Egg decorating at China Village Library

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Contributed photo

Some of the eggs decorated.

On April 7, the China Village (ACB) Library hosted a Ukrainian Easter Egg Decorating Workshop with local artist and instructor Lesia Sochor. Using a special tool called “Kistka,” a candle flame, beeswax and dyes, adults and children alike enjoyed learning the ancient craft and made colorful and original decorated eggs to bring home. The library schedules a diverse assortment of monthly events at the library for all who are interested as part of its community and cultural events program. All of the library’s programs are free and everyone is welcome.

China budget committee acts on two proposed June expenditures

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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.

JMG students help at 2019 China town meeting

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Front, from left to right, Andrew Perry, Sydney Laird and Hailey Estes. Back, custodian Tim Roddy and students Jack Lyons and Dakota Hoffman. (Photo courtesy of Ryan Sweeney)

Jobs for Maine Graduates students helped set up for China’s annual town meeting on April 6.

Talking Trash: Happy springtime China and Palermo residents

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April is EARTH MONTH and time to get rid of the winter uglies along the sides of our roads. If you are able, please take a plastic bag to reuse and a pair of old gloves so you can pick up and then toss into the Transfer Station hopper with the rest of your disposables.

Call some of your neighbors to plan a roadside cleanup on the weekend of April 20-21 as Earth Day is April 22. We appreciate your labors and time to help keep China, Maine, green and clean.

We will have another opportunity Saturday, April 27, for you to plan! It’s the springtime Drug Drop-off at the Transfer Station, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., at the recycle area. Bag up all of those old/unused prescriptions and bring them over. There will be one of Kennebec County’s Deputies Sheriff’s there to assist and answer questions you may have. No needles or other sharpies can be accepted.

For FREE! we will take in any and all light bulbs on that same day.

The shredder will be back in the autumn of this year.

There is a place on Airport Road, Waterville, where you can drop off TVs you no longer want or need. Ask the Transfer Station attendants if you need more information.

Revenues are down but please don’t stop recycling. Thank you!

Toss plastic bags into the hopper and also reuse them for trash and wastebasket liners.

With spring cleaning time comes, “what to do,” with clean, good condition items. We have the “Free For Taking” building. We also have the box for clean clothes, shoes and purses. Help us to keep that area from disarray. For those who have been looking there are books and puzzles that show up. Children’s toys are very popular, also.

The Transfer Station crew is going for two days of training soon but the Transfer Station will be open its usual hours.

COMPOST IS READY and FREE !

Thank you all who helped to make it. Kevin does a great job getting it cooked.

Budget committee reviews updated draft of budget

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro Budget Committee members reviewed an updated draft of the 2019-2020 municipal budget and re-discussed parts of the school budget at their April 4 meeting, but neither was the highlight.

Lauchlin Titus, chairman of the Board of Selectman, shared excerpts from school evaluations in the town report for 1868 -1869, when Vassalboro had 23 separate school districts. Each district operated two sessions, summer and winter. Often there was a new teacher each session; a district official rated his teachers, sometimes praising, sometimes bluntly suggesting the teacher find a new profession.

In the currently-proposed municipal budget, Titus and Town Manager Mary Sabins listed some of the recent changes, which include:

  • A $2,000 reduction in the request for vehicle fuel for public works, after a price “comparable to the current year” was locked in;
  • Addition of a second full-time transfer station employee and elimination of a proposed $5,000 for an engineer’s study of relocating the transfer station entrance, because local expertise has been volunteered; and
  • Increases in projected revenue from the transfer station and from state revenue sharing.
    Sabins is not sure the draft budget includes everything voters will be asked to fund in June. New issues keep cropping up, she said.

Budget committee members took no action on either the municipal or the school budget, postponing recommendations to future meetings.

2019 China town meeting: Selectmen, firemen get approval on stipend increases

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by Mary Grow

With more than $3.5 million worth of 2019-2020 expenditures up for approval, change or rejection at China’s April 6 town business meeting, voters focused on $17,700 – a $13,700 difference between the lowest and highest amounts proposed for the volunteer fire departments and $4,000 to increase the five selectmen’s annual stipends from $1,000 to $1,800.

They were generous to both parties, and approved all other expenditures as proposed.

They also approved changes to the Land Development Code recommended by the planning board. After Board Chairman Tom Miragliuolo answered one question about tents and recreational vehicles, there was no further discussion of any of the changes.

China’s three volunteer fire departments, China Village, South China and Weeks Mills, and China Rescue are private organizations, not town departments. They are funded partly by the town and partly by fund-raisers and donations.

In the warrant, selectmen recommended $171,199 for fire and rescue services and the budget committee recommended $181,499, both by unanimous votes of the members present. The difference was over how much the departments should have to offer stipends to officers and to members responding to calls.

Aware of the months-long disagreement between selectmen and fire chiefs, veteran moderator Richard Thompson emphasized in his opening explanations the need for speakers to stick to the subject and to focus on issues, not personalities. His effort was mostly successful.

After Budget Committee Chairman Robert Batteese moved the higher amount for the fire and rescue budget, resident Sheryl Peavey promptly moved a still higher figure, $188,499, which she said was the departments’ initial request.

The underlying issue is less the money than selectmen’s concern that the firefighters are jeopardizing their volunteer status, resulting in tax complications, and their insistence that the departments should account to them for expending town funds – the fire chiefs agree – and for expending their other funds, something the chiefs have objected to.

China Village Chief Timothy Theriault said since the stipends started, his department has gained five new members, South China has gained three and Weeks Mills has gained two. He believes the stipends helped.

A two-page memo from Scott Cotnoir, Director of the Maine Department of Labor, spelled out requirements for reimbursing volunteers, requirements that Theriault said the departments can meet.

South China Chief Richard Morse and Theriault said the request is likely to change in the next few years as chiefs find out how much they actually need for stipends.

After a half-hour discussion, during which several speakers commended the firefighters and resident Donald Pauley rebuked the audience for quarreling over “a piddling amount,” the $188,499 was lopsidedly approved.

Asked about the increase in selectmen’s stipends, Town Manager Dennis Heath pointed out the footnote to the warrant article saying $1,800 was slightly below the current average for selectmen in 16 towns similar in size to China. Voters approved the increase by a counted show of voting cards, 64 in favor to 44 opposed.

The budget included in the 2018 town report shows expenditures and supporting revenues in detail, from employee salaries to charitable gifts.

Heath repeatedly said before the meeting that there would – or should – be a quorum, given the number of supporters of China’s Quorum Ordinance last November, and that the meeting would be shorter than usual. He was right on both counts: 119 voters had checked in by the 9 a.m. starting time (another 30 or so came in later), and the meeting lasted less than two hours.

Before the meeting started, Selectwoman Irene Belanger announced 2019 Spirit of America awards for volunteerism to the China Four Seasons Club and Carl and Phyllis Farris.

Local man’s latest adventure: Teaching in China

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China, Maine’s Ron Maxwell, left, taking a selfie while on a field trip in China. (Photo courtesy of Ron Maxwell)

by Ron Maxwell

I had never properly left the United States until this last summer. I did go to Tijuana in high school and honeymooned in New Brunswick, but as neither of them was off the continent and both were brief visits to places less than an hour or two into their respective countries, I never really counted either of them. I have, however, taught middle school in rural Maine for 20 years so I am not a stranger to danger and intrigue.

When I tell people I teach at China Middle School, they always ask if the trip back here took a long time. I tell them it is an easy commute to Maine and we both laugh a little at how clever we are. But in all the years of pretending to teach in China, I never once thought I would get there. Until Bernie.

I hope there is a Bernie in your life. Someone whose good nature is never forced. Someone who genuinely is interested in the answer to his/her question, “How are you?” Someone who knows that s/he has an opportunity for you that would do you good and at which you would be good and doesn’t listen when you make silly excuses to say no.

Bernie told me he taught in China and I said I’ve taught in China for years, cleverly countering. Later, Bernie told me he taught in China during Christmas break and I said I’d never be able to make a break trip work, cleverly stalling. Later, Bernie told me I’d be good at it and I told him I had never traveled abroad, cleverly distancing. What I wasn’t ready for was when he was done playing nice. Last year, Bernie came back from China and said he had given my name to the people he worked with and I should email them. I did, and before I knew what was happening, I was on a plane to Shanghai, China.

Ron Maxwell in his classroom in Shanghai, China. (photo courtesy of Ron Maxwell)

Bernie was right about everything. Teaching in mainland China was an exciting adventure in a land truly foreign to me on many levels. One that challenged my craft in unforeseen ways and rewarded me in ways I cannot explain. I am going to share with you three things I brought away from my latest adventure, teaching in China.

1) Teaching in China was familiar and challenging to my understanding of the craft of teaching. I worried about how well it would go and prepared for months beforehand, but in the moment I stood in front of the class in China I realized that children are children wherever you find them. I realized that, for all the worry that they would be an unknown, I was looking at the same general personality types that I had seen for years in the States and that it was going to be all right.  My ideas, techniques, and mannerisms that worked to motivate and inspire my Maine students worked in China.

The challenge came in that I no longer had my greatest tool, the command of the native language of my students. Now, I consider a common language with my students a teacher’s greatest and most “taken-for-granted” tool. I never realized how important it was until it was not there for me to fall back on. All the clever banter I thought I had was useless. All the Disney references I cultivated over the years were not there (except for “just keep swimming,” which worked). My students in China distilled my technique for me, forcing me to speak directly and obviously and to draw or show whenever possible. Being forced to do those things that are good teaching is making me a better teacher.

A street in Shenzhen, China. (photo courtesy of Ron Maxwell)

2) Being immersed in a foreign culture is a good experience.  When I wanted to buy sugar at the local store the clerk looked at me and bruskly said, “No English,” while walking away. So, I went back to the WiFi of my room and looked up sugar in my dictionary, played the word several times, wrote it down and went back to the store. I showed the writing to the same clerk and made an attempt at saying sugar. The effect was magical as the disinterested man of before disappeared to be replaced by someone who was so pleased by my attempt to be understood that he took me to a bag of crystals I had walked by earlier. He did laugh at my pronunciation and corrected it for me, but it started a working relationship that I came to consider a “home” in this world I did not know. Every day I tried a new phrase or word, and every day he would patiently correct while smiling. I won’t claim proficiency, but now I can manage a couple of phrases that sound vaguely correct, though I do still get corrected with a smile some of the time.

I never felt lonely, because the many teachers I worked with in China formed a group that did things together and had adventures during the off hours in a camaraderie that was another “home” in China. The wandering together led to wandering alone and I found myself walking and smiling and buying things while speaking terrible Chinese and enjoying learning everything. Giving something to someone else in China can be done as a polite gesture by using both hands. Walking in the wrong lane, the bike lane, for example, leads to being honked at by scooters. Not the brash cussing out that I heard from car horns in the States, but a gentle tap or two that reminded me of where I should not be. Being forced to learn a new culture is making me more appreciative of the similarities between our cultures and more at ease in learning a new one.

Dinner is being served for Ron Maxwell during his teaching stint in China. (photo courtesy of Ron Maxwell)

3) The challenge of navigating a foreign culture places you at the mercy of strangers, which teaches humility and patience. Teaching in the same school for 20 years leaves one with a sense of security that can lead to pride. Everything is predictable and known. Procedures are simple because of practice. When I sat at breakfast on my first day in China I was completely captivated. Everything was new and I understood none of it. On the left of the room were steam tables filled with magical smells of exotic food. On the right were tables where people sat in various and unfathomable groupings. The language that flowed musically in my ears meant nothing to me: I had looked and thought about Chinese but I knew next to nothing. All my ears heard was the magic of tones which combined to make breakfast music. But to get there I had needed a kind greeter who took my breakfast card and pointed me toward a stack of plates and chopsticks with an open hand wave, a small head bow, and a smile.

Being helped reminds one, both of what one doesn’t know and what a blessing it is to be shown the right way to do things. It wasn’t until I was balancing plates that I realized there were no empty tables. The challenge became that I had to find a seat with complete strangers. Imagine my joy when none of those who I joined moved or forbade my sitting. I was greeted with smiles and nods of welcome. That reception was not unique. I cannot recount the number of times a kind stranger assisted me while I was overseas. In many different places, I humbly accepted help in day to day life from complete strangers. Humility is a difficult lesson to learn, and it took time and repeated exposures.

The second part of the lesson came on return to the States where I was at home. I started to see the same lesson from the other side and was able to assist others. It is very easy to be proud and demand, both when you are at home and when you are a visitor. Seeing this interaction from both sides has made me better. Seeing it at middle age brings thoughts of how young and old interact and can look after each other.

I have now gone to China twice in a calendar year, with the first being to Shanghai during last summer break and the most recent to Shenzhen during Christmas break. I enjoyed both experiences in more ways than I can recount. I did come home willingly both times, but I am still new to travel and 20-plus years of marriage has me rootbound in Maine.  I will go back every summer session the MAST Stem Academy will have me because the experience is worth it for my own growth and for the joy that each trip brings. If you are a science teacher and need a new challenge to your ability and notions and complacency, I can suggest a place in China you can grow. I will be your Bernie.

CMS students learn how to plant native seeds

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From left to right, Elaine Philbrook, of China Lake Association, Nate Gray, of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, Matt Streeter, of Maine Rivers, and Anita Smith, Maine master naturalist. (Photo by Jeanne Marquis)

by Jeanne Marquis

For the second year, China Middle School students participated in the River Restoration project by planting native seeds and learning the importance of maintaining an eco-system. Mrs. Maroon invited three speakers who presented her class with a lecture that was a mixture of local colonial history, biology and botany.

Matt Streeter, of Maine Rivers, explained the roles the river dams played in the growing the economy of our region since the 1700s. The dams had long lost their economic purposes and were removed one by one to open the Sebasticook River as a natural fish way to China Lake. Dam removal was the beginning of the restoration of the Sebasticook.

Nate Gray, of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, explained how the herring are a keystone species and decline of their population would continue to gravely depress the ecosystem of the central Maine lakes region without the River Restoration project. Gray began by telling the students, “I am not giving you the kids version of this presentation, this is the adult version.” The students rose to his challenge and gave him their full attention.

Gray explained that although the herring spend most of their lives in the coastal ocean saltwater the herring must travel up the rivers to spawn in freshwater and replenish their population. The herring species, alewives included, travel up natural water ways such as the Sebasticook River to fresh water lakes including China Lake. As the herring population increases, a multitude of other animal and plant life thrive in and around our area lakes. Gray made it clear to the students how interconnected life is in an ecosystem and how herring is a keystone species for our local environment.

Japanese Knot Weed in flower.

Maine master naturalist Anita Smith clarified the difference between native and invasive plant life and why it is so important to the local environment to restore native species. Smith told the students, “Invasive plants are like the bullies of the neighborhood, they take over the ecosystem.” Smith went on to say that “the choices we make impact the future.” To illustrate this point, she explained how in the 1800s Japanese knot wood was used to control erosion. We know now that Japanese knot wood in an invasive species that crowds out more nutritious native species and is very difficult to eradicate.

The presenters helped the students plant seeds of native species that will help to stabilize soil, attract pollinators, provide habitats and nutrition for native wildlife. The students and presenters will meet again in the fall for a field trip to plant their native seedlings at the Masse Dam site, in Vassalboro. Elaine Philbrook, from the China Lake Association, organized this educational outreach opportunity.

Erskine Academy announces School calendar change April 2019

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(photo credit: Erskine Academy)

Parents and students should be advised of a change to Erskine Academy’s school calendar. Due to excessive snow days, Friday, April 12, will now be an early release day for all Erskine Academy students. Students will be dismissed at 11:30 a.m.

China prepares for annual town meeting

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by Mary Grow

Voters at China’s Saturday, April 6, town business meeting will have 31 warrant articles to consider, fewer than in previous years.

The meeting begins at 9 a.m. at China Middle School, if a quorum is present. Selectman Irene Belanger will make the annual presentation of Spirit of America awards about 8:45 a.m., and any other presentations and speeches will be before 9 a.m., not during the meeting.

The quorum needed to open the meeting is 119 registered voters. Since more than 1,200 residents voted against abolishing the quorum requirement in a November 2018 referendum, Town Manager Dennis Heath expects no difficulty getting a quorum this year.

Voters will decide on the 2019-2020 municipal budget and on ordinance changes recommended by the planning board. The 2019-2020 school budget will be decided at a June vote.

This year’s warrant articles ask voters to approve funding for a category, like administration (Art. 3), legal costs (Art. 7), the transfer station (Art. 10) and public works (Art. 11), without listing details in the article. Redesigned articles include boards and committees (Art. 4), social services (Art. 13) and community support organizations (Art. 14).

A separate section of the 2018 town report, called Addendum Two, Annual Budget, lists the 17 boards and committees (not all requesting funds) covered by Art. 4, 13 social service groups and seven community support organizations, as well as detailed breakdowns of the other requested expenditures.

Selectmen and budget committee members disagree on two proposed expenditures, for stipends for volunteer firefighters (Art. 9) and for a pay increase for selectmen (Art. 23).

Articles 29, 30 and 31 ask voters to approve Land Development Code amendments. Each article includes a brief explanation of the changes the Planning Board recommends.

Voters will decide on the 2019-2020 municipal budget and on ordinance changes recommended by the planning board. The 2019-2020 school budget will be decided later this spring.