by Mary Grow

China selectmen dealt with a miscellany of business at their April 29 meeting.

Town Manager Dennis Heath announced a public hearing on Monday, May 13, to discuss two June 11 local ballot questions. The hearing will be at 6:15 p.m. in the town office meeting room, before that evening’s selectmen’s meeting.

The two questions voters will answer June 11 are:

• Whether to authorize selectmen to spend $150,000 to buy the Hall lot north of the Four Seasons Club on the east shore of China Lake to provide public lake access, using $125,000 from the lake access reserve fund and $25,000 from the TIF (Tax Increment Finance) fund; and
• Whether to authorize selectmen to spend up to $25,000 from the town’s undesignated fund balance (surplus) for engineering plans for an emergency services building or a community center on town-owned land on Lakeview Drive, opposite the former Candlewood Camps. Voters approved up to $5,000 for preliminary studies in November 2018. Drawings showing what both buildings might look like are on the town website.

Selectmen Jeffrey LaVerdiere and Ronald Breton expressed reservations about the first question. LaVerdiere said the property slopes steeply to the lake, so building a road, a parking lot and other amenities would be expensive. Breton does not want a swimming beach close to a boat landing, citing safety and parking concerns.

Heath said there might be federal and/or state grant money available. He described the lot as “tiered” and said there might be room for three levels of parking lots.

On a different topic, the manager said China’s 2019-2020 school budget might – he emphasized the uncertainty – increase by five percent. If it did, he said, the local tax rate would also have to increase.

Voters in RSU (Regional School Unit) #18 will act on the school budget May 16 in Oakland, with a confirmatory written-ballot vote on June 11.

Selectmen met two new people who will be working on behalf of the town. Shawn Reed introduced Ron Roy, newly hired in the Public Works Department; and Policeman Tracey Frost introduced Jordan Gaudet, who will join Frost and other Oakland officers working part-time in China.

Transfer Station Manager Tim Grotton said Heath had submitted the application for a recycling grant that, if awarded, would distribute recycling bins around town (see The Town Line, April 25). Heath said he is now looking into another grant to help expand broadband service in China, at a cost tentatively estimated at more than a million dollars.

The manager reported that purchase of the Bailey property at the head of China Lake across Causeway Street from the boat landing will be complete when the deed is registered. He invested an additional $1,000 for a survey, he said, and is glad he did: instead of the six or seven acres voters thought they were buying, they acquired more than 11 acres, partly swamp.

Board members informally approved Heath’s draft purchasing policy, which says the manager may make purchases up to $2,500 on his own; for anything between $2,500 and $10,000, he needs several price quotes and selectmen’s approval; and purchases over $10,000 must be by sealed bid. Final action is expected at the May 13 meeting.

by Mary Grow

Vassalboro selectmen spent most of their April 18 meeting reviewing the almost-final draft of the June 3 town meeting warrant, with a few other items briefly discussed.

Town meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. Monday, June 3, at Vassalboro Community School, where voters will act on Articles 1 through 63, which include 2019-2020 municipal and school budgets. The final three articles will be voted by secret ballot on Tuesday, June 11, at the town office, with polls open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Articles 64, 65 and 66 are a reaffirmation (or rejection) of the school budget approved the previous week, known as a budget validation referendum; a question asking voters if they want to continue the budget validation referendum for another three years; and election of municipal officers.

The three positions to be filled are one on the selectboard and two on the School board. Town Clerk Cathy Coyne said incumbent Selectman Robert Browne and incumbent school board members Jessica Clark and Kevin Levasseur are unopposed for re-election.

Five of Vassalboro’s 10 budget committee members will be elected at the June 3 open meeting. Committee members whose terms end this year are Donald Breton, William Browne, Philip Landry, Richard Phippen and Peggy Schaffer.

Selectmen are scheduled to sign a final warrant for town meeting at their May 2 meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the town office.

In other business April 18, selectmen unanimously approved using $250 from the police budget to sponsor Police Chief Mark Brown’s son at the Criminal Justice Academy. Brown said Vassalboro has paid for sponsorships in the past, including one for him in 1984. He wanted selectmen’s specific approval because of the family connection.

Selectman John Melrose continued discussion of improvements at the East Vassalboro park between the boat landing and the former school. He also proposed reviving the Trails Committee, a subcommittee of the Conservation Commission whose activities included establishing the town forest trail in East Vassalboro.

by Mary Grow

China Budget Committee members have endorsed one of the selectmen’s two proposed June expenditures, by a split vote, and unanimously advised voters to disapprove the other.

At their April 9 meeting, Town Manager Dennis Heath presented the questions approved by selectmen for a June 11 written-ballot vote:

• To see if voters will authorize the selectmen to buy the Hall lot on Lakeview Drive abutting the Four Seasons Club lot “for public lake access,” using $125,000 from the lake access reserve fund and $25,000 in Tax Increment Finance (TIF) funds and;
• To see if voters will authorize spending up to $25,000 from the Undesignated Fund Balance (surplus) “to contract for the engineering and costing of a consolidated emergency services building and a community building.”

Four of the six budget committee members voted to recommend approval of the lakefront property purchase. Wayne Chadwick and Kevin Maroon were opposed; Chairman Robert Batteese, Timothy Basham, Jeffery Furlong and Thomas Rumpf voted in favor.

Chadwick’s main objection was the difficulty of policing and protecting an isolated area invisible from the highway. He pointed out that other towns have closed similar facilities because of vandalism and misuse. Also, he said, town ownership takes the property off the tax rolls; and he wondered whether the state Department of Transportation would authorize a new driveway entrance onto Lakeview Drive.

Much of the discussion was over the relationship of the new proposed beach to the existing boat landing at the head of the lake, where the town is in process of acquiring ownership of the unofficial parking area. Heath said state officials have agreed to maintain the landing for another year, but do not approve of the unprotected location and therefore want it moved.

Discussion of the second ballot question covered both a new building for the China Village Volunteer Fire Department with space for Delta Ambulance and a police office, and a community center.

Heath reminded committee members that voters have already spent $5,000 for concept drawings for the buildings. The drawings are on the town website, the first item under “News.”

The June request would be for engineering – not to build either building, but to prepare cost estimates for building, the manager said.

There has been ongoing discussion of moving the China Village fire station, partly for more space for future expansion and partly to let the China Baptist Church, its neighbor to the east, turn the lot where the station now stands into parking. The present church parking lot closer to the causeway and boat landing would then be available for boaters’ parking.

China’s three fire chiefs were in the audience. They said an original proposal to relocate the station got expanded beyond their wishes when “one of the selectmen” (China Village Fire Chief Timothy Theriault’s words) started talking about a municipal fire department.

“We’re completely against that,” Theriault said. “It’s not going to be beneficial to the town.”

Weeks Mills Fire Chief William Van Wickler said if the boat landing won’t be used much longer, additional parking won’t be needed and nobody will have to spend several hundred thousand dollars for a new fire station.

“I don’t want to do Tim [Theriault] out of a nice building,” he continued, but he thinks a new station isn’t necessary.

Heath said China’s comprehensive plan calls for a community center. He envisions a single-story building that would accommodate a couple hundred people, larger than any present gathering room except the Middle School gymnasium and the Baptist Conference Center.

“We have halls all over this town,” Chadwick said, announcing himself opposed to the project and generally in favor of smaller government.

Additional locations, like the town-owned lot south of the town office where the red storage barn stands or some other property near the head of the lake, were suggested for either building, but budget committee members were still not persuaded to support the investment.