LEWISTON – Opponents of a city storm-water utility fee say they won’t give up, even as their petition languishes in City Hall.

The petition, designed to force a vote on the controversial “rain fee,” had collected 213 signatures as of noon Wednesday. Backers have 18 business days left to collect the 787 signatures necessary to force a vote.

“We’re not disappointed, because we have not been encouraging people to sign,” said David Hughes, one of the 10 people who started the petition effort in October. “We’d hoped the city would put it on the ballot themselves, but it doesn’t look like they’re going to do that. So far, we’ve played nice. But we’re not going to anymore.”

Hughes said his group plans to file a legal challenge forcing the city to let them take the petition door-to-door themselves.

“If it ends up going to court, I’m sure we’ll win,” Hughes said. “Then, we’ll ask for more time and we’ll circulate that petition on our own, and we will get enough signatures.”

Councilors adopted the utility-fee plan as part of the city budget in June and settled on the details in September. Councilors cut property taxes by $1.6 million, hoping to make up that revenue with the fee. It’s based on the amount of hard surface on each property, including roofs, sidewalks, parking lots and driveways. Single-family homes would pay $30 per year, duplexes $45 per year. All others, including businesses, churches and nonprofits, would pay 4.4 cents per square foot.

The petition would force a November 2007 vote on the storm-water utility. If 1,000 voters sign the petition by Jan. 11, it will force the city to suspend the new fees until the vote. That would leave a $1.8 million hole in the budget.

“We are sensitive to budget concerns,” Hughes said. “We know there are budget problems, but this deserves to go to a vote, in our view.”

According to the City Charter, the city needs to provide at least one way for residents to initiate legislation. One way must include publicly circulating a petition.

But a city ordinance adopted in 1982 requires that at least 1,000 registered city voters must come in and sign the petition for it to be valid. City Clerk Kathy Montejo said she has received no challenges to that since October, when Hughes made his first request.

“They sent us a letter telling us why we should let them have the petition, and we sent them a letter saying why we can’t do it,” she said. “We’ve received no communications at all since then.”