The board of township trustees, at the expiration of an existing contract for lighting, may award a new contract pursuant to section 515.07 of the Revised Code, unless the owners of lots and lands containing in excess of fifty per cent of the front feet abutting on the streets and public ways of the unincorporated district in the township sign a petition for the discontinuance of the artificial lighting and file the petition with the township fiscal officer not less than thirty days prior to the expiration of the existing contract.