China select board agrees to pave parking area on Causeway Rd.

by Mary Grow

At a short special meeting June 30, China select board members paid end-of-fiscal-year bills, agreed on paving parking areas on both sides of the Causeway Road bridge at the head of China Lake’s east basin and made three appointments.

When the causeway project, funded mostly through China’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) fund (taxes collected from Central Maine Power Company), was finished, the parking areas on the north side of Causeway Road were left gravel. The theory then was that paving them could increase run-off into the swamp at the head of the lake, known locally as the muldoon.

At the select board’s regular meeting June 21, Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood proposed having the areas paved (see The Town Line, June 30, p. 3). Divided opinion on environmental effects led to an inspection of the area the afternoon of June 30, with Amanda Pratt, from the state Department of Environmental Protection, Eric Lind, from the China Lake Association, Scott Pierz from the China Region Lakes Alliance and China’s Director of Public Services Shawn Reed joining Hapgood.

Hapgood and Pierz told select board members the natural buffers between the gravel and the parking areas are adequate. They proposed minor changes – a short stretch of curbing to deflect run-off, additional mulch between the parking area and the vegetation in one place, perhaps designing pavement striping to keep boat trailers from being backed into the grass – plus on ongoing monitoring and maintenance.

With that information, select board members unanimously authorized Hapgood to contract with All States Paving to have the areas paved.

The appointments were David Savage, as China’s Licensed Plumbing Inspector; Nicholas French, as assistant Codes Enforcement Officer (Hapgood is China’s current Codes Enforcement Officer); and select board member Janet Preston, as China’s representative to the Kennebec Regional Development Authority’s General Assembly. KRDA oversees First Park, the business park, in Oakland, supported by China and other area municipalities.

After the July 5 China select board meeting, the next regular meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday, July 18.