WASHINGTON – Virginia Credit Union, a state-chartered $884 CU with 145,000 members announced recently that it would close its branches serving Roanoke and the campus of Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg. "The Roanoke branch was really something of an experiment for us," Kimberly Bolger, spokeswoman for the CU said. It had been the branch of another credit union that had merged with Virginia Credit Union, and Virginia CU had tried to keep it open after the merger, she noted. The closings have meant three part-time employees at the Roanoke branch have had to find other work. The three student employees at the Mary Washington Branch would have had their work with the credit union end in May anyway, according to Bolger, and the Mary Washington Branch will close May 10. The Roanoke branch's last day was April 19. "We started as the credit union for the state employees," Bolger said, "so if you look at our branches now you will see that we are quite Richmond-centric." Of Virginia's 145,000 members, 2,200 are from the Roanoke area, Bolger reported. She also pointed out that both banks and credit unions already heavily serve the Roanoke area so there was less of a need for the credit union's services there. "From time to time we must make a difficult but necessary business decision to match our delivery network with the needs of our entire membership," said Lee Sauvain, vice president of branch administration for the credit union. The employees were told of the pending merger on March 1, and the credit union helped the Roanoke employees find work elsewhere, Bolger said. Cedric Rucker, Dean of Student Affairs for Mary Washington College, said most students used the ATM machine at the credit union's campus office primarily, and faculty and students who wished to use a full service branch could travel to one relatively nearby. "It's serviced by our student transportation service," Rucker said.