North Stonington - It seems like a simple question: one arch or two?

First Selectman Nicholas H. Mullane II hopes residents can come up with an answer at a public meeting Monday night and offer feedback on preliminary designs for the Old Town Hall Bridge.

The meeting at the elementary school will be the community's first opportunity to speak up publicly about proposals to redesign the bridge that was destroyed during the March 30 flooding last year.

Also to be discussed are potential repairs to the West Village Green Bridge, which suffered extensive damage during the same storm.

"We can't do the final design until we get public input on what they want," Mullane said.

While that seems simple, Mullane said it's anything but.

The village of North Stonington is on the National Register of Historic Places, as is the bridge itself. Historical societies on the local, state and federal level all have a say in approving the design, Mullane said.

"It is best to keep it in the same footprint so it conforms to historical location and style," Mullane said. "Once you go out of that footprint, there's a whole bigger review involved."

In addition, 75 percent of the design and construction will be funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That money has certain stipulations as well, he said.

"[FEMA] will only pay anything if [the design] is completely approved by state and federal historical standards," Mullane said. "We have to do things that are in compliance with the things they like."

The bureaucratic oversight has slowed the process and made a simple project a lot more complicated, he said.

"People have every right to be upset that there is no bridge after a year," Mullane said. "It's a complex thing that has a lot of different aspects to it."

Richard Blodgett, a trustee of the North Stonington Historical Society, said his group voted unanimously during a March 7 meeting to support the two-arch version of the Town Hall Bridge.

"We are trying to maintain the integrity of the historical flavor of the village," Blodgett said. "We have to convince FEMA that this is the way we want it done. Historical preservation is first on our minds."

One such historical aspect includes the possible reconstruction of the Watermark, a building that made up one side of the Town Hall Bridge that was destroyed during the floods. Mullane said the side of the bridge would not have a rock retaining wall in the event that the owner of the popular meeting place chooses to rebuild the structure.

Since last March, Mullane said the selectmen have hired consulting engineers Wengell, McDonnell & Costello of Newington to do preliminary engineering and design work. After Monday's meeting, Mullane hopes the plans will advance to further design stages, and eventually the project will be put out for bid before work is begun.

Rebuilding the Old Town Hall Bridge could cost up to about $1.2 million, while repairs to the West Village Bridge could cost approximately $200,000, he said. The town would be responsible for 25 percent of the total cost, as well as about $60,000 for the preliminary engineering.

If everything goes according to schedule, "without any complications," Mullane said Old Town Hall Bridge could be completed by Nov. 15. Work on the West Village Green Bridge would begin next spring with a completion date of July 15, 2012.

Representatives from FEMA and the State Historic Preservation Office will attend Monday's 7 p.m. meeting at the North Stonington Elementary School.

s.goldstein@theday.com