Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 25, 1994 TAG: 9401250027
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The company's stock has been approved for listing on the National Association of Securities Dealers automated quotation system, or Nasdaq, Frank Farmer Jr., president and chief executive officer of Roanoke Gas, said at Monday's annual stockholder's meeting.
The company received word of the Nasdaq listing shortly before Monday's meeting.
Participation in the over-the-counter market is important because it provides participants in the company's new customer stock purchase plan with a source of liquidity for their stock.
The company wanted to make sure stockholders had a ready market in which to both buy and sell company stock, said Rob Glenn, vice president for marketing and strategic planning.
In an effort to raise money to help pay for its ongoing capital improvement program, Roanoke Gas began a stock-purchase program for gas customers and a dividend-reinvestment plan for stockholders last year.
The company has raised $536,000 through those plans, Farmer said.
The stock plan has resulted in 307 new stockholders, an increase of 34 percent, Farmer said. Of the new stockholders, 193 are taking part in the program to reinvest company dividends in stock.
John Williamson, vice president for rates and finance, has said the company hopes to raise as much as $750,000 a year through stock sales for capital improvements.
The company plans to spend $3.9 million this year on capital improvements, some to take care of gas delivery problems identified during last week's cold spell, said Art Pendleton, vice president for operations.
Because of the below-zero weather, Roanoke Gas set a record for gas demand during the 24-hour period ending at 8 a.m. Jan. 16. The company surpassed the previous peak set in 1989 on four of five succeeding days last week.
The severe cold snap, the first in four years, showed up some weaknesses that have developed in the company's distribution system, partially because of customer growth.
Parts of Salem and Southwest Roanoke County experienced low-pressure problems because of failures of gas-regulating valves on Virginia 419 near Oak Grove Plaza and Lakeside, Pendleton said.
Low pressure that caused hundreds of furnaces to shut down temporarily in the Raleigh Court and Wasena areas pointed to the need to replace two to three miles of old iron gas mains with high-pressure plastic pipe, he said. As the pipe is replaced, the system will be upgraded, including the relocation of gas meters from the basements of some homes.
The company added 1,455 service lines and 11.6 miles of mains during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
Its customers replaced 144 electric water heaters with gas water heaters and converted 567 furnaces to natural gas, Glenn said. The company's appliance sales were up 33 percent.
Roanoke Gas had net earnings of $1.44 million for the fiscal year, up 10 percent from the previous year.
Nearly 80 percent of the company's stock, or 517,432 shares, was represented at the meeting, at which last year's board of directors was re-elected.
by CNB