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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 22, 1994                   TAG: 9403220037
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Ray Reed
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

APCO BUSY SIGNAL WAS REAL THING

A: Many thousands of people shared your experience.

Apco has 30 lines to take reports in Roanoke and 13 at the Christiansburg office you identified. Apco said each of them was staffed during the February ice storm, when 200,000 customers lost power, and the March ice storm, when 140,000 were knocked out.

Many customers got through more than once, so the total number of calls probably exceeded 200,000, Apco spokesman Don Johnson said. People even reported their outages by calling a radio station that faxed listeners' reports about downed lines to Apco.

The sheer number of calls kept lines tied up, and yet it's not economical for Apco to have extra lines staffed and unused when electric service is normal, Johnson said.

The State Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities, said it requires only that electric companies meet a reasonable standard in handling calls. It's not cost-efficient to have extra lines and staff them full time, and doing so would increase rates.

Actually, Apco wants to receive as many calls as possible, especially in the early stages of an outage, because that helps engineers assess where the problems are and what they are.

"We're very aware of the frustration customers have when they try to reach us and they can't," Johnson said.

Technology has been explored for answers, but nothing is available that can temporarily provide extra lines for the surge of calls in a two- or three-day emergency, Johnson said.

Automated answering systems won't help, because they're time-consuming and Apco wants to keep calls as brief as possible. The company also wants every caller to talk to a person rather than a recording, Johnson said.

"We keep looking for a better way to do it," Johnson said, but technology hasn't provided the right answer.

Downtown crunch

Q: Who has the right of way on Campbell Avenue Southeast at Williamson Road? I enter that intersection from the east to make a right turn and go north on the viaduct at 5 p.m. every day. Oncoming traffic making a left turn from Campbell often refuses to yield to us. Isn't traffic making a left turn supposed to yield? L.S.

A: It's as clear as black-and-white lettering can make it: A sign about 1 foot to the side of the traffic light going east says "Left turn yield on green."

That means both eastbound lanes from the one-way portion of Campbell need to yield, said Bob Bengtson, the city's traffic engineer.

This is a bottleneck situation when the downtown parking garages start spilling out cars at 5 p.m.

Bengtson said the only traffic-control alternative would be separate green lights for east- and westbound traffic. However, dividing up the allotted time would cause more congestion and, probably, other problems just as serious, Bengtson said.

Got a question about something that may affect other people, too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.