Old Lyme — Residents voted 100-60 Monday to approve a 2015-16 overall town budget of $34,756,641, a 3.67 percent increase over the current budget. The tax rate, approved Monday by the Board of Finance, will be 20.62 mills, up from the current rate of 19.66 mills.

At Monday's annual budget meeting, residents also approved establishing a road improvement fund and a town building improvement fund, adopting a tax schedule of two semi-annual installments for the payment of real estate and personal property taxes, and appropriating $37,500 for costs associated with the 2015 blizzard, which would be eligible for up to 75 percent FEMA reimbursement.

Residents then voted to deny appropriating up to $148,000 to cover funds that have been spent for consultants to complete a wastewater management plan for some of the town's shoreline communities. The appropriation would have been eligible for up to 55 percent reimbursement from Clean Water Funds.

Two years ago, residents approved $185,000 for a wastewater management study, partially reimbursed through Clean Water Funds, that explored both regional and local alternatives to treat wastewater.

The Water Pollution Control Authority has been exploring connecting several beach communities through sewers to a wastewater plant in New London, after receiving comments on the report from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. The WPCA decided that the additional testing required to try for a local community solution would have been costly and not guaranteed for approval.

The proposed appropriation of $148,000 in additional funds would have covered two amendments to the study for items including requested updates to the report and a lot-by-lot needs analysis for the proposed project area, according to a meeting document. The appropriation represented the portion of the $208,000 in expenses for additional work not already funded in the town's WPCA's budgets.

Residents with differing opinions on the proposed appropriation, as well as on the general topic of sewers and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection's proceedings with the town, spoke at the meeting, with the discussion at times becoming contentious.

A motion to table the vote failed 109-61, before residents voted 115-56 to deny the appropriation.

The 2015-16 budget approved by residents includes $25,014,080 for Old Lyme's portion of the Lyme-Old Lyme schools' budget; $8,736,432 for general government; and $1,006,129 for capital outlays.

The spending plan allocates $600,000 of the town's more than $6 million in surplus funds to repair roads by Rogers Lake and replace public works tanks. Board of Finance Chairman Andy Russell said the board feels it's appropriate to use some of its surplus funds to offset the impact to taxpayers in the case of one-time, unexpected expenditures.

k.drelich@theday.com

Twitter: @KimberlyDrelich