Norwich ― Mayor Peter Nystrom highlighted major public and private developments, fueled by millions of dollars in state and federal grants during his annual State of the City address Tuesday but also urged city, school and utility officials to curb spending in the coming budget years.

Nystrom noted that, other than the recent referendum defeat of a proposed new police station, city voters have approved major city, school and utilities projects in recent years. This included the overwhelming approval of a $385 million school construction project a year ago and several road improvement bonds and natural gas expansion projects for Norwich Public Utilities.

NPU broke ground in November on a five-year, $200 million new sewage treatment plant that is expected to greatly improve water quality in Norwich Harbor and the Thames River, just as new owners of the Marina at American Wharf are making major improvements to that centerpiece on the waterfront, Nystrom said.

Nystrom, a Republican, will have to work with a Democratic majority City Council in his final two years as mayor. In his address Tuesday, Nystrom cautioned the City Council, school and utility officials that taxpayers and ratepayers must pay for the approved projects over the next decade, and they cannot be expected to bear other increased tax and rate burdens.

“Whether you’re a taxpayer or a rate payer the people of Norwich suffer enough,” Nystrom said. “It's our job to be the guardians of their monies and I ask the city council not to impose hardships on them unnecessarily. All these issues that I've outlined are real and costly.”

Nystrom specifically criticized a proposal being considered by the School Building Committee that calls for prearranged labor agreements between construction unions and contractors for work on the first two new schools.

Nystrom warned that such a policy would raise costs to taxpayers by restricting the pool of bidders for the project and would hurt the ability for small local businesses to bid on projects and delay critical time schedules.

He said project labor agreements for the school construction project would negate the added state grant reimbursements Norwich’s state legislators secured in the last General Assembly session.

“This will drive the cost of schools up and it will limit the workforce pool,” Nystrom said. “This is the last thing we want to do when you consider that our state delegation worked so hard to get an increase in our state reimbursement levels.”

Nystrom highlighted state and federal grants that have given Norwich unprecedented funding boosts, with $28 million over four years in federal American Rescue Plan Act grants and an $11.4 million in state Community Investment Fund grant to build the access road into the planned second business park in Occum.

Through the Norwich Community Development Corp., economic development grants were matched with private dollars to move some long-stalled projects, including redevelopment of the abandoned, blighted former YMCA into the headquarters of Mattern Construction, and the creation of 17 apartments in the former Reid & Hughes building.

“These investments will strengthen our grand list and help relieve the financial pressures on the homeowners and taxpayers here in the city of Norwich,” Nystrom said.

c.bessette@theday.com