ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702100014
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
Packers prefer paper, not pointers
CHRISTIANSBURG - Paper or plastic?
For Rufus Shumate and Billy Linkous, two local grocery-store baggers who participated in the recent state championship Grocery Bagging Competition in Christiansburg, the answer is easy.
Paper, please. The sacks are bigger and make organizing items easier, they say.
"You can put more stuff in them. Everything stays where you put it, pretty much," said Shumate, a 17-year-old junior at Christiansburg High School who works at the Wades store on Roanoke Street in Christiansburg.
"It's just easier. I can get it faster than plastic," said Linkous, 18, who is a senior at Christiansburg High School and an employee at Harris Teeter in Blacksburg.
The easiest items to arrange are boxes and cans, and the most difficult for Linkous are gallon jugs and pizzas. For Shumate the most difficult are tall, thin containers like pasta boxes and eggs. (Where he works, gallon jugs aren't bagged.)
But the toughest thing about the job isn't the irregularly shaped items, they say. It's the backseat baggers - customers who can't seem to allow the experts to practice their trade without pointers.
Raines' Jones named to Realtor post
BLACKSBURG - Joseph T. Jones, president of Raines Real Estate, has been chosen president of the New River Valley Association of Realtors for 1997.
Jones joined the association in 1972 and has been director, secretary, treasurer, chairman of the education committee and the grievance committee, and was president in 1981. He was Realtor of the Year in 1991.
He has served on the state association's standard forms, professional standards and property management committees, and has taught real estate courses at New River Community College and for the Montgomery County School System. He is a state-approved continuing education instructor.
Jones has been a member of the Blacksburg Planning Commission for 15 years, is an elder at Dayspring Christian Fellowship and is a trustee for the Dayspring Christian Academy. He is a member of the Blacksburg noon Rotary club and is a member of the board for Internet Business Technologies.
Real estate agents earn GRI designation
BLACKSBURG - Patty Mostaghimi and Irma Stephens, two real estate agents at Raines Real Estate, have been awarded the Graduate, Realtor Institute designation.
They received the designation by completing 90 classroom hours of instruction on legal liabilities, professional standards, construction, new home sales, appraisal, real estate investments and taxation.
The designation means they are better able to provide professional and ethical guidance during the complicated steps involved in a modern-day real estate transaction, said MaryCarol Mandzak, advertising director for Raines.
Home builders group selects officers
CHRISTIANSBURG - The officers for 1997 for the New River Valley Home Builders Association are:
President - William Cunningham of Cunningham Enterprises; vice president - Mike Snyder of Snyder & Associates; associate vice president - Larry Martin of Haynes Portable Toilets and Septic Service; treasurer - Sterling Smiley of Sterling Design & Construction; secretary - Frank Cahoon of Cast Construction.
Receiving the Johnny Haynes Memorial Membership Award were Martin; Bob Miller, a Blacksburg building official; and Georgia Anne Snyder-Falkinham of Snyder & Associates. The Honor Member Firm Award went to Marshall Concrete Products. The Design Excellence Award for a single-family dwelling went to Chris Hudson of Shelter Alternatives.
The Design Excellence Award for a commercial building went to Bob Pack of Pointe West Management. Martin won the Associate of the Year Award. Building of the Year Award winner was Snyder, and Remodeler of the Year Award winner was Rick Kraft of Kraft Construction.
Bank names Johnson to vice presidency
ROANOKE - T.W. "Jay" Johnson has been named vice president of commercial and professional banking for the New River Valley region for First American Federal Savings Bank.
Johnson will be responsible for commercial banking in the region, specializing in businesses with sales of less than $25 million a year.
He holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Virginia Tech and a teaching certificate from Radford University. He is a native of Christiansburg.
Johnson is vice chair of the Montgomery Regional Economic Development Commission and past campaign chair and board member for the United Way for Montgomery and Floyd Counties and Radford. He is a former adjunct faculty member for the Virginia American Institute for Banking.
Farmer wins honors for advertising
RADFORD - Ken Farmer, of Ken Farmer Auctions & Estates in Radford, won four first-place advertising awards, including "Best in Show" at the Virginia Auctioneer's Association annual educational convention in Richmond recently.
Farmer sells antiques, fine art, real estate and business liquidations throughout the mid-Atlantic region and the Southeast.
Secretaries group will meet Monday
BLACKSBURG - The New River Valley chapter of Professional Secretaries International will meet Monday at 6:30 p.m. at the Blacksburg Transit Facility on Commerce Street.
The meeting's topic will be the chapter's IMPACT Program and membership recruitment month.
For information, call Ann Scanlon at 231-3429.
Roanoke site of quality control meeting
CHRISTIANSBURG - The Radford/Roanoke section of the American Society for Quality Control will meet Feb. 18 at the airport Holiday Inn in Roanoke.
The speaker will be Leon Harris, president of Tele-path Instruments, who will receive the Small Business of the Year award. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. with a social, followed by dinner and the program at 7:30 p.m.
For reservations call Dale Fitzgerald at 375-0528 or e-mail him at Fitged@ttc.com by Friday.
Purchasing managers to meet in Blacksburg
BLACKSBURG - The New River Valley Quality Council and National Association of Purchasing Managers will meet Feb. 18 at Custom Catering on North Main Street in Blacksburg.
The meeting's topic will be "The Quality Factor in Purchaser-Supplier Relationships" presented by David Crites, purchasing supervisor for Alliant Techsystems; James Gay, marketing manager for Hollingsworth & Vose; and Philip Huang, faculty member in Virginia Tech's management science and information technologies departments.
A buffet dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. with the program at 7:30 p.m.
Reservations are due by Friday. Call Charles Beazley at 381-1714. The cost is $17.
LENGTH: Long : 129 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Shumate, Linkous, Mostaghimi, Stephens,by CNBJohnson, Farmer, Jones