ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 28, 1996 TAG: 9603280042
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: DOVER, DEL.
Columbia Gas System Inc. said Wednesday it will move its corporate headquarters to Northern Virginia and transfer another 150 employees in West Virginia to the new site.
The Wilmington-based utility said its corporate offices will move to Reston, Va., in August.
The transfers from Charleston, W.Va., will involve ``corporate staff positions, human resources, finances or public affairs, those kinds of functions,'' said spokesman Dave Dodrill at Columbia Gas Transmission.
Columbia Gas said it is moving to Northern Virginia because that puts it in the heart of the markets it serves, with Virginia its fastest-growing market.
The move also puts it close to regulators in Washington, D.C., where Columbia Gas' chairman, Oliver Richard, was once a federal regulator.
Columbia Gas employs 200 in Wilmington and said it will move 125 management and staff positions from there. The other 75 will be allowed to compete for positions elsewhere in the Columbia Gas system or take a severance package that has yet to be developed.
There are about 1,000 employees at the transmission subsidiary and an additional 900 throughout West Virginia.
The announcement follows the company's emergence from bankruptcy.
Columbia Gas has operations in 15 states. Its distribution subsidiaries are based in Richmond, Columbus, Ohio, and Pittsburgh. The company said there are no plans to move those operations.
- Associated Press
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