Norwich - Funding for several economic development projects could be put to voters in a November referendum, but there won't be any ballot questions to change the city school system just yet.

The City Council will hold a workshop at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Norwich Community Development Corp. office, 77 Main St., to discuss proposals Mayor Peter Nystrom and NCDC Executive Director Robert Mills will present to the council as possible referendum items. Nystrom presented five of the items to the state Department of Economic and Community Development last week. Any future state grant aid would offset the city's cost for the projects, city officials said.

Mills said he will present cost figures to the council on Saturday. Last week, Nystrom gave preliminaries to DECD Deputy Commissioner Ronald Angelo that included $5.7 million for a new road and utilities off Route 97 in Occum that would open commercially zoned land for development. Another $1.5 million would cover improvements to the Stanley Israelite Norwich Business Park.

Nystrom proposed a matching grant program with $50,000 per year for five years to help developers pay for a controversial sewer connection fee enacted to help cover the city's $40 million sewer plant upgrade. City officials and building owners say the fee has stifled development.

Nystrom proposed two loan programs, each with $200,000 per year for five years. One program would help downtown businesses pay for code improvements and the other would help businesses move into vacant space in targeted neighborhoods.

The council would have to hold public hearings on the items in August and have the ballot questions finalized by early September to get them on the November ballot.

But the Board of Education decided quickly Tuesday that it could not be ready for any major bond referendum question this November. Instead, the board would like to hire one or two consultants to conduct detailed studies of the school system's infrastructure and its demographics for a possible bond question in November 2011.

Board Chairman Charles Jaskiewicz stressed Tuesday that the study must be completed by next June 1 to give the board time to make decisions on a bond question for later that year. The board asked Superintendent Abby Dolliver to contact consulting firms to collect possible fees and descriptions of services. The board will ask the city to advertise for proposals and to fund the study.

City Manager Alan Bergren said he already discussed funding the study with school officials. He said the money could come out of the city's capital improvements fund or the general fund.

School board members said they want everything to be considered - including whether the city should consolidate middle schools at the newly renovated Kelly Middle School and whether the entire school system should be reorganized by grade level, such as kindergarten through second grade and third through fifth or sixth.

The consultants would meet with school officials, the City Council and city planners and the public to hear opinions on how the school system should be organized.

c.bessette@theday.com