Thanks to Anne Pitts, incoming president of the East Cobb Rotary, which is staging its 13th annual Dog Days Run Aug. 4 at the East Cobb-McCleskey Family YMCA (1055 East Piedmont Road), for the submitted information about the event. Here’s the online sign-up page if you want to run/walk on what’s becoming one of East Cobb’s biggest 5K events.
Last year we raised over $92,000 that we used to support local non-profits and many school programs in our community.
We expect 800-1,000 runners and their families at the race and after-race festivities. Our purpose for the event is to raise money for local charities or charities with local impact. Last year, the money raised supported the Rally Foundation (childhood cancer research), REAP (improving reading proficiency in public schools), Lekotek (empowering children with special needs) and more than 30 other charitable organizations that make a positive impact in the Cobb County community. Additionally, we have committed $35,000 over 3 years to help Wheeler High School start and implement an AVID program which directs college-preparatory assistance to students of lower socio-economic backgrounds.
Not only do we raise the funds, our members actually help put these funds to work, by serving as volunteers for many of the projects financed. Dog Days funds allow us to sponsor Interact Clubs (youth service organizations) at Wheeler and Walton High School, students at Lassiter and Wheeler High Schools to participate in the National Laws of Life Contest which spans the academic year and culminates in the contest in the spring, and we are able to sponsor 4 students from Walton and Wheeler High School each year to attend Rotary Youth Leadership Camp in the summer. The students that attend this camp tell me that it is by far their best experience, and they are lit up and ready to bring positive changes to their communities.
You can also register at Big Peach Running Company (1062 Johnson Ferry Road) or via regular mail at this link by July 22; early registration is $20 through July 28. After that, including race day, it’s $30.
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Following up the post from last week about Piedmont Road railroad crossing repairs: Cobb County government posted around 10 a.m. that that stretch of the road—from Canton Road to Morgan Road—has reopened.
The crossing, is, and we’re quoting directly here from a social media posting, “is smooth as a baby’s you-know-what!”
The work was to smooth out a very rough crossing and to make track and roadside repairs.
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East Cobb Weekend Events are indoors and outdoors, full of summertime fun and relaxation, and also designed to help good causes for our furry friends.
Bright and early Saturday morning is the Northeast Cobb Business Association’s 4th annual 5K-9 run at Piedmont Church (570 Piedmont Road), which is raising funds for the purchase and training of a therapy dog for a PTSD military veteran. The first race starts at 8 a.m., and there’s walk-up registration and age-group awards. You can also bring your dog for a run/trot;
Need help writing or revising your resume? There’s a session from 11:30-12:30 Saturday at East Cobb Library that’s free, but you’ll need to register first;
Summer movie fun is also slated for Saturday afternoon at local library branches: “Grease” will be shown from 2-4 p.m. at the Mountain View Regional Library (3320 Sandy Plains Road) that’s part of its Rockin’ Summer Movie Series;
This is almost as good as a first run, and without the steep ticket prices: The acclaimed recent release of “Black Panther” will be shown from 6-8:30 Saturday in the Black Box Theater at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road). It’s free, and you’re free to bring your own food and drink to take in the saga from the Kingdom of Wakanda;
Earlier on Saturday at Sewell Mill, from 2-5:30 p.m. is Teen Retro Game Day for kids between grades 6-12, and it’s a drop-in event where they can make friends and learn all about oldie goldie console games like Atari and Nintendo;
On Sunday is a special celebration. From 2-5 it’s the 30th anniversary of the Good Mews Animal Foundation (3805 Robinson Road), which began on Sandtown Road and has been in East Cobb most of the time since then. They’re offering free tours and you can bring your own gift (supply list here) for the felines they’re preparing for adoption;
From 4-6 on Sunday, a Choral and Orchestra Concert takes place at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (2922 Sandy Plains Road), which is performing John Leavitt’s “Requiem.” The sounds include the church’s famed pipe organ, and a reception is to follow.
Check out our full Events Calendar for more things to do in East Cobb, this week and beyond. Did we miss anything? Do you have an event to share with the community? Send your items to us, and we’ll post them: calendar@eastcobbnews.com.
Whatever you’re doing this weekend, make it a great one!
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The first tenant in a new shopping center on the site of the former Mountain View Elementary School will be the first location in Georgia for the Publix GreenWise Market concept.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that the store will have 25,000 square feet as the anchor of a 103,000-square foot development on 14 acres on Sandy Plains Road at Shallowford Road.
The still-to-be-named complex is being developed by East Cobb-based Brooks Chadwick Capital and Fuqua Development and will include “chef-driven” restaurants, retail and service shops and a self-storage facility.
Rezoning for the complex was approved by Cobb commissioners last fall, and they signed off on the self-storage building this spring despite complaints from nearby residents.
According to a report in ToNeTo Atlanta, which covers the metro retailing scene, Publix is rolling out its GreenWise Market organic foods concept in other Southern markets. They include Tallahassee, Boca Raton and the Charleston, S.C. area.
The East Cobb store will be right down the street from a Publix supermarket at the Highland Plaza Shopping Center. The ABCquoted an Atlanta real estate observer that:
“The target market for GreenWise is those areas that have a strong Publix presence already. GreenWise could function as a complementary destination for a core Publix location, helping to spread out customer density in their busiest markets.”
GreenWise is eyeing a competitive East Cobb organic grocery market, with Whole Foods and Sprouts nearby, in the Johnson Ferry-Roswell area.
The Shallowford-Sandy Plains area also was a target of Lidl, a German-based supermarket chain, which wanted to locate a store on the site of the Park 12 Cobb movie theater on Gordy Parkway. But its zoning application was rejected by commissioners last fall following intense community opposition.
ToNeTo said the East Cobb Public GreenWise Market could open by next summer.
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The following East Cobb restaurant scores from May 8-June 7 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link below each listing to view details of the inspection.
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Submitted photo and information below from Sgt. Jeff Tattroe about the Cobb Police Bookbag Palooza initiative to collect school supplies for needy students. He’s the head of the department’s community affairs unit and one of the dropoff points is the Precinct 4 headquarters in East Cobb:
Cobb County, it’s time to rally up for a great cause – BOOK BAGPALOOZA.You came through with overwhelming support this past winter with “Giving the Gift of Warmth” coat drive, so let’s now do the same with Book Bag-Palooza.
The Cobb County Police Department’s Community Affairs Unit would like to gather as many book bags and school supplies as possible.The donations that are received will be distributed to those Cobb County students in need at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, which is only two month away!
We are seeking new book bags, paper, folders, pencils, crayons, glue sticks, markers, etc. Any items that a student, whether they be elementary to high school, would need to start the school year out prepared and proud!The Palooza starts now.
Drop off locations are any of the Cobb County Pct. locations:
Pct. 1 ) 2380 Cobb Parkway NW, Kennesaw
Pct. 2 ) 4700 Austell Rd. Austell
Pct. 3 ) 1901 Cumberland Parkway, Atlanta
Pct. 4 ) 4400 Lower Roswell Road, Marietta
Pct. 5 ) 4640 Dallas Highway, Powder Springs
HQ ) 140 North Marietta Parkway, Marietta
The hours for drop off at the above locations are from 9am till 4pm, Monday thru Friday (excluding holidays).If you have a business or club that takes on the Palooza challenge and collects a large amount of school items, one of the Community Affairs officers will be happy to arrange pick-up from your location.
If you have any questions, please feel free to give me a call.I look forward to seeing how the residents of Cobb County step up to make sure all students walk in to school proud and ready to learn.
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Fields at Fullers Park, where the East Side Baseball Association plays. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
A draft plan that would cut roughly 15 percent of the Cobb Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department budget lists several East Cobb parks and recreational facilities for possible permanent closure. They include the Fullers Park and Recreation Center, the Mountain View Aquatic Center and The Art Place.
Cobb PARKS director Jimmy Gisi has included those facilities, as well as the Mountain View Community Center, on a list of parks, recreational and community centers and other facilities under its purview as options for budget cuts that come to $3.3 million.
Cobb County government is facing a fiscal year 2019 budget deficit of at least $30 million, and commissioners will hold a retreat next week before budget town hall meetings take place around the county through early July.
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has proposed a 1.1-mill increase in the general fund property tax millage rate to cover the $30 million gap.
Earlier this year Cobb Library director Helen Poyer recommended cuts of nearly $3 million, or around 25 percent of that department’s budget to be reduced, including the closure of East Cobb Library.
Many of the East Cobb items on the parks and recreation list have undergone extensive renovations and maintenance in recent years with money from SPLOST and not property tax revenues.
There are facilities in each of the four Cobb Board of Commissioners districts that are on the draft list. By far, the deepest cuts would come in District 3 in Northeast Cobb, represented by JoAnn Birrell.
A total of $1.1 million in cost-savings has been identified there: The Art Place, Mountain View Aquatic Center and Mountain View Community Center.
The aquatic center budget is more than $600,000 a year, the most expensive of the items on the draft list. It’s heavily used by high school and club youth swimming teams, as well the general public. The facility was renovated with $1.4 million in 2011 SPLOST funding.
The Art Place, which offers art classes, has art gallery events and sales and an outdoor amphitheater. It’s also the home for numerous community concerts and theater presentations, including those of the Mountain View Arts Alliance and CenterStage North, has a budget of more than $500,000 a year.
Both the aquatic center and The Art Place are part of a consortium of county government services on Sandy Plains Road that includes the East Cobb Senior Center and the Mountain View Regional Library.
The Mountain View Community Center, with a budget of around $6,000 a year, also is in that complex, located next to the former Mountain View Elementary School. The county spent nearly $160,000 last year to make renovations on the small building, which was closed for several months.
The Fullers Park and Recreational Center on Robinson Road cost a combined $315,000 a year to operate, and serve as the home for the East Side Baseball Association and other youth and recreational entities. In recent years the rec center was renovated with nearly $1.2 million in SPLOST funds.
The Atlanta Braves also paid for the renovation of a baseball field at Fullers Park in 2015 as part of its “Chipper Jones Field” community outreach program.
Those are the only two facilities in Commisioner Bob Ott’s District 2 that are on the draft list.
Also included in the draft plan for possible elimination is Keep Cobb Beautiful, with an annual budget of more than $200,000, and which has a strong advocate in Birrell.
The list of the possible parks closures comes as new East Cobb parks projects are underway, or will be soon.
That amount is included in the current fiscal year 2018 budget commissioners voted to fully fund the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum.
Those are passive parks, with minimal cost and staffing compared to what’s been included on the draft plan. Other possible closures include the Lost Mountain Park and Tennis Center and the Ward Recreational Center in West Cobb, and the South Cobb Aquatic Center and South Cobb Recreation Center.
Mabry Park’s annual operating budget is expected to be $104,000, paid via property tax revenues. Funding details for the development of the Ebenezer Road park have not been determined. The county is holding a public preview for that park on June 23.
The county is also spending $284,000 in property tax revenues in both the library and parks budgets for the current fiscal year to operate the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which opened in December 2017. It replaced the East Marietta Library and cost $10 million in SPLOST funding to construct.
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An East Cobb woman has been charged by Cobb Police with reckless conduct and cruelty to children for leaving a baby in her car while she went shopping last month.
Shoba Marudur, of Ashworth Glen Court in East Cobb, was booked and released on a $10,000 bond on Sunday, May 27, the same day of the incident, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
According to media reports, Marudur was shopping at the T.J. Maxx store at Providence Square Shopping Center on Roswell Road on a hot afternoon when other shoppers noticed a crying infant girl alone in a car, without windows cracked, and called 911. They also went into to the store to seek out the child’s parent.
The reckless conduct charge against Marudur is a misdemeanor, while the second-degree cruelty to children charge is a felony.
East Cobb News does not publish photographs of crime suspects before their cases have gone through the legal system, and then only if they are convicted or plead guilty and are sentenced.
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The Foxtrotters Ballroom Dance Club is disbanding at the end of this month, after 21 years of events at the East Cobb Senior Center. A farewell dance will take place there on June 22.
A steep increase in fees for renting out the event for their dances is the reason for the decision to shut down the group, Foxtrotters president Barbara Digulla told East Cobb News.
Like other groups and individuals who have been using the East Cobb Senior Center, the Foxtrotters have been affected by proposed activity fee increases for senior centers across the county to address Cobb’s current $30 million budget deficit.
At a January town hall meeting in January at the East Cobb Senior Center, Boyce told seniors upset about the proposals that “we’re all in this together” in terms of resolving the county’s fiscal crisis.
While some seniors didn’t object to paying a $60 annual membership fee, groups that meet at senior centers were alarmed by the high increases that commissioners are being asked to approve.
The Foxtrotters have paid $120 a month to Cobb Senior Services for the use of the facility for their monthly dances.
That cost could jump to $540 an event, if the proposed fee increases are approved when the commissioners finalize the budget in July. The hours for their dances also were pushed up from 7-10 p.m. to 6-9 p.m., with the county citing security reasons.
The Foxtrotters said the changing hours negatively affected turnout, and they hire their own security guard for their dances. Digulla said she was able to negotiate a 7-10 p.m. window for their final dance on June 22.
She said around a third of those coming for the dances are from well beyond the Cobb area, including DeKalb and Gwinnett counties and elsewhere.
“We’ve accepted it,” Digulla said about the end of the group. She said she and other dance club members “tried every possibility there is in this area” to find another place for their events, including churches and community centers.
She said that typically 45-55 people attend a dance, but attendance has been down 20 to 30 percent since the new fees kicked in.
Digulla said the Foxtrotters are required to pay for a security guard that cost $80 an event. Combined with that and the rental fee, along with around $500 an event for bands, each dance cost in the range of $650 to $750 a month.
To have to pay nearly double that, between $1,100 to $1,200 a month, and on short notice, “is ridiculous,” Digulla said.
The Foxtrotters aren’t the first senior dance group to shut down in the wake of the new Cobb senior activity fees.
The Stardust Dance Ballroom Dance Group that held events at the West Cobb Senior Center also is closing down, due to the proposed fee increases, and is having three final dances this year at a senior center in Paulding County.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners is scheduled to adopt the fiscal year 2019 budget in July. The senior fee increases were initially delayed as Boyce held senior town hall meetings, but they went into effect this spring.
Launched in 1997 by founding members Naomi Davis and Jan Henkleman, the Foxtrotters are geared toward seniors, with attendance open to those 55 and older.
They used to have another senior dance group, the Flamingos, who met at the Windy Hill Senior Center, but that group disbanded when the center closed in 2011.
The Foxtrotters farewell event begins June 22, 21 years and two days after their first event at the East Cobb Senior Center. The cost is $15 a person, with music provided by The Continentals Band and the theme “I’ve Got the Sun in the Morning.”
Digulla said around 70 people have signed up to attend, enough to provide a free buffet meal as the Foxtrotters have their last dance.
As a Foxtrotters Facebook page message indicated:
“Let’s say goodbye in style and pay tribute to the best social event East Cobb has ever known!”
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Next Thursday the Cobb Department of Transportation will hold an open house for citizens to learn about upcoming Holly Springs-Old Canton-Post Oak Tritt Road improvements.
The open house takes place on June 14 from 5-7 p.m. at the East Cobb Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road).
There’s not going to be a formal presentation but Cobb DOT staff will be available to take questions from and provide information for citizens.
The project, paid for with around $2 million in 2016 SPLOST funds, will get underway this fall. It includes the construction of a roundabout at Holly Springs and Post Oak Tritt, along with raised median, and new curb, gutter and sidewalk work.
The initial formation sheetcalled for a roundabout at Old Canton and Holly Springs. Currently there is a traffic signal at Holly Springs and Post Oak Tritt.
That’s a much busier intersection than the other existing roundabouts in the Northeast Cobb area. The others are at Holly Springs and Davis Road, in front of Pope High School on Hembree Road and another that’s just under construction at Post Oak Tritt and Hembree.
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Walton High School has a new principal who will be very familiar to students when she takes over at the start of the new school year.
She’s assistant principal Catherine Mallanda, who’s been at Walton for 17 years.
Mallanda was one of several principal and administrative appointments made Tuesday morning by the Cobb Board of Education.
She succeeds Judy McNeill, who is retiring after 30 years at Walton, including the last 10 as principal. The change is effective Aug. 1, the first day of the 2018-19 school year in the Cobb County School District.
Mallanda, who had earned $97,721 annually in her previous role, will have a yearly salary of $131,303 as Walton principal. She hold degrees from Georgia Tech and the University of West Georgia and a Ph.D. from Southern Mississippi.
She also was a classroom teacher at Walton and McEachern High School before becoming an administrator in 2003.
Some other East Cobb schools also will be getting new principals.
Sprayberry High School is one of them. Joseph Sharp has resigned, effective June 15, to move to Alabama. He will be succeeded by Sara Griffin, a current Sprayberry assistant principal, who starts June 18.
Griffin will be paid $112,965 annually as principal. She had earned $81,848 as an assistant principal last year at Sprayberry. She also was an assistant principal and teacher at Kell High School.
Griffin earned degrees from Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Kennesaw State.
Longtime Dickerson Middle School principal Carole Brink is retiring as of Aug. 1, but her replacement has not been named.
Felicia Angelle is leaving Shallowford Falls ES for the CCSD central office.
James Rawls, who has been assistant principal at Cooper Middle School, becomes the new principal at Daniell Middle School on July 1. Former principal David Nelson was recently reassigned to become principal at Pine Mountain Middle School.
Rawls earned $79,839 as an assistant principal at Cooper since 2004. His salary at Daniell will be $103,083. He has degrees from Armstrong Atlantic State University and Argosy University and previously was a teacher and administrator in Atlanta and Savannah public schools.
Shallowford Falls Elementary School also will be getting a new principal to be named later. Felicia Angelle is leaving to become the CCSD’s academic division director of instruction, innovation, teaching and learning. She starts her new position Aug. 1.
Dr. Tricia Patterson has resigned as Tritt Elementary School principal to become director of the Marietta City School’s STEM Academy. Her successor comes from elsewhere in East Cobb. Karen Carstens, who had been an assistant principal at Powers Ferry Elementary School, begins her new duties tomorrow.
Carstens, who also has been an assistant principal at Sope Creek Elementary School, had been earning $82,017. A previous teacher at Shallowford Falls, her salary there as principal will be $102,182.
Assistant principals on the move
The school board also made the following appointments involving East Cobb schools below the level of principal:
Mount Bethel Elementary School teacher and administrator Jaime Davis to assistant principal there;
Vaughn Elementary School principal Kevin Carpenter is now assistant principal at Powers Ferry;
Sedalia Park Elementary School assistant principal Zachary Mathis to the same position at Vaughn;
Former North Cobb principal Joe Horton is now an assistant principal at Sprayberry.
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The Cobb Planning Commission on Tuesday recommended approval of a gas station operated by Kroger at the Pavilions at East Lake Shopping Center in East Cobb
By a vote of 3-1, the planning board voted in favor of the zoning request by Kroger from Neighborhood Shopping to Community Retail Commercial (agenda item information here).
Planning commission members Andy Smith of East Cobb, Skip Gunther and Galt Porter voted in favor; Thea Powell was opposed. Judy Smith of Northeast Cobb was absent.
The vote is advisory. The Cobb Board of Commissioners will make the final decision on June 19.
Kroger wants to demolish a 10,000-square foot building on 14 acres in the front of the shopping center that’s been largely vacant for a gas station. The operating hours will be from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week.
The building used to be occupied by a Panera Bread store, and some other smaller spaces also are empty.
Garvis Sams, an attorney for Kroger, said the layout for the fueling station (see renderings at bottom) will be similar to another Kroger development on Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill Road that was approved earlier this year.
There will be no outside storage at the fueling station, and front signage will not be on top of the fueling canopy, addressing a concern by the East Cobb Civic Association.
He also said once the gas station closes at night, the outdoor lighting also will be turned off. The site is located next to an apartment complexes, and single-family homes are located a bit further behind.
Construction hours for the gas station would be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and no work on Sunday.
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But before that, the Board of Commissioners will gather next week for a budget retreat.
That meeting is next Tuesday, June 12, at 1 p.m. in the Hudgins Hall Conference/Multipurpose Room of the Cobb County Civic Center (548 South Marietta Parkway).
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has advocated raising the millage rate on property taxes as a way for the county to continue to deliver what he calls “five-star” services.
The county government is facing an estimated deficit for fiscal year 2019 of at least $30 million.
Boyce has initially suggested a millage increase of 1.1 mills (which would generate an extra $30 million in revenue) to the current general fund rate of 6.76.
In his weekly video update with county communications director Ross Cavitt (view below), he said that “1.1 mills just puts the finger in the dike.”
A full proposal to fund a balanced budget hasn’t been presented. However, the head of the county library system has proposed cutting nearly a quarter of the system’s $12 million budget and closing the East Cobb Library.
East Cobb’s commissioners generally have opposed property tax increases. Bob Ott of District 2 has said that he wouldn’t support an increase without seeing substantial cuts first. JoAnn Birrell of District 3 won her GOP primary last week after publicly opposing raising property taxes.
In the video, Boyce showed charts illustrating how Cobb’s millage rate has steadily come down over the last 25 or so years, being raised to address the recession. Two years ago, then-chairman Tim Lee, facing Boyce in a runoff, proposed an overall millage rate reduction to 9.85 (and 6.66 for the general fund) that passed, with Ott and Birrell voting with him.
“We have had a lower millage rate although our population has increased by more than 300,000” since the 1990s, Boyce said.
The town hall meetings are scheduled around the county, including another in East Cobb on July 9 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
Commissioners will hold public hearings on the budget and millage rate on July 10, 27 and 25, with adoption of both scheduled for July 25.
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Cobb PARKS is alerting us today that there’s still space available to attend the Hyde Farm Nature camp later this month.
It’s for rising third- through fifth-graders and takes place from June 18-22. The camp is an hour each day, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., and the total cost per child for the week is $65.
Registration information is available on the poster below.
Hyde Farm also has some other day camps this summer in connection with The Art Place-Mountain View and the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
The Hyde and Seek Artventure camps are for kids age 7-12. In addition to outdoor art sessions, campers will explore the Hyde Farm facility, hike to the Chattahoochee River and take in one of East Cobb’s most picturesque natural settings.
Those sessions cost $100 per child are from July 23-27 and are limited to 30 students each. One camp meets in the mornings, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the other in the afternoons, from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Parents must provide daily transportation to and from Hyde Farm (675 Hyde Farm Road).
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For the last few weeks, a clearance sale has been underway at Edward-Johns Jewelers, which has been located at Woodlawn Square Shopping Center (1205 Johnson Ferry Road) for years.
That’s because the long-time East Cobb business has been in the process of relocation. The new space is now open at 1225 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 801. It’s behind the Fidelity Bank building, a bit further up Johnson Ferry from the Woodlawn center.
Phone service (770-977-2026) is expected to be restored later today, and this week’s schedule is 10-5:30 today, Tuesday and Friday. The store will be closed Wednesday and Thursday.
A message on the Edward-Johns Facebook page said owner Johnny Johnson is undergoing emergency surgery and the business will be short-handed for the time being as it finally settles in its new location.
Johnson opened Edward-Johns Jewelers in 1979, and he has become an important and visible figure in the business, educational and civic community in East Cobb and Cobb County.
He’s been an East Cobb Citizen of the Year, is a past president of the Cobb County YMCA, served on the Cobb Board of Education and is a charter member of the East Cobb Kiwanis Club.
He also serves as Santa Claus for the Christmas Tree lighting at East Cobb Park.
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This week’s top stories includes the arrest of a Kell High School teacher on charges of sexually assaulting a student; an update on the forthcoming opening of the Northwest Corridor Express Lanes; an East Cobb student’s trip to Africa to build a soccer field for village children; and the opening of another long-anticipated restaurant.
From left to right: Robert Chappell, Maya Wade, David Woodward, William Roberts, Paris Williams, Congresswoman Karen Handel, Joseph McDermond, Aditya Mhaskar, Blaine McDonough of East Cobb, Connor McGurk, Hannah Percher of East Cobb, and Gabriela Boatright.
Three East Cobb students are among the 13 high school graduates appointed to attend U.S. military service academies by Congresswoman Karen Handel.
They include Connor Hasely of Walton High School (pictured below), who attended New York University. He was appointed to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Connor Haseley
Another Walton graduate, Blaine McDonough, will attend the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.
Lassiter High School’s Hannah Percher has been appointed to attend the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
“The Sixth District produced an extraordinary group of candidates for our nation’s military academies this year,” Handel said in a statement. “This is one of the responsibilities I have relished the most during my time in Washington, and I’m so proud of these young men and women for their willingness to serve their country.”
A Pope High School graduate also has received an appointment by Congressman Barry Loudermilk. Sarah Sorensen will attend the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.
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This isn’t taking place until the end of next week, but Piedmont Road around the railroad tracks will be closed briefly to make repairs to the tracks.
A very bumpy crossing is going to be smoothed over with new tracks and pads and sidewalks, and the road repaved, and it’s long been the subject of complaints from motorists.
The closure on Piedmont between Canton Road and Morgan Road begins at 5 a.m. Friday, June 8, and is expected to be reopened by 12 p.m. the following day, Saturday, June 9.
Here’s more information from Cobb DOT about what’s going on, and how you can get around if that’s a route you normally use:
Electronic closure warning signs will be installed on each side of the railroad announcing the pending closure and detour signs will also be installed. Alternate routes will include Ebenezer/Blackwell roads to the north and Morgan/Liberty Hill roads to the south.
Patriot Rail, formally known as Georgia Northeastern Railroad, staff will remove the existing tracks across Piedmont Road and replacing with new ballast, ties and rails including pre-cast concrete crossing panels instead of the existing rubber crossing pads. Once that work is complete, a Cobb Department of Transportation contractor will add asphalt on each side before the road can be reopened to traffic. Between June 9 and June 30, the contractor will add curb, gutter, sidewalk and drainage structures using temporary lane closures to complete the project. Funding for this project is part of the voter approved 2016 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
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A Kell High School teacher arrested on Friday for sexual assault remains in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center today.
Spencer Wayne Herron, 48, was taken into custody at his Acworth home Friday afternoon. He has been charged with three felony counts of sexual assault by a teacher or school administrator.
His bail has been set at $50,000, according to the Cobb Sheriff’s Office.
Herron, who has been a video teacher at Kell for 16 years, was named the school’s teacher of the year two years ago.
Arrest warrants indicate Herron has been accused of having sex multiple times with a student on campus from early 2016 through the school year that just ended last month.
This past school year, Herron was a member of the Cobb County School District’s Superintendent’s Teacher Advisory Council.
East Cobb News does not publish photographs of crime suspects before their cases have gone through the legal system, and then only if they are convicted or plead guilty and are sentenced.
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An interchange at Roswell Road and I-75 will be one of several entry and exit points for East Cobb motorists using the Northwest Corridor lanes. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
The Northwest Corridor Project express lanes designed to relieve traffic on I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee counties are anticipated to be fully operational by the Labor Day weekend.
But now’s a good time to purchase the required passes for driving along the nearly 30 miles of managed lanes, which are nearly complete after more than five years of planning and construction.
That’s the message from Steven Lively, the Georgia Department of Transportation’s program delivery manager for major projects.
Earlier this week, he provided an update to the East Cobb Civic Association. While the general expected opening of the lanes is still “late summer,” he said “we hope to have traffic in the system by Labor Day.”
Resurfacing I-75 along the Express Lanes route, and on I-285 between the Chattahoochee River and Cobb Parkway is expected to be done by Aug. 31, he said.
The “Peach Pass” is currently being used on other managed lane and toll routes in Georgia, and will soon be expanded to the Northwest Corridor Project.
The pass is an electronic transponder device with an adhesive that sticks to a windshield or front bumper. Motorists purchase the passes in advance of their first time using the lanes, and then refill their accounts with money, depending on how much they use the lanes.
“We encourage people to use the system when it benefits them,” Lively said. “It may not be an everyday option but you get to make a choice.”
Motorists can apply online here to set up an account (for an initial fee of $20), and passes will be mailed. There’s also a mobile app for the Peach Pass.
The costs will be based on what’s called “dynamic pricing,” which rise as demand increases and is reduced during off-peak hours, Lively said.
Fines will apply to motorists who enter the lanes without a Peach Pass, or with one that’s expired, or if an account has insufficient funds, as well as for driving a vehicle that’s unregistered for Peach Pass use (more on fines here).
The finishing touches of the project, including testing of electronic signs and other devices at the interchanges, are underway now, according to Lively, who said the project is around 95 percent complete.
The $834 million project—the biggest in state transportation history—stretches in two lanes along I-75 from Akers Mill Road to Hickory Grove Road in Acworth. Three of the six interchanges will be easily accessible to East Cobb motorists: Akers Mill Road, Terrell Mill Road and Roswell Road.
The Express Lanes also include a spur at the I-75 junction that then goes up I-575 in a single lane to Sixes Road near Canton. Three sets of “slip ramps” include a northbound exit and a southbound entrance at Shallowford Road in Northeast Cobb.
The managed lanes will be for southbound traffic in the morning, and northbound traffic in the afternoon rush hour. Lively said the express lanes will be closed for three hours in between to clear vehicles and reverse the direction of the traffic flow.
Georgia DOT estimates that the Express Lanes can ultimately save motorists up to 43 minutes on their daily commute time, depending on how long their travel is on that route, and that drivers in the general lanes could have their traffic time reduced by as much as 16 minutes.
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