Referendum's On

The referendum's on.

Town Clerk Betsy Browne said Friday that she verified 1,800 signatures from Fairfield voters who wanted to have a referendum on the Representative Town Meeting's approval of a $350,000 funding request to build a girls' Little League field and infrastructure for a park on Hoyden's Lane - well above the 1,765 signatures needed.

Browne said she stopped verifying signatures after she reached 1,800. Referendum supporters said this week that they had submitted a total of 2,300 signatures to the Town Clerk's Office on Monday and Tuesday.

The Board of Selectmen is scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday in Sullivan-Independence Hall to set the date of the referendum and decide if printed ballots or machines will be used. The date has to be from 21 to 28 days from Friday.

The selectmen also can lengthen the hours of the referendum beyond the minimum of noon to 8 p.m.

First Selectman Ken Flatto, who previously expressed opposition to holding the referendum on Aug. 10, the date of Republican and Democratic primaries, reversed course on Friday and said it was his inclination to have the referendum on Aug. 10, though he said he wanted to hear how the Registrar of Voters' Office would manage holding a referendum on the same date as primaries.

Roger Autuori, the Republican registrar of voters, said Thursday that he hoped the selectmen did not schedule the referendum on Aug. 10 because he wasn't sure he would have enough poll workers for both the primaries and referendum if they were held on the same day.

Voting for the referendum can't be held in the same room as voting for the primaries, though it can be held in the same building, and the referendum requires its own poll workers.

Flatto described the referendum as "a small matter being done by a few neighbors."

"I think this has not been very widespread as a public issue," Flatto said, adding that he hasn't heard residents talking about it in his travels around town. Flatto said the referendum was "a longshot" and "a lot of time and effort for a small matter being done by a few neighbors."

But Liz Hoffmann, a Representative Town Meeting member from District 8 who helped to lead the referendum effort, said support for the referendum was evident across town and not just in the Hoyden's Hill neighborhood where the girls' Little League field and infrastructure for a park would be built. Hoffmann noted that 20 RTM members voted against the $350,000 funding request and five RTM members collected signatures to have a referendum, including Michael Herley, R-1, who collected 60 signatures in Fairfield's Southport neighborhood.

"You can't get 2,300 signataures if it's a neighborhood issue," Hoffmann said. "I believe that people don't want the town spending any more money...It's all about what the majority of taxpayers want."

For the referendum to be successful, 25 percent of town voters will have to vote against the RTM's decision to approve $350,000 for the athletic field and park infrastructure, and those votes also must be a majority of votes cast.

While Flatto said it was a longshot to get 25 percent of town voters voting against the RTM's decision, Hoffmann said taxpayers spoke by signing petitions to have a referendum, "and now the challenge is getting people out to speak again."

Kathryn Braun, an RTM member from District 8 who also helped to lead the referendum effort, said it would be helpful to town voters if the Board of Selectmen schedules the referendum on the same date as the primaries. She said people interested in working as poll workers could call the Registrar of Voters' Office at 203-256-3115 and attend a training session ahead of time.