Norwich ― The latest step in the city’s effort to secure a location for a new police station comes Monday, when the City Council will hold a public hearing on a plan to buy the Chelsea Groton Bank building on Main Street for $800,000.

The plan calls for the city to buy the bank, located at the junction of Main and Cliff Streets, and two nearby parcels the bank owns for parking, next month. City officials will then launch an 11-month-long effort to secure state and federal grants, design the project, which would require an expansion on the rear of the building, and ask voters to approve the plan at a November 2025 referendum.

The public hearing Monday is on an ordinance for the city to bond $800,000 ― the maximum the council can borrow without voter approval ― to buy the bank at 300 Main St., and two parking lots at nearby 13 Arcadia St. and 17 Arcadia St. therefrom. The bank purchase is the fourth public hearing on Monday’s agenda for the council meeting that begins at 7:30 p.m.

Chelsea Groton Bank is moving its administrative offices to a newly-renovated building in Groton and plans to sell the large, stately stone building. Bank president Tony Joyce said the bank is committed to keeping its bank branch in downtown Norwich and is looking at other space to lease.

City officials have been examining the bank building for the past year and have started designing the project. But the plan was delayed after another potential buyer had expressed interest in the bank building. When that fell through, the city renewed its interest.

Police Chief Patrick Daley said there is no cost estimate yet for the project. The bank property extends back along Main Street toward the post office, providing space to build a multi-story expansion. An existing parking deck would be used for secure parking for police vehicles.

Additional parking would be available at a city-owned lot on Cliff Street and the two Arcadia Street lots that would come with the purchase.

If the City Council approves the purchase following Monday’s public hearing, efforts would begin immediately to seek state and federal grants. The city already has contracted with the lobbying firm Hughes & Cronin of Old Saybrook for two years at a cost of $5,000 to lobby for state funding, City Manager John Salomone said.

Mayor Peter Nystrom said the city has invited the deputy commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development and local state legislators to tour the building later next week to show that the building is viable for a police station.

Nystrom also pledged that he would go to Hartford during the upcoming legislative session to push for state assistance for the project.

“We want to be at the table when state funding is discussed,” Nystrom said Wednesday. “We will work on it every day.”

Daley said once the city purchases the building, he and other city leaders will schedule public forums regularly in 2025 to discuss the project with voters. He said they are interested in meeting with any civic groups, such as chambers of commerce or Rotary clubs, senior citizens groups or parents’ groups, to discuss the plan.

Salomone and Chief Daley said city officials have listened to voters’ opinions that the new police station should be in downtown Norwich. The current station overlooking Norwich Harbor was too small as soon as it opened in 1979, Nystrom said.

Voters last November rejected a plan to build a $44.7 million new police station on land behind the Rose City Senior Center off Mahan Drive.

“This is a downtown location, and a lot of the city residents and council members think this is a prime spot for the police station,” Salomone said.

Last week, the Commission on the City Plan voted unanimously to recommend the City Council purchase the bank building for a police station. The commission said the project meets the city’s Plan of Conservation and Development’s goal to “provide and maintain high quality community facilities,” city Planner Dan Daniska said.

“We investigated it,” Chief Daley told the commission. “It can work. It can be done. It’s up to the voters. The project has met our requirements. It’s feasible.”

c.bessette@theday.com