China Transfer Committee discusses raising transfer station fees for Palermo residents

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by Mary Grow

China Transfer Station Committee members held a special Sept. 21 meeting to talk about increasing fees charged to Palermo residents. The meeting was consistently cooperative and courteous, with each town’s representatives expressing appreciation to the other’s.

According to the discussion, the 17-year contract allowing Palermo residents use of China’s transfer station was signed in June 2016 and was effective Jan. 1, 2017. It prescribes an annual $18,000 payment from Palermo to China; sets fees for Palermo mixed solid waste, which must be in bags that China buys and Palermo residents pay for; and includes China’s right to increase fees charged to Palermo, with at least six months’ notice.

China cannot increase fees by more than the cost-of-living increase (a prescribed measurement and time period are in the contract), except as needed “to cover any ‘pass-through’ costs (such as increases in tipping [disposal] fees) and federal or state mandated policies” that increase transfer station costs.

Representatives of both towns had calculated the consumer price increase since the beginning of 2017. They presented similar figures: China Committee Chairman Lawrence Sikora figured about 13.3 percent, Palermo representative Bob Kurik about 12 percent.

The two men agreed the consumer price increase would justify a recommendation to increase the price of a large trash bag from $2 to $2.25.

China Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood observed that the large bags now used are 33 gallons, not the 30 gallons specified in the contract. There are also 15-gallon bags, priced in the contract at $1.25; they are so little used that over the years the price has been reduced, Kurik and Hapgood said.

There was a long discussion of pass-through costs before committee members agreed that they include four components: tipping fees; transportation; state or federal mandates (no one was aware of any); and higher costs for the Town of China buying the bags.

They do not include pay increases for transfer station staff, because those are defined as part of operating costs that China pays.

Committee member Ashley Farrington had reviewed records from 2017 to Aug. 1, 2021, to prepare information on tipping fees and trucking costs. Committee members did not translate them into a figure to be recommended as an increase.

The trash bags are used for mixed solid waste, the stuff that goes into the hopper at the transfer station. Another component of trash is larger items like furniture and carpets. Sikora and Farrington had collected information to start a discussion of fees for such items, but committee members made no decisions.

Sikora prepared a table based on average weight of different items, as listed in an on-line guide for moving companies. It appeared that if the transfer station charged the new 10-cents-a-pound fee for demolition debris that selectmen approved Aug. 30, disposal fees for some items would increase significantly.

The most conspicuous example was a sleeper sofa, for which a transfer station user is now charged $10. If the typical one weighs 275 pounds, as the guide said (committee members had doubts), the new disposal fee would be $27.50.

These fees for special items apply to China and Palermo residents equally.

Committee member Mark Davis warned his colleagues not to recommend fee increases so big that residents would resort to roadside dumping.

He extended his comments to ask whether the transfer station is supposed to make a profit, or to provide a service to residents. Sikora reworded the issue; it is not a question of profit, but of seeking the appropriate balance between defraying costs and providing service.

Transfer Station Committee members scheduled their next regular meeting for 9 a.m., Tuesday, Oct. 12.

CHINA: Land parcel sale back to square one

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by Mary Grow

As of Sept. 27, China selectmen’s effort to sell a 39-acre piece of land on Lakeview Drive is back where it was before they agreed on a buyer at their Aug. 30 meeting.

On Aug. 30, China realtor Lucas Adams told selectmen they had two bids, $10,000 from the local People’s Park group headed by Lindsey Harwath and $80,000 from former China residents Austin “Gerry” and Lynda Ogden. Selectmen authorized Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood to negotiate with the Ogdens. At their Sept. 13 meeting Hapgood said the Ogdens bought the property for $83,000.

At the Sept. 27 meeting, Adams said he had not known China subdivision approvals expire if work is not underway within five years. The land, therefore, is no longer legally a subdivision, and the Ogdens have withdrawn their $83,000 offer.

Adams revised his valuation of the lot from $80,000 upward to $55,000 upward. There are currently three bids, he said: the People’s Park has again bid $10,000, the Ogdens have bid $40,000 and resident Troy Bulmer has bid $40,000.

Adams told Selectman Janet Preston that Bulmer does not want to see the land developed. Lindsey Harwath, President of the People’s Park group, said she had talked with him.

After half an hour’s discussion, selectmen voted unanimously to authorize Adams, with whom they have a six-month contract, to market the property at $59,000, with bids due by their next meeting, which will be at 4 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 12 (rescheduled due to the Oct. 11 Indigenous People’s Day holiday); and meanwhile to negotiate for higher bids from the three current bidders.

Adams said he would keep Hapgood informed.

Audience comments on the issue included a prepared statement by resident Marie Michaud urging selectmen to leave the land undeveloped to protect its varied wildlife and avoid more run-off into China Lake. In addition to potential run-off from developed areas, a stream on the lot “flows directly into China Lake,” she said.

Michaud reminded selectmen that in two town visioning sessions held as part of the process of updating the town’s comprehensive plan, residents had indicated a preference for preserving green spaces, open land and farmland. Selectmen are “currently not following what your constituents said they want,” she said.

Harwath, Stephen Greene and Brent Chesley had questions about Adams’ research and marketing.

Adams told Chesley the property had been listed online, and he had received telephone inquiries. He agreed with Chesley’s comment that no sign was posted on the ground until late in the process.

Adams said wetlands lower the property’s sale value. He and Selectman Wayne Chadwick discussed whether it has a septic system easement for the condominiums on the west side of Lakeview Drive, or whether all such easements are on an abutting lot.

In other business at the Sept. 27 selectmen’s meeting, board members chose, conditionally, a supplier for heat pumps for town buildings and agreed with Regional School Unit (RSU) #18 on a bus parking area on the town office grounds.

At their Sept. 13 meeting, selectmen looked at five bids for heat pumps for the transfer station and the town office. They postponed a decision while Hapgood confirmed which venders are “Efficiency Maine commercial qualified partners” eligible for rebates (if state funds are available).

Hapgood said all but one bidder is so qualified. Selectmen therefore awarded the bid to the lowest qualified bidder, Rod’s HPAC Installs, of Windsor, for $14,520. The decision is contingent on Selectman Blane Casey’s being satisfied with the proposed scope of work that he will review and compare with at least one other bidder’s.

RSU #18 Transportation Director Lennie Goff explained that the RSU needs room to park from three to occasionally five buses. Hapgood said she and Goff had considered school and town properties and agreed on an area off the back entranceway to the town office complex, between the buildings and Alder Park Road.

RSU #18 will create and maintain a gravel parking lot and provide electrical service to it, and will take care of snow removal at the same time as school grounds are cleared. Goff and Hapgood both will look into any possible insurance needs.

Hapgood said the area will have minimal impact on the office buildings. She and Goff agreed that the buses will be moved temporarily to the school grounds if the town needs extra parking, for example during an election.

Selectmen unanimously accepted the agreement.

They also approved exploring options and getting cost estimates to repair the dry hydrant on Routes 202 and 9 at the head of China Lake, between the blinker at the Route 137 intersection and the Circle K gas station and convenience store.

Hapgood said the new hydrant installed at the causeway froze over the winter, leading firefighters to ask about repairing the old one. No one knows whether it is plugged or whether a pipe is broken.

The manager said costs would be paid from the volunteer fire departments’ reserve fund.

In other business, selectmen appointed a list of ballot clerks for the Nov. 2 election and appointed Terry Demerchant secretary for the Municipal Building Committee.

They authorized Hapgood to sign American Rescue Plan Act funding documents. She is still accepting suggestions for ways to spend ARPA money.

CHINA: Follow-up on land sale story from last week

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The property in question, from Google Streetview.

Lucas Adams, head of Adams Realty in China, has provided additional information to supplement the story on the People’s Park group in the Sept. 23 issue of The Town Line.

China selectmen agreed at their Aug. 30 meeting to sell about 39 acres of town-owned land on the east side of Lakeview Drive to Austin “Gerry” and Lynda Ogden. The Ogdens bid $80,000, and after negotiations with Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood agreed to $83,000.

The only other bid was from the People’s Park, a group headed by Lindsey Harwath hoping to acquire the land for a public park. Their offer was $10,000.

Adams confirmed Harwath’s report that she and the Ogdens met at his office on Sept. 15 and the Ogdens offered to sell the back (eastern) part of the property to the People’s Park group for $110,000.

The Ogdens also offered to put in a road and an electric power connection to the eastern area, at an estimated cost of $30,000, and to follow through at their expense if the cost estimate turned out to be low, Adams said.

And, he said, the Ogdens were willing to wait until next spring for payment, to give the People’s Park group time to collect donations.

His conclusion is that with those conditions, the $110,000 price is “a very fair offer.”

The Ogdens’ initial plan was to keep two of the lots designated in the former Candlewood subdivision, on the north side of the proposed, but unbuilt, access road. They later decided to keep a third lot, Adams said.

They offered to the People’s Park group two lots on the south side of the access road and all the property east of the former Wiscasset, Waterville and Farmington railroad track that is now a recreational trail.

Adams said he had not “discouraged” anyone else from buying the land from the town. He had talked with one person who decided not to buy, he said. He told China selectmen on Aug. 30 that he had received only the two offers; he surmised interest was low because much of the parcel is wet.

Adams said Ogden has not been associated with Adams Realty since the 1980s.

“Gerry’s an investor,” who owns property all over the State of Maine, Adams said.

History of Candlewood Camps property

The about 39 acres the Town of China has just sold was part of the Candlewood Camps property owned for years by Lucas Adams’ grandparents, Albert and Muriel Adams.

After the Adamses retired, Wachusetts Properties acquired and subdivided the land. At the Sept. 8, 2015, planning board meeting, then Codes Officer Paul Mitnik reported that he thought the subdivision permit had expired, until he found a modification approved in June 2015 that extended its life.

China’s Subdivision Ordinance says that a subdivision plan approved by the planning board becomes “null and void” if “substantial construction” has not started within five years. When a plan expires, the planning board is to have a notice placed in the state Registry of Deeds,

When Wachusett Properties failed to sell subdivision lots, they offered the land to the Town of China. Voters accepted the gift at the polls on Nov. 8, 2016. That fall, town officials considered using the property for a new China Village fire station or holding it for later resale.

In March 2017, voters amended China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) program to add the Lakeview Drive lot to areas eligible for TIF-funded development projects.

In November 2018 they approved $5,000 from the TIF account for “concept drawings” for an emergency services building and community center on the lot. The emergency services section was intended to include a new China Village fire station; space for a police office and vehicle; and perhaps room for one of Delta Ambulance’s vehicles (since China Rescue cannot provide transport).

In June 2019, however, voters refused to take $25,000 from unexpended fund balance (also called surplus) to develop engineering plans and cost estimates for the building. The vote, as recorded in the June 13, 2019, issue of The Town Line, was not even close: 72 “yes” votes to 332 “no” votes.

Selectmen therefore asked at the June 8, 2021, town meeting for authorization to sell the land, with proceeds “to be put into an assigned fund to reduce the mil rate in the fiscal year following the sale.” Town meeting voters approved.

China Broadband Committee had a busy September

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by Mary Grow

China Broadband Committee (CBC) members had a busy late September schedule, holding a committee meeting Sept. 23; participating in a public informational session by zoom Sept. 26 (see related story); attending the selectmen’s Sept. 27 public hearing on the Nov. 2 warrant article asking for funding for expanded broadband in China; and later discussing their proposed informational flyer with selectmen.

Selectmen did not approve printing and mailing the Sept. 27 version of the flyer with town funds.

CBC members therefore confirmed the committee meeting they had tentatively scheduled for 4 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 30. They intend to redraft the flyer.

Ronald Breton, chairman of the selectboard, said if they work fast, he will call a special selectmen’s meeting to consider a new version, rather than delaying distribution until after the Oct. 12 selectboard meeting.

On Nov. 2, China voters will be asked to authorize – but not require – selectmen to obtain a $5.8 million bond, to be supplemented by grants, to build broadband infrastructure throughout the town.

The Sept. 23 CBC meeting was devoted to plans to publicize the Nov. 2 vote. CBC members reviewed a two-sided legal-sized flyer that presented information supporting the broadband expansion and specifically urged a “yes” vote on the ballot question.

Selectman Wayne Chadwick, from the audience, expressed his personal opinion that the committee should not use town funds to influence voters.

CBC members pointed out that on the ballot, voters will see recommendations from the selectboard and the budget committee (both oppose the question, the selectboard by 3-2 and the budget committee by 4-1), but no recommendation from the CBC, which supports the question.

[See all our stories about the broadband project here.]

By Sept. 27, they had revised the flyer to eliminate exhortations to approve the bond issue. Selectmen nonetheless objected that it was one-sidedly in favor of the bond issue – “all pro and no con,” as Chadwick put it.

Breton remembered an earlier meeting when he had urged CBC members to promote their project with funds selectmen appropriated for the committee. “You got your money, go out and sell it,” he quoted himself, from memory.

More recently, however, Breton asked Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood to consult town attorney Amanda Meader about the situation. Hapgood reported that Meader said a flyer that was “persuasive” rather than “informational” did not benefit voters and should not be funded by the town.

Breton therefore joined his fellow board members in suggesting the flyer provide additional factual information, for example on costs, that they thought would be helpful to voters.

The result was a vote to ask CBC members to prepare a revised flyer with more information and less persuasion, and to seek approval to have it printed and distributed with town funds. Breton, Chadwick, Blane Casey and Irene Belanger voted in favor; Janet Preston, who is the selectboard’s ex-officio representative on the committee, abstained.

Preston explained that she thinks the improved broadband service is a benefit to the town and supports the bond issue, but she also understands the objections to the Sept. 27 version of the flyer.

Public hearing well attended

The half-hour public hearing on the Nov. 2 bond issue that preceded the Sept. 27 selectmen’s meeting was one of the best attended in recent memory, with audience members participating from the meeting room and over the town’s Live Stream.

Audience members’ questions about the China Broadband Committee’s (CBC) plans if the $5.8 million bond issue is approved were answered by Ronald Breton, chairman of the selectmen; Mark Ouellette, President of Axiom Technologies, attending his second China meeting in two days; and CBC members.

Ouellette and CBC Chairman Robert O’Connor explained some of the technical issues about connecting directly from the world-wide web via a southern Maine point and a China central office to each subscriber’s house.

Because of the direct connection, Ouellette said, each subscriber will get the speed of downloaded and uploaded information paid for, every hour of every day all year, without the variability characteristic of current services.

The proposed bond issue is for 25 years.

Residents satisfied with their current service may keep it. O’Connor said currently about 70 percent of China residents have cable service; another about 25 percent have DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) service; and the remaining about five percent have no internet access.

Selectman and ex-officio CBC member Janet Preston said Regional School Unit #18 had provided a map showing where students had no access, providing locations for some of the unserved areas.

Ouellette said employees of Hawkeye Fiber Optics (also called Hawkeye Connections) have finished the survey of existing utility poles in China and are scheduled to report immediately. Survey results will provide a more accurate estimate of the cost of building the proposed new network.

CBC member Tod Detre asked for and received permission to post the results on the committee’s website, chinabroadband.net.

Video of the hearing can be viewed here.

Fall events hosted by the China Village Library

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Stories and Scarecrows at the China School’s Forest. This family and children’s event will be held on Saturday, October 2, at 1 p.m. Join the story walk and meet up at the reading tree with our librarians for more stories and a fall craft. The self-guided story walk will be available through the end of October.

Join Folksinger, Bill Berlinghoff for an outdoor concert on Sunday afternoon, October 2, at 2 p.m. Bring your own chair and refreshments.

A 2021 Community Candidates Forum will be held on ZOOM on Sunday, October 17, at 2 p.m., hosted by the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library. Meet Town of China candidates for the November 2 town election. To Register go to: tinyurl.com/04926elect21 or email chinavilllageacb@gmail.com.

Halloween: Children may stop by the library on Sunday, October 31, from 5 – 7 p.m., for a treat!

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: More high schools

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Old Erskine Academy

by Mary Grow

China Academy, China misc, Erskine Academy

The Massachusetts legislature chartered China Academy in June 1818. Charter language quoted in the China bicentennial history is almost identical to the language used 50 or so years later for Hallowell Classical and Scientific Academy: purposes are to promote “piety, and virtue,” and to provide instruction “in such languages and in such of the liberal arts and sciences” as the trustees prescribe.

The school initially had five trustees, four China Village residents and Rev. Daniel Lovejoy, from Albion, father of Elijah Parish and Owen Lovejoy. Elijah and Owen attended China Academy, and Elijah taught there in 1827, after he graduated from Waterville (later Colby) College. In 1819, the Academy charter was changed to allow 15 trustees.

The first China Academy building was on the shore of China Lake, across from the present site of the China Baptist Church (built in 1814, relocated in 1822). John Brackett donated the land, “in consideration of the love and good will” he had for the trustees; the only condition was that they keep the fence around the lot in repair.

The trustees had a wooden building constructed; the bicentennial history says classes began in or before September 1823. The first two principals were Colby graduates.

In 1825 the Maine legislature approved a land grant for China Academy. In November 1829, the trustees sold the lot in what is now Carroll Plantation (on Route 6, in Penobscot County, east of Lincoln and Lee) for $3,400 (about 30 cents an acre, the bicentennial history says).

With legislative support and “an encouraging student enrollment,” the trustees put up a two-story brick building on Main Street, in China Village, across from the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library (that former house dates from about 1827 and has been a library since 1941). First classes were in November 1828, with 89 students.

From 1835 to 1844 China Academy did well, under Principal Henry Paine, the bicentennial history says. There were 221 students in 1835 and again in 1844, most from China but some from other Maine towns. Teachers included a Colby senior, a Colby graduate and at least one woman, Sarah A. Shearman, in charge of “instruction in the ornamental branches.”

School was held for four 12-week terms, beginning “the first Mondays of March, June, September, and December.” The history quotes advertisements in the weekly China Orb newspaper that said quarterly tuition was $3 for basic English reading and writing; $4 for advanced English courses; and $5 for “Latin, Greek, and French.”

The Academy had no dormitory. The history says it (trustees, teachers or both?) helped students find nearby places to board, at rates ranging from $1.33 to $1.50 a week.

After Waterville Academy was chartered in 1842 and organized successfully by James Hanson (graduate of China Academy and Colby College – see The Town Line, July 29) and Paine left China in 1844, China Academy enrollment dropped. By 1850, average enrollment was around 50 students. The Civil War caused a temporary closure.

After the war, the Academy reopened and, the history says, in 1872, “had a staff of five who were teaching 40 to 60 students a term.” Terms were “shortened to ten weeks,” and tuition increased to $3.50 a term for basic English, $4.50 for advanced English and $5.50 for foreign languages or bookkeeping. Music was added, 20 lessons for $10; the history does not specify vocal, instrumental or both.

The history says that students’ records “included the number of words misspelled, the number of times tardy, and the number of days they were caught whispering in class.”

After state law required free high schools in 1880, China Academy apparently became a hybrid – the history says the brick Academy building was used to teach free high school classes, but “This institution still called itself China Academy and was supervised by a board of trustees.”

Enrollment rose – “54 students in the spring of 1883, 70 in the fall of 1884, and 88 in the spring of 1885.” The history notes that more girls than boys enrolled in each of those terms, after years when male students had been more numerous.

The history lists courses offered, in a “four-year course sequence” in 1884-85: “English, math, geography, history, bookkeeping, sciences, and philosophy,” plus Greek and Latin “if requested.” There were two or three terms a year, and financial support came from the local school district, other nearby China districts and one district in Albion.

In 1887 the brick building was deemed unsafe and was blown up, scattering fragments of brick onto adjoining properties. The trustees sold the lot to the local school district. “Willis R. Ward built a wooden schoolhouse at a cost of $1,000 which served as both high school and elementary school from 1888 to 1909.”

In 1897, China voters appropriated no money for high schools, so the bicentennial history says China Village residents funded one anyway, with state aid. By 1899 village residents also relied on “contributions and subscriptions” to keep high school classes going.

Courses included “advanced English, mathematics,…science… and a five-student Latin class.”

The China Village free high school gradually lost students early in the 20th century and closed in 1908. Many students transferred to China’s other private high school, Erskine Academy (see below).

The wooden building remained an elementary school until the consolidated China Elementary School opened in 1949. It was sold and became a two-story chicken house. The building was demolished in 1969 and replaced by a house.

A China Village high school was re-established from the fall of 1914 through the spring of 1916 – the bicentennial history gives no reason. Classes met in the second floor of a building (later the American Legion Hall) on the southeast corner of the intersection of Main Street, Neck Road and what is now Causeway Road.

The China bicentennial history provides partial information on three other nineteenth-century high schools in China, in Branch Mills Village, in South China Village and at Dirigo.

The earliest, the East China high school in Branch Mills, “was established about 1851 in a building constructed for that purpose by Mr. Barzillai Harrington.” The building was on the south side of the village main street, west of the bridge across the West Branch of the Sheepscot River. It appears as a large rectangle on the town map in the 1856 Maine atlas, labeled “B. H. Academy.”

In 1852, the history says, elementary classes met in “Mr. Harrington’s high school building” because the district schoolhouse was “in such poor condition.”

An 1856 advertisement for the school listed Claudius B. Grant as the principal for an 11-week term beginning Sept. 1. Tuition was $3 per term for basic English, $3.50 for advanced English and $4 for “languages,” unspecified.

The bicentennial history cites China town reports saying high school classes were provided in Branch Mills in 1857 for one term; in 1865 for one term, taught by Stephen A. Jones, of China; in 1882, for two terms, taught by Thomas W. Bridgham, of Palermo; and in 1883 for one term, taught by J. A. Jones. The writer found no evidence of continuous classes, and locations were not specified.

Though classes were listed in 1882 and 1883, the Branch Mills map in the 1879 Maine atlas identifies the building by a name, indicating it was a private home. The China history says the Academy building was sold in the 1880s. Henry Kingsbury’s Kennebec County history says it was in 1892 the Good Templars Hall.

A footnote in the bicentennial history adds: “In 1894 the school committee recommended a term of high school at Branch Mills, but the town records provide no evidence that it was held.”

The high school in South China Village started in the 1860s and ran at least intermittently through the spring of 1881, according to the bicentennial history.

In 1865, former primary school teacher T. W. Bridgham taught a spring high school term. In 1877-78, A. W. Warren was teacher for a seven-week term. F. E. Jones taught 51 students in the fall of 1880. The next spring, J. E. Jones taught what was apparently the final term, “with the expenses being borne by three adjacent school districts.”

The writer of the bicentennial history found only a single reference to the high school at Dirigo (or Dirigo Corner), where Alder Park and Dirigo Road meet what is now Route 3 (Belfast Road). In 1877 and 1878, the town report described two China free high schools, South China “and a 20-week term at Dirigo.”

Fred D. Jones was the teacher at Dirigo, “and the supervisor of schools commended the residents of this quite small school district for supporting so long a term.”

(Attentive readers will have noticed numerous teachers named Jones. They were probably related, at least distantly, and were probably members of the Society of Friends. The genealogical section of the China history has 25 pages of Joneses, several identified as teachers.)

Yet another private high school, Erskine Academy, opened in September 1883 and is thriving today. The China history gives a detailed account of its origins: it became a private academy because China voters at the beginning of the 1880s refused to accept donated money for a public high school.

As the history tells the story, Mary Erskine inherited her husband Sullivan’s considerable wealth when he died in 1880. Having no children, she consulted John K. Erskine, her late husband’s nephew and executor, about ways to use the money.

John Erskine, who regretted his own lack of educational opportunity, suggested endowing a high school in the Chadwick Hill school district, south of South China Village. Mary Erskine agreed, and at a Nov. 13, 1880, special town meeting, voters accepted a $1,500 trust fund for a free high school.

At the annual meeting in March 1881, voters reversed the decision and told the town treasurer to return the money. In March 1882, school supporters presented an article again offering the $1,500 and “specifying that the town would not pay for providing the school building.” Voters passed over it, that is, did not act.

A month later, a group of supporters asked the Erskines to let them establish a private high school. Mary Erskine approved and helped organize a board of trustees headed by renowned Quaker Eli Jones (see the July 8 issue of The Town Line). John Erskine was vice-president and Samuel Starrett treasurer.

The trustees “bought the seven-acre Chadwick common from A. F. Trask for $100.” (Wikipedia says the campus is now about 25 acres.) Mary Erskine donated $500 for a building.

Starrett encouraged the owners of a disused Methodist church on the lot to sell it at auction. They did, and he got it for $50.

The trustees had the building moved to the middle of the lot and turned into a schoolhouse. “A bell tower and other necessary buildings” were added, and Mary Erskine donated a bell and furnishings in the spring of 1883.

The trustees organized a “tree-planting picnic:” area residents were invited to bring a picnic dinner and a tree. The China history says the grounds gained about 250 trees.

Mary Erskine attended Erskine High School’s opening day in September 1883. There were two teachers and “more than 50 students.”

The school ran two 11-week terms a year, and in some years “a shorter summer term.” The history lists 16 courses: “reading, grammar, elocution, arithmetic, algebra, history, geography, natural philosophy, bookkeeping, ancient languages (Latin and Greek), botany, geology, astronomy, and anatomy and physiology.”

By 1887, increased enrollment required a third teacher. The building “was raised ten feet to make room for more classrooms underneath.”

Students from Chadwick Hill and other school districts came and went by the term, not the year. Therefore, the history says, it was not until 1892 “that four students finished four years apiece so that the first formal graduation could be held.”

Trustees had a dormitory for girls built in 1900 and “later” (the history gives no date) another for boys. In 1901 the Maine legislature incorporated the school as Erskine Academy and approved an annual $300 appropriation.

Erskine’s original school building was destroyed in a fire on Nov. 5, 1926. Fortunately, Ford gymnasium had opened in November 1925; the bicentennial history says classes were held there until a new classroom building was ready in 1936.

The history also said that Mary Erskine’s bell was saved from the fire and “mounted on campus.” In the fall of 1971, someone stole it.

Main source

Grow, Mary M., China Maine Bicentennial History including 1984 revisions (1984).

CHINA: People’s Park group dealt major disappointment

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The property in question, from Google Streetview.

by Mary Grow

[There has been an update to this story: CHINA: Follow-up on land sale story from last week]

Lindsey Harwath, President of the The People’s Park group hoping to create a public park off Lakeview Drive on land that town officials just sold, has reported a major disappointment.

At the Aug. 30 selectmen’s meeting, selectmen reviewed two bids for the approximately 40-acre parcel with their chosen realtor, Lucas Adams, of Adams Realty, in South China. One bid was for $10,000, from The People’s Park. The other was for $80,000 from a then-unnamed party, now identified as former China resident Austin “Gerry” Ogden.

Adams had valued the land at between $80,000 and $100,000. Selectmen had split the difference and set $90,000 as their preferred price.

They authorized Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood to negotiate and contract with the higher bidder. Adams told selectmen that person’s plan was to keep two lots and offer the remainder of the land to The People’s Park, at a “reasonable” price.

Hapgood reported at the Sept. 13 selectmen’s meeting that she and Ogden had agreed on $83,000. Closing was postponed to sometime in October, she said, because the title company is so busy.

Harwath said before town selectmen acted, Adams had discouraged another interested resident from making a formal offer and had told Harwath that if Ogden became the landowner, The People’s Park “would be in a better financial position than if we tried to buy the lot from the town.”

On Sept. 15, Harwath met with Adams, Ogden and Ogden’s wife Lynda at Adams’ office. Fellow People’s Park board member Jeanne Marquis joined the meeting late.

At that meeting, Harwath said, Ogden said he intended to keep three lots from the property. He offered to sell the remaining acreage to The People’s Park for $110,000. Or, Harwath said, he would sell the group the entire almost-40 acres for $160,000.

Ogden worked with Lawrence “Larry” Adams, the family-owned real estate firm’s previous head, when the Ogdens lived in China.

China planners to hear application to convert Knowles building to marijuana business

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by Mary Grow

China Planning Board members have scheduled a Sept. 28 public hearing on Miguel Rivera’s application to convert the Knowles Mechanical Building at 1097 Route 3 to a medical marijuana business.

The building is a short distance east of Dirigo Corner, where Dirigo and Alder Park roads intersect Route 3 (also called Belfast Road). Codes Officer Jaime Hanson, summarizing Rivera’s application, said Rivera plans no changes to the exterior of the building, the parking areas or the grounds.

Hanson said the existing septic system, approved in 2013, should be adequate for the proposed new business. Rivera said he has not had it inspected, but the facilities indoors seem to work properly.

The change of use will have no effect on a mapped wetland on the property, Hanson said. Referring to a requirement that no medical marijuana business can locate on a property within 500 feet of a school, day care or other child-oriented use, Hanson said the provision is met.

That issue later raised two others: whether the existence of a medical marijuana facility prohibited a child-based use in an adjacent building and thereby “burdened” surrounding lots, and whether home-schooling counts as a child-oriented use. The questions were left unanswered.

Rivera said he has a state medical marijuana caregiver’s license. He plans no more than two or three employees in the building at a time, he said. He will not have a marijuana growing operation in the building.

Planning board members agreed the next steps are notifying abutters of the proposed change of use and holding the Sept. 28 public hearing. Unless new pandemic regulations require a change, the hearing should be at 6:30 p.m. in the portable building behind the town office on Lakeview Drive, with interested residents invited to attend in person.

Hanson said there might also be an application to amend a subdivision, by approving the already-accomplished relocation of Fire Road 19, at the Sept. 28 meeting.

In other business, Hanson reported that he remains backlogged on permit applications, but Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood has authorized staff help. Planning Board Chairman Randall Downer expressed appreciation to the manager.

Board member Toni Wall said she plans to spend six months on the Appalachian Trail next year. She asked whether she should ask for a leave or resign from the board.

Board member James Wilkens said he considered the question the board’s business and made a motion to authorize a six-month’s leave for Wall. The motion was approved 4-0 with Wall abstaining.

China Broadband Committee (CBC) drafts printed publicity material

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by Mary Grow

At their Sept. 16 meeting, China Broadband Committee (CBC) members continued planning publicity for the bond issue they are sponsoring on China’s Nov. 2 local ballot. They focused on drafting printed materials, and briefly discussed the next scheduled public presentation.

That presentation will be at 2 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 26, at the Albert Church Brown Memorial Library. The meeting is only on Zoom; there will be no in-person audience. Pre-registration is required by emailing chinalibraryacb@gmail.com; the Zoom link will be provided.

CBC Chairman Robert O’Connor intends to tape the meeting for later viewing. It should become available on the town website, under Live Stream’s list of previous events.

CBC members scheduled another committee meeting at 4 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 23, to agree on who will say what on Sept. 26 and to put their proposed flyer in final form.

The Nov. 4 ballot asks voters to vote yes or no on a long question that, if approved, would authorize, but not require, China selectmen to issue a bond to provide up to $5,608,700 to build new broadband infrastructure in town.

The CBC expects enough additional funding from state and federal grants to cover the total cost of the project, estimated at almost $6.5 million.

During the Sept. 16 discussion, John Dougherty, of Mission Broadband, consultants to the CBC, said that grants are already being awarded. If voters approve on Nov. 2, one use of the bond money could be to provide matching funds so the CBC can start grant applications.

The Sept. 16 discussion of the flyer covered two points, content and distribution methods.

CBC members are working with a two-sided document on standard 8½-by-11 paper. Their task is to explain complexities, including technical internet information, clearly enough so that voters understand what their Nov. 2 decision will mean.

They agree on what the flyer and other informational materials should say, but have different ideas on what to emphasize and how to convey their points most clearly. Both Doherty and Mark Ouellette, head of Axiom Technologies, the CBC’s choice to oversee construction of new broadband infrastructure and to run and maintain the expanded service, advised them to simplify the information to essentials.

Committee members discussed distribution through various means, with the goal of informing as many China residents as possible. In addition to the flyer, they plan yard signs advertising the ballot question.

They also plan to schedule future public informational meetings and discussed possible places to hold them.

More information is available on the CBC website, chinabroadband.net.

Up and down the Kennebec Valley: Hallowell academies

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Hallowell Classical and Scientific Academy, Hallowell, ca. 1882. Contributed by Frank Trask through Hubbard Free Library.

by Mary Grow

In preceding articles, readers have learned a bit about three private high schools, Cony Female Academy, Coburn Classical Institute and Oak Grove Seminary (see the issues of The Town Line for Sept. 2, July 29 and July 22, respectively) and about some of the public high schools in Augusta and Waterville (in the Aug. 26 and Sept. 2, The Town Line issues, respectively).

Remaining to be described are numerous other 19th-century public and private schools in central Kennebec Valley towns. A few are well documented; for most, local histories offer only tantalizing glimpses.

For example, Whittemore wrote in his history of Waterville that “private and corporation schools” played important roles, starting in 1823 when “Miss Pettengill” ran “a school for the education of young ladies.”

In 1824, John Butler and “Miss Lewis” opened another school “which with its modern methods and apparatus won enthusiastic approval.” A successor, before or in 1902 when Whittemore’s history appeared, was Miss Julia Stackpole.

Two private academies mentioned previously are Hallowell Academy, in Hallowell, and China Academy, in China Village. The latter will be described in a future article.

There were two 19th-century academies in Hallowell. Their histories are intertwined with each other and with the public high school; your writer wishes her readers luck trying to untangle them.

The first, Hallowell Academy (in one source called Hallowell Academy for Boys), was chartered in 1791. (Kingsbury wrote in his Kennebec County history that Hallowell and Berwick academies, chartered the same day, were the first in what later became the State of Maine.)

Hallowell’s second, Hallowell Classical and Scientific Academy, opened in 1868 (online source); or was incorporated Feb. 8, 1872 (Maine Congregational Church annual meeting minutes, 1872-1874); or as of 1873 was the new name for the earlier Hallowell Academy (Kingsbury); or, most definitively, was scheduled to open Jan. 1, 1874 (online The Maine Journal of Education for 1873). Bob Briggs, in his 1996 history Around Hallowell (found online, delightfully illustrated with old photographs), called it on one page Hallowell Classical and Scientific Institute.

The Academy chartered in 1791 opened for classes in a newly-built schoolhouse in 1795. Briggs wrote that the first two academy buildings burned down; Kingsbury mentioned only one destructive fire, in 1804, after which, he said, the building was replaced a year later.

In 1807, Kingsbury said, the school trustees bought a Paul Revere bell for the belfry. Briggs wrote that in 1841, a brick building was put up. The Academy and (public?) high school were “united” from 1868 until the Classical Academy opened in 1873, he said.

In 1888, Briggs wrote, the Academy building “became Hallowell High School.” Remodeled in 1890, when he wrote in 1996 it was a private home.

The photo illustrating these words, dated about 1880, shows a group of students, the women in skirts from ankle-length to floor-length, in front of what must be the main entrance. Four two-story Doric columns are spaced across the width of the brick building, with two large doors on either side of a window behind them.

Briggs wrote of the 1795 Hallowell Academy that “students received their secondary education under some of the ablest and best educated men in the state.”

Kingsbury listed the first 28 teachers, up to 1838, and their years of service. One, surnamed Moody, stayed for eight years, and Curtis taught for three years. Six others were there for two years; the remaining 20, Kingsbury said, stayed only one year each.

After the 1795 Academy closed, high school age students attended the Hallowell Classical Academy, the Maine Memory Network says. As noted above, the Classical Academy almost certainly opened at the beginning of 1874.

The Classical Academy was on Central Street at the intersection with Warren Street. The Memory Network describes it as a co-ed college preparatory boarding and day school. It was established to promote Christian education and to train young people “in such languages and in such of the arts and sciences” as the school trustees chose.

The school was “affiliated” with the Congregational Church in Maine and, Kingsbury added, “a feeder for Bowdoin College.”

The 1873 Journal of Education, which this writer accepts as an authoritative, contemporary source, says the Maine Conference of Congregational Churches established the Classical Academy. A Congregational minister, Rev. H. F. Harding, was the academy’s first secretary and treasurer; his report to the statewide church meeting in 1874 mentioned connections with Bowdoin and with Bangor Seminary.

The Classical Academy was intended to be Hallowell’s high school and also a state institution to prepare “the sons of Maine” (daughters were not excluded – see below) “for her Colleges and Theological Seminary, without the necessity of going out of the State.”

The Academy was on an 11-acre lot, with views up and down the Kennebec. It started with three buildings, the article continues: “the old Hallowell Academy, which is to be used for recitation rooms” plus a new boarding-house that would accommodate 40 boys in double rooms and a new girls’ boarding house.

The latter is described as three stories with a Mansard roof, 160-feet long with two 40-foot-wide wings, “containing 76 rooms.” The rooms were arranged with two double bedrooms and a “parlor” for each four students.

Gas lighting was planned for the new buildings. The girls’ dormitory had steam heat, “bathing rooms” and a generous supply of “pure spring water,” according to the report in the 1872-74 minutes of the state Congregational Church meetings.

The Journal article said Classical Academy leaders intended to build “a much larger and much better edifice” as soon as they had the money. As of 1873, they had raised about $70,000, mostly from the City of Hallowell, and gotten a $4,000 bequest (the Memory Network, too, mentions a will). Additionally, the Journal article said, “Mrs. Eastman,” a former resident now living in Italy, had donated a $1,000 scholarship and “is also making a fine collection of paintings for the school.”

Classical Academy students came from Hallowell and from other parts of Maine, Illinois, California and New Brunswick, the Memory Network says.

The Congregational meeting minutes mentioned above describe the success of the Classical Academy in its first almost-two years. By 1874, James G. Blaine (then Representative in the U. S. Congress) was President of the Board of Trustees; Harding was still secretary and Joshua Nye, of Augusta, had succeeded him as treasurer.

The next term was to start Thursday, Sept. 2, 1875. A calendar for the next two years said a 12-week fall term would run from Tuesday, Sept. 2, through Nov. 28, 1876; after a week off, a 14-week winter term from Dec. 5, 1876, to March 13, 1877; after a two-week spring break, a 13-week spring term from March 27 through June 21, 1877.

There were 108 students and a staff of seven teachers and two matrons. Each dormitory had a matron; two teachers also lived in the dormitories and had supervisory responsibilities. Three were women; the teacher in the boys’ dormitory was a man.

Subjects taught were English (both English Studies and English Literature), French, German, Latin, Greek, history, natural sciences, mathematics, “Mental, and Moral Science,” bookkeeping, penmanship (these two subjects were on one list, not on a second), piano and vocal music and drawing and painting.

There were three departments, which the report described as follows:

The Classical Course offered “thorough and ample preparation for the most advanced Colleges.”

The Seminary Course was “especially for young ladies,” “to carry their training and culture considerably beyond that given in our public schools.”

The English and Scientific Course gave students of both sexes “the most valuable studies for a shorter course.”

Memory Network photos of the Classical Academy from the early 1880s show two large squarish three-story buildings connected by a three-story rectangular building. The lower stories are white, probably clapboard (possibly brick). The upper story, with a pediment above and below it, appears to be a shingled mansard roof, with four single flat-topped windows in one end and three across the front.

(This description is similar to the Journal of Education’s 1873 description of the new girls’ dormitory.)

Briggs’ book includes a photograph of a quite different building, dated about 1885 and identified as the Classical Academy. This building is rectangular, clearly brick, three stories with no mansard roof. The windows are paired under arches. There appear to be no connected buildings, although at one end is a “strange invention” (Briggs’ words) that looks like a windmill atop a two-story tower.

(Perhaps this is the building the Journal said Academy trustees were in 1873 waiting for money to build?)

Hallowell High School opened in 1887, and the Classical Academy closed in 1888, the Memory Network says. Briggs said lack of money forced the Classical Academy to close, and “its buildings were razed in the early 1900s.”

The Memory Network has a photograph, dated “circa 1900,” of the 1887 high school, a two-story brick building with towers on both ends, one three stories tall, and a triple-arched front entrance. Accompanying information says it was on a lot “used exclusively for education since Hallowell Academy opened in 1795.”

Briggs’ version is that in 1887 the Hallowell school committee agreed to establish a high school separate from the Classical Academy. In 1890, he continued, the “City fathers” renovated “the old Hallowell Academy building,” implying that the 1887 building was not constructed from scratch.

The Maine Memory site says the 1887 high school was converted to a primary school after a 1920 high school building opened “on the site of the old Classical Academy,” that is, at the intersection of Central and Warren streets.

Hallowell might have had a third private high school. Yet another on-line site, called Maine Roots, includes an undated reference to “a female academy” started by John A. Vaughan “where the granite offices now are, which continued a number of years.”

Main sources

Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Whittemore, Rev. Edwin Carey, Centennial History of Waterville 1802-1902 (1902).

Websites, miscellaneous.

CORRECTION: A correction to the story on the Asa Bates Memorial Chapel, or Ten Lots Chapel, in Fairfield that ran in the Aug. 5 issue of The Town Line: the people responsible for repairing the large windows were Pastor Gene McDaniel and his father, Gary McDaniel, who did the reglazing. Kay Marsh did the painting, and Howard Hardy offered encouragement.