ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 23, 1996 TAG: 9606240120
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES E. MARTIN
IN RESPONSE to your June 1 news article, "Planning chairman off commission'':
I find it somewhat frustrating to have served the citizens of Montgomery County and especially the residents of District D for 16 years on the Planning Commission, and, without any apparent reason, to be suddenly terminated from the commission.
During my tenure on the Planning Commission, I put forth what I felt were the best plans for Montgomery County and the Riner area. I was told many times that I was doing a fantastic job. Then, suddenly, I'm no longer on the commission. I haven't been told why I wasn't reappointed, and the Board of Supervisors' silence on this matter is disquieting in the least.
I must assume that the reason I wasn't reappointed was the one given to The Roanoke Times. Supervisor Henry Jablonski said there hadn't been a member on the commission from the Riner area in some time. And since the area was experiencing such a change, its residents needed a representative on the commission.
I find it appalling that Jablonski doesn't even know where his planners come from. Had he taken the time to check, he would have discovered that three of the nine commission members are from the Riner area. Further, one of those three members lives approximately one-and-a-half miles from the center of the Riner community.
If Jablonski, the chairman of the Board of Supervisors, is so concerned about the need for representation from all the growing areas of the district, why doesn't he appoint someone from the Bethel, Pilot, Vicker or Walton areas of Montgomery County? All of these areas are growing, and have no representation whatsoever in county administration.
I hope the decision wasn't made based on politics. The Planning Commission is supposed to be a body free from partisan politics.
If the board has suddenly decided to make the commission a political body where people must vote a party line instead of what they feel to be right for the county, then it's truly a sad day for Montgomery County. Its residents will no longer be able to count on a nonpartisan commission to make crucial planning decisions for the county's future.
And perhaps most sadly this will mean that those who have political power will be able to use the Planning Commission as a rubber stamp for whatever project they want at the time.
James E. Martin of Christiansburg is former chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Commission.
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