TEACHER TO QUIT PLANNING POST

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 6, 1992                   TAG: 9202060350
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TEACHER TO QUIT PLANNING POST
Schoolteacher Marian Chappelle is giving up her seat on the Roanoke County Planning Commission.
Chappelle, 49, the first black to be appointed to the Planning Commission, said Wednesday that she just doesn't have the time to devote to the job.
"I've tried to make it work," she said. "I'm very busy - raising a 6-year-old, teaching, doing a lot of civic things. I sing in the choir [at church]. It just does not jell for me."
The Planning Commission meets twice a month, which doesn't sound like a tough schedule. But in between, she said, "you're reading information and preparing for the next meeting. . . . Things that came in a breeze for others didn't for me, because I didn't have the background" in planning and zoning issues.
Giving up the seat will be "the best thing for me and my family" and for the people of the county, she said. "You owe the people you serve the best you can give them."
Former Supervisor Steve McGraw appointed Chappelle to the Catawba seat on the commission at the end of 1990.
McGraw's successor, Ed Kohinke, said he's looking for a well-qualified replacement for Chappelle because the Planning Commission will be grappling with at least one big issue this year: a new zoning ordinance. "There's going to be a lot of PR work involved - going around to citizen workshops" and such, he said.
He knows a couple of Catawba residents who are interested in the seat, but "once they find out how much time is in it, it might narrow the field," he said.
Chappelle, who lives in North Lakes, has been a special-education teacher at Northside Junior High School for 17 years. A native of Tulsa, Okla., she has a bachelor's degree in music education from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., and recently started a regional chapter of the college's alumni association. She got a master's degree in special education from the University of Tulsa.
She hopes to stay involved in civic activities. Chappelle does volunteer work at the Youth Haven II group home for troubled teen-agers and with the American Heart Association.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB