by Mary Grow

At their March 10 meeting, China select board members put their draft 2025-26 municipal budget in near-enough final form to forward to the town budget committee. Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood hoped to be able to schedule a budget committee meeting the week of March 17.

Voters will make final 2025-26 spending decisions at the Tuesday, June 10, town business meeting, which will be by written ballot.

One March 10 tweak reduced the proposed budget for donations to out-of-town social service agencies.

Hapgood had already recommended cutting most outside organizations’ requests, lowering the almost $32,000 requested to $25,500. Board member Thomas Rumpf moved to delete $500 for the American Red Cross, based on his experiences with the group.

His motion was approved 3-2, with board chairman Wayne Chadwick, Edwin Bailey and Rumpf in favor and Blane Casey and Jeanne Marquis opposed.

The account includes a recommended $500 (half the requested amount) for the Winslow Community Cupboard, which several people said serves China residents. When Casey asked about the China Food Pantry, Hapgood said that group makes no request for town funds.

The draft budget includes 3.5 percent COLA (cost of living adjustment) raises for town employees. Select board members endorsed the increase on 4-1 vote, with Casey opposed. Casey also voted, alone, against supporting all parts of the budget that include salaries.

Chadwick said he, too, would have opposed the 3.5 percent increase as too generous, until he saw what employers are offering to try to hire summer employees; although, he added, those jobs offer fewer benefits than working for the town.

Before tackling the budget, select board members heard two other issues.

China Village volunteer fire department chief Joel Nelson and assistant chief Ben Loubier requested an article in the June 10 warrant asking voters to appropriate money for a new truck for their department.

They need another tanker, to replace a 1990 one acquired in 2014 with an engine so old that parts are hard to find, they explained. Their application for a federal grant was denied in December.

Nelson had two price quotes for a new truck, which he prefers over a second-hand one so the department can customize it and for the warranty. Casey asked for quotes on a used one, too.

Selectmen postponed a decision for two weeks, expecting more price options.

Hapgood reminded board members the 180-day moratorium on new transmission lines through China that voters approved Nov. 5, 2024, will expire early in May.

The question was put on the ballot by petition, in response to the proposed north-south transmission line from Aroostook County that would have gone near or perhaps through China.

The goal was to give China officials time to write and get voter approval for an ordinance to regulate transmission lines. Nothing has been done.

Select board members decided they need to give China Planning Board members a specific instruction to develop an ordinance, and so voted unanimously. Before the expiration date they plan to exercise their option to renew the moratorium for another 180 days.

The planned line that triggered China’s November 2024 vote and similar actions in other towns has been shelved, but board members believe the idea remains alive, so protective measures are still needed.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, March 24.

by Mary Grow

China’s Thurston Park Committee members continued planning future activities, undeterred by bad weather having canceled their February China Ice Days plans.

At the committee’s Feb. 20 meeting, chairman Jeanette Smith said the owl prowl scheduled as part of the Feb. 14-16 weekend events was not held. She added that she has not yet heard owls, perhaps because the cold weather has delayed mating.

Committee members discussed plans to maintain and improve trails in the park and events to schedule in warmer weather. They seek to expand handicapped opportunities, including accessible and interesting trails and parking. At their January meeting, they proposed adding a handicapped-accessible toilet.

Also under consideration is making some trail sections usable by mountain bikers.

Smith raised a new issue: now that the town-owned lot south of the town office building is to house the relocated ice rink and the new community garden, is there still room for the planned dog park? (Recreation Committee chairman Martha Wentworth proposed the dog park that China select board members first discussed at their July 1, 2024, meeting.)

Smith intends to ask Wentworth about building the dog park in Thurston Park. Many local people already walk their dogs there, committee members said.

Another new project, with which China Historical Society member Tim Hatch is helping, is finding names of people who lived in the park decades ago. Hatch said he is checking 19th-century maps of the town for names of former residents whose homes are marked only by cellar holes.

More trail signs are needed. Smith said she visited a company from whom she hoped to order some and found it had closed. Discussion of alternatives included mention of an Oakland company.

Committee members again discussed the problem of improving the southern access to the park over neighbors’ opposition (see the Jan. 23 issue of The Town Line, pp. 2 and 3). The Haskell family uses for a driveway the south end of Yorktown Road (which the town discontinued years ago, maintaining a right of way).

Committee member Scott Monroe recommended continuing to try to talk with the Haskells, with approval from Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood. Smith thought she might be able to get a legal opinion supporting the town’s right to use the road, at a cost the committee’s fund from past timber sales could cover.

The next Thurston Park Committee meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 20, in the portable building in the town office complex. Committee members agreed their April meeting should be a workshop, to include repairing picnic tables and benches.