Toombs said C&T will retain all 46 current Corning Natural Gas employees, with the exception of Thomas K. Barry, president and chief executive officer, and Kenneth J. Robinson, executive vice president, who will retire when the purchase is complete.

The sale is not expected to affect a major rate increase Corning Natural Gas Corp. is seeking. If that hike goes into effect June 1 as expected, customers will see an average increase of about 11 percent in their bills.

The state Public Service Commission is expected to rule on the rate hike request by the end of the month. It is also expected to impose stringent new operating and reporting requirements on Corning Natural Gas.

The agreement follows months of turmoil at Corning Natural Gas, which did not have enough cash or credit last fall to buy winter gas supplies for its 14,300 customers in Steuben and Chemung counties.

C&T Enterprises is jointly owned by Claverack Rural Electric Cooperative in Wysox and Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative in Mansfield. Its Northern Tier operations include Wellsboro Electric Co., Citizens Electric Co. in Lewisburg and Valley Energy in Sayre. It also has a division in Waverly.

The sale is expected to be completed by the end of the year. When that happens, Corning Natural Gas will become a private company in which no individuals, directors or management own stock, C&T said in a news release.

Barry said the purchase price will not be disclosed until the deal is approved by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, which has eight weeks to review it.

Corning Natural Gas Corp. stock last sold on May 4 for $13.70 per share. With about 505,000 shares outstanding, a purchase price of $15 per share would result in a transaction valued at about $7.5 million.

"This should alleviate all the fear customers have about adequate gas supplies," Barry said. "Small utilities are becoming a thing of the past. They really can't survive by themselves. We are dinosaurs."

Barry said C&T has an "aggressive five-year plan" to replace pipelines, meters and other equipment in the local system that would have been impossible for Corning Natural Gas to undertake on its own.

Under existing employment contracts, Barry and Robinson will receive financial payouts totaling as much as $1.3 million when the sale is complete.

In addition, they will be reimbursed for some federal taxes on those amounts and provided with health care benefits and a paid-up life insurance policy.

Under separate agreements, if they retire after age 62, Barry and Robinson will receive monthly payments totaling 35 percent of their final monthly salary for the rest of their lives. Those payments would increase by 4 percent annually.

Toombs said C&T will provide a range of services to Corning Natural Gas, including human resources, payroll, information technology, communications, media relations and safety and compliance. It will also provide a "key accounts" person to deal one-on-one with major customers.

Prudential Ambrose & Shoemaker Real Estate, which is owned by Corning Natural Gas, is not part of the transaction. Barry said the gas company is seeking a buyer for the real estate firm, preferably one affiliated with Prudential.

After the sale is complete, Corning Natural Gas will be governed by a board of directors that includes citizens from the Corning community as wells as directors from the C&T operating companies, C&T said in a news release.

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