China select board talks about updating town office heating system

by Mary Grow

China select board members spent more than half an hour of their two-hour April 22 meeting discussing alternatives for updating the town office heating (and cooling) system.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said the original brick section of the building still has its 1998 furnaces and ductwork. Later piecemeal additions first extended the 1998 system and recently added solar panels on the east end.

In 2023, Hapgood said, China got an Efficiency Maine grant for heat pumps. In 2024, a $48,456 second grant led to a request for bids and an agreement with Houle’s Plumbing and Heating, in Waterville. The grant expires April 30.

Town officials have been considering options with Jeff Pellerin, from Houle’s, who attended the April 22 meeting. Board members ruled out upgrading the original system, at an estimated cost of $36,000 to $40,000 with no improved temperature control in the back offices.

Pellerin explained, with technical details, a new VFR (Variable Flow Refrigerant) system, based on heat pumps, to serve the entire building. The cost to the town, he and Hapgood said, would be $54,044.

Board members considered the adequacy of heat pumps on very cold days and whether the new system would use too much electricity, increasing the power bill and perhaps requiring an upgrade.

Houle’s VFR system was approved on a 3-2 vote, with Edwin Bailey, Jeanne Marquis and Thomas Rumpf in favor and Blane Casey and board chairman Wayne Chadwick opposed.

For 2025 road paving, board members unanimously accepted the lowest of nine bids, $85.50 a ton for paving mix from Damariscotta-based Hagar Enterprises. They discussed with Hapgood and Public Works Director Shawn Reed options for parts of Neck and Maple Ridge roads. A section of the latter is in such bad shape they talked of rebuilding it.

Board members made two unanimous decisions:

— To accept Hagar’s bid, with the condition that none of the work is to be subcontracted, and to authorize Hapgood, Reed and China’s road committee to decide about Neck and Maple Ridge roads.
— To postpone planned improvements to the China Baptist Church parking lot, used by boaters and swimmers at the head of the lake, pending recommendations from church representatives and road committee members.

The town building committee, chaired by Sheldon Goodine, planned and designed the storage vault that will soon be added to the town office building. Board members debated whether a building committee is still needed.

They doubt the town needs either a building maintenance committee or a long-range planning building/facilities committee. Departments keep track of their own maintenance issues and have five-year plans, and any major change seems to be in the distant future.

For future discussion, Rumpf volunteered to draft a mission statement for a long-range facilities committee. Meanwhile, the building committee continues to exist.

By a 4-0-1 vote, with Rumpf abstaining, board members renewed the annual permission for the China Four Seasons Club to use sections of Pleasant View Ridge and Bog roads as part of their four-wheeler trail network from June 1 to Columbus Day (observed Monday, Oct. 13). Rumpf, who is club president, and vice-president Darrell Wentworth said there were no complaints last year.

Board members accepted recommendations from the town’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Committee to allocate TIF funds to seven groups:

— China Broadband Committee, $10,000 for consultant fees to Mission Broadband plus $370,000 previously approved for an expansion of broadband service, provided a grant is obtained.
— China Community Forest, $4,093 for trail signs, to supplement the blazes and improved maps the forest committee has provided so visitors won’t get lost.
— China Four Seasons Club, $50,000 for continued trail work.
— China Ice Days, $6,000 for fireworks in February 2026.
— China Lake Association, $50,000 to continue work to protect and improve water quality in China Lake and Webber and Three Mile ponds. Included is the Courtesy Boat Inspection (CBI) program, which the application for TIF funds says the association is taking over from the China Region Lakes Alliance.
— Thurston Park, $37,000 for improvements to trails and parking areas.
— The Town Line newspaper, $3,000, to help the newspaper continue to publish its weekly issues.

The Town of China had three requests for TIF funds. At Hapgood’s suggestion, they were postponed to the May 5 board meeting so the April 22 one could end soon after 8 p.m.

The May 5 China select board meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m., half an hour earlier than usual, in the town office meeting room. It will be followed by a 6:30 p.m. social time and public hearing on the warrant for the June 10 annual town business meeting.