ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, April 12, 1997               TAG: 9704140032
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: A-5  EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: INDICATOR 
SOURCE: MAG POFF
   Individuals - but not businesses - are filing petitions for bankruptcy 
protection at a fast pace. Of 407 cases filed in March in the U.S. Bankruptcy 
Court in Roanoke, only a dozen, or 2.9 percent, were for businesses. Overall, 
the number of cases rose by 15, or 3.8 percent, in March from the same month 
last year.
   
   Options still open for vacated Market space
   Owners of Wertz's Country Store are weighing their options for use of the 
portion of their Roanoke City Market building vacated recently by the closing 
of Gallery III.
   Gary Crowder, who owns the building with Ezra Wertz, said they may expand 
their own business into the empty space. The other alternative, he said, is to
release the property.
   The building was the first one renovated in the decade-old renewal of the 
Roanoke City Market, and Gallery III was one of the first of the new 
businesses to move back to market square.
   Crowder said Gallery III closed March 1 and its most recent owners, Ted and
Sandy Beindorf, have left the area.

IN BUSINESS

LENGTH: Short :   33 lines
ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC:  color chart.