ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 23, 1996 TAG: 9602230024
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
Shareholders of Mid-South Insurance Co. of Fayetteville, N.C., voted Thursday by an 85 percent margin to merge the company with Trigon Blue Cross Blue Shield of Virginia. The deal, first announced last August, is expected to be completed Thursday.
Trigon, the Richmond-based health insurer, paid $15.67 for each of the 5,446,696 outstanding shares, making the deal worth about $85.3 million.
Mid-South will keep its headquarters in Fayetteville and operate as a Trigon subsidiary. All of its 120 employees will be retained.
Mid-South provides health, accident and life insurance for about 90,000 people in rural and suburban markets in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Tennessee.
- Staff report
Green's Drug Stores has new owner
Green's Drug Stores, a family-owned pharmacy chain based in Bedford, has been sold. The new owner, Sam L. Porter, is the former corporate vice president of Green's. Charles E. "Ted" Green III traded his role as owner and president of the company for Porter's former job.
Green, whose father founded the business in 1942, declined to say how much he received for the eight-store chain.
Porter is a graduate of the Medical College of Virginia's pharmaceutical school and also is a former corporate vice president for the Knoxville, Tenn.-based Begley drug store chain.
Green's Drug grew from a single store in downtown Bedford to stores in Bedford, Moneta, Lynchburg, Bassett, Richlands, Wise and Bluefield.
- Landmark News Service
CWA approves 3-year contract
WASHINGTON - A union representing most of Bell Atlantic Corp.'s employees has approved a three-year contract to end a bitter five-month dispute, both parties said Thursday.
The contract ratified by the Communications Workers of America covers 34,400 Bell Atlantic workers, the telephone company said. It embodies a tentative contract agreement reached Jan.25.
CWA announced that more than 85 percent of the workers voted for the agreement and said it covers 36,500 workers. Bell Atlantic said CWA's higher coverage figure doesn't account for workers whose jobs have been eliminated through reductions in the work force.
The agreement includes a 10.6 percent wage increase spread over the three years, employment security clauses and a new retiree health care plan with no employee contributions before 2002.
- Associated Press
Discounter recalls wooden trucks
WASHINGTON - Everything's A Dollar, a Milwaukee-based chain of stores with outlets in Roanoke, says consumers should return more than 9,000 wooden toy trucks for refunds because young children could choke on some of the parts.
The 5 1/2-inch Big Wooden Trucks have red wheels and headlights, and a driver with a yellow hat and red body. They came with multicolored abacus beads, six multicolored discs or five lettered and numbered discs.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said the driver, wheel and axle pieces are small enough for children younger than 3 to choke on.
Neither the Consumer Product Safety Commission nor Everything's A Dollar was aware of injuries involving the trucks, the federal agency said.
- Associated Press
Briefly ...
MainStreet BankGroup Inc. of Martinsville declared a 2-for-1 stock split in the form of a 100 percent stock dividend. It is payable March 15 to stockholders of March 4.
Scott & Stringfellow Inc., a Richmond-based securities broker with an office in Roanoke, said Tuesday that it has opened an office in downtown Charleston, S.C., its first in that state. It said it may open additional branches in South Carolina. The company has 19 offices in Virginia, seven in North Carolina and one in West Virginia.
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