 Opponents of the board's decision protested it by placing signs near the mountain deriding the purchase as an unwise expenditure.The town was not legally obligated to hold a referendum, regardless of public sentiment, because the money budgeted for the purchase was not borrowed; board members planned to tap a $340,000 surplus fund, generated by the 2010 sale of town land to the OSI, which intended to allow bouldering on the property.The $340,000 fund was originally intended for capital improvements, specifically the construction of a new town hall, but a June 2011 audit of the town's 2010 budget found that a large part of the surplus had already been used to offset budget and tax shortfalls; only $79,000 remained available.