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

DATE: THURSDAY, November 16, 1995                   TAG: 9511160045
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN BUSINESS

BEDFORD - Bedford City Council voted Tuesday to issue $3 million in taxable lease revenue bonds to buy electrical facilities from Appalachian Power Co. that supply power to the Georgia-Pacific Corp. paper mill in Big Island.

After the sale, Bedford will lease the facility back to Apco.

The move settled a dispute between Apco and Bedford, which said that Apco was illegally supplying power to the paper mill. A 1977 State Corporation Commission map placed the mill in the city's utility service territory.

Apco has supplied power to the mill for more than 35 years, but Bedford became interested in the business because of a $100 million expansion at the mill that is expected to increase Georgia-Pacific's power consumption there by about 70 percent.

- Staff report

Uni-Marts seeks to merge chains

Pennsylvania-based Uni-Marts Inc. said Wednesday it has proposed a merger with Dairy Mart Convenience Stores Inc.

Under terms of the proposal, Uni-Marts would pay Dairy Mart stockholders $8.20 per share of common stock, excluding the shares controlled by the company's majority stockholder, Charles Nirenberg. A separate agreement would be made with Nirenberg, who controls approximately 67 percent of the voting power of Dairy Marts.

Dairy Mart's Class A common stock, which trades on the Nasdaq exchange, closed at $6.25 Wednesday, up 183/4 cents. The company's Class B common stock closed at $5.75, down 50 cents. Uni-Marts stock, traded on the American Stock Exchange, was unchanged, closing at $9.371/2 a share.

Uni-Marts operates 414 convenience stores along the Eastern seaboard, including 17 stores in the Roanoke and New River valleys. Dairy Marts operates and franchises around 900 convenience stores in the Midwest and along the East Coast.

The transaction would create the third-largest independently operated convenience store chain in the country, with anticipated combined annual revenues of more than $900 million.

- Staff report

First Virginia raises dividend

First Virginia Banks Inc. of Falls Church on Wednesday raised its quarterly common stock dividend from 34 cents to 35 cents a share, for the 19th consecutive year in which dividends have increased. The new annual rate is $1.40 a share. The new dividend is payable Jan. 8 to shareholders on Dec. 29.

- Staff report