NORWICH — Having ratified a budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 last month, the Norwich Selectboard now needs to determine how to appropriate a $1.1 million surplus, with many funding needs to consider.

The Selectboard will hold two meetings this week — one on Wednesday and a second on Saturday — to solicit public feedback on how to use the surplus before making a decision, which may include putting proposals on the town warning for the voters to consider at the upcoming Town Meeting.

“We on the Selectboard need to listen to you, the citizens we are representing, to make sure that we are all in alignment together,” Selectboard member Priscilla Vincent said in an email to the community this week. “We are going into this with open minds and a genuine desire to know what you think. These are your taxpayer dollars.”

The town was fortunate to enter the budget cycle this year with a total surplus of $1.8 million at its disposal. This surplus includes $1.1 million in funds received in 2021 from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, and $700,000 in unspent surplus from the 2023-24 fiscal year.

The Selectboard is using the $700,000 surplus to lessen the tax impact of the proposed budget for fiscal year 2025, which begins on July 1.

The Jan. 17 meeting to discuss the town’s remaining surplus will be at 6:30 p.m. in Tracy Hall, which will also provide a remote access through Zoom. In addition to soliciting community input, the Selectboard plans to suggest some potential uses, which could include creating a fund for upgrades to Tracy Hall, allocating money to replace or repair the town garage or to replenish depleted capital reserves, such as the fire apparatus fund.

The second meeting will be held on Saturday, Jan. 20, at 2 p.m. at Tracy Hall, which will be exclusively to listen to residents who could not attend the first meeting

The town is currently awaiting the findings of an architectural study to recommend energy efficiency upgrades for Tracy Hall. The building’s oil heating system is failing and needs to be replaced.

Voters, in 2020, were asked to fund $2 million in energy-efficiency upgrades at Tracy Hall, including the installation of a ground-source heat pump — a type of geothermal system that provides both heating and cooling and would eliminate the use of fossil fuels.

Though the article initially passed at Town Meeting, by a narrow vote of 849-801, a petition filed by opponents led to a revote, where the proposal was overturned, 1,041 votes to 608.

The Selectboard is proposing an operating budget of $6.2 million for fiscal year 2025, as well as separate articles requesting an additional $642,000.

The proposed budget is a 12% increase from the current year, half of which is attributable to a nearly $400,000 increase in capital expenditure funding — which includes an additional $175,000 for highway equipment, $30,000 to replace a police cruiser, $40,000 increase the fire apparatus fund and an additional $65,000 to fund tennis court maintenance.

With the tax offset from the $700,000 surplus, the operating budget proposal would reduce the tax rate by 1%. The new property tax rate would be 59 cents per $100 of assessed property value, or the equivalent of $2,360 on a $400,000 home.

If the budget is approved with the additional articles, the town tax rate would be a 2% increase. The new rate would be 67 cents per $100 of assessed property value — or $2,680 on a $400,000 home.

The additional articles include a request of $150,000 to create a culvert replacement fund and a $10,000 request to create a fund for pedestrian infrastructure improvements.

The board ratified the budget proposal, by a 4-1 vote, at a meeting on Dec. 13.

“We did our best to be fiscally responsible and to not (overwhelm) the taxpayers,” Vincent said in a phone interview on Friday.

Board member Pam Smith, who had cast the lone vote against the budget, had questioned if the board had the authority to appropriate the $700,000 surplus without approval from voters. Smith raised a motion to seek legal counsel on the matter, which was defeated, 4-1.

Smith, in an email on Friday, declined to comment on the budget.

Patrick Adrian may be reached at padrian@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.