Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 31, 1994 TAG: 9501030120
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 BUSINESS EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Bell Atlantic-Virginia will stop charging for Touch-Tone service Jan. 1, saving residential customers with the service 60 cents per line per month.
Business customers will save $1.85 per line. Total savings for customers will be $23 million a year, the Richmond-based utility said.
About 90 percent of the company's 2 million customers subscribe to Touch-Tone, Bell Atlantic said. Technicians are converting all the remaining rotary lines to Touch-Tone.
Also starting Jan. 1, the company will expand its low-cost Virginia Universal Service Plan, making it available to all food stamp recipients. The plan, launched in 1988, is now offered only to those eligible for Medicaid. About 539,000 Virginians receive Medicaid benefits. Total food stamp recipients in the state number more than 637,000, some of whom also receive Medicaid.
The Virginia Universal Service Plan provides telephone service to low-income people for $2.50 a month. Subscribers are permitted 30 outgoing calls per month; each call over 30 is billed at 9.6 cents.
- Associated Press
Lease expires, but NS keeps running
RALEIGH, N.C. - The North Carolina Railroad Co. said Friday that service provided by Norfolk Southern will continue uninterrupted even though Norfolk Southern's lease expires today. A proposed lease extension has not been finalized.
Maintenance of the 317-mile line, as well as NS' payments to NCRR under the old agreement, also will continue. ``We have been assured by Norfolk Southern that all customers who rely on our tracks for transport will experience no change in the service they receive,'' said NCRR president John F. McNair III. Under U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission regulations, service on the rail line may not be halted, despite lack of a formal lease agreement, without the ICC's authorization.
The NCRR said in November it had reached ``a meeting of the minds'' with NS on major terms for a lease extension, including proposed lease fees, inflation provisions and length of term.
Issues that remain to be negotiated include matters relating to tax liabilities, environmental responsibilities and real estate matters.
- Associated Press
Mine fatalities to reach record low
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Twenty-five years to the day after President Nixon signed the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act into law, the nation stands on the verge of recording the lowest number of coal-mining fatalities on record.
As of Thursday, 43 people had been killed in U.S. coal mines this year, compared with the previous record low of 47 set last year. Kentucky has posted 12 mining deaths so far this year, leading the nation for the second straight year, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. The state Department of Mines and Minerals, which uses different criteria for determining if a death is mining-related, lists 10 fatalities for 1994 so far. President Clinton marked Friday's anniversary of the law's passage by proclaiming it ``an overwhelming success, saving thousands of lives and reminding us of the great achievements possible when the public and private sectors work together for the common good.''
But Tony Oppegard, executive director of the Mine Safety Project in Lexington, said the law had indeed led to ``remarkable progress.'' But he also said there are areas ``where the promise hasn't been fulfilled.''
``Far too many miners in non-union mines are still working in unsafe conditions,'' Oppegard said, ``and far too many miners are still contracting black lung due to excessive dust levels and inadequate ventilation.''
- Knight-Ridder/Tribune
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB