It appears Penfield residents will get their say whether the town should buy Shadow Pines Golf Club.

Organizers of a petition drive to force a referendum on the matter said Wednesday they had collected 1,133 signatures — more than the required 685 — and delivered them to Town Hall.

“I had to turn down people who wanted to sign the petition,” said Neal Madden, who spearheaded the effort by a couple dozen volunteers.

“Even yesterday morning people were contacting us to ask us where they could sign,” he said. “We couldn’t take any more signatures because we had to organize the petition sheets, review them and package everything up.”

Madden added that he anticipated all the signatures would withstand the scrutiny of a challenge.

If the signatures pass muster, the town will be compelled by state law to hold a yea-or-nay vote between 60 and 75 days from the filing of the petition.

This is how it should be.

A referendum was what the people were promised before the town board reneged on Nov. 20 and approved a $3.65 million bonding resolution to buy the golf course without public say-so.

Town leaders acknowledged backpedaling on their promise, but reasoned that their hands were forced by the demand of the property’s owner, the mining and quarry company The Dolomite Group, to close the sale no later than Jan. 31.

There was just no way, town leaders said, they would have the time to plan and hold a referendum before Dolomite’s closing date.

If the town couldn’t meet the closing date, there was the threat that Dolomite would sell to a developer who wants to build a couple hundred houses on the golf course.

An overwhelming majority of residents who spoke at town meetings regarding Shadow Pines favored the town buying the land to keep it out of the hands of developers.

The closing date was put in writing in a non-binding letter of intent between the town and Dolomite that outlined the transaction. The town’s supervisor, Tony LaFountain, signed the letter on Sept. 29.

Yet few people outside Town Hall knew the details of that letter until LaFountain revealed them in a newsletter on Nov. 20, the day the board authorized the bonding resolution.

The resolution carried the caveat that the people would only get their referendum now if they petitioned for it.

Under the state law that governs these so-called “permissive referendums,” the petition would have to be filed no later than 30 days from the passing of the resolution, which meant Dec. 20.

Earlier this month, as the petition drive gained momentum, LaFountain held a news conference to clarify the timeline of events and to caution residents about the consequences of holding a referendum.

“If we receive a petition, and that forces us to go out for a public vote, that will take us until about the April timeframe,” he said.

At the same time, he acknowledged that even if a petition forcing a referendum wasn’t filed, the earliest Penfield could close the deal would be Feb. 6 — six days past Dolomite’s supposed hard-and-fast deadline.

No deadline written in a non-binding letter of intent is hard and fast. These letters only form the basis of negotiations until a definitive purchase agreement is signed.

LaFountain wrote Wednesday in a text message that a purchase agreement has not been signed.

“The petition was expected,” he wrote. “We will see how everything plays with the process.”

Here’s how I suspect it will play if Dolomite is serious about selling:

1. A referendum will be held sometime between Jan. 19 and Feb. 3.

2. The people will vote in favor of the town buying the golf course.

3. Petitioners will be satisfied with just having had their say.

4. Dolomite won't snub a guaranteed $3.35 million (the purchase price) that allows it to unload an albatross from its portfolio and will agree to close the deal in the spring.

As it should be.

David Andreatta is a Democrat and Chronicle columnist. He can be reached at dandreatta@gannett.com.