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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 21, 1995                   TAG: 9503210099
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Short

SEARCH GOES ON TODAY FOR MAN BELIEVED DROWNED|

Divers continued trying unsuccessfully Monday to retrieve the body of a Wytheville man believed to have drowned Sunday afternoon near the Claytor Lake Dam.

Divers called off their search for Mike Melvin, 28, around 1 p.m. as Appalachian Power Co. prepared to release water from the dam, and expected to resume the search this morning, authorities said.

Sunday, police said it appeared that Melvin fell off a boat while fishing with two other men on the New River, a few hundred yards below the dam and just barely on the Pulaski County side of the Pulaski-Montgomery county border. The other men apparently tried to rescue their friend with a rope, but he went underneath the water's surface.

The water's poor visibility, low temperature, debris and the power company's need to release water periodically could continue to hamper the search for some time, authorities said. After the divers stopped searching Monday, crews in boats dragged the bottom of the river, but called off that portion of the search, too, until today.

The Dept. of Game and Inland Fisheries, which is also investigating the accident, has charged the boat operator, Clarence Parks, also of Wytheville, with using improper safety equipment and expired boat registration.

by CNB