Some readers have asked, and we’ve been been able to get an answer: Jason’s Deli is coming to East Cobb, where Sage Social Kitchen, Chequers Seafood and Houlihan’s have come and gone.
But it won’t be for a while.
The Texas-based fast casual eatery chain operates 275 restaurants in 28 states, including 16 in Georgia and two in Cobb, near Cumberland and Town Center malls.
Brandi Alexander, a spokeswoman for Jason’s Deli, told East Cobb News only that “this location is planned to open in fall of this year. Unfortunately, that is all of the information we can provide at this time.”
The Merchants Festival location (1401 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 334) has been empty for nearly a year since Sage Social Kitchen closed in April 2017, after only a few months in business.
In addition to traditional deli-style menu options, Jason’s Deli also serves burgers, salads (and a salad bar), vegetarian dishes, soups, pasta entrees and a kid’s menu.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Local e-commerce retailer, Magnolia Ann has been named a winner of The 2018 American Small Business Championship by SCORE, the nation’s largest network of volunteer,expert business mentors. The Championship awarded this title to 102 entrepreneurs (2 per state) for their dedication to the success of their small businesses, awarding them an all-expense-paid trip to a training and networking event, SCORE mentoring and publicity throughout the year, and a chance to win one ofthree $15,000 grand prizes, made possible with the support of Sam’s Club.
Magnolia Ann earned the title of American Small Business Champion by submitting an online application describing what makes their business one of the best small businesses in their community, and how they plan to use the prizes to grow their business. Nominations that garnered at least 100 votes were then presented to a judging panel of small business experts that determined 102 winners including Magnolia Ann.
“We are so grateful to receive this recognition for the obstacles we have overcome as a small business.Thank you to our wonderful community both locally and online for supporting us and helping us succeed.This would not have been possible without you,” says Susie Simpkins, owner of Magnolia Ann.
Magnolia Ann is also eligible to win one of three additional $15,000 grand prizes, by being named Grand Champion. A judging panel of small business experts will select three Grand Champion from the group of small business champions this summer. Selection will be based on how effectively Champions utilize their prizes to grow business revenue or operations, as well as how effectively the winners promoted the Championship in the media and social media.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A reader who saw Sunday’s fatal Powers Ferry Road crash alerted us to this GoFundMe page that has been started to pay for the funeral expenses for Miraylla Sousa, a 23-year-old woman who died in that wreck.
Her car was struck by a car driven by Ryan Michalski, 31, who also died. Thus far the fundraiser has exceeded the $10,000 goal set by organizers, just a day after the appeal went out. They noted that Sousa was on her way to visiting her mother when the crash took place.
Sousa, who is from Brazil, also leaves behind a brother and a two-year-old nephew. We’re working to get more information about that as Cobb Police continue investigating the wreck.
Police said witnesses told them the car driven by Michalski had been speeding in the northbound lane of Powers Ferry Road, and was passing other cars in the center turn lane, then veered into a southbound lane and crashed into Sousa’s car at Meadowbrook Lane, just north of Powers Ferry Elementary School.
Michalski’s car caught fire, according to police, who said he and Sousa were pronounced dead at WellStar Kennestone Hospital.
According to an obituary for Michalski, who lived in the East Cobb area, he was a guitarist and musician. Donations are being accepted in his memory to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Three of the four Cobb commission District 3 candidates on the May 22 primary ballot turned out Tuesday night for a wide-ranging forum in Marietta, and explained their views on the county budget, spending and taxes, traffic and transit, zoning and development and other issues.
Tom Cheek
The only candidate not present was the person who currently holds that Northeast Cobb seat. Republican JoAnn Birrell, who is running for her third term, was a no-show at the forum, which was sponsored by the Cobb County Civic Coalition.
The other sitting commissioner seeking re-election, Republican Bob Weatherford of District 1 in West Cobb, also was absent.
The event was moderated by Dick Yarbrough, a columnist for The Marietta Daily Journal.
The two Democratic District 3 candidates, James Smith and Caroline Holko, said they favored raising the millage rate to solve the county’s estimated $30 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2019.
Birrell’s primary opponent, civic activist and software account manager Tom Cheek, who described himself as a “ferocious taxpayer advocate,” said he wants to see more detailed figures about how big the budget gap really is.
“No one has convinced me of the accuracy” of the projected budget deficit, he said in response to an audience question posed to all the candidates. “Until we get a grip on proper budgeting . . . I’m not ready to give up the millage rate we have now.”
Cheek advocates taking unused SPLOST dollars for lower-tier projects and placing them in the general fund budget (via a referendum process), looking to privatize some government functions and getting out of “the parking deck business . . . the golf course business . . . and the [Braves] stadium security business.”
Caroline Holko
The Cobb general fund millage rate is currently 6.76, a figure that was lowered in 2016. Birrell, who has said she does not favor increasing property taxes, voted for that reduction.
Smith, a retired Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority manager who’s involved with the Canton Road Neighbors civic group, frequently cited the lack of pay raises and benefits for county workers in his remarks about taxes.
He noted that salaries for Cobb firefighters and police officers are 12 and 17 percent, respectively, below the national average. “We’re trying to do more with less,” he said. “We’re not giving people a living wage and benefits to keep them here.”
While Cobb rightfully touts itself as having one of the lowest tax rates in the metro Atlanta area, Smith said, “but at what cost?”
Cheek also noted that a starting full-time police officer’s salary in Cobb is less than the pay for a part-time county commissioner, and he would work to change that.
Holko, a former non-profit administrator and home-schooling mother with liberal views, admitted she doesn’t come from a “traditional political background” in a conservative district. She advocates more transit options for Cobb citizens, and opposes proposed cuts in the Cobb library system and increases in fees for senior services.
James Smith
Holko said raising the property tax rate one mill would cost an average Cobb homeowner around $100 more a year. “I can blow that in Target in about five minutes,” she said.
She and her family moved to Cobb from New Orleans several years ago, attracted by the tax rate but also the services they provide.
However, she said, “to watch that continued to be chipped away at is heartbreaking.”
When asked to specify how she would cut the budget, she said “I don’t really support any significant budget cuts.”
Smith said he would like to see the line items in county government departments, and it’s “darn near impossible” to get that information now.
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce, a Republican from East Cobb, has suggested a 1.1-mills increase but hasn’t released a full budget proposal. He’s scheduled budget town hall meetings for next month, with budget adoption in July.
On the subject of transit, Holko urged the marketing budget for CobbLinc be increased “so people know it exists.”
Smith said that “whatever we do needs to go to a referendum.” Cheek is more doubtful increasing transit, citing heavy costs and a small ridership for commuting. He’s also skeptical of a new state law to create a new Atlanta-area regional transit authority.
The candidates agreed on the need for greater transparency and on zoning and development and sticking to the land use plan, and concurred that stipulation letters agreed to by developers should not be used to circumvent the county code.
District 1 challengers Kelli Gambrill and Forrest Shealy also participated in the forum.
Advance voting began in Cobb on Monday, and continues through May 18.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A rendering of homes in the proposed Provence Estates development.
A Wigley Road rezoning case that has been delayed for months is being held up again after major revisions to the application that have prompted traffic and stormwater concerns.
The Cobb Planning Commission on Tuesday voted for a 60-day hold on a rezoning application by Atlanta-based Oak Hall Companies, LLC, which wants to build 92 single-family homes on 96 acres currently zoned R-30, low-density residential.
Here’s the agenda item packet for what would be called Provence Estates, with homes ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 square feet. Oak Hall had requested zoning to R-20 OSC, a low-density residential designation with open-space provisions.
Cobb zoning staff is recommending that the land be rezoned R-30 OSC to include more conservation easements because of the hilly terrain of the property.
The land is from the estate of Audra Mae Wigley and was part of the Wigley Farm in Northeast Cobb. Initially, the Oak Hall application was for 55 acres. Parks Huff, an attorney for Oak Hall, said Tuesday that his client “wanted to bring in both pieces of property at the same time.”
The land is north of Sweat Mountain and has a steep topography that has prompted concerns about stormwater runoff. Plans call for nearly half of the tract to be open space, and there would be 50-foot undisturbed buffers on the eastern and southern edges of the property.
Dave Evans, who lives on Wigley Road, said 40 percent of runoff from the property flows into a lake near his home, and worries that additional stormwater would overwhelm capacity.
The other stormwater routes are into neighboring Cherokee County and the nearby Falcon Crest subdivision.
Dave Breaden of the Cobb Stormwater Management Department admitted that “we’ve got a challenge to control runoff on this site.” Several retention ponds are included in the Oak Hall site plan.
Included in the staff comments is a request for the developer to provide a preliminary rough grading plan.
Others noted traffic issues. Cobb DOT currently estimates around 40 daily traffic trips in that area, a figure some residents said would jump to around 1,000.
The Oak Hall site plan (see illustration) also would cut off an adjacent cluster of homes that abut the Cherokee County line from Cobb-provided public services, including traffic access to Wigley Road.
In order to sort through all those issues, Planning Commission chairwoman Judy Williams, who represents the area in District 3, asked for the vote to hold the application until July. The vote was 4-0, with Thea Powell, also of Northeast Cobb, absent due to what Williams said was a family emergency.
Tony Garcia, who lives on Summitop Road, said given the housing that’s already in the area, the homes that would be built in Provence Estates don’t “fit into the character of Wigley Road.”
But planning board member Skip Gunther said that the land “is going to get developed one way or another,” and that the R-30 OSC designation is a “no-brainer.
“It’s going to generate traffic, but it’s going to be less than it otherwise would be.”
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
