NEWSOMS—Newsoms’ Lynda Updike said she plans to circulate a petition to keep the BB&T bank branch in her community open.

That was after Updike said a bank employee told her the Newsoms and Courtland branches would be closing.

“I don’t want to have to go to Franklin every time I have to cash a check,” Updike said Thursday. “I’ve had a little savings account there (Newsoms) since the bank opened.”

BB&T spokesman David White at corporate headquarters in Winston Salem, N.C., said he would look into the matter, but did not return a call to The Tidewater News by late Friday.

A woman who answered the phone at the BB&T Newsoms branch said, “we have no comment. You will have to call the corporate office.”

Matt Revelle, manager for BB&T in Courtland, said there’s been talk about consolidating some of the branches.

“Nothing has been set in stone,” Revelle said. “I don’t know where it’s coming from, but nothing is for sure yet.”

The Courtland branch employs four.

BB&T in the spring consolidated its two Franklin branches by closing the downtown office and moving employees to a rebuilt branch on College Drive.

BB&T closed branches in Ivor and Holland in November 2008. Accounts and employees from those branches were transferred to BB&Ts in Wakefield and downtown Suffolk, respectively.

BB&T operates 1,800 financial centers in 12 states and Washington, D.C.