Groton - Thames Street in the City of Groton will get a makeover. The Groton Town school district will not.

Such were the results of two questions voters answered Monday in townwide referendums.

Residents rejected by a 3-to-1 margin the $133 million Phase II schools Facilities Program that would have closed two schools, built two new schools, reorganized the elementary grades and consolidated three middle schools into one. About half of the costs were expected to be paid by the state, leaving the town to bond about $66 million.

The vote failed 4,184 to 1,437.

Members of the Board of Education, the political action committee Taxpayers For Groton Schools II and schools Superintendent Paul J. Kadri promoted the plan vigorously and made house calls to talk with small groups of community members throughout the town.

"When it fails this big, it isn't something we did, or the opposition did," Kadri said. "The overwhelming community, for whatever reason, didn't like the plan. We put forward what we thought was a comprehensive plan that kept taxes as low as possible. Who knows. Maybe it's fear of the unknown."

The plan was aggressively challenged by Friends for Affordable Education, an opposing PAC, which met with controversy after some of its members distributed fliers and wrote letters criticizing the cost of two artificial surface athletic fields that were part of the plan. They claimed that the cost was three times the amount stated in the Phase II plan. (This sentence corrects an earlier version of the article.)

"Friends for Affordable Education PAC is extremely pleased with the outcome of this referendum's defeat," FFAE Chairman Andrew Parrella said in a statement after the votes were tallied. "Property owners struggling to keep their properties, and businesses trying to maintain their services, were driving forces on its failure. Immediate action should now be taken by sitting at the table with the Board of Education, Superintendent, Town Council, and RTM to look at other options."

Monday, residents also voted 3,334 to 2,306 in favor of rehabilitating Thames Street. Monday was the second time in two years that a rehabilitation plan went to voters; a $10.8 million plan failed at the polls two years ago.

The Thames Street Committee scaled down the plan and Monday put forth a $6.4 million bond package to upgrade to the road surface, lighting, curbs, sidewalks and retaining walls along a little more than a mile stretch of the waterfront thoroughfare.

Work on Thames Street is expected to begin next year and take two years to complete.

Marian Galbraith, who Monday was elected mayor, called the vote a critical first step toward revitalizing the street as a business district and residential community. She said she plans to work with Groton Town Manager Mark Oefinger to get the process moving forward.

Voters elected Galbraith to replace retiring Dennis Popp as mayor. Two new city councilors - former police chief Lawrence Garrish and Amy Moncy - were also elected. Republican Keith Hedrick, and Democrats William Jervis, David Hale and Celeste Duffy, along with City Clerk Debra Patrick and Treasurer Janice Waller-Brett, were all re-elected.

c.potter@theday.com