NORWAY – The Board of Selectmen approved a $377,192 budget for the Norway Wastewater Treatment Facility on Thursday.

Wastewater Superintendent Shawn Brown said there were few increases in this year’s budget, and decreases in areas like health care. The new budget is $788 less than last year’s appropriation of $377,980.

Brown said the biggest budget change will come next year, when the town has to start paying off bonds for a past project on Lake Road and improvements being made to Beal Street.

Selectmen approved the new budget with a 4-0 vote. Chairman Leslie Flanders and members George Tibbetts, Russell Newcomb and William Damon were present.

In related business, the board discussed sewer and sidewalk improvements in the Pearl Street area, which will be considered at an Aug. 19 meeting. Some of the work could be paid with a grant formerly awarded the Wastewater Treatment Facility, Brown said.

Town Manager David Holt said the board may also want to consider improvements to sidewalks on Marston Street. Residents from that area have been invited to the Aug. 19 meeting, he said.

Holt suggested that the town apply for a grant that would help pay for new trees along Beal Street.

“In the process of doing this Beal Street project we’ve had to cut some pretty old trees,” he said.

He asked selectmen for permission to apply for a grant that would cover 50 percent of the cost of new plantings. The permission was granted.

Property owners along Beal Street may be asked to plant new trees on their lawns if the town gets the grant, Holt said. “We’ve pretty much used the road right of way.”

Five or six large trees and a handful of smaller ones have been removed from Beal Street as the town has carried out improvements to the water and sewer lines, road and sidewalks in the area.