China’s Spirit of America awards presented at select board meeting

Clockwise from top left: Ronald Emery, Sandra Isaac, James Lane, Elaine Philbrick, Anita Smith, Scott Pierz. (photos courtesy of Becky Hapgood)

by Mary Grow

The three China Select Board members present at the April 25 meeting unanimously approved new transfer station hours. Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood hopes to implement the change by the middle of May, when summer people begin arriving.

The new hours are Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The transfer station will be closed Sundays and Mondays, as it has been for years, and will also be closed Thursdays.

Total open hours will be 38 over the four days. Hapgood said attendants will have a 40-hour work week, as they come early to get ready to open and stay after closing to finish the day’s work.

Ronald Breton

In another major piece of business April 25, select board Chairman Ronald Breton presented Spirit of America awards for volunteer service to six China residents:

• Scott Pierz, for helping protect China Lake’s water quality as town codes officer and later head of the China Lake Association and the China Region Lakes Alliance;
• Ronald Emery, for many years of work with Boy Scout Troop 479;
• James Lane, for 30-plus years of service in many positions, including as town constable (“I can’t say no,” Lane responded);
• Sandra Isaac for her work with the China for a Lifetime Committee and the China Village volunteer fire department; and
• Elaine Philbrook and Anita Smith (who was unable to attend the meeting) for their oversight of the Community Forest at China Schools.

Breton thanked all the recipients for the time and effort they donated to the community.

He also commended Hapgood for earning her certifications as treasurer and tax collector from the Maine Municipal Tax Collectors and Treasurers Association.

Much of the rest of the meeting was spent on preparations for the June 14 annual town business meeting. Select board members certified the wording of the solar moratorium ordinance voters will be asked to approve. Hapgood asked them to review a mailing she intends to send out explaining the June 14 ballot.

Board members will hold a public hearing on the June 14 warrant articles at 6 p.m. Monday, May 9, in the town office meeting room, before their regular meeting that night.

Hapgood listed other important dates leading up the town business meeting:

• Absentee ballots will be available from the town office beginning Monday, May 16.
• Public hearings on the Kennebec County budget, of which China pays a share, will be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, in the Chace Community Forum at the Bill & Joan Alfond Main Street Commons, 150 Main Street,
• Waterville; and at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 11, in the first-floor conference room at Hill House, 125 State Street, Augusta.
• The district budget meeting on the 2022-23 Regional School Unit (RSU) 18 budget, of which China pays a share, will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 19, at Messalonskee High School Performing Arts Center in Oakland. This is the meeting at which voters from the five RSU 18 towns (Belgrade, China, Oakland, Rome and Sidney) approve the budget.
• RSU absentee ballots will be available Friday, May 20.

On June 14, China voters will vote by written ballot on a 38-article municipal warrant; the RSU budget referendum approving or rejecting the May 19 budget; and state primary election candidates. Local elections for members of China boards are held in November.

Polls will be open June 14 in the former portable classroom behind the town office from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Documents for the meeting, including details about the proposed budget, the solar moratorium ordinance (Art. 37) and the revised comprehensive plan (Art. 38), are on the town website, china.govoffice.com, under the Elections tab.