The following East Cobb restaurant scores from Aug. 6-31 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing to view details of the inspection:
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The former roommate and business partner of an East Cobb man murdered in 2014 has been arrested and charged with plotting the killing, and then conspiring to conceal it.
Ross Allyson Byrne, 55, of Woodstock, was booked on murder and other felony charges on Thursday afternoon, according to the Cobb Sheriff’s Office.
He was arrested at The Best Dang Bakery Around on Highway 92 in Woodstock and is being held without bond at the Cobb Adult Detention Center, according to jail information.
Byrne is charged with three counts of felony murder, one count of malice murder, two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony and racketeering, Cobb Sheriff’s Office records show.
According to an indictment issued by a Cobb grand jury on Thursday, Byrne is accused of orchestrating the murder of Jerry Moore, who was found stabbed 32 times at his home of Holly Springs Road on Jan. 25, 2014.
Byrne’s arrest comes nearly two weeks after Johnathan Allen Wheeler was convicted of the murder in Cobb Superior Court and sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.
Wheeler worked at the bakery, which was operated by Byrne, and where Moore had been an equal partner, according to Cobb prosecutors. They said the business had been struggling and Moore wanted to end the partnership.
According to the indictment, the “primary purpose” for murdering Moore “was to steal an interest in the business of Best Dang Bakery (or bakery) as well as other property and things of value,” forming the basis of the racketeering charge.
The indictment further states that Byrne and Moore, who opened the bakery in 2008, each held a $35,000 investment; Byrne oversaw day-to-day operations while Moore handled finances.
According to the indictment, the partnership agreement stated that in the case of the death of one of the partners, “the interest of the deceased member shall be transferred to the other surviving Member or Members.”
Jerry Moore was 46 when he was found stabbed to death at his East Cobb home in Jan. 2014. (Photo: Cobb District Attorney’s Office)
By late 2013, the indictment states, the partnership was troubled. There were disputes about how to run the business, and Moore was concerned about Byrne’s spending habits.
The indictment states that by January 2014, Moore was planning to end his business partnership with Byrne and concludes that “it is unlikely” Byrne would have been able to buy out Moore’s share of the bakery.
Moore had gone as far as to draft the terms of dissolving the partnership, according to the indictment.
By then, Wheeler was no longer working at the bakery but still had a “close relationship with Byrne, whom he considered a mentor, the indictment states.
By the first of the year in 2014, according to the indictment, Byrne moved out of the home he shared with Moore on Gracewood Drive, off Holly Springs Road and north of Post Oak Tritt Road.
The indictment alleges that Byrne plotted to have Wheeler—who was released from jail in 2010 after serving 10 years in Cobb and Cherokee for robbery and assault—commit aggravated assault, burglary and theft.
Prosecutors allege that Wheeler and Byrne were in contact before, during and after the murder. Afterward, prosecutors say, Wheeler went to Byrne’s new residence in Woodstock, where he showered and was offered a change of clothes.
Wheeler returned to Moore’s home and with his cousin, Cynthia Wheeler, cleaned up the premises and stole household items, according to prosecutors. She pleaded guilty in 2016 to those charges.
The indictment states that Byrne stole Moore’s partnership interest and as of his arrest still was the owner of the bakery.
Byrne also helped Johnathan Wheeler and Cynthia Wheeler pay bills and purchased a truck for the former that was returned, according to the indictment.
Johnathan Allen Wheeler
The indictment states that Byrne had been interviewed by the police shortly after the murder but denied any involvement and said nothing about Wheeler, who was arrested on Aug. 16, 2014
Byrne and Wheeler continued to stay in touch over the next four years, according to the indictment, both over the phone and in writing, and prosecutors say they have recordings of conversations between the two. The indictment also states that written correspondence from Wheeler was found in Byrne’s possession when authorities obtained a search warrant earlier this week.
The indictment didn’t detail the subject matter of that correspondence, nor did it describe the recorded conversations.
In arguments to the jury at Wheeler’s trial, Cobb assistant district attorney Jesse Evans called the murder “a relentless, sustained, malicious attack by a cold-blooded killer. . . The defendant [Wheeler] pursued, out of greed and out of malice. No human being should ever have this inflicted on them.”
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It wouldn’t be Noshfest without “Hava Nagila.” The Jewish food and culture festival returns at Temple Kol Emeth Sunday and Monday. (East Cobb News file photos)
Just a few days remain until two signature East Cobb Labor Day weekend events make their festive returns.
Here’s the latest info we have on the Noshfest, which takes place from 11-5 Sunday and 11-4 Monday at at Temple Kol Emeth (1415 Old Canton Road):
Admission is free, but each attendee is asked to bring two canned food items to be donated to MUST Ministries.
Once inside, you’ll purchase food and drink tickets as you please, and either with cash or by credit card. Craft items for sale can be bought with cash, credit card or debit card, depending on vendor availabilty.
The Highlights: Entertainment from the blues-and-folk Alex Guthrie Band (he’s a local musician and recording artist) returns to the Noshfest stage at 3 p.m. Sunday. Before that, starting at noon, is a cooking demonstration from Chef Wilson Gourley of the famed General Muir deli in Dectatur, and the festival’s 3rd annual bagel-eating contest (sponsored by Bagelicious in East Cobb) is at 2 p.m.
The winning contestant will win a cash prize of $500 for eating the most bagels in five-minutes.
On Monday, live music will abound, including the Dixie Saints, who will perform Dixieland and klezmer specialties at 2 p.m.
Temple tours of the synagogue will take place Sunday at 1, 2:30 and 4 and on Monday at 12, 1:30 and 3.
Admission is also free on Monday to the Holy Smoke Festival, held from 10-3 at the ball fields and south parking lot at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (955 Johnson Ferry Road).
Food tickets for the Williamson BBQ-catered meals are $6.50 (and if they run out, other food vendors will be on hand), and the events include live music, Christian illusionist Shane Wilbanks (above), kids’s inflatables, a silent auction and a classic car show.
The Highlights: Local musician Jay Memory will perform in the Big Tent between 11-2 (that’s where and for how long the food will be served). Wilbanks’ shows are at 11:15, 12:45 and 1:45.
At 12:15, the Fort Benning Silver Wings aerial show takes place.
At 2, the silent auction closes, with the grand prize winner announced, as well as the car show awards.
Holy Smoke proceeds will benefit the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, East Cobb chapter.
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For the second time this summer, action on adopting a Cobb parks master plan through 2028 has been put on hold by county commissioners.
The proposal was for master planning services for land purchased recently with 2008 parks bond money. The master plan, according to Cobb Parks director Jimmy Gisi, is a “road map that will take us through the next 10 years.”
After a discussion at Tuesday’s commissioners meeting, they weren’t ready to take the first step down that path. The proposal first came up in July at a work session but wasn’t discussed.
On Tuesday, commissioner Bob Ott of District 2 in East Cobb said the proposal was “putting the cart before the horse” since no money has been earmarked to build and operate new parks.
The land purchased with the $27.4 million in parks bond funding this year include 18.3 acres on Ebenezer Road (above), slated to become a passive park, and nearly 30 acres of Tritt property on Roswell Road next to East Cobb Park, which will remain greenspace.
While appreciative of the details that went into the recommendations, Ott said that “while we’re getting all this land,” spending around $90,000 for the planning design work “gets too far ahead of where we are.”
The master plan proposal includes projected spending on parks of around $300 million over the next decade. Lose & Associates, a consulting firm that prepared the master plan proposal, also made the the following recommendations:
increased staffing and funding;
the creation of an administrative services division;
the creation of a park maintenance plan;
the adoption of a comprehensive revenue policy;
enhanced branding and marketing to help generate revenues;
establishing a rental system for pavilion use;
increasing user fees;
expanded programming for fee generation;
assessing a per-participant maintenance fee;
increase staffing of Cobb Police Park Ranger staff.
Ott said he wanted to see more specifics about funding, pointing out that the report didn’t indicate how much money would be generated by more user fees.
“It’s a little bit shallow on how you’re going to pay for it,” he said. “I’m uncomfortable with the financing part.”
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce asked for the proposal to be delayed at least until the first commissioners meeting in September.
Also on Tuesday, the commissioners approved using SPLOST money to build a playground at the Mabry Park under construction and for baseball-related maintenance at Sewell Park (previewed here).
Also approved was spending SPLOST funds on sidewalk projects, including $655,865 for a sidewalk on the west side of McPherson Road between Post Oak Tritt Rad and Shallowford Road, and the east side of McPherson near Mountain Creek Drive. The project covers a stretch of 0.50 miles and includes replacing existing curbs and gutters.
Another SPLOST-approved project on Shallowford Road, costing $35,800, will add sidewalks near Nicholson Elementary School and McCleskey Middle School, covering 0.25 miles.
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Thank you to Mary Stokes, the care coordinator at Roswell United Methodist Church, for passing along the following about a Roswell Alzheimer’s caregivers support group that will begin soon:
Do you care for someone with Alzheimer’s or Dementia? Do you find certain behaviors challenging or frustrating? You are not alone. Join us for a caregiver’s support group on the second Wednesday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at Roswell United Methodist Church.
We meet in B239 in the Chapel Building. Our first meeting will be on September 12th. Find support. Learn useful tips. And identify helpful resources.
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By the end of the week the Walton volleyball team is facing a fundraising deadline for a trip that will take them to three elite tournaments out West in September.
The Lady Raiders have dominated high school volleyball in Georgia for years, and are seeking their fourth consecutive Georgia High School Association title.
They’re also coming off national championships, as voted by PrepVolleyball and Max Preps, and are looking to test their prowess early in the new season. They’ll be participating in a “Tour of Champions” that will take them to Nevada, Arizona and California.
For several weeks they’ve been soliciting funds and sponsorships to help support their trip, having reached 70 percent of their goal. That’s nearly $15,000, but the goal is $22,000, and Friday is the deadline for the fundraising effort.
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Cobb County government has sent word late this afternoon that a remediation order has been issued for the owners of the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center that’s long been the subject of community efforts to get cleaned up.
That means that NAI Brannen Goddard, an Atlanta-based real estate agency that owns the 16-acre site at 2692 Sandy Plains Road, has to make some immediate improvements to the property (detailed below), which includes some existing businesses.
Mostly, it’s empty commercial space, including a former bowlling alley, as well as a cemetery, that’s been deteriorating for nearly a couple decades.
Citizens have complained of criminal and even gang activity, especially around the bowling alley area. Cobb commissioners in 2017 adopted a blight ordinance. That would impose additional taxes on property identified as blighted and deemed uninhabitable and unsafe if remediation actions to improve it weren’t conducted.
That’s where this case, the first test of that ordinance that’s reached the court stage, stands now.
Under the remediation order issued in Cobb Magistrate Court, NAI Brannen Goddard must do the following to and around the bowling alley building:
install and maintain adequate lighting on all sides of the building within 15 days of the order;
install and maintain a camera security system within 15 days;
post “No loitering allowed” and “You are being video recorded” signs in conspicuous and prominent locations within 15 days of the court order;
provide an engineer’s report detailing the proper repairs required to correct the safety & structural issues created by the canopy’s removal within 30 days of the court order;
complete the repairs in the engineer’s report;
have a representative or project manager visit the site at least once per week to inspect for illegal activity & property damage and correct issues within 48 hours;
remove litter within 48 hours;
promptly respond to development inspections or code enforcement issues;
install fencing around the perimeter of the building to prevent passage onto the property.
Per the Cobb government information, the building doesn’t have to be demolished (as some in the community have wanted). But “non-compliance with the order will result in additional tax remaining on the property until the remediation is complete.”
Citizens living near the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center turned out en masse to a community meeting in March to demand the property be cleaned up.
The order is only for the bowling alley area, not for the rest of the Sprayberry Crossing property.
If additional taxes are levied, they would be seven times the county general fund millage rate value of their properties. According to a Cobb Community Development Agency estimate announced at a community meeting in March, that total would come to around $17,000. That figure prompted many citizens at the meeting to groan with dismay.
The order comes as commissioners were scheduled to designate several blighted properties for incentivized redevelopment on Tuesday, including the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center (No. 15 on the map). It’s been on previous lists.
Some nearby residents, working through the Sprayberry Crossing Action group, also have been preparing possible civil action against NAI Brannen Goddard. A series of meetings, starting Thursday, has been scheduled for citizens interested in filing a claim against the property owner.
The Cobb government statement included this response from commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who represents the area:
“I’m pleased with the court’s decision in designating this property as blighted although I would have preferred the building be demolished. However, I’m glad to know the court heard the county’s and the citizen’s concerns. The county is doing everything within its ability under the code to address the concerns related to this property and will continue to monitor conditions.”
Here’s what Joe Glancy, organizer of the Sprayberry Action group, posted after hearing the news:
“It’s not enough.
“But a word of warning to Mitchell Brannen, Sam Hale, Bo Brown and the other owners of that blighted shopping center – summer with all its wonderful distractions is coming to a close, and you will have our full attention in the coming months.”
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The Northwest Corridor Express Lanes will connect to I-285 and managed lanes to be built between I-85 and I-20 by 2028. (East Cobb News file photo)
The $834 million Northwest Corridor Express Lanes that are set to open soon (and with an access point on Roswell Road, near the Big Chicken, as seen above), are part of the initial phase of the colossal I-285 Express Lanes project to address congestion on Atlanta’s suburban northside.
The Georgia Department of Transportation has been holding information sessions with local government bodies about its Major Mobility Investment Program, a total of 11 projects that are expected to be completed over the next decade or so.
On Tuesday, Cobb commissioners were briefed at a work session about the I-285 Express Lanes, which would range between I-85 in Gwinnett County and I-20 west of Atlanta.
The toll road projects, dubbed the I-285 Top End Express Lanes (fact sheet) and the I-285 Westside Express Lanes (fact sheet), would be fully complete by 2028, connecting to I-75 and I-575 in Cobb and Cherokee and the Northwest Corridor managed lanes.
The Top End project will cost an estimated $4.2 billion, with expected completion by 2028. That corridor currently handles around 240,000 vehicle trips a day.
The Westside project is expected to cost around $655 million, and is slated to open to traffic by 2026. Unlike the Northwest Corridor, which will have reversible lanes, the Westside project will have an express lane in each direction, inside existing general purpose lanes.
Tim Matthews, the MMIP project manager for Georgia DOT, told commissioners that three Cobb County access points are being proposed for Westside project. Two are at Mt. Wilkinson Parkway and Cumberland Parkway.
Another would be at 285 and Cumberland Boulevard. That access point was chosen over Akers Mill Road, both for cost and traffic demand reasons.
Matthews said the Cumberland Boulevard access point would cost an estimated $15 million, compared to a $110 million price tag for Akers Mill. Planned development in the Akers Mill area also was a hindrance for access point consideration.
The Cumberland Boulevard access point also would serve traffic projected by the year 2040 to be around 25,000 vehicles per day, compared to around 17,000 at Akers Mill.
Although that may not seem like a lot, Matthews said “that’s a significant difference.”
He said the proposed locations are not final, but represent a “baseline access map” that could be altered, since the project will be taken to the public and also because of land acquisition issues that could come up.
No proposed access points for the Top End Express Lanes were presented at the commission work session.
The next steps for Georgia DOT with both projects are to address environmental issues, which are underway and will take around three years, and to have public comment periods in 2019 and 2020. Right-of-way acquisition is expected take place in 2021-22, with construction starting in 2023.
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Calling all “To Kill a Mockingbird” fans, and especially devotees of the woman who wrote the novel and what came after all that: You’re invited to a special film screening Tuesday at the Sewell Mill Library (2051 Lower Roswell Road).
It’s not the actual 1962 movie, starring Gregory Peck and Mary Badham, but rather a more recent movie about the book, movie and the woman who made it all possible, “Harper Lee: From Mockingbird to Watchman.”
To be more precise, it’s a documentary film about the novelist and her work, not only the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, but also her “Go Set a Watchman,” published in 2015, the year before Lee’s death. That novel is regarded as a sequel, portraying Atticus Finch in a very unflattering light, and set off something of a controversy.
The film to be screened Tuesday was made for the Public Broadcasting System‘s “American Masters” series.
Lee’s older sister is among those interviewed, as well as Oprah Winfrey, Tom Brokaw, legal thriller novelist Scott Turow and others who knew the novelist.
The screening, which takes place from 6:30-8:30 p.m., is part of Georgia Public Broadcasting‘s “Great American Read” series. The event in the library’s black box theater is free, and will be followed by a book-style discussion, but you’re encouraged to make a reservation here.
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Renovations to a concession stand building and some dugouts at Sewell Park are being proposed at Tuesday night’s Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting.
The Cobb Parks and Recreation Department says the upgrades have been earmarked in the 2011 SPLOST at a combined cost of $45,191, based on low bids received.
Needed enovations to the main concession stand building include restroom and storage space upgrades, as well as a new paint job and replacing windows. It overlooks Field 3, the main tournament field for the East Marietta National Little League.
Another agenda item would replace the dugout roofs at fields 5A and 5B, which are used for younger age-level games. Those dugouts currently have fabric tarp roofs that require maintenance and replacement. The proposed new roofs are metal.
It’s considered the centerpiece of the park, and the Mabry Park Master Plan calls for a farm theme for the playground to conform to the surroundings that were once park of the Mabry family farm.
On the consent agenda is an item for the commissioners to approve a new Cobb parks master plan for 2018-2028, an action that was delayed from earlier this summer.
One other item that’s sports-and-rec related: At the start of the meeting commissioners will recognize the Sandy Plains Prowlers 12-under baseball team, which recently had a standout tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y., that we wrote about earlier.
Tuesday’s meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the 2nd floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St. in downtown Marietta.
The agenda is long and hefty, since a previous business meeting scheduled for this month was cancelled. You can read all that’s on tap here, and we’ll be reporting on some of those actions.
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State and local officials in Georgia and Cobb have offered condolences and issued statements regarding Arizona U.S. Sen. John McCains’s death on Saturday.
From U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson of Georgia, an East Cobb Republican who served with McCain on the Senate Armed Services Committee since 2005:
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson
“John McCain has left an example for all of us of what it takes to be an American patriot. His willingness to reach out to all to do what is right inspires us to work to find common ground. His life and work have left their indelible mark on history, and we all owe John a lot. May God bless John and his family.”
From David Perdue, a Republican from Warner Robins and Georgia’s junior senator:
“American patriot is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of John McCain. He dedicated his life to serving the country he loved so much & for that we will be eternally grateful.
“John’s wit, wisdom, and leadership will be missed in the United States Senate – especially on the Armed Services Committee.”
U.S. Congressman John Lewis, a Democrat from Atlanta:
“We have lost a great warrior who defended this nation’s honor in times of war and peace. He risked his life for America as a soldier, guarded our integrity as a prisoner of war, and dedicated his entire life to public service. Only a few will ever be remembered for standing on the courage of their convictions.
“Sen. John McCain was one of those rare people who was never afraid to do what he believed was right. Our nation is forever indebted to men and women of conscience who struggle—in their own way, according to the dictates of their own hearts—to act on the ideals of democracy and work to build a more perfect union. I send my deepest condolences to his family. They are in my thoughts and prayers.”
Jason Shepherd, Cobb GOP
Jason Shepherd, chairman of the Cobb County Republican Party:
“For more than a century, his family has served our nation. His grandfather entered the Navy in 1906 and died an Admiral 4 days after witnessing with his son the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay on September 4. He, along with his father and grandfather before him, has left his mark on American history.
“His passing at 81 means an era in American politics is over. While each of us had our opinion of the man who lived a very public life, privately, he was still also a husband, a father, a grandfather, a brother, and a son.”
U.S. Sen Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, wants to rename the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington after McCain. Richard Russell was a longtime senator from Georgia, serving from 1933 to 1971.
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For the last month, the Splendid Pieces exhibit at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road) has shown the work of Georgia mosaics artist Julie Mazzoni (her website here).
There will be a closing reception in the library’s art gallery Thursday, Aug. 30, from 6-8 p.m., the day before the exhibit closes. She’ll be offering a demo and a talk about her work.
A Kennesaw State grad, Julie began doing mosaics in 2009 after working in children’s murals, watercolors and acrylics. She specializes in 3-D bas-relief mixed media concept works and realism in stained glass.
If you’re interested in learning how to do mosaics, you can get a start earlier in the week.
The library is offering two related classes starting next Tuesday.
A Mosaic Rock Garden Class takes place over four sessions, through Sept. 18, as you’ll learn how to personalize your own backyard garden. The cost is $47, and the class meets every Tuesday from 10-11:30 a.m. Here’s how to sign up.
Mazzoni will be teaching Beginner Mosaics, an eight-session class, through Oct. 30. Here’s more on signing up for that course. The fee is $170, and the class meets from 11:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. every Tuesday, except for Sept. 25.
She’s also teaching the same class, from Aug. 28 to Oct. 2, at The Art Place (3320 Sandy Plains Road), with sessions from 5:30-8 p.m. Here’s signup information for that.
The Art Place is also where she’s teaching an Open Mosaics Studio class from Oct. 9 to Nov. 13 (details and signup here). Julie’s also had her work exhibited there.
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Jeremiah Pruitte (right) gets a high-five and more after his first touchdown catch for Wheeler. (East Cobb News photos and video by Wendy Parker)
Jeremiah Pruitte caught two touchdown passes and Taylor Smith ran back an interception 91 yards for another score as Wheeler defeated Sprayberry 40-20 Friday Night.
The Wildcats (2-0) were playing their first game at home. Sprayberry had the early momentum on its first drive but fumbled near the Wheeler goal line, and the Wildcats recovered.
Wheeler struck right away, with Zack Atkins scoring on a long touchdown pass.
Myles Worthy sets up Sprayberry’s first touchdown in the first quarter.
Sprayberry scored a touchdown on its next possession when Aaron Bibbins ran into the end zone on quarterback keeper. But Wheeler blocked the extra point to make the score 7-6.
Although they mounted a comeback in the second half, the Yellow Jackets (0-2) would get no closer.
It was the first game between Sprayberry and Wheeler since 2013.
The Wildcats got big plays all night when they needed them, this one on an open-field run by JD Thomas (12), who also scored a touchdown.Young Wheeler fans line up before the game to greet the Wildcats. Deonte Trotman gains against Wheeler’s defense as Sprayberry tried to close a 31-13 deficit in the third quarter.Pruitte (13), a receiver who’s 6-foot-6, was tough for Sprayberry’s defense to handle all night.
Pruitte’s second touchdown pass from Chidi Ogbonna came with 2:02 to play in the third quarter, and gave Wheeler a 31-13 lead.
Sprayberry fought back in the fourth quarter, as Bibbins scored another touchdown on a keeper to make the score 31-20.
But he made some crucial mistakes down the stretch. The Jackets were driving to Wheeler’s goal line when he was intercepted by Derrick Dunn. Later, he was sacked in the end zone for a safety.
With the score 33-20, Sprayberry was knocking on the door again in the final minute of the game. Bibbins aimed a pass toward the goal line, but Wheeler’s Taylor Smith reached up and picked the ball off, then ran it back 91 yards for a TD and the final scoring of the night.
A pleasant, picturesque evening for Friday Night Lights in East Cobb.
In other games involving East Cobb teams, Walton came from behind on the road to defeat Collins Hill 29-25.
In another East Cobb rivalry game, Pope led Lassiter 7-0 at halftime, and then the Trojans scored two touchdowns to take a 14-7 lead.
The Greyhounds came back with a touchdown of their own, but missed the extra point. Lassiter added another touchdown late for a 20-13 win.
Two more East Cobb rivalry games take place next week. Lassiter remains at home against Kell, which was off this week. Pope’s home opener next Friday is against Walton.
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Marietta Police say a 24-year-old woman was strangled to death at her home in the Merritt Road area early Thursday, and that they have charged a man living there with her murder.
The body of Xi-anna Graham was discovered at her home at 697 Bonnie Dell Drive around 4 a.m. Thursday, according to police, who said there had been an “ongoing domestic dispute.”
The suspect taken into custody is Christopher Gene Scarboro, 27, whom police said resided at the home with Graham and her four children.
He has been charged with felony homicide, aggravated assault and third-degree child cruelty. According to the Cobb Sheriff’s Office, Scarboro is being held without bond.
Marietta Police said the investigation into the murder continues and that anyone with information should contact Det. Michael Selleck at 770-794-5372.
Police said anyone who’s been abused or knows someone who has should seek help immediately. Resources include contacting 1-800-33-HAVEN, as well as the National Domestic Violence Hotline. It’s available 24/7/365 in English and Spanish via website chat, phone call or text at 800-799-7233.
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Not long after they’ll be playing during their school’s football game Friday night, the Pope and Lassiter bands will be holding fundraisers on Saturday.
From 9-4, the Pope Band Recycling Event will accept all kinds of electronics, metal and paper goods, for $10 a car. They’ll shred paper while you watch, and additional disposal fees will apply to certain items. The school’s located at 3001 Hembree Road, and here’s a detailed list of what they’ll accept, and what they won’t.
From 10-5 Saturday, the Lassiter Band Mattress Sale takes place in the band room at the school (2601 Shallowford Road). There will be a full showroom set-up with factory direct prizes. The proceeds will go to help the band’s upcoming trip to the Tournament of Roses Parade. A mattress sale earlier this year netted $12K, and fundraisers later this fall include the raffling of a Jeep Wrangler from Ed Voyles.
Oh, and about those football games? Five of the six East Cobb teams are in action tonight:
Did we miss anything? Do you have a calendar item you’d like to share with the community? Send it to us, and we’ll spread the word! E-mail: calendar@eastcobbnews.com, and you can include a photo or flyer if you like.
Whatever you’re doing this weekend, make it a great one! Enjoy!
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According to Cobb District Attorney’s office information, Spencer Wayne Herron, 48, was indicted in the past week on five counts of sexual assault of a student.
Herron, who had 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 2017-18 school year.
Herron was taken to the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on June 1, and remains there on a $50,000 bond, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
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Atlanta attorney Dale Schwartz, a key figure in Leo Frank’s posthumous pardon in 1986, holds up a photo of the 1915 lynching near what is now Frey’s Gin Road. (East Cobb News photos and video by Wendy Parker)
The Leo Frank memorial that stood near the site of the infamous lynching in Marietta 103 years ago this month has been relocated and on Thursday morning was rededicated.
Across the street from that venue on Roswell Road, representatives of the Cobb and metro Atlanta Jewish community and others gathered to honor the memory of Frank, regarded as the only Jewish lynching victim in American history.
Squeezed between the new Northwest Corridor Express Lanes on Interstate 75 and a taco eatery, the marker is located in a “parklet” created by the Georgia Department of Transportation.
The small slice of greenspace, with soft soil underneath reflecting its very recent planting, also has become the new focal point for continuing efforts to fully and formally clear Frank of the murder of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a girl from Marietta, in 1913.
“Leo Frank is innocent,” said Rabbi Steven Lebow of Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb, a leader in pushing for a full exoneration of Frank.
“Your presence here today is one more step toward full exoneration.”
The dignitaries included Marietta City Council member Joseph Goldstein and State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick of East Cobb, as well as representatives of the Georgia Historical Society, the Cobb SCLC and various Jewish organizations.
Frank was a supervisor at the National Pencil Company in downtown Atlanta in 1913 when Phagan, a worker there, was found murdered in a basement. Frank was put on trial, convicted and sentenced to death and later imprisoned in Milledgeville.
When his sentence was commuted to life, a mob from Marietta traveled to the jail. The mob, which allegedly included prominent local citizens, law enforcement and elected officials, kidnapped Frank. They brought him back to Marietta and on Aug. 17, 1915, hanged him from an oak tree near what is now Frey’s Gin Road.
The trial and lynching earned national headlines, inflaming anti-Semitic tensions in America and helping revive the Ku Klux Klan, but also giving birth to the Anti-Defamation League.
In more recent years, the Frank case has inspired several films and books as Jewish leaders worked for a pardon. That effort was sparked by a 1982 admission by Alonzo Mann, a pencil factory worker, that Frank was wrongly convicted.
After a silence of nearly 70 years, Mann said he saw Jim Conley, a factory custodian, carrying Mary Phagan’s body the day she died. Mann also said was told by Conley he would be killed if he told anyone about what he saw.
At Frank’s trial, Conley was the main witness for the prosecution against Frank. The state of Georgia granted Frank a pardon in 1986, but only on the grounds that he did not receive a fair trial.
“We’re still trying to get a new trial that would, in effect, exonerate him,” said Dale Schwartz, an Atlanta attorney who also has led the charge for a pardon.
The Leo Frank saga was national front-page news for more than two years, from his trial and imprisonment to his lynching.
He retold the story of the pardon effort in detail, as well as his own Jewish family being attacked by the Klan for hiring black workers at a clothing store in Winder during the Jim Crow era.
The Leo Frank memorial was originally dedicated in 2008 by the Georgia Historical Society, the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation and Temple Kol Emeth.
It had to be moved four years ago to make way for an entrance ramp to the Express Lanes, which are scheduled to open by the end of the summer. The marker was kept in storage during that time by Georgia DOT.
Jerry Klinger, founder and president of the Jewish American Society, said the new site is the perfect venue for what he said is “an important story.”
Rabbi Steven Lebow of East Cobb’s Temple Kol Emeth.
“We have an opportunity to transform the meaning of this location beyond Leo Frank,” he said.
Klinger noted nearly a century’s worth of anti-lynching legislation that has never been passed, as well as a bipartisan bill recently introduced in the U.S. Senate.
He said his organization will soon locate a black granite anti-lynching marker on the site, also in honor of Frank, and has placed a floral arrangement near Phagan’s gravesite at the Marietta City Cemetery.
“We chose to remember the first victim but also chose to remember all the victims in the United States who have suffered the horrors of lynching,” Klinger said.
The Southeast regional office of the Anti-Defamation League in Atlanta also planted a crepe myrtle tree and invited guests to shovel dirt around it to honor the dead.
Shelley Rose, the ADL deputy regional director, said Georgia is only one of five states that does not have a hate-crimes law, and said it’s important to press for such legislation here.
Rabbi Daniel Dorsch of Congregation Etz Chaim in East Cobb offered a benediction he dubbed “A Really Horrible Thing,” based on what a supermarket clerk told him in reference to the Frank case, not long after he moved to the community two years ago.
The rededication, Dorsch said, can help “to inspire us to go out and create a world where there will be no more horrible things.”
The new Leo Frank memorial site is located between Huarache Veloz Mexican Taqueria, 1157 Roswell Road, and Interstate 75.
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Vine-ripe tomatoes are among the popular produce items that have drawn customers to Burger’s Market since the 1970s. (East Cobb News photos and slideshow by Wendy Parker)
On Sept. 1, the Burger’s Market is closing on Canton Road, where it has operated for more than four decades as a haven for fans of fresh produce.
Co-owners Sharilyn Burger Turner and Tina Burger Perry, sisters who took over the business from their parents in 2002, have found a buyer for their property at 1395 Canton Road. They put the market up for sale earlier this year.
Sharilyn Burger Turner said the decision to sell was bittersweet, but their parents, who are still active in the market, want to retire. A family business through-and-through, it’s been a hard business to maintain, despite the market’s success, and she said it was time to call time on what’s also been an abiding passion.
Sharilyn Burger Turner (right) and her mother (at left) meet with customers after announcing the market will close Sept. 1.
“It was a very hard decision,” Turner said Wednesday afternoon, not long after announcing the closure. “We love all of our customers and friends. We’ve been praying hard about it, that God would lead us in the right direction.”
Truman Burger, her father, opened a fresh produce market a little further up on Canton Road in 1973, then moved it to its present location at the intersection of Dickson Road in 1978.
Produce hailing from local sources, Georgia and the Southeast has been the centerpiece of the market, which has expanded to include jams, breads, artisanal and homemade food goods, as well as fresh herbs and plants.
Sharilyn and her mother were visiting with long-time customers, even exchanging a few hugs after breaking the news. For the week and a half that Burger’s will remain open, she says they will continue to do business as usual (the hours are 9-6 Monday-Saturday).
Truman Burger makes daily trips to the state farmer’s market in Forest Park, and other produce-procuring routines also will continue, including occasional visits to the Western North Carolina Farmers Market in Asheville.
Huge fans kept shoppers cool, with full supplies of what has drawn fresh-food lovers to Burger’s for decades. Vine-ripe tomatoes, very big and very red ones, are piled high in baskets.
“We built this business on vine-ripe tomatoes,” Sharilyn says. But that is hardly all.
Shelled peas, beans, zucchini and squash, okra, cucumbers, broccoli, turnips and collards, peppers, lettuce, cauliflower, peanuts, corn, onions and potatoes are organized neatly.
So are melons, bananas, oranges, pears, apples and other fruits. There’s plenty of elbow room, and so much to choose from. Out front, fresh plants sit in overflow fashion on tables.
This is all Sharilyn, Tina, their siblings and their own families have known.
“We grew up in banana boxes here,” says Sharilyn, whose children also have been raised around the market.
“It’s scary when you’ve never done anything else. But you have to think of this as a new adventure. God closes one door, and opens another one.”
The new owner has not said what might occupy the place where Burger’s Market is now.
Sharilyn said she’s unsure what her next step will be. She majored in psychology in college, and has thought of possibly putting that background to use in an assisted living environment.
“I love helping people,” she says, “but I’d like to think that we’ve been doing that here” at the market. “We just have wanted to make a difference with what we’ve been doing every single day.”
She admits saying goodbye to customers will be as hard as shutting the doors for good.
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A rendering of single-family homes that will be built on former Wigley Farm land.
After more than a year of delays, revised site plans and other changes, a Wigley Road rezoning case was approved Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
The case file was numbered Z-56 of 2017, and it was Oak Hall Companies’ project to build single-family homes on a sloping tract of land that once was part of the Wigley Farm in Northeast Cobb, just below the Cherokee County line.
Commissioners approved most of what the Cobb Planning Commission recommended earlier this month: A total of 91 homes on 96 acres. Because of the hilly topography, however, only about half of that acreage will be developed.
The rezoning request was for R-30 OSC, or low-density residential in an Open Space Community. The land has been in the estate of Audra Wigley.
There will be conservation easements and other buffers and measures to limit stormwater runoff that was a major concern, and responsible for some of the delays.
“This is the best we’re going to get,” said District 3 Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who represents the area.
Had the developer wanted to stick with the R-30 category already in place, not only would rezoning not be required, but around 105 homes would have been allowed without any mandate for buffers or protective space.
The initial rezoning request called for 96 homes, but that was reduced to 91 by the planning commission.
The request approved Tuesday calls for a 40-foot undisturbed buffer surrounding the entire development, which Oak Hall Companies is calling Provence Estates.
The original application came in two pieces, but was combined earlier this year. The acreage is on Wigley Road and north of Summitop Road, where opposition to the rezoning emerged.
Traffic concerns also were referenced by nearby residents (a traffic impact study was done in March, and can be found here), as were stormwater issues.
Some of those citizens who had been opposed urged commissioners on Tuesday to keep their concerns in mind. Among them include erosion and runoff from areas under development, and resident Tony Garcia, a Summitop Road resident, presented photos he took of that activity.
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The event takes place from 7-8 p.m. in the theater at Dickerson (855 Woodlawn Drive).
The candidates are from East Cobb-area districts in the Georgia House: State Rep. Sharon Cooper, the Republican incumbent in District 43, and her Democratic challenger, Luisa Wakeman.
The District 45 candidates also have been invited: Republican State. Rep. Matt Dollar and Essence Johnson, a Democrat who is opposing him in November.
The public is invited and anyone interested in submitting questions should send them to Amanda Moulthrop, the Dickerson PTSA legislative chair, by emailing: anmoulthrop@gmail.com.
The doors open at 6:30 p.m.
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