Brookfield residents have pulled together over 200 signatures on a petition to bring the funding request for the Gurski Homestead project to a town wide referendum, rather than deciding it at Tuesday's town meeting.

The town meeting will still be held tonight, according to First Selectman Bill Davidson, however it will be more of an information session. Town Clerk Joan Locke finished verifying the signatures today at 10 a.m., with a final count of 208.

According to state statute, a petition with 200 signatories (or 10 percent of the eligible voting population, whichever is less) filed 24 hours before a vote by town meeting can force a referendum.

There was a question as to whether the state statute or town charter should take precedence in this matter, however town attorney David Grogins determined that the petition fell under the state statute. The town meeting will be used to set the date of the referendum, sometime between August 31 and September 7 (seven to 14 days from the meeting, per the statute).

Collecting all the signatures took less than one day according to Ernie Nepomuceno, who worked with Board of Finance (BOF) member Irv Agard and Chairman Bill Tinsley, Katherine Tinsley, Matthew Grimes and Rolf Enger, going house-to-house knocking on doors. "It wasn't difficult," Nepomuceno said, explaining that he told people "'I'm not here to sway you one way or the other, '" just to get it to referendum. "People don't often to go town meetings to vote," he said, "but if you put it to referendum, they have all day to adjust their schedule, rather than making a 7:30 meeting."

Nepomuceno said he is opposed to spending the money at this time without bringing it to a town wide vote, referencing the additional $300,000 that will be needed to complete the second phase of the barn renovations down the road as further reason to take the question to the people.