CHINA -- A quorum of 191 registered voters must check into the China Middle School multi-purpose room Saturday morning if the annual town business meeting is to begin.

Those who want to vote on the new proposals must stay until the end.

The first 35 warrant articles are routine -- presentations by representatives of the Comprehensive Planning Committee and FirstPark, and annual municipal fund requests and policy items.

For municipal funding, selectmen are asking for:

• more than $414,000 for administration;

• $50,500 for assessing and legal service;

• $116,560 for local fire and rescue services plus E911 response services;

• almost $190,000 for insurance;

• almost $289,000 for solid waste disposal;

• more than $614,000 from excise taxes and the state highway grant for roads; and

• smaller sums for other familiar expenditures.

They ask voters to set tax due dates and the interest rate on late taxes and to give selectmen a $40,000 contingency fund, plus permission to use up to another $40,000 for matching funds for grants.

Two new articles seek voter approval for measures routinely taken: letting the tax collector accept prepayment of taxes before commitment, and letting selectmen use the overlay account to pay any tax abatements they approve, to correct an assessing error, for example.

When voters reach Article 36 -- the annual article now required to authorize exceeding the state property tax levy -- selectmen are likely to recommend an additional $44,560, to cover new E-911 dispatching costs and additional emergency services insurance.

The following articles, 37 through 45, ask voters' authorization to:

• rent out the office space in the old town house basement beside the Town Office;

• transfer more than $59,000 from the Ceska reserve fund to the lake access fund and buy property providing lake access;

• spend up to $2,500 for emergency supplies in case the Town Office needs to be used as an emergency center;

• spend up to $15,000 for a bulk storage fuel tank and pump so the town can buy gasoline and diesel fuel for town-owned or "town-associated" vehicles;

• sell strips of town-owned land along Central Maine Power Co. lines to the company;

• appropriate up to $3,500 for the wetlands study committee;

n negotiate an agreement to take Albion's construction demolition and debris, recyclables and other items;

• spend up to $9,500 to install video cameras at the transfer station; and

n spend up to $81,500 to buy the lot south of the Town Office lot.

The Budget Committee endorses all but the last article. Committee members proposed an alternative that would have had a lower price tag and given selectmen discretion to buy any land adjoining the Town Office.

Included in the back of the annual town report are three maps showing the proposed land sales and purchase.

The meeting is 9 a.m., with refreshments served beginning at 8:30.

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