Select board discusses a wide variety of topics

by Mary Grow

China select board members discussed a wide variety of topics at their March 11 meeting and made three decisions (in addition to the routine ones, like approving expenditures).

Without dissenting votes, board members:

— Agreed to apply for a Community Resilience Grant to be used for a new trail in Thurston Park;
— Accepted proposed draft ordinances for forwarding to voters in June, conditional on planning board approval when that board met March 12; and
— Accepted the revised 54-page Emergency Preparedness Plan presented by the Emergency Preparedness Committee.

Emergency Preparedness Committee chairman Ronald Morrell and member Stephen Nichols presented the emergency plan. As part of implementation, Morrell said, committee members are arranging for China firefighters and rescue members to tour facilities like the Friends Camp on Lakeview Drive.

The China schools have their own emergency plans, coordinated with the town plan, Morrell said.

The preliminary warrant for the June 11 town business meeting includes the repeatedly-discussed Solar Ordinance; amendments to Chapter 2 of China’s Land Use Ordinance, drafted by town attorney Amanda Meader to implement the 2022 state housing law known as LD 2003; and amendments to the Planning Board Ordinance.

Select board members did not put the warrant in final form. Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood said she might have a final version ready for action at the March 25 board meeting.

Hapgood advised planning board chairman Toni Wall that, according to Meader, the planning board should hold a public hearing on the additions to Chapter 2 of the Land Use Ordinance, but not on the other two items. That hearing is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday evening, March 26.

All proposed warrant articles must be submitted to the town office by Friday, April 12, Hapgood said. The select board will hold a public hearing on the entire warrant; that hearing is not yet scheduled.

Board member Janet Preston, who represents the board to the Kennebec Valley Council of Governments (KVCOG) shared again results of a 2023 survey of China residents’ priorities for a Community Resilience Grant.

Board members said the China Lake Association already has grant money for the top priority, erosion control at the South China board landing. They were unenthusiastic about the second priority, providing transportation for senior citizens (Preston suggested buying an electric car and hiring a driver).

The third priority was building a planned new trail in Thurston Park, the town-owned recreation area in northeastern China. Board members voted to apply to KVCOG for a grant for that project.

Board chairman Wayne Chadwick, seconded by Brent Chesley, had one objection to the whole process: they wish grants would help fund maintenance of existing facilities, instead of providing new ones for local taxpayers to maintain.

“You got to look at the whole picture, not just the initial cost,” Chadwick summarized.

In other business March 11, Morrell told select board members boat trailers parked at the east end of the causeway by the boat landing hang out into the roadway, sometimes interfering with traffic.

At the west end of the causeway, he said, boaters park in the church parking lot, especially during bass tournaments on China Lake. They are welcome, except on Sunday mornings and when the church is hosting a wedding or other event.

Morrell would like a system to make people aware they are using church property, and with tournaments to require advance notice. Select board members could see no way the town could help, but they offered individual suggestions, from posting signs to arranging to have vehicles towed away.

Hapgood said public services director Shawn Reed hopes the public works crew will have time to put in the docks at the boat landing by April.

The manager listed dates to remember: a select board meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, March 25; a road committee meeting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 26; a planning board meeting at 6:30 p.m. March 26; a board of appeals meeting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28; and the second half of 2023-24 property taxes due by the close of business at 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 29.