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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 30, 1994                   TAG: 9411300049
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

MONTGOMERY WATER LINE GETS FEDERAL MONEY

The county will receive a $776,000 grant and $283,000 loan to build the water line from Shawsville to Alleghany Springs, a rural community located in southeast Montgomery.

The money is to come from the Rural Economic and Community Development agency, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture formerly known as the Farmers Home Administration.

The county Public Service Authority has signed up 104 customers for the new line out of 120 possible new connections between Shawsville and Alleghany Springs, according to PSA Director Gary Gibson. Construction is to begin in September 1995 and end in October 1996.

Planning for the project began about three years ago. In 1989, the state Health Department found bacterial contamination in the spring water that gave the community its name. Since then, the government has advised residents to boil or treat their water before drinking it.

But as in Elliston, some residents initially resisted the effort to bring treated New River water to the community.

The water for the new Alleghany Springs line will come from a branch of the Christiansburg-to-Elliston connector, which has linked public water systems in Elliston and Lafayette with the town. Work on that water project began in the spring and ended this month. Engineers are pressure testing the line and expect to put it into service in January, Gibson said.