Norwich — As unexpected costs and water runoff concerns crop up for a proposed fire and police facility, a former Selectboard chairman is publicly criticizing his colleagues for rushing to get a bond on the November ballot.

In a blistering post on the town Listserv last week, Christopher Ashley, a current selectman who stepped down as chairman a little over a year ago after two bond requests from his board failed at the polls, attacked what he said had been a hasty process.

The post, titled “My Vote on the Bond for the Public Safety Building,” was a response to criticism of his lone vote last month against putting the new plan before voters in November, Ashley said.

“The cost of the proposal was not correctly calculated, the environmental impact of the water run-off from the proposed parking lot was not clarified, the proposed building does not provide adequate space for current or future needs, and the process to approve the proposed design has been, in my opinion, a race to the bottom with little opportunity for public input,” he wrote on Tuesday.

Last week, board members discovered that the $1.41 million request, which would go toward demolishing the crumbling police station and combining it with the firehouse, had been miscalculated: the true cost of the facility is closer to $1.48 million.

At the same August meeting where board members arrived at a cost of $1.41 million, they decided to trim expenses by removing several parking spaces from the proposed lot for a savings of about $100,000.

Ashley contends the parking decision leaves unresolved the question of whether stormwater runoff from the lot, located downtown off Firehouse Lane, would prove a burden to the surrounding neighborhood.

The extra $100,000 would have paid for pervious pavement and a catchment area, which a larger parking lot would have required in order to receive permits from state environmental officials.

Board members addressed these concerns during a marathon meeting this past Wednesday, the day after Ashley’s missive.

Although it took no official action, the Selectboard reviewed several options to fill the bond gap, as presented by Interim Town Manager Dave Ormiston. Among other strategies, municipal officials could add another bond item to the ballot or pay the difference out of the town’s unassigned fund balance.

The board appeared to be leaning against putting a potentially confusing second request in front of residents this fall, and instead resolved to table the matter. Some board members supported asking voters in March for permission to use unassigned funds; a decision on that could wait until winter.

“There’s two places you could get that money from,” Chairwoman Linda Cook said at the meeting, according to a recording, “but either way, you don’t have to make that decision today.”

The discussion on the parking lot took a similar route. Cook said adding more spaces later was “not off the table,” and the board decided to consult its architect, Montpelier’s Jay White, at its next meeting, provided he can attend.

Later in the week, the rest of the board defended the proposal.

Steve Flanders, who in the past has voted with Ashley for a proposal of greater scope and longevity, acknowledged the pace at which town leaders had moved. All the same, he said, it had been worth it.

“We have made some hurried decisions,” he said in an interview, “but I don’t feel that we’ve made bad decisions.”

“We’ve made some savings that reflect the voters’ desire to spend less, but I feel it’s still an adequate value. … It’s much better to get this job done the way we’re doing it than it is to not get this job done,” he later added.

Last year’s unsuccessful bonds both came in at around $3 million, but, as Ashley pointed out, they also included improvements to the public works garage, which this time the town is hoping to pay for by redirecting federal recovery funds from Tropical Storm Irene.

Ashley placed the cost of the fire and police renovations in last year’s proposals at $2.11 million.

Other Selectboard members also pointed to the results of last year’s bond votes, both of which failed by healthy margins, as indicators of what residents wanted: lower costs.

“Bottom line is, the voters rejected two bonds,” Cook said in an email on Saturday. “Now, a majority of the Selectboard supports a bond of $1,410,000 for the construction of our combined police and fire public safety building. We chose the November election to present this bond in an effort to maximize the number of voters weighing in on this decision.

“I am in full support of this bond.”

An informational meeting on the public safety facilities project is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Nov. 3 at Tracy Hall, according to the town clerk. Election Day is Nov. 8.

The board’s next regularly scheduled meeting is Sept. 28.

Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or 603-727-3242.