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Neither the Toms Creek sewer nor the citizens group that formed to oppose it is going to disappear just because the town election that revolved around them is done.

On Tuesday, Blacksburg Town Council is set to once again take up the question of whether to pursue plans for a conventional sewer through the least-developed part of town. The council meeting will come a week after three anti-sewer candidates won a decisive victory in Blacksburg's council election. But it will be well before the two non-incumbents among the victors take their seats on July 1.

So it will be the same council that has supported the sewer in 4-3 votes that will take up the next question concerning the project: what to do about a $2.3 million bid for a pump station that would be part of the first phase of sewer construction. The bid was good for 60 days, and next week is the council's last scheduled regular meeting before the bid expires May 23.

The town also is holding more than $5.2 million in bids for the first phase of sewer pipes. These bids are good through early June.

Mayor Roger Hedgepeth, who has led support for the sewer, said Wednesday that while he couldn't predict what the council would do, "The actual contracts may be a moot point" without financing for the project.

Two residents of the Toms Creek Basin filed a lawsuit to challenge a $7.6 million bond issue that the council had approved to pay for the first phase of the sewer. After an initial hearing last month, the attorney representing the town in the lawsuit said the town would not proceed with the project until after a May 13 hearing that is the next time the case goes before a judge.

Councilman J.B. Jones Jr., a sewer supporter who did not keep his seat in this week's election, said Wednesdaythat he had no idea what would happen next with the project. The sewer's other supporters on council, Frances Parsons, who also lost her seat in the election, and Joyce Lewis, could not be contacted Wednesday.

The sewer's opponents on council said they hoped the election's results - each anti-sewer candidate individually had more votes than the pro-sewer candidates did combined - would prompt a new review of sewer options.

"I think we'll have to rethink the decision that was made," said Vice Mayor Tom Sherman. "I think one thing this election's shown us is just picking something and having no good reason for it doesn't work."

As for the often-expressed opinion among sewer supporters that most residents wanted a conventional sewer and opposition came from a vocal minority, "Clearly that assessment was inaccurate," Sherman said. "Hopefully folks will say, 'I was wrong about that' and can move on."

Councilmen Ron Rordam, the top vote-getter in the election, and Al Leighton also called for the council to hold off approving contracts while it took a new look at alternatives. Leighton said he suspected that the plan the three backed - a line down the U.S. 460 Bypass to relieve capacity problems and smaller alternative systems for developments in the basin - would end up being the council's choice.

Hedgepeth, who had endorsed the three losing candidates, said the election results showed "hard work pays off" and said he did not anticipate difficulties working with the new council.

"There's a lot of things out there on the fire besides the sewer," he said, adding that he hoped to work out the town's new direction at the retreat the council traditionally holds soon after new members take their seats.

"For me, I'm going to lighten up and do my job and I think things will be fine," Hedgepeth said.

Organizers of Citizens First, the group that formed to back the three candidates opposing the sewer, said they were spending Wednesday savoring the election outcome. During the campaign, Citizens First volunteers distributed literature, gathered a list of about 1,400 supporters, made calls reminding people to vote and offered rides to the polls.

Organizer Lindsay West, whose years of community involvement include serving as a county supervisor and local Democratic Party chairwoman, said she had never seen such an organized effort in four decades of watching local politics.

"It brought together people who have a lot more interests than just what sort of sewer is provided to the Toms Creek Basin," West said. More than the sewer, the election's key issues were local government's "responsiveness, and how we want the town to grow and develop," West said.

Kay Kay Goette, another Citizens First organizer, said she was already receiving e-mails from people who hoped to join the group's future efforts. It probably will take a few weeks of discussions to determine what form and direction the group will take now, Goette and West said.

"We want to continue to be a force in the town. ... To be more vigilant than we have in the past," Goette said.