WILTON — As the annual town meeting stretched close to 10 p.m. Monday, voters worked their way through the 54 articles passing all but one.

After approving the second phase of upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant, voters also agreed to foot $30,000 toward the annual debt service for the upgrade, Town Clerk Diane Dunham said Tuesday.

A grant of $1,987,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture funds 45 percent of the second phase upgrade, leaving the town to seek a $2,975,000 bond over 30 years amounting to $4,515,000 in debt service for the second phase.

The town needed to approve the $4.9 million project but costs sit squarely on the shoulders of the 944 sewer customers who are facing a rate hike for both phases. An average $265 annual sewer cost is expected to rise to about $656 per year.

When the plant was built in 1977, town voters approved $30,000 a year toward the debt, because they felt the plant was beneficial to the town and value of properties,  including those near Wilson Lake. To do this again would reduce the costs to customers by about $32 while adding $11 per $100,000 valuation, plant Superintendent Clayton Putnam previously told selectmen.

With little discussion the voters agreed, Dunham said.

A show of hands was needed after one resident moved to change the requested amount of $108,675 for the Wilton Free Public Library to $75,000, she said. This was amended back to the original amount requested, $108,675, and voters approved it 68-16 by a show of hands, she said.

While some voters supported lowering the amount for the nonprofit library, which is not a town department, others expressed views that the library adds value to the town and helps with early childhood education.

Voters approved $33,700 for street and traffic lighting, which will shut off about 10 streetlights to cut costs. Almost 100 were discontinued last year when voters wanted to budget only $30,000 for streetlights.

Voters agreed to clarify and make some changes in the town’s zoning ordinance, including changing the zoning of the former Wilton Primary school and current RSU 9 bus garage from residential to downtown village zone.

The only article voted down was one Code Enforcement Officer Paul Montague asked voters to reject. The wrong copy of the article asking voters to include building demolition permit standards in the town’s zoning ordinance was mistakenly printed in the town report. The correct article will be included in a future special town meeting, he said. It clarifies what is needed by the Department of Environmental Protection to secure permits for any building demolition.

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