CHINA NEWS: TIF group to ask for RFP to replace Causeway bridge

by Mary Grow

China’s TIF (Tax Increment Financing) Committee members plan to ask China selectmen to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for replacing the current Causeway Street bridge at the head of China Lake’s east basin, once they decide what the RFP should say.

At their April 24 meeting, committee members started by trying to specify measurements and materials. They moved toward a more general statement of goals, with the intention of leaving specifics to the selected contractor.
Currently proposed goals include a bridge that is high-quality and safe; enough wider than the present one to allow fishing plus a handicapped-accessible walkway on one or both sides; and enough higher to allow canoes and kayaks to go under it.

Committee member Dale Worster volunteered to draft an RFP for review at the next committee meeting, scheduled for Monday evening, May 8.

Committee members made two other decisions:

• Rather than scheduling a formal public hearing or public information session on plans for the head of the lake, they will ask Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux to publicize the May 8 meeting as an opportunity for interested residents to get information.
• After May 8, they will reduce their meetings from every two weeks to once a month, except when business requires additional meetings.

L’Heureux emailed committee members that acquisition of the Bailey lot where people using the boat landing just east of the bridge usually park has been delayed by an unexpected mortgage on the property. He expects the issue to be resolved soon, Selectman and committee member Joann Austin said.

There was consensus that if selectmen issue the RFP promptly and get prompt replies, work will still not start in the summer, because state permits are needed to work near the water and, committee member H. David Cotta said, state officials are likely to forbid work until the lake level is drawn down in the fall.

Since the bridge work will use up a good part of the $750,000 voters at the March town meeting approved for the next three years, committee members disagreed on whether they should go ahead with other plans for the head of the lake or with additional TIF projects.

They briefly discussed three other land acquisitions, one proposed by selectmen for voters’ action on June 13 and two entirely speculative.

Selectmen have added an article to the June 13 local ballot asking voters to appropriate $12,000 from surplus (Unrestricted/Unassigned Fund Balance) to buy a lot on Alder Park Road between two other town-owned parcels. Although TIF funds are not involved, committee members weighed in on the issue, asking what the town would do with the land if acquired and wondering why the lot already has a Sale Pending sign.

Two other suggestions briefly discussed were acquiring land adjacent to the Four Seasons Club beach off Lakeview Drive opposite the town office to provide more parking and better lake access (Austin’s idea) and acquiring land at the north end of the lake west of the causeway for a town beach there (Worster’s idea).

Jim Wilkens and Bob MacFarland said China’s Lake Access Committee should look for a town beach and request TIF money if needed. Ronald Breton and Worster said the Lake Access Committee is inactive.

Worster said he met one of the homeowners in the area he is interested in. He reported that he took several other initiatives, including talking with representatives of Reny’s department stores about the FairPoint building on Route 3; talking with local contractor Robin Tobey about adding gravel at the boat landing parking lot (once the town owns the property); learning from the state Department of Transportation that the type of guardrail at the head of the lake is a town decision, because Causeway Street is a town road; and getting cost estimates for imitation granite benches that could be installed near the causeway.