BETHEL – Pending a last-minute petition drive’s attempt to get 115 signatures into the town office by 8 this morning, selectmen could convene a special board meeting at 4 p.m.

Petitioner Scott Mills, owner of Bethel’s Best restaurant on Route 2 in West Bethel, said late Thursday night the petition asks voters to direct and authorize selectmen to seek designation of Route 2 through Bethel as a scenic byway.

It’s last minute, he added, because Mills only learned yesterday that to put it in referendum form before Nov. 7 election voters, it had to be submitted to selectmen 45 days prior.

“The question before selectmen is not about whether or not there should be a byway, but whether or not it should be put on the ballot,” Mills said.

He referred to Michael Daniels’ front-page story in the Sept. 14 Bethel Citizen. Daniels wrote that organizers of a campaign seeking to have Route 113 from Standish to Gilead designated as a state and, perhaps, national scenic byway had dropped plans to also include Route 2 between Bethel and Gilead.

The petition, Mills said, would put the decision to the people rather than selectmen.

“So far, inaction has been their only response,” Mills said of selectmen.

Not so, said selectmen Chairman Stanley Howe late Thursday night.

“Initially, we endorsed it, but, we had such reaction to it, we withdrew it,” he said.

During the interim, the board waited, Howe added, for convincing arguments to be made by Bethel proponents of the byways designation.

“Those never came. People talked to us about it, but no one on the board made a motion,” he added.

Mills said he wasn’t sure if they’d have the required 115 signatures, but he had people out Thursday night collecting them. If they get the signatures and Town Clerk Christen Mason rules Friday that they’re valid, selectmen would convene the special meeting to decide whether or not to put it before voters in November as a referendum ballot or hold a special town meeting.