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

DATE: THURSDAY, September 22, 1994                   TAG: 9409230113
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

ALLEN STANDS BY AIR BOARD PICKS

Gov. George Allen said Wednesday he's sticking to his two appointments to the Air Pollution Control Board despite questions about whether they are too tied to business interests.

Allen withdrew the appointments shortly before the General Assembly was to have voted to confirm or deny them Monday. After consulting with the attorney general's office, Allen said he is satisfied they meet the legal requirements for serving on the five-member board charged with protecting air quality.

``Both these people are competent and qualified,'' Allen said in a telephone interview.

But Sen. Joseph Gartlan, D-Fairfax, said he's not satisfied that the appointments are legal. The Privileges and Elections Committee that he chairs will take up the appointments when the assembly meets again next week.

In July, Allen appointed to the board I. Russell Berkness, retired chairman of Berkness Control & Equipment Corp. in Richmond, an air-pollution equipment sales company, and Jo Anne Scott Webb, president of Scott Pallets Inc., which makes wooden pallets in Amelia County.

- Associated Press

by CNB