CHINA — Selectmen tonight will hear a pitch for the biomass boiler that Regional School Unit 18 officials hope will heat Messalonskee High School and Williams Elementary School in Oakland.

Gary Smith, superintendent of RSU 18, will make a presentation on the plan at the meeting.

Voters in the five school-unit towns — Belgrade, China, Oakland, Rome and Sidney — will be asked to approve money for the boiler at a Sept. 6 referendum.

A public hearing on the referendum question is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the school unit office on Heath Street in Oakland.

Absentee ballots for the Sept. 6 referendum are available at the China Town Office.

Other items on Monday’s selectmen’s agenda include continued review of the town’s solid waste ordinance, which selectmen intend to update or to replace; and discussion of progress on implementing the town’s 2008 comprehensive plan.

The Comprehensive Plan Implementation Committee has drafted two documents: A new ordinance setting standards and procedures for review of applications for businesses and multifamily housing; and numerous amendments to China’s Land Development Code. The committee chairman has created a revised version of the architectural standards ordinance voters rejected in June.

Committee members initially wanted voters to act on the revisions in November. Planning Board members need to review them before forwarding them to selectmen for inclusion on a local ballot.

At the most recent Planning Board meeting, members agreed they do not have time to go over the extensive proposals before the deadline for the November ballot.

Town Manager Daniel L’Heureux’s Monday evening report includes a preliminary summary of responses to the solid waste survey that asked residents’ opinions on ways to reduce waste disposal costs.

Tonight’s meeting begins at 7 in the Town Office.

Mary Grow is a Kennebec Journal correspondent who lives in China.