China select board approves concept plan for new vault

by Mary Grow

China select board members approved a concept plan for the new storage vault they’ve discussed for three years, and will have an engineer’s plan prepared as soon as possible.

Building committee chairman Sheldon Goodine presented the plan at the board’s Oct. 7 meeting, after he outlined it for the board on Sept. 23. The vault will be in a new room added on the south side of the town office building, close to the east end.

Goodine said the room would be 26-by-28-feet. Adding it would cover two windows in what is currently deputy clerk and assistant to the assessor Kelly Grotton’s office, and would require a corridor to a second east-end door.

Select board chairman Wayne Chadwick queried the price. Glad you asked, Goodine replied: about $80,000 less than the original plan, which he said would have cost around $267,500.

At the 2023 and 2024 town business meetings, China voters appropriated more than $255,000 from federal ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds for the vault.

Board members voted unanimously to ask Keith Whitaker, the engineer from Presque Isle based B. R. Smith Associates who has been working on the project, to convert the concept plan to an engineered plan. With that plan, they will decide whether to seek bids from contractors for the whole project or to act as the main contractor and seek bids for specific tasks.

The vault will provide storage space for paper records that the state requires municipal offices to keep forever. Whitaker said in earlier discussions that it needs to be all concrete, with temperature and humidity controls.

Another ongoing town project is relocating the ice rink from the school grounds to the town-owned lot south of the town office, on the north side of the intersection of Lakeview Drive and Alder Park Road. Town Manager Rebecc Hapgood said she, recreation committee chairman Martha Wentworth and Director of Public Services Shawn Reed inspected the lot recently and tentatively sited the rink, minimizing tree-cutting.

Hapgood revived another topic: in May 2023, after board and public discussion, select board members unanimously agreed to join the Community Resilience Project (CRP), a state program administered in this area by the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments.

Hapgood summarized progress on China’s seven chosen projects. The first, minimizing erosion at the South China boat landing, has been started, but work is delayed until spring by the unavailability of concrete planks.

The Thurston Park Committee has been working on improvements in Thurston Park, and town office staff are investigating digitizing town records. Board member Janet Preston has been looking for sites for electric vehicle charging stations.

Adding sidewalks in China Village appears prohibitively expensive. So far little has been done toward installing solar panels on the school forest building or improving public transportation.

Select board members appointed Melissa Cowing, one of China’s representatives on the Regional School Unit #18 board of directors. She will serve until the Nov. 5 election, succeeding T. James Bachinski, who has resigned. At the election, she is a declared write-in candidate for a full term on the board.

Hapgood asked board members’ opinions on Delta Ambulance’s offering member towns a discount if they pay their 2024-25 accounts in advance. Voters at the June town business meeting approved $110,200 as part of the public safety budget, based on Delta’s bill of $25 per resident. The manager estimated paying by the Nov. 1 deadline would save China about $5,500.

Hapgood said if Delta’s board of directors has a contingency plan in case the organization’s funding situation becomes unmanageable, she would recommend the pre-payment. She hopes to have more information before the next select board meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21.