ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996              TAG: 9610070033
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 

ELSEWHERE

Power-line comment deadline nears

With a Monday deadline for public comment looming, the U.S. Forest Service has already received several hundred responses to its environmental study of American Electric Power Co.'s proposed high-voltage power line, the agency said.

Several alternative routes for the line pass through Giles and Montgomery counties, including one that would bisect the Preston Forest neighborhood outside Blacksburg.

The study, which was released in June, contains a preliminary decision by Bill Damon, supervisor of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, that the line should not be allowed to cross public lands as AEP has proposed.

Frank Bergmann, project coordinator for the Forest Service, guessed the agency had received about 600 to 700 comments from the public through midday Friday. A good percentage of the responses have supported Damon's preliminary decision, he said. For more details, see inside today's Virginia section.

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