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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 1, 1994                   TAG: 9409010082
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RAY REED
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

NO FREE RIDE FOR VETERANS

G.M., Salem

A: No one is promised an education. A college degree requires a considerable effort by the individual who receives it, whether he or she is ex-military or not.

Veterans Affairs benefits under the Montgomery G.I. Bill help ex-military people to this extent:

Service members who participate in the program must contribute $100 per month of their pay for 12 months toward their post-service education. After a four-year enlistment, they can receive additional veterans' benefits of up to $13,200 for college or trade school.

If the person does not pursue an education, that money isn't available - and even the $1,200 of personal funds saved is forfeited.

The maximum education nest egg for enlisted personnel comes to $14,400.

The cost of tuition, room and board for four undergraduate years at a Virginia university is about $35,000. The veterans' benefit is an incentive to get an education, but it's far short of a free ride.

Clean streams

Q: I'd like to know what are the five cleanest rivers in Virginia. Recent news articles have talked about streams that were rated as clean, but didn't name the top five.

T.C., Vinton

A: The top five clean rivers can't be designated.

Some of them are clean for miles until they pass a pollution source, such as almost any sizable community. Then they're not so clean for several miles.

Given enough time and distance, the waters cleanse themselves again.

Here are five streams that are being considered for official designation as exceptional waters, free of man-made pollution:

Stewarts Creek and Crooked Creek in Carroll County and on land owned by the state; Whitetop Laurel Creek in Washington County and the Jefferson National Forest; North Creek within the Glenwood district of the Jefferson National Forest in Botetourt County, and Moormans River in Albemarle County and the Shenandoah National Park.

New area code

Q: How did they arrive at 540 as the new area code for this section of Virginia? I thought an area code had to have a 1 or a 0 in the middle.

C.V., Floyd

A: That used to be the case.

However, all the 144 available number combinations with 0 or 1 in the middle have been assigned.

The phone system opened the middle digit to other possibilities in the past year. Virginia is not the first to get such a number; Birmingham, Ala., gets a 334 area code in January.

Western Virginia starts using 540 as its area code July 15, 1995.

There will be a one-year phase-in, during which both 703 and 540 will work in the area bounded roughly by Lee County, Winchester and Martinsville.|

Got a question about something that might 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.