ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 12, 1994                   TAG: 9411140058
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

ROANOKE GAS CO. RAISES RATES

A $1.3 million rate increase for Roanoke Gas Co. customers will take effect on an interim basis Sunday. For the utility's average residential customer, using 8,500 cubic feet of gas, it means an increase of $1.64 cents a month, from $57.58 to $59.22.

Roanoke Gas applied June 15 to the State Corporation Commission for the rate increase. The commission scheduled a Dec.20 public hearing on the request and told the Roanoke utility to put the rate increase into effect on an interim basis Nov.13.

If the commission does not approve the entire requested increase, Roanoke Gas will have to refund, with interest, the amount its customers have overpaid.

If granted, the full rate increase will raise the company's operating revenues 2.4 percent.

The rate request is the utility's second in as many years. On May 18, the SCC approved a $630,000 increase, slightly more than half what Roanoke Gas had requested.

The hearing will be at 10 a.m. in the second-floor courtroom of the commission's headquarters in the Tyler Building, 1300 Main St. in downtown Richmond. 


 by CNB