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

DATE: THURSDAY, February 9, 1995                   TAG: 9503180004
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MATT CROWDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CITY DROP BOX CUTS THE COST OF PAYING BILLS

On Feb. 2, the city put up a drop box in Lee Plaza. The box can be used to remit any bill paid through the city treasurer's office, said Dave Anderson, Roanoke's assistant treasurer.

Some of the payments the treasurer's office accepts include parking tickets, real estate taxes, personal property taxes and water bills.

The beige box is on the sidewalk on Church Avenue, across from the Municipal Building. The box has the Roanoke city logo on the sides and sits next to three mailboxes. If this box is successful, Anderson said, the city might put another one in a mall.

"We've been wanting to do this for some time," he said. Before, "People [would] make water payments and pay parking tickets and slide them under the door before and after hours," Anderson said.

The box will give people the opportunity to just put the bills in the drop box if they're in the neighborhood and don't want to buy a stamp.

He said that fliers advertising the box will be circulated with city bills. He cautioned that people should not put cash in the boxes.