MARCH MEETING TO ORGANIZE CLAYTOR LAKE CLEANUP

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 3, 1993                   TAG: 9302030172
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-6   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWBERN                                LENGTH: Medium
MARCH MEETING TO ORGANIZE CLAYTOR LAKE CLEANUP
Claytor Lake is getting more friends than ever.
The numbers at the monthly Friends of Claytor Lake meetings keep growing, but the group hopes to bring in the most people to a special March 20 meeting. That is when it will organize what is to become an annual lake cleanup program, most of which will take place during May.
The group came into being last year following floods that left the lake loaded with debris. It started as an ad hoc committee within the Clean Community Council and now is close to becoming incorporated as a separate organization.
"It's up to us," said Ward Angle, the group's president, at its meeting Monday. "You're looking at it. This is it."
Regular meetings are scheduled on the first of each month, starting at 7 p.m., at the Shop-Eez store near the Lowmans Ferry Bridge. They are open to lake users, owners of property around the lake and anyone interested in the aquatic attraction.
"I think you all are aware that we do have a problem on our lake," said Mike Ratcliffe, the group's secretary. "You get a lot of people working, you get a lot done."
"Cleanup's a never-ending problem. You guys know that as well as I do," Mike Thacker of Appalachian Power Co. told the 40 people at the gathering. "When it floods, there's not a whole lot you can do about it."
Friends of Claytor Lake plans an aggressive membership campaign once its incorporation is complete. The question of dues was not settled Monday, but Angle said there are other sources of money as well.
"It comes from the county, the state, grant money and donations, from what I can see right now," he said, based on his observations of fund-raising efforts for similar work at Smith Mountain Lake.
The effort to clean up and preserve Claytor Lake may extend beyond what is formally known as the New River Valley area. People at the meeting said debris also comes along the New River from counties as far away as Wythe and Grayson, and people there should be made aware of the efforts, too.
For now, Angle said, people with concerns or ideas about the lake can send them to him at Route 1, Box 302, Radford 24141. Once the corporation has some money coming in, it will rent a post office box.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB