China select board begins preparing for annual town meeting

by Mary Grow

China select board members have started preparing for the June 10 annual town business meeting, and it will not be a return to the pre-Covid open meeting that some residents would like to see.

China’s official town meeting, by state definition, is in November, when voters elect town officers by written ballot. The annual June meeting is usually referred to as the town business meeting.

Until Covid, voters assembled to discuss and vote on multiple articles, mostly dealing with expenditures, policies and procedures. Since Covid, the June meeting, too, has been by written ballot.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood shared a pre-meeting schedule at the board’s Jan. 13 meeting. It assumes a June 10 written-ballot vote, and select board members supported the assumption.

Their main reason is that more people vote when written ballots are used. Board chairman Wayne Chadwick and other members want lots of residents’ opinions.

Resident Sheldon Goodine spoke in favor of an open meeting. His view is that if most people don’t come, “those who do can run the town.”

Hapgood recommended that one June 10 article asks voters to repeal China’s quorum ordinance. She has received legal opinions that state law does not allow China to have such an ordinance. The ordinance, adopted before 1990, currently requires at least 100 registered voters be present to start an open meeting.

According to Hapgood’s schedule for this spring, the select board and budget committee will meet jointly Monday, Feb. 3, for an initial presentation on the proposed 2025-26 town budget. Select board members need to approve a final set of ballot questions at their April 7 meeting.

At the Jan. 13 meeting, board members appropriated funds and approved a committee to keep the proposed community garden project moving forward. At the request of James Hsiang and his wife, Judith Chute Hsiang, they allocated $200 from their contingency fund to pay for lumber for the raised beds, and transferred $1,033 left in the China for a Lifetime Committee account to garden funding.

They also revitalized the committee, appointing as its members both Hsiangs, Eric Austin, Saige Bird, Sandra Isaac, Marie Michaud, Karen Stankis and, as an advisory member, select board member Jeanne Marquis.

In other appointments, select board members made Bird a member of China’s recreation committee and Milton Dudley a planning board member.

Another expenditure approved Jan. 13 was $11,220 for Bryan Moore, of Pro Tree Service, Inc., of Vassalboro, to take down most of the Reading Tree in the China School Forest behind China Primary School, leaving a 30-foot stub. Storm damage has made the tree a potential liability for the town, Hapgood said.

Hsiang considered the price high and asked board members to seek another estimate. Chadwick explained the complexity of the project requires a crane. Moore’s estimate includes $4,350 for 10 hours work with a crane, at $435 an hour.

Hapgood said the $11,220 will come from the community forest reserve fund, which currently has about $34,000.

Broadband Committee chairman Robert O’Connor reported on an arrangement with Direct Communications, formerly Unitel, in Unity, and the Waldo Broadband Group that will result in a new fiber line running for 17 miles through China and offering a fiber broadband connection to 584 “locations.”

In return, China will contribute the already-approved $370,000 in TIF (Tax Increment Financing) money.

The bulk of the TIF money was to be spread over 10 years. Hapgood assured select board member Edwin Bailey that the fund can afford to spend it immediately.

O’Connor said this project is scheduled for the spring of 2025. It might be followed by a second phase that would improve broadband service throughout China, if a Direct Communications application for a state grant is successful.

As the Jan. 13 meeting ended, Hapgood reminded everyone that China municipal services will be closed Monday, Jan. 20, for the Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday.

Select board member Thomas Rumpf summarized town-wide events planned for China Ice Days, beginning Friday, Feb. 14, and running through Sunday, Feb. 16. The schedule will soon be publicized widely.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for Monday evening, Jan. 27.