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

DATE: TUESDAY, October 17, 1995                   TAG: 9510170070
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

The Partnership for Progress, owners of the Credit Bureau of Martinsville-Henry County, voted Monday to sell the bureau to the Greater Greensboro Merchants Association and Credit Bureau for $825,000, effective Thursday. Proceeds will be invested in an endowment fund to support economic development in Martinsville.

The bureau will become the Southern Virginia Division of GMA with access to many of GMA's services, including training workshops, a GMA spokeswoman said. GMA includes a 1,000-member merchants association and credit reporting and collection divisions that serve customers throughout the Southeast.

- Staff report

Briefly ...

Overnite Transportation Co. of Richmond said it is cutting its transit times from Roanoke to Bowling Green and Paducah, Ky., and Mansfield, Ohio, from three days to two, beginning Oct. 9. Overnite spokesman Dan Avramovich said the new schedule is "the start of a major transit time improvement effort [Overnite] will be rolling out over the next six months." Overnite is the nation's fifth-largest less-than-truckload motor carrier.

Domestic coal production totaled 20 million tons in the week ended Oct. 7, down 3 percent from 20.6 million tons the previous week but up from 18.5 million tons in the same week last year, the U.S. Department of Energy reported Monday. Production so far this year is 791 million tons, less than 1 percent ahead of last year's at this time.

Eden's Cafe Restaurant has opened at 104 Church St. in downtown Roanoke. The vegetarian eatery is operated during lunch hours by Tom and Dorothy Knapczyk, former employees of Eden Way Cafe, a vegetarian establishment that closed in June.