Book discussion groups meeting at Cobb County Public Libraries cover a range of topics and interests. Adult book clubs are fun social gatherings and a good way to meet your neighbors and gather with friends.
Expand your knowledge about the world and literature. New clubs have been added to expand your options.
Upcoming Book Club sessions include:
Page Turners Book Club at Mountain View Regional Library meets on Wednesday, August 7 for sessions at 10:30 am – noon and 1 pm – 2:30 pm. The August selection is The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. 770-509-2725
Men’s Book Club at East Cobb Library on Saturday, August 10 from 11:30 am – 12:30 pm. We’ll be discussing A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman. Although called Men’s Book Club, women are certainly welcome. 770-509-2730.
Story to Screen at Sewell Mill Library & Cultural Center on Wednesday, August 14 from 6 pm – 9 pm. In this book club with a twist, we discuss what’s better: Book or Movie. We’ll be discussing “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” by Bryan Aldiss and then watching Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Rated PG-13. Children under 14 must be accompanied by an adult. 770-509-2711
East Cobb Book Club at East Cobb Library meets for sessions on Thursday, August 15 from 11 am – 12:30 pm and 2 pm – 3:30 pm. The selection for both sessions is Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. Please call 770-509-2730. to confirm the title.
Read. Think. Talk at Sewell Mill Library & Cultural Center will meet on Wednesday, August 21 from 10:30 am – noon to discuss The Cuckoo’s Callingby Robert Galbraith. 770-509-2711
Cobb Cooks the Books at Mountain View Regional Library on Monday, August 26 from 7 pm – 8 pm. Select a recipe from the cooksbooks on display at the library, find your own recipe or use one you already have and join us for a potluck meal and discuss the recipes of the theme for the month. The August theme is vegetarian. To register click here. 770-509-2725
Are you interested in launching your own book club, but you’re not sure where to start? Join us at Sewell Mill Library & Cultural Center at Help! I Want to Start a Book Club! on Tuesday, August 27 from 7 pm – 8:30 pm. We’ll offer tips on how to organize a group and how to go about getting the best resources to start your own book club. 770-509-2711
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The Rev. Clay Smith was approved by the membership of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church on Sunday to become the new senior pastor.
Smith, who was called by the church’s search committee last month, preached at all five services on Sunday. His hiring was formalized at a conference following the services in a motion that “had the unanimous recommendation from the search team, personnel committee, elders, and Bryant and Anne Wright. The vote of Johnson Ferry Baptist members was unanimous!”
Currently the senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Matthews, N.C., Smith officially takes over on Sept. 8. Johnson Ferry is saying there will be some “overlap” until November or December as outgoing pastor Rev. Bryant Wright moves into a new position with his Wright From the Heart Ministries nearby.
According to a message on the Johnson Ferry Baptist website, the two pastors will be splitting up preaching responsibilities during the transition and that “plans are being formulated for how to honor Bryant and Anne for their incredible ministry at Johnson Ferry.”
Wright was the inaugural senior pastor at Johnson Ferry Baptist, which was established in 1981. It now has more than 7,000 members. Wright also is a former two-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.
Smith’s first Johnson Ferry sermon can be seen below:
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Given the deadly mass shootings at an El Paso, Texas Walmart over the weekend, Marietta Police are releasing details of a knife incident at Walmart store on Cobb Parkway Monday morning that led to the peaceful arrest of a man.
Marietta Police said officers were dispatched to the Walmart store at 210 Cobb Parkway (just south of the Big Chicken) at 7:49 a.m. Monday in what was labeled a family dispute. The initial 911 call indicated there were no weapons or injuries.
By the time police arrived, they were getting calls from the public and the 911 call was upgraded. That’s because a man later identified as the caller picked up a large kitchen knife from a store aisle and tried to remove the packaging. Police said he also was aggressively approaching a Walmart employee.
Marietta Police said officers found the suspect and arrested him without incident. He’s Jerry Wayne Thompson, 50, a white male of an unspecified address, who was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on charges of simple assault and disorderly conduct.
They also said such an incident, where nobody got hurt or more serious charges were not filed, don’t alway warrant such a public explanation:
“The Marietta Police Department understands our community is concerned after the horrific shootings that occurred over the weekend in Texas and Ohio. We recognize how events like the one detailed above could cause the average person anxiety and are working now to organize another Civilian Response to Active Shooter Event (CRASE) training seminar. We will share the CRASE event details as soon as they are finalized. Today, we applaud Walmart for the coordinated and methodical way they worked with us to ensure everyone’s safety.”
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A car crash Sunday night brought down power lines at the intersection of Woodstock Road and Mabry Road in northeast Cobb, and that juncture will remain closed for most of today.
That’s the word from Cobb DOT, which issued that message and the above photo a little after 9 this morning.
Woodstock Road is also known as State Highway 92, and the stretch of it between Mabry and Sandy Plains Road goes past the Sandy Plains Village Shopping Centre.
Both northbound and southbound traffic on Woodstock Road is being diverted southbound onto Mabry, since the power lines are down across all lanes on Woodstock.
As you can see, the Monday morning commute has already been affected, and you’re being asked to find an alternative if you travel in that area today, especially for the afternoon rush.
For now the estimated time of reopening the intersection is between 3-5 p.m. Monday.
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Megan Bode is flanked by Cobb Fire investigator Brian Beaty (in black shirt) and Cobb Fire Chief Randy Crider, and Cobb Fire Department officials at Station 21 on Lower Roswell Road. Ken LeCroy (in suit) of the Georgia Arson Control Board presented her with a check for $8,500. (ECN photo by Wendy Parker)
It was 3:40 in the morning on Jan. 4, 2017, when Megan Bode got text messages from her estranged husband.
She was staying with her parents when the photos he texted her showed racing fuel on the floor of the garage of their Indian Hills condo and of him holding a butane lighter.
She previously received a call from him and feared he might kill himself, and was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher when she got the photos.
“I tried to talk him down, but he hung up,” Bode says now, remembering how at first her mother didn’t want her to go to the condo on Audobon Drive, but then drove her to the scene.
When they arrived, Bode’s home and several others at the Pinecrest at Indian Hills condominiums were engulfed in flames. Three units, including the condo Bode had shared with Matthew Olson—and from whom she had been separated—were destroyed.
Crews from Cobb Fire Station 21 on Lower Roswell Road were sent to an address in the 4000 block of Audobon Drive after someone there called 911 threatening suicide. They ended up working a devastating fire that broke out as people were sleeping.
Although nobody was injured, 21 trucks and emergency vehicles had battled the blaze that lit up the East Cobb sky.
“What he did was terrible,” Bode said of Olson, now her ex-husband, who was arrested that day. “He could have hurt people.”
Firefighters trying to put out a fire at the Pinecrest at Indian Hills condominiums on Jan. 4, 2017. Matthew Olson pleaded guilty to first-degree arson and was sentenced to six years in prison. (Cobb FD photo)
Olson, now 34, was charged with first-degree arson and more than a dozen other offenses. This June, after pleading guilty to arson, he received a 20-year sentence with six years to serve, and was ordered to pay $6,653 in restitution to Bode.
Olson also was sentenced to serve five years for attempting to elude a police officer, three years for possession of a controlled substance and 12 months for DUI, according to Cobb Superior Court Clerk’s Office records.
He pleaded guilty in June to those charges, stemming from his arrest in a vehicle on Johnson Ferry Road near Woodlawn Drive a few hours after the fire. The sentences are to run concurrently, and Olson is being credited with time served, according to the court records.
Cracking a tough type of crime
For giving investigators the photos and telling them of Olson’s stated intent to start the fire, Bode helped them solve what they say is one of the hardest crimes to prove.
“It’s because the evidence is being destroyed,” said Jimmy Taylor, Cobb deputy fire chief. “We rely a lot on what citizens can tell us.”
Megan Bode got a photo of racing fuel in the condo garage from Matthew Olson on the morning of the fire, and turned it over to investigators.(Cobb FD photo)
On Friday, Bode received an $8,500 check from the Georgia Arson Control Board at Station 21, and at the behest of Cobb fire investigator Brian Beaty, who investigated the fire that left her home an ashen rubble.
“I don’t feel like I was a hero,” said Bode, who got divorced, rebuilt the condo and lives there today while running 3-D Physiques, a fitness studio at Parkaire Landing Shopping Center.
“I was not expecting this at all.”
Beaty, currently Cobb’s chief fire investigator, said getting the photos made their case a lot easier.
“Usually, you don’t get photos” demonstrating such an intent to commit arson, he said.
To effectively fight crime, Cobb fire chief Randy Crider said, “it has to be a community effort. . . . Any cooperation we get from the citizens of Cobb County is greatly appreciated.”
Ken LeCroy, a consultant for the Georgia Arson Control Board, said the organization hands out around 10 rewards every year. The funding comes from the insurance industry.
He said the reward program is designed to encourage citizens to report arson without fear of retribution. Similar to Crimestoppers, they can offer tips anonymously. This case was different.
Another photo Matthew Olson texted to Megan Bode before the fire broke out. (Cobb FD photo)
“Ms. Bode did this because it was the right thing to do,” LeCroy said.
Rebuilding and moving on
Bode said that losing her home at the hands of her then-spouse was emotional, but she went to her job the day after the fire.
“It was a matter of sink or swim,” she said.
On July 11, Olson was moved to the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections, and his sentence has a maximum release date of January 2023.
His mother, Juli Olson, was grateful that her son was granted first-offender status with the consent of the victims. She wrote a letter in July to Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley that’s included in court records expressing “my complete and genuine thankfulness . . . for giving my son a second chance at a better and new future when he is released.”
Olson’s mother wrote “I can only imagine what Megan and those families went through those first excruciating hours and in the days, weeks, months and years following. My heart can believe it was hell on earth. The extreme emotional trauma and pain and the devastation of losing everything they had, is beyond words.”
Bode said that Matthew Olson, her former husband, “has been battling a lot of demons,” mainly addiction.
“I forgave him a long time ago,” she said. “I hope he can rebuild his life.”
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An East Cobb assisted living worker who last month was found not guilty of murder in the death of a resident there has been sentenced to 10 years for elder neglect.
Landon Terrel, a caregiver at the Sunrise at East Cobb facility on Johnson Ferry Road, was found guilty of that charge and was sentenced Friday by Cobb Superior Court Judge Lark Ingram.
He was ordered to serve five years in prison and the rest on probation, according to a statement issued by the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.
Terrel could have been facing a maximum of 20 years.
On July 17, Terrel was found not guilty of murder and two counts of elder abuse in the death of Adam Bennett, 91, a Sunrise resident who died after being found injured in his room in August 2017.
Jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict against Terrel for murder based on neglect and a mistrial was declared.
According to the DA’s office, Terrel was the only caregiver on the overnight shift at Sunrise of Aug. 15, 2017 when Bennett later complained to a daytime staffer that he had been punched by Terrel. According to testimony at the trial, Bennett motioned to his face, chest and groin and became unresponsive.
He was rushed to WellStar Kennestone Hospital but never regained consciousness and died three days later. The Cobb Medical Examiner’s office ruled the death was caused by blunt force trauma due to an assault.
During the trial, Terrel admitted he used “bad judgment” by ignoring Bennett’s cries that he was in pain. He denied that he struck Bennett, and said earlier in the evening he assisted the elderly man after he fell out of his bed and hit his chest on the bed.
The DA’s office said that two of Terrel’s coworkers testified during the sentencing hearing that other Sunrise residents had complained about him. Ingram also heard that Terrel had been fired from other caregiving jobs for neglecting patients.
“Adam Bennett died from painful injuries. He suffered, and the person responsible for easing that suffering did nothing,” Cobb senior assistant district attorney Jason Marbutt said before the sentencing.
Bennett’s son Doug Bennett said in a victim-impact statement that “my dad was a strong guy who had a strong heart. This man knows what he did. He took my father away.”
Terrel, now 35, of Powder Springs, has been in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center since his arrest on Aug. 16, 2017. He will be credited for time served as he completes his sentence.
Ingram also ordered that Terrel will not be allowed to care for elderly patients during probation.
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Because readers have been asking—and we’ve been wondering too—when the Mellow Mushroom location on Johnson Ferry Road will be opening, we asked the company.
Via a social media message, we were told sometime in the late fall, but no specific date was given.
Little has happened at the former Common Quarter/Muss & Turner’s space at Woodlawn Square since the sign went up in April, but now a contractor’s sign has been placed in the window, and some construction materials were sitting near the entrance.
When it opens, it will be the third Mellow Mushroom in East Cobb—to go with restaurants on Shallowford Road and Powers Ferry Road—and will be returning just north along Johnson Ferry from where the chain operated at the formerFountains at Olde Towne shopping center.
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A few major East Cobb roads will be closed off to traffic for a brief time Saturday morning for the 14th annual Dog Days Run.
The 5K race starts and ends at the McCleskey-East Cobb Family YMCA (1055 E. Piedmont Road) at 7:30 a.m., and continues east along Sewell Mill Road, south on Old Canton Road, west along Roswell and back onto East Piedmont. See map below for details.
Most of the runners/joggers/walkers should be done between 8:30 and 9 a.m.
The event, which includes awards to top finishers, prizes, a bounce house for kids, vendors, food and music, is a main fundraiser for the Rotary Club of East Cobb, with proceeds going to a variety of community organizations.
Also on Saturday morning is the Lutzie 43 Road Race, which starts at 8 a.m. and takes place entirely on the campus of Lassiter High School (2601 Shallowford Road). It’s named after former Lassiter and Auburn football star Philip Lutzenkirchen and benefits the foundation his family started in his memory to help young people make good decisions.
If you’re interested in taking part in either event, there is race-day registration onsite, or you can sign up online today for the Dog Days Run.
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Cobb Police said a woman was arrested Wednesday after an attempted robbery of a Wells Fargo Bank branch on Powers Ferry Road.
Police said Sandra Daniel, 66, was found in her vehicle near Delk Road and Bentley Way not long after the incident. That’s near the Wells Fargo branch at 1547 Powers Ferry Road, at Wildwood Parkway, where they said the attempted robbery occurred Wednesday afternoon.
Police said a female suspect handed a bank teller with a note saying she had a bomb, and demanded an undisclosed amount of cash.
A short time later, police said Daniel was taken into custody without incident.
Police have not provided further information.
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“Miss Claudette” Petsch has driven a bus in the Sedalia Park ES community for 35 years. (ECN photos by Wendy Parker)
As the bus doors open and students climb aboard, the greeting from parents is almost universal:
“Hello Miss Claudette!”
In turn, Claudette Petsch welcomes them and returning students, some by name, before winding Cobb County school bus No. 2232 through the residential streets surrounding Sedalia Park Elementary School.
On Thursday morning, she marked the start of her 35th year driving a bus to and from the school on Lower Roswell Road, picking up around 50 students in all over two routes, before working middle school and high school routes.
The staggered schedule works out so that she can do even more of what she has loved doing for more than three decades.
“I drive children now whose parents I used to drive,” said Miss Claudette, who turned 71 years old just days before the start of the new school year.
She stops at every designated stop, regardless of whether students are waiting or not. Early on, not many students are riding. Running ahead of schedule, she pulls over for around two minutes in the parking lot of Eastside Baptist Church before resuming course.
“I like to be on the minute,” she says, explaining that she doesn’t want to run ahead of students who arrive on time.
As the youngsters head down the aisle of the bus, she nods and gives instructions if she needs to. Some of the kids look confused, seeing adults—deputy superintendent John Adams, school board member David Banks and media representatives—sitting in the front seats.
“This is just for today,” she reassures them.
Parents in the Tuxedo Estates neighborhood watching their children start another school year.
While she runs a tight, punctual ship, Miss Claudette chats with parents, and is patient with those who call to their children to turn around and have their photo taken before they get on the bus.
Some kids do turn around, others don’t, but the renewal of relationships is underway for another school year.
Miss Claudette encourages a boy starting kindergarten to sit next to Adams, who tells him, “you’re going to love it! School’s fun!”
Adams, who oversees the Cobb school district’s operations, including transportation, says around 950 buses are out at any given time on a typical school day. He said around 75 percent of estimated 112,000 enrolled students ride the bus.
This is also the first full year the district will be employing the Here Comes the Bus app. It’s a real-time service for parents to track their childrens’ bus route activity, and allows school officials to send notices with important messages, such as delays or weather issues.
Since the app was introduced in the spring, Adams said more than 35,000 users have signed up.
Some changes in Georgia’s stop-arm law also went into effect on Thursday. Adams said around 10 percent of the district’s bus fleet is equipped with cameras that can take photos of license plates of violating vehicles.
He said the cameras are placed on routes that have been shown to have high numbers of violations. “We don’t say which routes, of course,” Adams said, adding that the district is “in a good place” with its ratio of cameras as the school year starts.
Aunquize Perkins, a Sedalia Park school leadership intern, hands out ID wristbands to students as Cobb school board member David Banks looks on.
Miss Claudette’s first run to Sedalia Park is on time, with around 20 students being delivered around 7:15 a.m., nearly a half-hour after the trip began. Miss Claudette helps with the school staff as the children are given wrist bands with their name, grade and bus route number.
These bands must be worn for two weeks.
With an empty bus behind her, save for the grown-ups, Miss Claudette quickly wheels No. 2232 out onto Lower Roswell Road, then into the Pioneer Woods, Ashton Woods and Weatherstone neighborhoods.
Carpool and work traffic is starting to pick up as daybreak approaches, and the bus is running a little behind schedule. On this route, quite a few children get on every stop, with parents pulling out their phones and waving as the bus rolls on.
When Miss Claudette approaches the intersection of Willow Glenn Drive at Holt Road, No. 2232 is ensnared in traffic. Cars are pulling in and out of the Weatherstone pool parking lot, where the subdivision’s high school seniors gather for class photos.
“It causes congestion here every year,” she said.
After dipping back into Ashton Woods one more time, her bus reaches Sedalia Park again, with carpooling cars ahead of her. She’s able to maneuver the bus into the bus exit lane, then pulls it around and into the drop-off spot a few minutes before 7:50 a.m., when classes are set to begin.
The second route kids get their wristbands and instructions and hop off. After a couple of minutes, Miss Claudette steps back up into No. 2232, off to her middle school route.
Banks continues on with her, and Adams gets off, heading to another school for more bus rides and a cafeteria lunch.
A kindergartener at Sedalia Park Elementary School is greeted by a staff member, with Miss Claudette helping him step down, as he starts his very first day of school.
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!
