Amendment to TIF program ready for China voters

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by Mary Grow

After a couple hours’ discussion with town assessor William Van Tuinen on Feb. 16 and another hour debating among themselves on Feb. 20, China selectmen have an amendment to the town’s TIF (Tax Increment Finance) program ready for voters at the March 25 town meeting.

The original document, “Central Maine Power/China Lake Tax Increment Financing District and Development Program,” was approved at the March 2015 town meeting. It established a TIF District that includes the new Central Maine Power Company (CMP) power line as the revenue source and areas at both ends of China Lake’s east basin and around the town office as potential development areas.

Taxes from the power line go into a separate Development Program Fund. The money can be used to fund economic development projects, as defined in the TIF document, in the development areas. The 2015 TIF was for 20 years.

The proposed amendment makes three changes. It extends the TIF to 30 years, ending at the end of fiscal year 2044. It adds the new CMP substation off Route 3 as a source of income. And it expands the priority development areas by adding the old Pine Tree Zones and two properties voters approved buying in November 2016, the subdivision on Lakeview Drive opposite the former Candlewood Camps and a lot adjoining the town office lot.

The amendment appears as Art. 5 in a 56-article town meeting warrant that includes the 2017-18 municipal budget and numerous ordinance amendments. Voters will act on the items at the town business meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, March 25, at China Middle School.

At the Feb. 20 meeting, selectmen also talked briefly about a town vote on recreational marijuana. An attempt to have a moratorium on retail marijuana businesses in town failed when not enough voters came to a January special town meeting to make a quorum.

Selectmen are divided over whether additional local action is needed. Joann Austin saw new business opportunities if the town were to allow marijuana establishments; Jeffrey LaVerdiere retorted that big out-of-state business would dominate and profits would leave town.

In any case, Board Chairman Neil Farrington said, there is no need for immediate action. The issue might be raised again before the June 2016 ballot is prepared.

The next regular China selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, March 6.

CHINA NEWS: Organizers seek presenters for China Forest Day

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The organizers at China Midle School are in the planning stages for Forest Day 2017 which will be held on Friday, May 26, from 8 a.m. – 2 p.m., at the China School Forest in China. They are seeking volunteer presenters to work with groups of students at any grade level from preK-eighth grade. The goal is to have all students outside for the whole day participating in hands-on activities to learn about Maine’s natural environment.

Volunteer presenters will teach a lesson to groups of students (15-18 students per group) throughout the day. Staff members will supervise student groups. Volunteers will lead three – four morning sessions and three – four afternoon sessions. Each session will last approximately 30 minutes. If you need more than a 30-minute session, they can put two time slots together to give you about 70 minutes to work with your group. You can choose your activity and age group or the staff can suggest activity ideas based on your skills and interests. They try to have a wide variety of activities related to the Maine environment. In the past, they’ve offered sessions on forest habitats, ecology, plants and/or animals, logging history, watersheds, geology, nature music or art, reading, writing, drama and much more. Any topic related to the natural environment will be considered. They provide morning munchies and lunch for all volunteer presenters. Forest Day is held rain or shine. After all, that is part of the outdoor experience!

They are seeking 30-35 different session presenters. They are asking for your help as a volunteer program presenter or to pass this along to others who you think might be able to help. If you can help, they need the following information:

Your name and work agency/program sponsor (if representing one), phone number and/or email; topic or lesson – if you need ideas, they can offer suggestions. Grade level range preference (prek-2, 3-6, 7-8).

Anything else you need for your activity (ie. Type of location, materials needed, time you are available if you can’t be there all day…)

For more information contact Anita Smith (968-2255) and Elaine Philbrook (445-1550); chinaschoolsforest@gmail.com or ephilbrook@rsu18.org.

Learn more about them at: https://www.facebook.com/chinaschoolsforest/.

 

CHINA NEWS: 10 items on land development code set for annual meeting vote

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by Mary Grow

China voters will have 10 separate articles asking them to approve amendments to China’s Land Development Code at the March 25 town meeting, all of them repeated from Nov. 8, 2016.

The Nov. 8 written ballot had all the changes in a single article. Voters rejected the article by a vote of 817 in favor to 1,248 opposed.

At their Feb. 8 meeting (postponed from the usual Tuesday evening because of bad weather), the three planning board members present voted unanimously to ask selectmen to put the changes to voters again as 10 separate articles on the March 25 warrant.

They believe voters rejected the changes in November for two main reasons: some people objected to one or more of the proposed amendments and could defeat them only by rejecting the entire document, and other people did not understand some or all of the recommended changes.

Board members hope separating the document into 10 sections will help with the first issue. To deal with the second, they intend to have an explanatory handout at the town meeting, and board members and Codes Officer Paul Mitnik will be there to answer questions.

Mitnik pointed out that some of the changes in specified sections will require changes in other areas to keep the entire ordinance internally consistent. For example, substituting the footprint of a building (how many square feet of ground it occupies) for the volume (in cubic feet) in certain measurements, if approved, might require a parallel change elsewhere in the ordinance. Board members asked Mitnik to add such related changes to the documents presented to voters.

The next regular China Planning Board meeting was scheduled for Tuesday evening, Feb. 14. Mitnik expected a presentation from the South China Library Association on plans to relocate the library from Village Street to Jones Road.

CHINA NEWS: Manager leads committee in review of budget

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by Mary Grow

China Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux led five of the seven budget committee members through a preliminary review of 2017-18 town finances at a Feb. 10 meeting. The manager had mostly good news, though he qualified it. As of June 30, 2016 (the last audit date), the town had about $1.318 million in surplus (formally called Undesignated Fund Balance, or UFB), and he expects the figure to be higher when the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017, is audited. Surplus increases when revenues are higher than expected, expenditures are lower or both.

The proposed 2017-18 municipal budget is slightly higher than the current year’s, but L’Heureux expects increases in revenues and property values to offset increased spending, so the tax rate will not rise as a result of municipal expenditures.

However, he said, town finances include factors outside town officials’ control, notably how much money the state provides in revenue-sharing, highway and school grants and other funding; the 2017-18 school budget; and the Kennebec County tax.

Proposed local increases include a 1.6 percent salary increase for town employees; higher dispatching fees for emergency services; rising health insurance premiums; and more expenses at the transfer station because Palermo residents now share it. Palermo’s annual payment plus the per-bag fee charged to Palermo residents will offset the last item, L’Heureux said.

The draft budget contains one new item, a request for up to $40,000 from surplus to compensate China firefighters and China Rescue personnel.
Selectman Neil Farrington told budget committee members he introduced the idea to try to get more volunteers for the services and to start a conversation about how to attract them.

If town meeting voters approve the money, the plan would start July 1. Before then, Farrington said, selectmen would consult with the chiefs of the four organizations – three fire departments and rescue – about how funds should be distributed.

L’Heureux learned from officials in Albion, Whitefield, Vassalboro and Windsor that all of those towns compensate their emergency personnel, each in its own way. Budget committee members had questions about many items, but voiced no major concerns or objections. Remembering discussion at the 2016 business meeting, they endorsed but urged clarifying the way TIF (Tax Increment Finance) expenditures are listed in the meeting warrant.

The 2017 warrant, like last year’s, has a list of proposed expenditures from the Development Program Fund (into which TIF tax revenue goes), in Art. 6. For example, voters are asked to allocate $8,000 to town administration to cover TIF-related work. Under Art. 12, funding town administration, the total of $384,261 specifically includes $8,000 from TIF-generated revenues. Budget Committee members think the double reference should be informative to voters. Last year, they said, it appeared to be confusing.

In addition to the amounts in Art. 6, five following articles ask voters to appropriate money from the Development Program Fund for projects recommended by the TIF Committee.

Budget committee members plan to meet again at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, to go through the proposed warrant for the March 25 town business meeting.

At the town meeting, scheduled for 9 a.m. at China Middle School, voters will approve, modify or reject municipal spending proposals and other town-related items. The school budget will be presented later in the spring.

CHINA NEWS: Selectmen review and approve most of warrant

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by Mary Grow

China selectmen spent most of a long Feb. 6 meeting reviewing and approving a good part of the warrant for the March 25 town business meeting, to have it ready for budget committee action. The budget committee is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, in the town office.
Selectmen also:

  • Voted unanimously to support Rep. Tim Theriault’s LD 55, a proposed law which, if enacted, would charge Kennebec Water District water users a China Lake clean-up fee.
  • Appointed Thomas Michaud as the new at-large member of the planning board, succeeding Frank Soares.
  • Asked Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux to notify Marie Michaud that, acting on Maine Municipal Association advice, they have determined the petition she submitted last summer is invalid; they will neither act on it themselves nor send it to voters in March. The petition asked for a moratorium on commercial development until land use districts are established.

The town meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. Saturday, March 25, at China Middle School. The warrant contains the usual municipal spending requests, including numerous requested appropriations from the TIF (Tax Increment Finance) fund, known formally as the Development Program Fund, and related items, like setting tax due dates; a repeat of several requests voters rejected Nov. 8, 2016; and two new items.

The first new item is a request for up to $40,000 to compensate emergency services personnel (firefighters and medical first responders), under a policy to be developed by selectmen. Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux presented information from Albion, Vassalboro and Windsor, which all compensate their volunteers in different ways.

After a long discussion, a majority of the board voted to include the article and recommend its passage, with Ronald Breton abstaining and Joann Austin opposed. Breton said he supports the concept, but wants a policy in place before funding it; Austin objected to having no time to digest the information from other towns.

The other new proposal, from L’Heureux, is to establish a designated unemployment account in the town’s reserve fund and put $10,000 in it to fund unemployment claims. The manager explained that having the fund would eliminate the need to appropriate money for unemployment insurance annually and put it back into reserve when it is not needed.

Items repeated from the Nov. 8 local ballot include the manager’s request for more money for the capital equipment reserve fund, two amended solid waste ordinances and the planning board’s proposed amendments to the Land Use Ordinance. Planning board members were scheduled to decide at their Feb. 7 meeting whether to present their amendments as a single document or to divide them into separate articles.

The next regular China selectmen’s meeting would have been on the Presidents’ Day holiday; it is rescheduled to 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 23.

China News: Special town meeting no go

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by Mary Grow

The Jan. 28 special town meeting to let China residents act on an ordinance to create a moratorium on retail marijuana businesses in town could not be held for lack of a quorum.

China town meetings require 126 registered voters. With fewer than 100 assembled at 9:25 a.m., almost half an hour after the scheduled starting time, selectmen called off the meeting.

They will decide whether and if so when to present the idea to voters again.

CHINA NEWS: TIF committee recommends several economic allocations; voters to decide

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by Mary Grow

China’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Committee is recommending selectmen ask voters at the March 25 town business meeting to allocate up to $897,923 for specific economic development projects, as follows:

  • For the causeway project at the head of China Lake’s east basin, up to $750,000 over three years.
  • For a revolving loan fund to provide bridge funding for local businesses on request, not more than $25,000 for fiscal year 2017-18.
  • As a donation to ARI, the Alewife Restoration Initiative for China Lake, $30,000.
  • As a donation to the Thurston Park Committee to improve access to the town-owned land in northeastern China, $40,000.
  • For China’s 2017 contribution to FirstPark, the Oakland business park, $37,923. • As a donation to the China Region Lakes Alliance, $15,000 (of the $30,000 the CRLA usually requests from the town, leaving $15,000 to come from taxation if voters approve).

The money would come from the TIF account, formally called the Development Program Fund, which collects taxes Central Maine Power Company pays on its expanded power line through China.

Currently, the TIF program is set up for 20 years, running from 2015 to 2035. The committee recommends selectmen ask voters to extend it to the maximum 30 years allowed by state law.

The committee further recommends asking voters to put tax revenue from the new CMP substation off Route 3 into a TIF, the same one if possible or a separate one if state law so requires.

The power line TIF gets about $265,000 each July 1, Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux told committee members. The town does not yet have the final valuation of the substation, so he cannot tell how much it would add.

The advantage of a TIF, selectman and committee member Joann Austin reminded the other committee members, is that the valuation of TIFed projects is shielded; that is, it does not count toward the town’s valuation as calculated by the state. Without the TIF, China’s valuation would be higher. A higher valuation in comparison to other municipalities results in higher county taxes and less state revenue sharing money and state aid for education.

The causeway project is the most complex of the proposals and generated the longest discussion Jan. 17. It involves improvements to the present boat landing, including expanding parking on the north side of the causeway east of the bridge; changes along the lake shore to provide better access for fishermen, including handicapped access; rebuilding or replacing the bridge; and perhaps relocating the China Village fire station to make more parking space west of the causeway.

A new fire station would probably not qualify for TIF money under state law. Whether a new bridge would qualify appears uncertain from committee discussions. L’Heureux said the state finds the present bridge, though old – built in 1930, he said – and narrow, is safe; committee member and former state legislator David Cotta doubted the state would contribute highway funds to replace it.

Several committee members, however, see a new bridge as key to the whole project. Jim Wilkens said the narrow bridge is already a safety hazard, with fishermen, including children, too close to passing vehicles, and increasing recreational use would make the situation worse. Cotta said the town might be held liable if officials promoted increased use despite a recognized hazard.

A further unresolved issue is what to do along the lake shore, and perhaps along the back of the expanded parking lot to reduce run-off into the wetland known as the Muldoon. Committee members discussed a pervious gravel lot versus a paved lot; for the lake frontage, consulting engineer Mark McCluskey has proposed sheet piling, but at the Jan. 17 meeting committee member Dale Worster recommended using landscaping blocks to make a terraced shoreline. Committee member Stephen Nichols said if the shoreline improvements are done before the bridge is replaced, they will be ruined when the shore is dug up for the bridge work.

The revolving loan fund would be administered by Kennebec Valley Council of Governments, whose staff helped committee members plan it. Wilkens and Cotta opposed recommending it to selectmen and voters, questioning whether local businesses need bridge loans and whether, if granted, they would be repaid.

The donation to ARI is based partly on the assumption that introducing alewives back into China Lake will improve water quality. The alewives supposedly eat tiny plants and animals containing phosphorus and take the phosphorus with them when they migrate back to the ocean in the fall, leaving less food for algae. Better water quality is an economic advantage.

Alewives’ role in improving water quality is hotly debated locally, with anecdotal evidence supporting it but scientific studies inconclusive. L’Heureux stressed that ARI’s goal is to restore historic fish runs, not specifically to affect water quality.

At the March 2016 town business meeting, voters approved two TIF articles for the current fiscal year. One appropriated the same amounts as recommended this March for FirstPark ($37,923) and CRLA ($15,000) plus $6,000 for administration, $2,500 for China Community Days, $650 for Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce dues and $5,000 for a bicentennial events coordinator (who has not been hired). The last three items were not discussed at the Jan. 17 TIF Committee meeting.

The second March 2016 article authorized selectmen to appropriate up to $50,000 “in the 2016-2017 fiscal year and thereafter” from TIF funds for technical, administrative and legal expenses associated with proposed economic development projects.

The draft warrant for the March 25, 2017, town business meeting includes all the 2016 items, with the Chamber of Commerce dues reduced to $500, plus all the Jan. 17 TIF Committee recommendations. Selectmen have not yet reviewed the proposed expenditures.

In November 2016 voters approved two more expenditures recommended by the TIF Committee, donating $50,000 to the China Four Seasons Club for trail work and authorizing selectmen to spend up to $10,000 to buy a piece of land near the boat landing as part of the causeway project.

L’Heureux said the land purchase is almost completed. During August 2016 discussion of the Four Seasons Club request, club President and TIF Committee member Frank Soares said he planned to ask for $30,000 a year in following years. Soares was not at the January 17 meeting and the issue was not mentioned.

The draft March 25 warrant does not include TIF funds for the Four Seasons Club’s trail work. It does include the traditional request to give the club part of the snowmobile registration tax refund the state returns to the town.

The TIF Committee is scheduled to meet again Monday evening, Jan. 30.

 

CHINA NEWS: Selectmen begin review of budget

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by Mary Grow

China selectmen began review of the 2017-18 municipal budget request at their Jan. 23 meeting, but ran out of time to finish it. They plan to continue discussion at a workshop at the town office Saturday morning, Jan. 28, immediately after the special town meeting.
Voters at the Jan. 28 special town meeting will consider a moratorium on retail recreational marijuana businesses in town. The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. at China Primary School, behind the Middle School on Lakeview Drive. A quorum of 126 voters is needed to open the meeting.
The municipal budget will be presented to voters at the annual town business meeting, scheduled for Saturday morning, March 25, at China Middle School.

Jan. 23 budget issues featured a discussion with China Rescue Unit members about whether stipends would help the group get more members.

Selectmen also appointed a planning board member and approved a Dirigo Road junkyard permit.

Neil Farrington, chairman of the board of selectmen, invited China Rescue representatives to share their opinions on the value of stipends. David Herard and Thomas Alfieri said payment in some form might help, but would not necessarily solve the problem.

Rescue now has eight members, Herard said. Most of them have full-time jobs out of town. Despite the lack of available members, the unit responded to 305 calls in 2016, covering between 80 and 90 percent of call-outs, he said.

The men cited two main reasons for the shortage of members. Herard said unlike portrayals on television, rescue is “not an easy job” and can be “very unpleasant.” Both said young people are not interested in unpleasant service rewarded only by gratitude. “The kids today don’t have that ethic,” Alfieri said bluntly.

The job can be time-consuming. A local rescue member responding to a medical emergency might end up assisting Delta Ambulance personnel on the way to the hospital, and need to find a ride home; stand-by can take hours at a house fire, days at a search for a snowmobiler missing in China Lake.
Farrington suggested allocating funds to pay $100 per day for a Rescue Unit member to be on call for 24 hours. Selectmen made no decision.
There are two vacancies on the planning board, the alternate position from which Fred Montgomery resigned in December and the at-large position from which Frank Soares resigned this month. Selectmen considered four candidates for the alternate position and appointed Ralph Howe of Dirigo Road.
Howe described himself as a businessman who is “pro-business if it doesn’t affect neighbors.” He advocated loosening regulations on business in rural areas. With reference to the shoreland ordinance changes voters rejected in November, Howe said if a building is to be converted from a seasonal residence to year-round use it must have a septic system that will protect the nearby lake.

Selectmen voted unanimously not to appoint a replacement for Soares, but instead to add a special election to the warrant for the March 25 town business meeting. They asked Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux to advertise again for candidates.

The junkyard permit was granted to Timothy Coston in succession to Russell Coston for property at 281 Dirigo Road. Coston said he needs it primarily to finish cleaning up a section of the property. Selectmen approved a June 30 deadline to complete planned work.

Letters to the editor, Week of January 26, 2017

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Hold reps accountable

To the editor:

In 2016, I ran for State Representative for House District #79 which contains China, Albion, Unity Plantation and most of Benton. The voters re-elected Representative Timothy Theriault. During my campaign, I told many voters that as a state employee of nearly 30 years, I know that government is broken. It is broken, in part, because of the public’s failure to hold elected and appointed officials accountable for their actions and inactions. As a citizen, taxpayer and voter, I believe it is time to hold our State Representative accountable.

During his campaign, Representative Theriault cited jobs, taxes, advocating for seniors and veterans, and protecting the Second Amendment as priorities. During this legislative session, he is sponsoring just five bills. They involve tree specialists, left hand turns at red traffic lights, game confiscated by IF&W, municipal accountability of funding for volunteer fire departments, and proposing funding for the “restoration” of China Lake. None of his five bills has much, if anything, to do with his campaign priorities.

The first three bills only have the titles available so their contents are not yet public. The fire department bill would repeal current statutory language about municipal funding of volunteer fire departments but would not provide any funding for them. The China Lake bill would “charge a fee to customers of the Kennebec Water District to be used to restore the quality of China Lake.” The bill contains no details about how he defines “restore”, how the lake would be “restored”, how much it would cost, how long the fee would be assessed, who would collect and spend it, why it would be paid by the customers of KWD, how long it would take to “restore” the lake, who would “restore” it and who would be held responsible for its “restoration.”
I’ve asked several questions about this bill to Representative Theriault and have yet to receive a reply. The public hearing on the bill (L.D. 55 “An Act To Provide Funding for the Restoration of China Lake”) will be heard by the Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, January 31, in Room 211 of the Cross Office Building. Perhaps Representative Theriault will provide the answers to these questions when he presents the bill at the hearing.

I encourage all voters to hold their elected representatives accountable. I recommend that you communicate with them via email or letter and insist that they also respond in writing. The public can rely on few politicians to provide us with a complete picture of their actions and inactions. Most tell and show us what they want us to believe. To track the status of these and all other bills, go to the Maine legislature website at www.mainelegislature.org/legis/bills/bills_128th/billtexts/.

John Glowa
South China

Response to KWD regarding alewives

To the editor:

Thank you to the Kennebec Water District (KWD) for their thoughtful Community Commentary. We agree that care should be taken not to overstate the case for water quality improvement resulting from alewife reintroduction. KWD’s phrasing strikes us as most appropriate: “it is hoped that the alewife reintroduction will be a contributor to water quality improvements in China Lake.” Scientific evidence does not yet prove conclusively that reintroduction of alewives into China Lake will improve water quality, and certainly we know that alewife reintroduction on its own will not be enough. But we feel it is reasonable to hope that alewives, over time, will contribute to improved water quality, as long as other significant actions continue to be taken. Such actions include continued annual flushing, reduction of sediment runoff, and reduction of fertilizer, septic and animal waste runoff into the lake. We encourage people concerned about China Lake and Outlet Stream to move forward with a clear-eyed view of what is needed to restore ecosystems that have become so far out of balance. Alewife restoration is just one of many ways that we can improve these ecosystems. All agree, as KWD says, that alewives will help to improve the ecosystem in China Lake, including a more robust food chain. We expect these improvements to help sport fish in the lake, as well as birds and animals that make their homes on the shore. We look forward to the restoration of alewives to China Lake, and to the many ecological benefits that we know for certain will result. We hope that water quality improvements will, over time, prove to be among them.

Matt Streeter
Project Manager
Alewife Restoration Initiative

China News: Planners table events center application; land use ordinance

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by Mary Grow

China Planning Board members tabled both substantive items on their Jan. 10 agenda, including Parris and Catherine Varney’s application to rent out their barn at 701 Neck Road for weddings and similar events.

The Varneys initially applied at the board’s Sept. 27, 2016, meeting. After an Oct. 11 public hearing and discussion, the board denied the application on Oct. 25. The Varneys appealed to the China Board of Appeals.

On Dec. 15, the Board of Appeals ruled unanimously that the planning board had failed “to meet the requirements of the [Land Use] ordinance due to the lack of proper findings of fact and conclusions of law.” The board of appeals sent the Varneys’ application back to the planning board.

The application was therefore on the Jan. 10 planning board agenda. However, on Jan. 10 a group of Neck Road residents filed an appeal of the Board of Appeals decision in Kennebec County Superior Court in Augusta.

The appeal alleges that the China Board of Appeals’ decision “was in violation of constitutional or statutory provisions, made upon unlawful procedure, affected by error of law, unsupported by substantial evidence on the whole record, and arbitrary or capricious or characterized by abuse of discretion, causing prejudice to Plaintiffs [the Neck Road residents].”

Further, the appeal claims the board of appeals ruling was incorrect, and the board of appeals exceeded its jurisdiction under the town ordinance.

In light of the reference to Superior Court, all three attorneys attending the Jan. 10 planning board meeting – Mathew Manahan representing the Neck Road residents, Matthew Evans representing the Varneys and Alton Stevens representing the Town of China – had asked that the board postpone action.

Acting board Chairman Milton Dudley objected to the delay. He said the board has a responsibility to deal with matters brought before it, and should not necessarily be guided by attorneys’ wishes, even the town’s attorney.

Toni Wall and Tom Miragliuolo disagreed, and the motion to table until after the Superior Court decision was approved on a 2-1 vote.
Stevens said afterward he expects the court to take at least two months to act.

About three dozen residents, mostly from Neck Road, came to the meeting. Dudley warned them at the beginning, before the vote to put off action, that they would not be invited to speak. “There will be no opportunity for public comment during this discussion,” he said.

The other agenda item was review of Land Use Ordinance amendments that were rejected by voters on Nov. 8. The three board members present agreed unanimously to postpone the discussion until Chairman Jim Wilkens and Vice-Chairman Frank Soares are present.

Sandra Kostron, one of three residents who stayed for that issue, said she believes voters rejected the proposed changes because they lacked information. She said town officials should not rely on The Town Line newspaper to publicize important public events like referendum votes, but should send individual first-class letters, “even though it’s my money” that would help pay for such mailings.

The next China Planning Board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, Jan. 24.

With the local marijuana referendum behind them – voters on Jan. 9 approved banning commercial non-medical marijuana businesses in town – and 2017-18 budget work not beginning until February, Vassalboro selectmen had a short and routine meeting Jan. 12.

Town Manager Mary Sabins has not forgotten the discussion of speeding through East Vassalboro on Route 32. She showed selectmen a solar assisted battery light borrowed from the state Department of Transportation and proposed buying two to go atop new warning signs at each end of the village.

Total cost for two lights and two signs would be less than $500, and, Sabins said, if the lights proved ineffective or annoying to neighbors, the town public works crew could use them to warn of construction work, downed trees and other temporary issues.

Selectmen unanimously approved. Because of Dig Safe requirements and frozen ground, the new warnings might not be installed until spring.

Board members renewed the agreement with Kennebec Water District for management of the China Lake Outlet Dam and approved a slightly revised contract with the town assessors and a minor revision to the town personnel policy.

They approved reports from Sabins on town finances; Road Commissioner Eugene Field, listing a lot of overtime plowing and sanding; new Police Chief Mark Brown; and the Vassalboro First Responders.

The First Responders’ report included concern about the high price of EpiPens, a tool members like to carry with them for immediate treatment of allergic reactions and similar conditions. They fear they will have to limit themselves to keeping an EpiPen in each Vassalboro fire station.

The next regular selectmen’s meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Jan. 26. Board members adjusted their February schedule to avoid meeting during school vacation week; at this point, they plan a meeting Thursday evening, Feb. 9; a budget workshop Monday afternoon, Feb. 13; and a meeting Thursday afternoon, March 2.