ORGANIZER BANKS ON COMMUNITY NATIONAL SUCCESS

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

DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993                   TAG: 9304060151
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium
ORGANIZER BANKS ON COMMUNITY NATIONAL SUCCESS
Wayne Carpenter began his new job Monday, seeking office space for a bank that does not yet exist.
Carpenter gave up his job as vice president of the Pulaski branch of NationsBank last week to become chief organizer for the proposed Community National Bank.
A community bank is locally owned, seeks to identify needs within its area and relies on strong personal service, he said.
Eleven investors, including Carpenter, felt that Pulaski needed its own bank. They will be putting up money for the charter application and other legal expenses, office space, telephone bills, Carpenter's salary as the man putting it all together, and the fee for Bank Consultants Inc. of Atlanta, which is helping with formation of the bank.
The idea came out of a conversation between Carpenter and Hiawatha Nicely, vice president for operations and administration at Magnox Inc. in Pulaski.
"Really we didn't do anything right away. It kind of sat there like two months," Carpenter said.
In December, he and Nicely talked about it again with Dr. Carole Pratt, a Pulaski County dentist. The rest of the investors - James Webb, Dave Wine, Dave Ratcliff Jr., Jack Bowling, Randy Chrisley, Dr. Nathan Tuck, Jack Bruce and Sybil Atkinson - gradually were added. But the project remained hush-hush until it was announced Saturday on the steps of the old Pulaski County courthouse.
"In fact, the blizzard of '93 was a big day for us," Carpenter said. That was when the Atlanta consultants had come up for a meeting with the investors, barely making it through the storm. They will be back again this week.
"That'll be when we start really putting the information down on paper," Carpenter said. "Optimistically, if everything goes perfectly, we could open the doors in 12 months."
Other factors are beyond the control of the investors, however, such as when the charter is issued. The average start-up time for a community bank is 15 to 18 months.
"It's very much like organizing any business," Carpenter said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB