Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 3, 1993 TAG: 9309030157
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MONETA LENGTH: Medium
And due to their announcement Wednesday that they will sell their Smith Mountain Lake branch, they probably can also forget customers Jeanie Gorman and Amy Halbert.
"When you see all the changes they're making, it doesn't make you want to stay with the bank," said Phillips, a lake resident who moved there from Baltimore. "It makes you think they're there for the money and not for the person."
That, essentially, is true, said Byron Yost, president of First Union's Roanoke region. Yost said the Moneta Dominion branch has many upscale customers - including retirees who have stuffed the bank with large deposits - and does a decent business.
The branch just doesn't meet First Union's standards.
"It's not a bad branch, it's marginally profitable," Yost said. "It's not losing tons of money or anything like that, but it's not achieving acceptable levels of profitability as far as we're concerned."
So the branch is up for sale, and part of the package will be the two assets of most importance to its customers: the branch's location and its employees.
"There's no way we can continue using Dominion and First Union if they're not here in Moneta," Gorman said.
Losing Gorman's business means losing more than one account. She owns a video store in Village Square, the strip mall next to the bank branch. She has a personal account, a business account, a business loan, and an account for her subdivision association. She also has several clients from her small accounting business who are customers at the bank.
"It's just a stupid business move I think," Gorman said. "There's a lot of money here at the lake - and it's going to stay here at the lake."
Amy Halbert, a lake resident who has to drive 20 minutes to get to the bank, said she likes that she doesn't have to show identification to cash a check at the bank. But that's not why she opened her account there.
"The reason I went with Dominion Bank was for the location," Halbert said. "If First Union chose to close it, I would change my account to somebody else."
Despite the loyalty of its customers, the Moneta Dominion branch has not been around long. The one-story building, with a wooden landing complete with railings and a bench at the front entrance, opened in August 1986. The meticulously landscaped gardens around the bank make it look like it just opened this year.
But over seven years, Branch Manager Linda Sink and a handful of tellers - on any given day, Sink and three others staff the bank - have made the bank a community focal point.
"You can go in, and they know you, and you can chitchat about your families," said Phillips, dropping into the middle of the interview a "Hi, Sandy" to a passing friend. "It's just so homey. When you come from someplace else, and these are all natives, they make you feel at home."
Yost said there are several potential buyers for the Moneta branch. Normally, he said, First Union would encourage the buyer to hire the people who already work at the branch. Despite First Union's decision to shed its Moneta operation, Yost said it would likely be an appealing branch for other banks.
"Fortunately, there are different strategies for determining what's acceptable performance and what isn't," he said. "We think there are a lot of banks that would consider this an acceptable potential."
Sink said she has mixed feelings about leaving Dominion. She has worked for the Roanoke bank for 19 years. But she had no doubt the branch could continue to be successful.
"I don't think it matters who is here," she said, "as long as we know people by name."
by CNB