Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507200004
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield earned $93.3 million last year, the sixth consecutive year of positive earnings, the health insurer reported Wednesday to policyholders in Roanoke.
President Phyllis Cothran, at the annual meeting of Trigon policyholders at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, said the company had a surplus of $656 million and total assets of $1.3 billion, up 4.8 percent over 1993.
The company had an overall decline in annual premium levels, Cothran said. The average rate for fully insured groups decreased 0.7 percent, with more than 5,600 companies paying the same or less for their health insurance in 1994.
At the same time, Trigon had a 3 percent net enrollment growth in 1994 and continued growth in the first two quarters, reaching the mark of a million contracts for the first time in history.
Two new members were elected to Trigon's board. They are R. Gordon Smith, a partner with the law firm of McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, and William H. Goodwin, chairman of CCA Industries. Both are from Richmond, although Smith grew up in Roanoke.
Re-elected to the board were William R. Harvey, president of Hampton University; Gary Jobson, owner of Jobson Sailing Inc. of Annapolis, Md.; William N. Powell, president of Salem Tools Inc. in Salem; J. Carson Quarles of Roanoke, retired president of the Southwestern Region of Central Fidelity Bank; and James K. Candler, president of Candler Oil Co. Inc. of Lynchburg.
- Staff report
Schewel opening 2nd Roanoke store
Schewel Furniture Co. Inc. said Wednesday it will open a second Roanoke Valley store on Apperson Drive in Salem. Schewel, which has an outlet at 2811 Williamson Road, plans to open in the former Lowe's Cos. building in September.
Jack Schewel, an owner of the Lynchburg-based furniture company, said the current Roanoke store "does very well. We need to be on the other side of town." He said the Apperson Road store will have the same type of merchandising as the one on Williamson Road.
Schewel Furniture operates 42 stores in 37 cities, he said.
The retailer is leasing 24,000 square feet in the building from BBMW Land Co. Inc. Dennis Cronk of Waldvogel, Poe and Cronk Real Estate Group Inc., handled the transaction on behalf of the owner.
The other half of the 50,000-square-foot building is occupied by Virginia Construction Supply Inc. Cronk said the corporation that owns the property is composed of the owners of Virginia Construction Supply.
- Staff report
Stanley Furniture buys factory sites
Stanley Furniture Co. Inc. of Stanleytown said Wednesday it has purchased, for $10.5 million, the manufacturing facilities in Stanleytown and West End, N.C., which it previously leased. The buildings contain 2 million square feet of manufacturing, warehouse and office space.
Also, the company said Lawrence E. Webb Jr. has resigned as executive vice president, chief operating officer and as a director of the company effective July 31.
- Staff report
Avis is beginning 3 school projects
Avis Construction Co. Inc. of Roanoke has started construction on three school projects in the Roanoke Valley. They are Botetourt Intermediate School in Botetourt County, G.W. Carver Elementary School in Salem and Staunton River High School in Bedford County.
The work on all three projects consists of alterations and additions to existing facilities with a total contract value of more than $14.6 million.
- Staff report
Insured crops must be inspected
Crops that have been damaged by heavy rains and floods must be inspected before other crops are planted in their place or farmers risk loss of their insurance or other compensation, a Virginia Tech extension specialist warns.
It's important that farmers realize that damaged crops covered by an insurance policy or the Non-insured Assistance Program must not be destroyed before an inspection is made, said Gordon E. Grover, an economist with the Virginia Tech Cooperative Extension Service in Blacksburg.
Farmers with crop damage should report it to their insurance agents or to the local federal Consolidated Farm Service Agency office for the assignment of an adjuster who will appraise the loss, he said.
- Staff report
Power plant sets world safety record
Workers at Appalachian Power Co.'s John E. Amos plant near Charleston, W.Va., have set what is believed to be a world safety record for large fossil fuel power plants, the company said in a news release this week.
The plant's 498 employees worked 6 million hours without a disabling injury between Sept. 29, 1989, and this July 12.
The Amos plant is the largest coal-fired plant in the American Electric Power System and is jointly owned by AEP's Appalachian and Ohio Power companies. The plant has a generating capacity of 2.9 million kilowatts and can provide enough power to meet the needs of 2.1 million homes.
|- Staff report
Dividend
Roanoke Electric Steel Corp. on Wednesday declared a quarterly common stock dividend of 9 cents per share, payable Aug. 25 to shareholders on Aug. 7.
by CNB