Area residents named to dean’s list at UNE

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Photo credit: University of New England Facebook page

The following students have been named to the dean’s list for the 2022 fall semester at the University of New England, in Biddeford.

Albion: Emma McPherson and Olivia McPherson.

Augusta: Valerie Capeless, Zinaida Gregor, Jessica Guerrette, Brooklynn Merrill, Daraun White and Julia White.

Benton: Jessica Andrews.

Fairfield: Caitlyn Mayo.

Jefferson: Mallory Audette.

Oakland: Kierra Bumford and Francesca Caccamo.

Palermo: Peyton Sammons.

Sidney: Sarah Kohl.

Skowhegan: Wylie Bedard, Elizabeth Connelly, Ashley Mason and Dawson Turcotte.

South China: Richard Winn.

Vassalboro: Adam Ochs.

Waterville: Mohammad Atif-Sheikh, Elias Nawfel, Grace Petley and Evan Watts.

Winslow: Juliann Lapierre, Kristopher Loubier and Justice Picard.

China transfer station committee reconsiders utility vehicle recommendation

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by Mary Grow

Members of China’s transfer station committee are going to reconsider their recommendation that the town buy a Polaris Ranger 500 utility vehicle for transfer station staff use.

Since their March 7 action (see the March 9 issue of The Town Line, p. 3), they have new information and a new, higher price, according to an email from transfer station employee Cheyenne Houle.

Houle said the Ranger 500 has been replaced by a Ranger 570. The 570 has most features committee members valued in the 500, like a roll cage and lights; Houle wrote that it adds a dump body and has higher ground clearance. Also, she said, recommended time between services has been increased.

The price she brought to the March 7 committee meeting was $10,699. The new price is $900 higher, she said.

Houle is seeking updated prices from two other suppliers. She plans to have information by the next committee meeting, scheduled for 9 a.m., Tuesday, April 11.

China broadband committee to try again for grant

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by Mary Grow

China Broadband Committee (CBC) members will try again to get a grant to expand broadband service to China residents who are currently underserved or not served at all.

They will again work in partnership with Direct Communications, the Idaho-based company that now owns UniTel, in Unity, with assistance from Mission Broadband, the consultants who have worked with them for several years.

These decisions were the outcome of a March 9 meeting among the parties, the first CBC meeting since last fall, when the first and unsuccessful application was put in final form.

The grants are awarded by the Maine Connectivity Authority (MCA). A letter from the MCA rejecting China’s first application (see the Jan. 12 issue of The Town Line, p. 1) said there had been many more applications than available funds could support.

At the March 9 meeting, John Doherty and Jeff Nevins, from Mission Broadband, and Jayne Sullivan, from Unitel/Direct Communications, discussed two issues that will affect the next round of grants: mapping and revisions to MCA’s grant program.

Mapping involves the accuracy – or inaccuracy – of maps purporting to show where improved service is needed. Doherty said that the first maps were by census block; if one home in a block had excellent internet service, the map showed all the neighbors equally well served.

New maps are being prepared by individual addresses. They are expected to be available by June.

The definition of adequate service is also debated, in terms of capacity, speed and reliability.

Sullivan expects MCA’s application form will be revised. She hopes the updated forms will be available by June; the application deadline is currently some so-far-unspecified time in August (which, Doherty pointed out, is a month when people are likely to be on vacation).

Bob O’Connor

Unitel/Direct prepared China’s previous application; CBC members authorized them to prepare a new one, at least in outline pending more information from MCA. Sullivan said the goal is “a winnable application.”

CBC chairman Robert O’Connor had drafted a document that he intended as part of a new application. Sullivan accepted it as useful local input for MCA reviewers; she and O’Connor will continue discussion by email as necessary.

The expectation is that MCA will still require a local funding match, toward which China voters have approved Tax Increment Financing funds.

The next CBC meeting is scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday, April 27.

 

 

 

 

China select board makes plans for annual business meeting

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by Mary Grow

China select board members spent most of their March 13 meeting on plans for the June 13 annual town business meeting.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood gave them a first draft of the town meeting warrant articles, which will be decided by written ballot. Most articles are the familiar ones: appropriations for the 2023-24 fiscal year that begins July 1, including from the TIF (Tax Increment Financing) and ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds; authorization for the select board to take listed actions on behalf of the town; and setting the fall 2023 and spring 2024 tax due dates, for example.

Hapgood pointed out a new article asking voters to authorize municipal officers to close town roads to winter maintenance. If approved, she said, the authority would be available to stop plowing a lightly-populated town road if plow drivers encountered unusual difficulties, like residents’ vehicles consistently in their way.

The March 13 draft warrant included a request for voter action on one proposed ordinance, the Solid Waste Ordinance intended to update and merge two existing ordinances. The manager intends to add an article asking action on the Board of Appeals Ordinance (Chapter 11 of the Land Development Code).

Select board talks about lack of volunteers

At their March 13 meeting, China select board members briefly discussed an on-going problem: how to get volunteers to serve on town boards and committees, elected or appointed.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said there are vacancies on the elected planning board (District 4, the southwestern quarter of town) and several appointed boards, including the board of appeals, the Thurston Park committee and the recreation committee.

Amber French is the first volunteer for the comprehensive plan implementation committee that select board members created last summer, Hapgood said.

The town website, china.govoffice.org, has an application for committee membership under the heading “Town Officials, Boards and Committees,” on the first page. Committees and their current members are listed.

The 2023-24 school budget, which also requires voter action, is a separate document that is not included in the municipal warrant.

Hapgood expects select board members to approve a near-final warrant at their March 27 meeting, so it can be forwarded to the budget committee for their recommendations on spending articles.

She proposed a public hearing on the warrant on Monday, May 8. That way, she said, voters can get information before absentee ballots are available starting Monday, May 15.

On Tuesday, June 13, voters in the portable building behind the town office will elect a town meeting moderator at 6:55 a.m. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Select board member Janet Preston wants one more meeting added to the town schedule. Preston plans to apply for a Kennebec Valley Council of Governments program called Community Resiliency; an early step, she said, is a community meeting to get residents’ input on town needs and priorities.

Preston and the KVCOG website indicate that resiliency includes a variety of contemporary issues, like dealing with climate change impacts, environmental hazards, emergency preparations, renewable energy, green infrastructure and transportation.

Preston recommended holding the meeting in March, because the application is due in March. The board took no action.

China appeals board agrees with CEO French’s ruling

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by Mary Grow

The China Board of Appeals met Friday afternoon, March 10, to hear an appeal of a building permit issued by codes enforcement officer Nicholas French. Board members upheld French’s decision.

The permit was issued on Jan. 9, 2023, to Wayne Paul, Jr. It was appealed by Baiba Bangerskis (for whom her husband, Gundars “Gus” Bangerskis spoke), Raymond Malley and Susan Malley (identified as the widow of James R. Malley), residents of the Yarmouth, Massachusetts, area.

The appeal documents correctly identify French as assistant codes officer and Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood as codes officer. Hapgood holds the title while French completes courses needed for certification (he is almost done); French has been doing the job, and his signature is on Paul’s permit.

After appeals board chairman Spencer Aitel established the board’s authority to hear the appeal, the appellants, appearing virtually, explained the situation, with Bangerskis taking the lead.

They explained that two pieces of land on the east side of Three Mile Pond are involved. One piece is owned jointly by Baiba Bangerskis, two Malleys and Paul. Joint ownership, Gus Bangerskis said, means each party has a one-fourth interest in all of the parcel; none claims a specific piece of it.

Riga Road, formerly Fire Road 71, runs through this lot from Route 32 South to the lake, where several people have homes or seasonal homes. The lakeshore residents have a right-of-way over Riga Road to their properties; Bangerskis said neither Paul nor the other three landowners have a right of way.

Paul also owns and plans to build on the next parcel north, between Riga Road and Fire Road 70. Whether Riga Road touches that lot was part of the debate. Paul said it does; the appellants questioned the accuracy of the old survey on which Paul relied.

Bangerskis also said a deed clause that French cited in correspondence with the appellants was misinterpreted; it does not give Paul a right of way over Riga Road.

The appellants therefore argued that because Paul does not have a right of way over Riga Road, he cannot use it to access his property – they referred to use by trucks delivering lumber and cement trucks – and therefore should not have been granted a building permit.

His only access, they suggested, is by water, from the public landing on Three Mile Pond.

Aitel then asked French why he issued the permit.

French replied that he had no ground on which to deny it.

China’s ordinance does not require a building permit applicant to have road frontage, access or a street address. The requirements are a map and lot number and proof of right, title or interest; Paul provided them.

“How he actually gets to this parcel has nothing to do with me,” French said.

After Aitel gave the two parties a chance to question each other, he asked board members’ opinions. Agreement was quick and unanimous: French’s action was correct.

The access issue may be a problem for the landowner, Robert Fischer said, but it is irrelevant to the codes officer’s decision.

French “did what he is authorized to do,” Stephen Greene said. He suggested other issues between Paul and the appellants should be worked out among them or submitted to a court of law.

The vote on a motion that the codes officer acted correctly in issuing the building permit was 5-0-1, with Fischer, Greene, Michael Gee, Lisa Kane and Alan Pelletier voting yes and Aitel abstaining, as he habitually does when his vote is not essential.

Aitel reminded the appellants that they have the right to appeal the Board of Appeals decision to court.

Without quorum, China TIF committee goes ahead with meeting

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by Mary Grow

With only four of eight members present (there used to be nine members, but chairman Brent Chesley said Trishea Story had resigned), China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) Committee lacked a quorum for the March 8 meeting. Members decided since their decisions are advisory only, they could go ahead without a quorum.

The agenda included two main items: fund requests left over from the committee’s Feb. 8 meeting (see the Feb. 16 issue of The Town Line, p. 3), and the revolving loan fund (RFL) that is part of China’s TIF program.

Committee members quickly recommended approval of:

  • The China Lake Association’s request for $1,000 that committee chairman Brent Chesley said is for a state conference to be held at the China Conference Center;
  • $5,000 for China Ice Days in February 2024;
  • $20,000 in two different requests from town officials, half for 2024 China Community Days and the other half for a summer intern, whose duties Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said will focus on helping existing business and reaching out to attract new ones; and
  • $7,213 for Kennebec Valley Council of Governments (KVCOG) dues and $460 for Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce dues, items Hapgood said have previously been in the municipal budget.

Thurston Park Committee chairman Jeanette Smith presented a revised request for TIF funds, mostly to help repair the entrance road into the park. The road washed out in the Dec. 22 storm, and an application for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds was denied.

Smith said trails in the park are usable, once people walk in because they can’t drive until the road is fixed, but caution is advised – the trails, too, suffered washouts and are cluttered with fallen and uprooted trees.

Smith had asked for only the $25,000 a majority of TIF committee members approved Feb.8. Chesley encouraged her to increase the request, and said the select board, on which he serves, should hear the history of the storm damage and the FEMA application before its members act on a request for TIF money.

The revolving loan fund (RLF) is described in China’s TIF plan as intended “to provide existing and new businesses in China with loans to expand operations, add employees and develop new products and with other types of business assistance which expands and improves the town’s economy.”

At their Nov. 22, 2022, meeting, committee members questioned the value of the program. They pointed out that the only loan ever made was in default, and as of November there were no applicants for new loans.

Since then, Chesley said, he had been approached by someone interested in a loan to start a new business in China. On investigation, he found that the town’s agreement with KVCOG to administer the RLF had expired, and had to tell the interested party the committee needed to recreate an administrative framework before reviewing a loan application.

Audience member Thomas Rumpf, who served on the RLF committee when there was one, volunteered to help put a committee together, again. Rumpf also recommended changing the program from loans to grants, an idea committee member Michael “Mickey” Wing supported.

Chesley had already planned to meet with KVCOG officials; he and Rumpf will schedule a meeting.

A change from a loan fund to a grant fund would require a change in the TIF document, which would need approval from China voters and from state Department of Economic and Community Development officials.

The next China TIF committee meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Monday, May 1.

Eagle scout remembered

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From left, Luanne Chesley with Troop #479 leaders Sam Boynton, and Christian Hunter, and Troop #479 Scouts Isaac Audette, Tad Dow, Kameron Rossignol, Mike Choate, Nathan Choate and Brady Newell. (contributed photo)

by Chuck Mahaleris

Rémy Pettengill was honored posthumously with the Spirit of the Eagle Award during the Kennebec Valley District Scout Leaders’ Recognition Dinner held on March 11, 2023, at the Winslow MacCrillis-Rousseau VFW Post #8835, with his fellow Scouts on hand to receive the award. The award was presented by Luanne Chesley, chairman of Vassalboro, Kennebec Valley District Advancement.

The Boy Scouts of America created the Spirit of the Eagle Award as an honorary, posthumous recognition of a registered youth member who has lost his or her life in an accident or through illness. Rémy Joel Pettengill, age 17, passed on January 7, 2023, following a car accident on December 30.

The award is bestowed by the National Court of Honor as part of the celebration of life of Rémy. It recognizes the joy, happiness, and life-fulfilling experiences the Scouting program made in his life. The intention is also to help heal and comfort the youth member’s family and other loved ones over their loss. Because the Scouting program was so appreciated, loved, and enjoyed by Rémy, this award will serve as a reflection of the family’s and friends’ wishes as a final salute and tribute to their departed loved one.

Part of a message from the Pettengill family was shared at the dinner: “Each day Rémy walked this Earth, he greeted friends and strangers with a smile. He was a voice for those who could not find their own, he protected the weak, he championed the underdog, and he helped those in need. Please remember him with joy. Help Rémy continue his legacy – be kind to one another, hold the door open, smile, and care for those you know and even those you don’t. Love, laugh, live life to its fullest, and wear crazy socks!”

Rémy Pettengill was Senior Patrol Leader of Scout Troop #479, in China, and a student at Erskine Academy, in South China. He was proud of attaining Eagle Scout rank, becoming both an American Red Cross Lifeguard and a BSA Lifeguard, assisting to coach his brother’s middle school track team, working at Camp Bomazeen, and volunteering with China Masonic Lodge #45. He was a member of the Erskine track team, National Honor Society, and the BSA Order of the Arrow – Madockawanda Lodge.

“Rémy was their leader,” said Kennebec Valley District and Troop #479 committee member Ron Emery. “He was the person each of the Scouts in the troop looked to, to help guide the way. It is appropriate that they should receive the award honoring their Senior Patrol Leader and friend.”

Erskine Academy announces school calendar change

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Parents and students should be advised of a change to Erskine Academy’s school calendar. Due to excessive snow days, Friday, March 17, will now be an Early Release Day for all Erskine Academy students. Students will be dismissed at 11:30 a.m.

China transfer station committee recommends purchase of utility vehicle

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by Mary Grow

China transfer station committee members voted at their March 7 meeting to recommend to the select board purchase of a utility vehicle for transfer station staff use.

The vote was unanimous, with two transfer station staffers and road foreman Shawn Reed abstaining to avoid any appearance of self-interest (although Reed said he doubts public works would need to borrow the machine).

Station attendants currently use a donated golf cart to move things to their proper disposal locations. Transfer station manager Tom Maraggio said the new vehicle will accommodate larger things, like discarded air conditioners and television sets.

The price for the recommended Polaris Ranger 500 is $10,699. Staffer Cheyenne Houle had two other bids on different models, one higher and one slightly lower.

The China transfer station offers a six-page hand-out describing what materials can be recycled (with a reminder that the list may change as markets for recyclables change) and what other discards are acceptable, free or for a fee, with an aerial photo labeled to show where different things go.

She and Maraggio recommended the Polaris as the only one offered with a roll cage and lights, and as probably the most durable of the choices. Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said the transfer station capital expenditures fund has enough 2022-23 money left to cover the cost.

Hapgood said she would put the request on the agenda for the Monday, March 13, select board meeting.

Two other transfer station projects are pending, paving in two areas and putting a cover over the new compactor.

Houle had asked for price quotes on paving and gotten only one, so far. Reed is having the same problem as he tries to budget for road paving in the coming summer; he predicted that by the end of March, companies will have a better idea of per-ton paving costs and will be more willing to offer estimated prices.

Houle said she has no bids yet on a cover for the pre-crusher.

Two other topics at the March 7 meeting were using the RFID (radio frequency identification) system to get more information about transfer station use, and refiguring the fee charged Palermo residents for their trash bags.

Hapgood said too many non-residents are using the China transfer station, which is supported primarily by China residents’ property taxes. Some people borrow residents’ RFID tags; some move out of town, find that their new town’s disposal system is less convenient or more expensive and continue to bring trash to China.

Committee members discussed ways to make the RFID system more useful. Hapgood and committee chairman Paul Lucas think requiring annual renewals would be one way to help keep records up to date. Hapgood accepted Houle’s offer to explore additional uses with the company that runs the system.

The updated version of the agreement under which Palermo residents use China’s facility calls for a recalculation of the bag fee each spring, so it can be adjusted as costs change. Palermo representative Robert Kurek reviewed the process, which Hapgood said she has started.

Committee members scheduled their next meeting for 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 11, in the China town office meeting room.

CHINA: More discussions take place on appeals board ordinance

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by Mary Grow

China select board members spent the first hour and a half of their two-hour March 6 special meeting talking about the Board of Appeals Ordinance that they, planning board members, board of appeals members and other residents have been discussing since early January.

The result of their deliberations is a draft revised ordinance that they intend to present to voters at the June 13 town business meeting.

Board member Brent Chesley, whose initial amendments on Jan. 3 started the series of not always amicable public conversations, had divided proposed changes reacting to his proposed changes into three categories: those from town attorney Amanda Meader; those from the China planning board; and two from other sources.

[See related story: Planners vote unanimously to forward new version of appeals board ordinance, following another fight]

Attorney Meader’s recommendations were accepted unanimously and without discussion.

Planning board proposals were uniformly rejected, mostly with select board members Chesley, Blane Casey and chairman Wayne Chadwick opposing them and members Jeanne Marquis and Janet Preston favoring them.

A recommendation from an unnamed resident, supported by China Region Lakes Alliance executive director Scott Pierz, to have any variance that the Board of Appeals approves recorded in the county Registry of Deeds within 90 days was unanimously approved. (A variance is an exception to an ordinance requirement.)

Suggested language from the China Lake Association board of directors, via an email from vice-president Eric Lind, directing the Board of Appeals to make sure an approved variance would not harm nearby water bodies and authorizing the board to add conditions to a variance was rejected. Only Marquis and Preston voted to add it.

Board members asked Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood to have the ordinance in final form for planning board members to consider at their March 14 meeting.

There will be a public hearing on the proposed ordinance before it goes to voters, Chadwick told audience members. And, he said, on the June 13 town meeting warrant it will appear with a recommendation from the select board that voters approve it; he does not object to adding a recommendation from the planning board if that board chooses to make one.

The June 13 town business meeting will be by written ballot, Hapgood said; select board members so voted last fall.

The budget that select board members approved March 6 was slightly amended to incorporate their Feb. 27 decisions (see the March 2 issue of The Town Line, p. 2). It was to be forwarded to the budget committee for consideration at a March 7 meeting.

The next select board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, March 13.