffed and run by ReVision Energy employees; its eight community solar farms include one on Main Street, in Vassalboro.

Planning board members found that the application met all requirements in Vassalboro ordinances, including the recently-added amendments tailored specifically to solar farms.

The project still needs four out-of-town approvals, Kukor said:

— A new Maine Department of Transportation highway entrance permit, because although the solar farm will use an existing driveway onto the property, the purpose has changed.
— From the state Department of Environmental Protection, a stormwater permit and a decommissioning permit.
— From Bangor Savings Bank, confirmation of a letter of credit to cover decommissioning costs.
Board members made their unanimous approval of the community solar farm conditional on receipt of these four documents, plus a copy of the lease that allows CSNE to use the land.

Kukor expects construction to begin in the spring of 2025.

The decommissioning plan was the only requirement discussed at length by planning board members. Several thought the estimated cost, $33,714, low.

Dan Bradstreet wanted assurance that “removal” of components once their useful life ended included taking them off the property, as the ordinance requires. Others discussed recycling possibilities. Kukor said she would find the answer to Bradstreet’s question.

Town Manager and acting Codes Enforcement Officer Aaron Miller reminded board members that the letter of credit was only a back-up to fund decommissioning, in case CSNE and ReVision were out of business or otherwise unable to cover the costs.

The town ordinance says the financial guarantee is to be 125 percent of the estimated decommissioning cost. It is to be updated after seven years and every five years thereafter.

VASSALBORO: Nine residents hear select board on three local ballot questions

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members began their Oct. 3 meeting with a public hearing that drew nine residents to learn about three Nov. 5 local referendum questions.

The first question asks residents to approve matching funds to be available if the town receives grants to help replace the Dunlap Bridge on Mill Hill Road. Specifically, if voters approve it, select board members will be allowed to appropriate $360,000 from TIF (Tax Increment Financing) money or from the town’s undesignated fund (surplus), as they choose.

The second question asks voters to amend the Vassalboro TIF program to allow TIF money to fund “environmental improvement projects” in town.

As Town Manager Aaron Miller explained, the two questions are related. Amending the TIF document under the second question will allow use of TIF money for the Dunlap Bridge under the first question.

Select board member Chris French talked about three alternative bridge plans. The currently preferred option, dependent on more grant money, would cost a total of $1.8 million, of which the town would pay $360,000, he said.

Last summer, Vassalboro received a $200,000 Municipal Stream Crossing Grant to help with the bridge. An application for a larger grant has been filed and is awaiting approval or rejection.

Resident Douglas Phillips asked why the proposed TIF amendment is limited to environmental improvements. Miller replied that authority to use the money for the Dunlap Bridge is needed urgently, because the sructure is in such poor shape. A more comprehensive overhaul of the TIF program would take “a tremendous amount of time.”

Holly Weidner asked for a clearer explanation of local funding. Board members and Miller said they are working on explanatory background documents, and discussed ways of making it easy for residents to obtain them before Nov. 5.

During previous discussions, and on Oct. 3, board members emphasized that approving the bridge funding is appropriating money the town already has, not asking taxpayers for more money.

The third ballot question asks voters to amend the Vassalboro Sanitary District’s charter, specifically how the district’s trustees are chosen, their organization and their duties and responsibilities. There were no comments on this question. Copies of the proposed changes are attached to the local ballot and available from Town Clerk Cathy Coyne.

During the meeting that followed the hearing, select board members talked briefly about the bridge. Board chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico endorsed French’s statement at the Sept. 19 board meeting: board members should postpone further action until they hear from voters on Nov. 5.

Board members made three unanimous decisions.

— They accepted the lower of two prices for a new pole barn for the public works department, $141,140 from All Season Home Improvements, of Augusta. Miller said, in response to concerns about a nearby wetland, that someone from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection had visited the site. Work is not scheduled to start for six to eight months.
— They prepared an instruction for K & K Land Surveyors, of Oakland, expected next week to survey the tax-acquired property on Lombard Dam Road adjoining the transfer station. Board members want them to draw a lot line 25-feet from the property’s westernmost building, unless a well or other structure is in the way. The goal is to maximize the transfer station lot to allow for future expansion.
— They appointed Cara Kent a new member of the Vassalboro Cemetery Committee.

The next Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Oct. 17.

Vassalboro trustees summarize library progress to select board

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by Mary Grow

Two Vassalboro Public Library trustees, board President Elizabeth McMahon and secretary Valerie Sugden, summarized library progress and plans for town select board members at the Sept. 19 select board meeting.

They said recent changes include expanded hours – the library is open six days a week, all but Sundays – and conversion of two former storage rooms to study and meeting rooms. The rooms are used by individuals for activities including job searches and interviews and by groups for meetings (including town committees occasionally, Town Manager Aaron Miller said).

The library works cooperatively with Vassalboro Community School, the town recreation program and other local organizations to present programs and activities.

The state interlibrary loan system, now back in business after a shutdown to change vendors, is well used.

McMahon said the library’s summer reading program and fund-raising book and bake sale were successful. Pending fund-raisers this fall are a play in October and, in November, a silent auction and pre-Thanksgiving pie sale.

The play, she explained, is a comedy written by Canadian playwright Laura Teasdale, supported by Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny, specifically for public libraries. The script can be adjusted to add references to each local town.

Vassalboro’s presentations will be Oct. 19, at 7 p.m., and Oct. 20, at 2 p.m., at the Grange Hall, in East Vassalboro. Refreshments will be on sale. More information is available on the library website, vassalboro.lib.me.us.

The next major project, Sugden said, is installing heat pumps. Since the library is a non-profit organization, it falls into neither of the categories (residence and business) eligible for state rebates, so state funding is uncertain.

Library fund-raising will pay some of the costs; the library is likely to request town ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds. Miller said select board members will probably talk about remaining ARPA money at their Oct. 3 meeting and urged Sugden and McMahon to get a library request in promptly.

The heat pumps would be especially useful in reducing summer heat and humidity, which are hard on staff and on books, McMahon said.

The other major topic at the Sept. 19 select board meeting was, again, the Dunlap Bridge over Seven-Mile Stream, on Mill Hill Road. The deteriorating culvert has led to preliminary plans for a replacement and a search for grant funding to pay for it.

Miller said Vassalboro public works crew members cleared debris and did some repairs, hoping to prolong the culvert’s life. He said the town’s chosen engineer, Eric Caldwerwood, of Calderwood Engineering, is more concerned about the destructive potential of a major rainstorm than about traffic over the bridge.

Board members again discussed various alternatives. Chris French, acting chairman in Frederick Denico, Jr.’s, absence, said while he sympathized with the three families and the gravel pit owner who depend on the bridge, he saw no way to act until after Nov. 5.

The first of three local referendum questions on Vassalboro’s Nov. 5 ballot asks if voters will authorize using TIF (Tax Increment Financing) or undesignated fund balance (formerly called surplus) money to match a grant intended to help fund a new bridge.

Board member Michael Poulin agreed the voters’ decision needs to come first. Further discussion of the Dunlap bridge was tabled to the first select board meeting after Nov. 5 (currently scheduled for Nov. 14).

The Sept. 19 meeting began with the annual hearing on state-proposed amendments to local general assistance ordinances. There were no public comments; French closed the hearing and he and Poulin accepted the changes.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 3. It will be preceded by a public hearing on the three Nov. 5 local referendum questions, which are on the town website, vassalboro.net, under the heading on the main page “NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING 10/3/24.”

China planners approve two agenda items

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by Mary Grow

At a short Sept. 24 meeting, China Planning Board members approved two agenda items, with almost no discussion.

As promised, Ironwood Maine representative Wade Bedsaul brought a map showing locations of two new small buildings and a parking lot expansion (from four spaces to seven) at the South China residential facility for troubled teen-agers. At their Sept. 10 meeting, board members postponed a decision on the additions (See the Sept. 19 issue of The Town Line, p. 2, for more information.)

The second request, from Michael Littlefield, was to combine two lots in an existing subdivision that board chairman Toni Wall said is at the intersection of Neck and Stanley Hill roads. Board members signed a revised subdivision plan for the Registry of Deeds.

Codes Officer Nicholas French and board members talked briefly about town ordinances that need to be updated. They plan to work on them over the next few months, with the goal of asking voters to act on revisions at the June 2025 annual town business meeting.

The next regular China Planning Board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8.

CHINA: Nine attend select board’s “apple crisp” public hearings

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by Mary Grow

The promise of fresh-baked apple crisp with ice cream drew nine people to the China select board’s Sept. 23 public hearings on Nov. 5 local warrant articles and on amendments to the town’s General Assistance Ordinance. Six stayed for at least part of the select board meeting that followed.

The apple crisp was praised.

China’s Nov. 5 voting includes local elections and five referendum questions that were topics of the first public hearing. The municipal ballot is on the town website, chinamaine.org, under the Elections tab in the green box on the right-hand side of the main page.

The referendum question that drew most discussion was the proposed new Budget Committee Ordinance. If approved, it will replace the present system under which four of China’s seven budget committee members are elected, one from each of four districts. Instead, select board members will appoint budget committee members.

Voters approved a similar change for the planning board at the annual town business meeting in June.

The main reason for proposing the change, Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said, is the lack of candidates for budget committee seats. On the Nov. 5 ballot, Timothy Basham is running unopposed for re-election from District 4; write-ins (if any) will fill the District 2, secretary and at-large positions.

Write-ins complicate ballot clerks’ lives, Hapgood said. If there is a tie between write-ins, the clerks must contact each person to see whether he or she wishes to serve. Anyone who does not wish to serve must sign a sworn (notarized) oath turning down the office that must be filed with the town clerk.

If more than one person tied for a position is willing to serve, there would need to be another election for the position.

Hapgood said when a town official asks someone to volunteer for a committee position, the answer is more likely to be yes, perhaps because there is no need to collect signatures on nomination papers.

Tod Detre, one of five Nov. 5 candidates for three seats on the select board, and former select board member Joann Austin expressed concern about the five select board members appointing members of all other major town committees.

Current board chairman Wayne Chadwick said he thinks China select board members have never “stacked” committees they’re empowered to appoint on the basis of beliefs, geography or any other factor.

A broader discussion of the lack of civic engagement and related topics followed.

Select board member Brent Chesley said in two years on the board, he’s not received a single call from a resident about town business, though his cellphone number is on the town website.

Austin argued in favor of returning to the pre-Covid open town business meeting in the spring, so voters can ask questions and know what they’re voting on. Detre and Chadwick said a written-ballot meeting lets more people participate.

The second public hearing, on the state-presented amendments to the local General Assistance Ordinance and its appendices, drew no comments. Select board members adopted the amendments at their meeting following the hearing.

Three ongoing issues on the select board agenda were the planned storage vault for town records; the South China boat landing; and the revised solid waste disposal agreement with Palermo.

Sheldon Goodine, chairman of the town’s building committee, outlined Plan No. 4 for the new storage area. This plan calls for an addition to the town office building on the south side, at the east end (farthest from Lakeview Drive) rather than the west end as an earlier plan proposed.

Goodine expects more information in a week or so.

Hapgood said the Maine Department of Environmental Protection has approved a permit for proposed run-off controls at the South China boat landing. The next step, she said, is acquiring the needed concrete planks. One company will have none until spring; she will contact other companies.

Select board members approved the agreement with Palermo to allow that town’s residents to continue to use China’s transfer station. Hapgood said Palermo’s town meeting to act on the revised agreement is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 17.

Hapgood announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved $51,436.15 to reimburse China for cleaning up roadside debris after the December 2023 storm. She is still talking with FEMA officials about reimbursement for other storm-related expenses.

The manager announced that China’s 2023 town report received an award from the Maine Municipal Association. She thanked Town Clerk Angela Nelson for her work on the report, and Jason Rushing for his cover photo.

MMA’s letter, published with the select board meeting agenda, begins: “I am pleased to announce that China has been selected as the ‘supreme’ first place winner of the 2024 Annual Report Competition in the 2,500 to 4,999 population category.”

The report will be displayed, with other winners, at the MMA convention in Augusta Oct. 2 and 3. Select board members appointed Director of Public Services Shawn Reed as China’s voting delegate at the convention’s business meeting, with Hapgood his alternate.

The next China select board meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, Oct. 7. Hapgood announced other events early in October: absentee ballots for Nov. 5 will be available Monday, Oct. 7; town departments will be closed Monday, Oct. 14, to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day; and the docks at the boat landing at the head of China Lake’s east basin are scheduled to be removed the week of Oct. 14.

Vassalboro school board updated on final summer renovations, other building related projects

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Vassalboro Community School (contributed photo)

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Community School’s new staff for 2024-25 include two people with experience in Alaska, Superintendent Alan Pfeiffer said. One of them spoke with school board members at their Sept. 10 meeting.

Seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher Tracy Hodge said his previous jobs included five years teaching in Alaska, three in a Yupik village and two in Kodiak.

He has also been in Maine before, he said, a brief stay as a youngster plus visits with friends in the Belgrade Lakes area.

Also speaking at the meeting was Cory Eisenhour, director of facilities for Winslow and Vassalboro schools, who updated board members on final summer renovations.

Pfeiffer expects more comprehensive information on plans for the VCS building from Thomas Seekins, co-president of Portland-based Energy Management Consultants, Inc. (EMC), later this fall.

School board members in June authorized Pfeiffer to agree with EMC “to perform an energy audit and HVAC [heating, ventilation and air conditioning] infrastructure analysis of the Vassalboro Community School.”

Seekins said at the Aug. 13 board meeting that the audit will include expert inspections of everything about the building – heating, lighting, electrical and mechanical systems, roofs, windows, even the driveway paving and drainage.

His team will evaluate needed updates, replacements and repairs and do a comprehensive budget, balancing costs with expected savings. After school board members decide on priorities, EMC personnel will develop a schedule, help arrange financing, select contractors and oversee work.

As of the Aug. 13 meeting, Seekins said EMC staff had begun inspecting the building. Pfeiffer expects a report at either the October or the November school board meeting. Board members proposed inviting Vassalboro Budget Committee members to Seekins’ presentation.

Another topic at the Sept. 10 meeting was VCS student enrollment, which Pfeiffer and Principal Ira Michaud were pleased to report is growing. Michaud reported 425 students, up from 411 in June.

Pfeiffer said so far there are three new secondary-school students, for whom Vassalboro will pay tuition to the high schools they choose. The state education department announces the 2025-26 secondary school tuition in December; Pfeiffer hopes the six percent increase in Vassalboro’s school budget will be enough for the first half of 2025.

The superintendent urged families who have not yet filled out and returned their “green sheets” – officially, the Household Application for Free and Reduced Price School Meals – to do so. They are no longer needed to save families money, since school meals are free, but the state uses the information to calculate Vassalboro’s share of state funding.

VCS still needs substitute educational technicians, food service workers and bus drivers, Pfeiffer said. Shortages are state-wide; the mutual aid agreement among Vassalboro, Waterville and Winslow is helpful.

School has started smoothly, the administrators said, except for a major problem with the VCS intercom system. Pfeiffer expressed thanks to Marc Nabarowsky for getting it running again and said a part is being ordered for a full repair.

The next Vassalboro school board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8.