No vote, no voice.

Especially in Blacksburg, where a referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot will decide whether the town will sell or retain its natural gas company.

Earlier this year, York County Natural Gas Authority offered $2.5 million to purchase the municipally-owned utility company. Town officials later agreed in principle to the sale.

The Blacksburg Gas Company, which has been operated locally since 1950, has been a target of the York County gas provider for much of the past two years.

"(York County Gas Authority) was already a customer of ours," said Blacksburg Town Administrator Trudy Martin. "When they needed to purchase additional gas some time a few years ago, they had an idea of trying to purchase the entire system."

For a while, Blacksburg turned down offers from York Natural Gas. But when the town's primary consumer of natural gas, the Hanson Brick Company, closed its doors last year, negotiations began anew.

"When the brick yard closed, we lost 52 percent of our gas sales," Martin said.

The Blacksburg utility provides service to approximately 624 customers.

Town officials decided to put the referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot due to legislation that requires the owners — which is in this case is Blacksburg taxpayers — to either approve or deny the sale.

"The law requires us to have the owners to vote to give approval for the sale to take place," Martin said. "We felt the Nov. 4 ballot was our best chance to go ahead with this and see where it takes us."

According to officials with York Natural Gas and the Town of Blacksburg, the sale of the gas company would provide immediate financial relief to Blacksburg, whose customers would see lower rates if the deal goes through.

Martin said pamphlets are being distributed to town residents in hope they will support the sale of the municipally owned utility.

"We are giving them as much information as possible so they can know what they are voting on," Martin said. "So far, we are getting some good feedback, with most in favor of the deal."

However, nothing will be known for sure until after the polls close. If voters do not approve the sale, negotiations with York Natural Gas will stop.

"If residents do not approve the deal, we'll just get back to work with an engineering firm to see how we can best serve our customers," Martin said. "Otherwise, we'll continue our business of selling the gas company to the York County Gas Authority."

If approved, customers would join York Natural Gas' service area, which includes approximately 52,000 customers in York County and the northeast portion of Cherokee County.

The gas authority currently provides service to residential, commercial and industrial customers.