Waterford — The town will hold a referendum on an Eversource contract to heat two municipal buildings with natural gas, according to Town Clerk David Campo, who said enough signatures were collected on a petition calling for the vote.

On Monday, Democratic Representative Town Meeting member Nicholas Gauthier and petition circulators Dan Radin, an unaffiliated RTM member, and residents Emma Willer, Scott Hermo, Margaret Welch and Tennyson Benedict appeared at the Town Hall to deliver the signatures of 924 individuals who signed the petition.  

Campo certified 758 of the signatures Tuesday, making it the first referendum in town in nearly 20 years. In Waterford, referendums can only be held to challenge an RTM decision; the last one, held Aug. 13, 2002, pertained to the renovation of the town's elementary schools.

The town charter allows any elector to challenge an RTM decision, which, unless the RTM votes that it is an emergency action, goes into effect 15 days after it is enacted. During those 15 days, an elector may circulate a petition to collect the signatures of no less than 5% of the town's registered voters. In this case, 709 signatures were required, based on the town's 14,161 registered voters as of April 4, 2021.

All signatures must be certified prior to acceptance. Campo explained that a signature may be denied if the individual is not a registered voter, has signed the petition more than once, or the handwriting is illegible. For this reason, it was incumbent upon the petitioners to have a significant margin of error which, in this case, was 215.

The Board of Selectmen on May 3 will set a date for the referendum.

The RTM on April 4 approved a 15-year contract with Eversource to run lines and deliver natural gas to the town police department and public safety building, located at 41 Avery Lane and 15 Rope Ferry Road, respectively, in the town's Civic Triangle. The contract requires that the town use only natural gas to heat both buildings for the duration of the agreement, and the town projects savings of $1,778 per year, and additional savings in the first year of $166,200 due to not replacing the oil tanks that are currently in use.

Gauthier explained his motivation for this action Wednesday by phone saying, "If we are agreeing to something for 15 years, I think it is worthwhile to put the decision to all the voters in the town."

According to the charter, the next step is that "the selectmen shall call a referendum of electors to be held not earlier than thirty days nor later than sixty days from the filing of said petition."

In most respects, a referendum is a traditional election. All four voting precincts will be open from noon to 8 p.m., and a checker, a moderator, two assistant registrars, a person handing out ballots and a tabulator are present at each polling place. The District 1 polling place is Town Hall, District 2 is Quaker Hill Elementary School, District 3 is Oswegatchie Elementary School and District 4 is Great Neck Elementary School.

According to Julie Watson Jones, Democratic registrar of voters, the costs associated with a referendum are anticipated to be less than $10,000.

Once ballots have been cast and tabulated, a simple majority of the votes is not sufficient to overturn an RTM decision. A minimum of 20% of registered voters, or 2,833, must vote to overturn or the decision stands. The last referendum failed because though more than 20% of voters turned out, those who voted to overturn the RTM decision did not meet the 20% threshold.

For perspective, Jones says for the municipal election in 2021, there was a 32.6% turnout.