The Madison Reed Color Bar hair coloring chain has opened at Merchants Walk in East Cobb, one of three new locations in its foray in metro Atlanta.
The Merchants Walk location (1311 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 568) opened on June 13, according to a company release, next to Fab’rik. COVID-19 restrictions are in place.
Madison Reed, which opened in 2014 and is in six metro areas nationwide, offers a membership program featuring unlimited roots visits for $55 a month, as well as a free gloss service and additional products and services.
Customers can also purchase those products for home use and be taught how to use them by colorists on staff.
Safety procedures include mandatory masks for employees and customers, temperature checks for staff before each shift, no more than seven people inside at a given time, sanitizing chairs between customer visits and regular cleanings in common areas.
The East Cobb salon is opening with limited hours, from 10-6 Tuesday-Saturday.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
While the fiscal year 2021 budget to be proposed next week will not include an increase in the millage rate, it also won’t include a “rollback” millage rate to counter a rise in the county’s tax digest.
That’s why Cobb government is required by law to announce a proposed property tax increase of 3.66 percent in the general fund, when public hearings also begin next week.
The budget proposal and tax digest details are to be presented to the Cobb Board of Commissioners at a work session on Monday, with public hearings starting on Tuesday.
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has said he wants to maintain the current general fund millage rate of 8.46 mills. The budget commissioners will adopt later this month includes other services with their own millage rates, and the proposals are as follows:
Fire, 2.86 mills;
Debt Service (Bond Fund), 0.13 mills;
Cumberland Special Services District II, 2.45 mills;
Six Flags Special Service District, 3.50 mills.
The general fund “rollback” rate—what would produce the same total tax revenue from the current digest without reassessments—is 8.161 mills. If adopted as proposed, the increase would come to an increase of 0.299 mills.
A home with a fair market value of $300,000 would have an annual increase of $32.89. A non-homestead home with a fair market value of $425,000 would see an increase of $50.83.
The county said in a statement issued Tuesday that “the continued recovery of the Cobb real estate market is the primary reason for this modest growth in property values and this corresponding increase in the county’s property tax digest.”
The current tax digest is a record $39 billion. The general fund budget for FY 2020 is $475 million. The public hearings are scheduled as follows:
Here’s the full budget and millage rate public hearing schedule, and keep in mind there are three separate hearings each for the budget and millage rate:
Monday, July 13, 2 p.m.—Recommended FY 2021 budget presented to commissioners at work session
Tuesday, July 14, 9 a.m.—First public hearing
Tuesday, July 21, 6:30 p.m.—Second public hearing
Tuesday, July 28, 7 p.m.—Third public hearing and board adoption
That last meeting is also slated for final budget adoption. More Cobb budget information can be found here.
Here’s more from the Cobb Tax Commissioners Office on the county’s millage rate history, and the millage rates compared to the six cities in the county.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Cobb Board of Education member Charisse Davis said Tuesday that the Cobb County School District will be requiring masks after all.
Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters, announced on her Facebook pagethat masks will be required for students and staff, and that “exemptions will be granted as needed. That is all the information I have right now from the superintendent.”
The district has not made an announcement; East Cobb News has contacted a district spokeswoman, and here’s the response she provided:
“While information was provided to the Cobb Board of Education, it was not meant to be released publicly at this time. In an effort to be as accurate as possible, we will continue to provide details for the 2020-2021 school year when those details are finalized.”
Last week Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said that while mask use would be “absolutely” encouraged, he was not making it mandatory.
Shortly after that, Marietta City Schools said masks would be required. On Monday, the University System of Georgia also mandated masks for staff and students at all of its campuses, including Kennesaw State University.
Davis’ message was shared on a Facebook group devoted to Cobb schools topics, and many parents approved. Others expressed concerns about making young children wear them. One commenter said she is a Cobb schools teacher who hasn’t been told anything about a mask mandate.
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!
On Monday the U.S. Small Business Administration released the names of companies, non-profits and other entities that received emergency loan funding under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
The funds were approved by Congress to help businesses recover from closures due to COVID-19. What the SBA released on Monday are those employers who received between $150,000 and $10 million.
What follows below is a selected—but not complete—list of East Cobb businesses, non-profits and other employers who have received PPP funding of $150,000 or more.
Some of those East Cobb entities include for-profit companies, several private schools and child care centers, numerous churches and a synagogue, the Indian Hills Country Club, Ginepri Tennis at Olde Towne Athletic Club and assorted non-profits.
Among the companies of note are restaurants and real estate firms, hair salons and dentists, and the Retail Planning Corp., which leases retail space at Woodlawn Square and other shopping centers in metro Atlanta.
The independent non-profit investigative journalism organization ProPublica has put together this searchable database of companies receiving PPP loans in amounts of $150,000 and higher.
The SBA also has released a spreadsheet of those getting $150,000 or less, but is not identifying any of those companies.
A total of 156,810 Georgia companies have received loans, the vast majority of them (138,519) getting less than $150,000.
Among the criteria for receiving the money is for employers to spend most of it on retaining and paying employees. Companies that do that can have their loans turned into grants that don’t have to be repaid.
Private banks and financial institutions make the loans, which are guaranteed by the SBA.
Most of the funds were distributed nationally in April (nearly $350 billion) in federal CARES Act funding, and in May, with another $310 billion when the initial funding ran out.
Another $130 billion is available, and applications for that funding opened on Monday and will be taken until Aug. 8. Click here for more information, and about the PPP in general.
Here are links to ProPublica database info for companies in the following East Cobb ZIP Codes:
A few East Cobb businesses and other entities of interest are noted here. The PPP listings include the name of the company or entity, address and the number of employees retained:
$2-$5 Million
AIKG LLC—Andretti Karting and Indoor Games (1255 Roswell Road), 500
Atlanta Oral and Facial Surgery (1000 Johnson Ferry Road), 266
JCK USA, Ltd.—Contractor (1343 Canton Road), 0
Tip-Top Poultry (327 Wallace Road), 500
$1-2 Million
Dupree Plumbing Co., Inc (869 Worley Drive), 118
Heather & Linebeck Engineers, Inc. (2390 Canton Road), 0
Hewatt Electrical Contractors (785 Lee Waters Road), 76
Infomart, Inc. (1582 Terrell Mill Road), 117
Mt. Bethel Christian School (4385 Lower Roswell Road), 152
Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church (4385 Lower Roswell Road), 160
Peachtree Biosearch (4985 Lower Roswell Road), 47
PMTD Restaurants, Inc.—KFC and Taco Bell franchisee in Ala. and Ga. (3535 Roswell Road), 330
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A proposal to rezone a portion of the Sandy Plains Village shopping center for townhomes is being delayed at least for a month.
The Cobb Zoning Office sought the continuance after initially recommending denial of an application by the retail center’s owners, Site Centers Corp., for 41 residential units, plus some additional retail space (previous ECN post here.)
That case was to have been heard Tuesday by the Cobb Planning Commission. Instead, consideration has been pushed back to the planning board’s Aug. 4 meeting.
Site Centers wants to convert a vacant 67,000-square-foot retail space that was to have been an indoor entertainment center into the residential development.
In its analysis, zoning staff said the proposal doesn’t conform with the Cobb County Comprehensive Plan. Site Centers is seeking a planned village community (PVC) designation at a property zoned for neighborhood retail commercial (NRC).
The staff said that other residential and commercial properties are zoned for a lower density and would be adversely affected by the townhomes.
The nearby Chatsworth subdivision has single-family homes zoned for 1.68 units an acre. The townhome density as proposed would be 2.57 units an acre.
Traffic issues also concerned zoning staff, which recommended the applicant conduct a traffic study to gauge the impact for a heavily used trio of roads that surround the shopping center—Sandy Plains Road, Woodstock Road and Mabry Road.
The latter is being recommended as the entry point for the townhomes, but zoning staff said that’s too close (20 feet) to the intersection of Mabry and Woodstock, and suggested the applicant make significant changes to provide “uninterrupted access distance.”
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!
Seven Cobb library branches reopened Monday—including East Cobb, Mountain View and Sewell Mill—with limited services noted here previously.
The library system also is alerting patrons whose cards expire on or near July 31 that they’ll have a couple extra months to renew to those cards.
The new deadline is Sept. 30, and the system estimates some 50,000 patrons will be affected. They’re now being told to ignore the automated renewal notices with the July 30 deadline.
The branch hours for those that are open now is 10-8 on Monday and 10-6 Tuesday through Saturday; for now there are no weekend hours.
Patrons won’t be allowed inside long, and they are being encouraged—but not required—to wear masks inside the branches.
You can do limited browsing, check out materials and pick up those placed on hold, apply for or renew a card, use public computers and seek reference and information assistance.
You won’t be able to sit down and read and use electronic devices other than the computers, use study or community rooms or make use of the creative studios at the Sewell Mill branch.
All programming events also are virtual-only for the time being.
For more information about what to expect when you visit a library branch click here.
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!
UPDATED: Paradise Grille reopened on Wednesday. Here’s another message from the owners, who said every other staff member has tested negative for the virus:
“The silver lining out of this, is we feel so relieved that our staff are safe and taken care of and we can truly give you a safe space to relax, eat some great food and get away from the news.”
ORIGINAL STORY:
Another restaurant in East Cobb is closing temporarily after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
The Paradise Grille at Highland Plaza (3605 Sandy Plains Road) announced Monday it would be closed until Wednesday to undergo a thorough professional cleaning, including “Every. Single. Surface.”
Paradise Grille owners Justin and Joe Barrett said in a message Monday that the employee has a mild case of the virus and that “we are praying for a quick recovery.
“As you know businesses are not required to close, but that’s not who we are. We want to do everything right,” they continued.
Every employee will be tested for the virus, and every surface in the restaurant will be disinfected after every use. Employees will be masked and gloved and will have their temperatures taken before every shift.
“We are obviously devastated,” the Barretts said. “We did know it was an eventuality, this virus is everywhere.”
Paradise Grille is scheduled to reopen Wednesday at 11 a.m.
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!
To view the Cobb ZIP Code hover map, click here. Source: Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
For the fourth day in a row, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cobb County rose by 200 or more, reflecting a continuing surge in positive tests in Georgia.
In East Cobb, the overall figure has gone over 1,000.
That’s an increase of 877 cases since Monday, easily eclipsing a previous weekly high of 685 last week in only five days.
Five more deaths were reported in Cobb during that time, with the 245 cumulative total the second-highest in the state,
Across Georgia, there were 2,784 new cases on Friday, bringing the total number of cases to 90,493. A total of 2,856 deaths have been reported in Georgia, a jump of seven from Thursday.
The new cases in East Cobb rose from 849 last week, with one new reported death, in ZIP Code 30066, bringing the community total to 41.
Cobb and Douglas Public Health has been compiling confirmed case and death totals by ZIP Code, and here’s the latest for those in East Cobb, which has 1,034 as of Thursday:
30067: 317 cases, 8 deaths
30062: 297 cases, 12 deaths
30066: 241 cases, 9 deaths
30068: 155 cases, 16 deaths
30075: 24 cases, 0 deaths
The Cobb COVID count at the start of the week was 4,630. But 247 more cases were reported Tuesday and 204 on Wednesday, when Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health, issued a public health alert.
The Cobb case total jumped by 220 on Thursday and 206 on Friday.
He also embarked on a tour of Georgia to urge mask-wearing, warning that the college football season could be in jeopardy if the case numbers keep rising.
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!
Alexandria Said sends word about a Wheeler High School graduate, Ashton Cordisco, who’s one of five finalists nationwide in a contest for college scholarship money from the Duck Tape Company.
The contest rules require contestants to made a design out of duct tape, and here’s what Ashton, who’ll be attending the Savannah College of Art has—ahem—fashioned.
In order to help him out, you’ve got to click here so he can get votes in the final round. The winner gets $10,000 in college aid from the company, and voting ends July 10.
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!
The original Moxie Burger restaurant at Paper Mill Village.
The two East Cobb locations of Moxie Burger and the Moxie Taco restaurant have closed temporarily after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
The East Cobb-based Moxie Restaurant Group alerted customers on its Facebook pages Friday morning that the three restaurants will undergo a full disinfecting process from a professional sanitation provider and that all employees will required to be tested.
The Moxie Burger locations at Paper Mill Village and 2421 Shallowford Road are closed, as is Moxie Taco, also at Paper Mill Village.
“Previous to this, Moxie Taco and all Moxie Burger locations have been relentless with their disinfecting efforts and social distancing. The safety of our customers is just as important to us as is the safety of our staff and we are doing everything in our power to take our sanitation and safety measures above and beyond,” the message states.
“We do not take this announcement lightly and fully understand the concerns you might have. We remain steadfast in our commitment to keep our staff, guests, and community safe and are here to address any concerns and questions that you have.”
The Moxie Burger location in Roswell remains open, as “we are confident our team at Moxie Burger Roswell was not in direct contact.”
That restaurant is open Friday and Sunday and will be closed on Saturday for the July 4 holiday.
The Moxie restaurants re-opened their dining rooms service on June 1 after being closed, and then open for takeout, in the wake of the COVID virus.
The number of positive COVID cases has risen dramatically in Georgia and in Cobb County, where a public health alert was issued on Wednesday.
Cobb and Douglas Public Health said it is investigating 300 businesses in both counties for outbreaks (when two or more individuals that are positive in the same place) but they have not been identified.
UPDATED, 1:23 P.M.: The Freakin’ Incan restaurant at Sandy Plains Village has announced that due to rising COVID cases, it’s closing its dining room and is staying open for takeout service.
“We are discussing with the landlord about adding outside tables and chairs and could possibly have them available by the end of next week. Please bear with us while we try to protect the health of our staff and our customers. We feel that limiting our exposure and preventing possible sickness to be the correct decision at the moment. This is a preventative measure to avoid getting sick and forcing a complete shutdown. All staff are in good health, I repeat, all staff are in good health! I would like to take this chance to wish all of you a safe and healthy Fourth of July!”
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!
The Cobb County School District has delayed the start of classes by two weeks later than scheduled due to planning and concerns over COVID-19.
The Cobb Board of Education voted 7-0 Thursday in a special called meeting to begin instruction on Aug. 17, instead of Aug. 3.
“There are a number of things that are out of our control,” Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said, as the district plans for the coming school year.
A two-week delay, he said before the vote, “would give us ample time to get all the information we need to properly communicate” with parents about how the start of the school year will proceed.
Last week Ragsdale said the school year would be starting on time, and in classrooms on Aug. 3, and parents would be offered a remote option that they would have to commit to for at least one full semester.
Parents can still choose to have their children either in the classroom or a remote option. If they choose the virtual option, they must commit to it for at least one semester.
An online registration portal that was to have opened Thursday and closed July 10 is being postponed for now, Ragsdale said.
“More likely, it’s going to be an open date without a closing date.”
All teachers, principals and other staff scheduled to report on July 27 will still begin on that date.
The delayed Cobb graduation schedule announced last week also will continue as rescheduled, between July 13-24, at McEachern High School.
Cobb has the second-largest school district in Georgia, with nearly 113,000 students in 112 schools.
Ragsdale said the two-week delay will not alter the rest of the 2020-21 academic calendar, including week-long breaks in September and February.
“We are not looking to delete” either of those breaks, he said, adding that the district would not have to make up those dates, and that “we’re going to work” to meet curriculum requirements with the modified calendar.
The Cobb decision comes after Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order extending the state’s public health emergency to Aug. 11.
Last week, the Fulton County School System announced it would be delaying the start of classes by a week, from Aug. 10 to Aug. 17.
School board member Charisse Davis asked if masks will be required for students, teachers and staff in the school buildings.
Ragsdale said that while masks are “absolutely expected and strongly recommended,” and that social distancing cannot be guaranteed in a classroom, he will not be mandating that they be worn.
He said the extra two weeks will help those involved with digital and remote learning lessons and logistics and generally give the district flexibility in case health guidance shift again.
Students in remote learning environments will have teachers who will not be in the classroom, and vice versa.
Also complicating the district’s plans are a possible $62 million budget deficit. The board has not been able to adopt a budget for fiscal year 2021, which began Wednesday, due to delayed funding from the legislature.
The board is expected to enact a budget at its July 16 meeting.
“Quite honestly, we don’t have all the answers right now,” Ragsdale said, “and we don’t know what’s going to change next.”
The Cobb school district Coronavirus resource page keeps updated information on back-to-school plans, health guidance, regisration and more.
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!
The developer of a proposed mixed-use project at the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center explained those plans and answered questions from the community Wednesday in the first public meeting on the subject.
In a Zoom call that included more than 100 participants, and others who took part via telephone and chat, Richard Aaronson of Atlantic Residential said that more revisions have taken place since another site plan was released last week.
It’s the latest version of a project that would contain 30,000 square feet for a national grocery store, retail and co-working/office space, townhomes, apartments, senior rentals and an entertainment and food hall, as well as community greenspace.
Aaronson said talks are proceeding with a national grocer he would not identify, and those talks center on the store having visibility from Sandy Plains Road.
“We’re not under contract yet,” he said. “They do have a number of stores in the Atlanta market.
The 23-acre property is fronted on Sandy Plains by several outparcel standalone businesses.
That’s one reason Aaronson said in response to a citizen’s question that the proposed project isn’t more of a pure retail nature, like the new Sandy Plains MarketPlace a few miles away.
He also said one reason why the blighted current shopping center has stood there for years is because the current owners have been trying to sell it with retail in mind.
And in a time in which retail is experiencing decline, Aaronson added, “this seemed to be the only logical way to redevelop this property.”
The biggest change from the last site plan is a “reimagined” concept that stresses what’s being called “pedestrian interaction.”
Atlantic Residential, which is an Atlanta-based apartment developer, called in Lew Oliver, an architect who’s worked on town center projects in Marietta, Roswell and Woodstock. He’s also the town urbanist for Serenbe, in south Fulton, and the Vickery, a walkable community in north Atlanta.
The latest site plan (below) incorporates public feedback for more greenspace around an old family cemetery at the center of the property.
That will be preserved with new fencing, Aaronson said, as will trees in the vicinity. The cemetery issues also made it “impossible,” he said, to consider full-scale retail, since many family members of those buried there didn’t want their remains removed.
“The focus is to create community, promote pedestrianism and have this be a win-win for the developer and the community,” Oliver said during the call.
In order to add more greenspace there and in the residential areas of the project, 5-story buildings are being proposed for the apartments and the senior-living units. They initially were slated to be between two and four stories, with the first floor for retail and amenities.
Aaronson said the density hasn’t changed, and the architectural revisions call for flattening the roofs.
When a citizen asked if condominiums could be build instead of apartments, Aaronson said there isn’t the demand for them, especially in suburban areas of metro Atlanta.
“We’re trying to create a housing type that there’s demand for,” he said.
But questions of owner-occupancy have been raised frequently by nearby residents in a community that’s dominated by single-family neighborhoods.
Atlantic Residential has come down on the number of apartments, from 195 to 178. Another 122 senior “flats” are being proposed, as are 50 for-sale townhomes.
The apartment rents would range between $1,400 and $2,400 (between 700 and 1,100 square feet, respectively), and 75 percent of them would be studio or one-bedroom apartments; the rest would have two bedrooms.
The townhome cost range would be around $400,000 for units ranging between 2,000 and 2,800 square feet.
Traffic concerns also have been raised as the Sprayberry Crossing plans have taken shape.
On the call, Aaronson said Atlantic Residential commissioned a traffic study that showed a moderate increase in traffic, of about three seconds of additional traffic light wait times at peak periods.
The results of that study, which was conducted before traffic volumed dropped due to COVID-19 closures, are to be posted soon on the Sprayberry Crossing website.
Aaronson said he envisions the entertainment and food hall (upper left in the map) to be run by an independent operator, and that live music and performances would be a major part of the equation.
Atlantic Residential needs to get rezoning from the Cobb Board of Commissioners, and filing is expected to begin soon, with possible hearings and action in the fall.
A tentative timeline calls for planning and design completion finished by the spring and demolition of the current site by next summer. The first phase would be completed by 2023.
The Sprayberry Crossing Action Facebook group has more of a summary and links to Wednesday’s Zoom call and audience questions.
There’s also a Facebook group that’s formed that opposes apartments coming to Sprayberry Crossing.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education will hold a special called meeting on Thursday to discuss the starting date for the 2020-21 school year as concerns over rising COVID-19 cases have sparked new governmental responses.
The virtual meeting starts at 4 p.m. and can be seen online by clicking here or on television on the Cobb County School District’s public access cable channels (Channel 24 on Comcast and Channel 182 on Charter).
Last week Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said the school year would be starting on time, and in classrooms on Aug. 3, and parents would be offered a remote option that they would have to commit to for at least one full semester.
Those were responses to rising COVID-19 cases in Georgia and Cobb County, which now has surpassed the 5,000 mark.
Another executive order from Kemp pertaining to social distancing guidance also called for the Georgia Department of Education to provide “rules, regulations and guidance” for the operation of K-12 public schools for local school boards “to depart from a strict interpretation on the definition of ‘school year,’ ‘school month’ or ‘school day.’ ”
Since then, the Fulton County School System has delayed the start of its school year by a week, from Aug. 10 to Aug. 17.
Some Cobb parents and teachers have started petitions (here and here) demanding answers from the Cobb school district about the starting plans, which haven’t yet been detailed.
Those questions include the provision of resources for remote learning, class sizes for those who go back to school, cleaning and sanitizing procedures and protocols for when a student or staff member tests positive for COVID-19.
Other requests ask that the start date be pushed back to Aug. 10 and extend the deadline for parents to choose remote or classroom instruction beyond July 10.
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!
Dr. Janet Memark, director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health
The director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health issued a public health alert Wednesday as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to climb substantially, and with more people being hospitalized due to the virus.
Dr. Janet Memark said in the alert that there is “evidence of increased transmission throughout our community, outside of additional testing access, as supported by positivity rates at our testing sites that have surpassed 10%. This trend has been on an upward trajectory over the last few weeks. Last week, we saw the highest number of reported cases in our district since the pandemic began.”
The age groups of those testing positive in recent weeks also has been trending younger, especially between the ages of 20 and 40, she said.
Memark said that while the numbers of COVID-19-related 911 calls, emergency room visits, hospitalizations and need for intensive-care beds has increased in recent weeks, the death rate “appears to be in decline.”
She said that’s likely the result of younger, healthier people testing positive and recovering, and due to healthcare system response to treating the virus.
Memark said more than 300 businesses in Cobb and Douglas counties have been affected by COVID and staff epidemiologists are investigating 75 outbreaks.
An “outbreak” is classified as when two or more individuals that are positive in the same place. In a nursing home, one individual is considered to be an outbreak.
Valerie Crow, a spokeswoman for Cobb and Douglas Public Health, said she could not release any information about businesses experiencing outbreaks due to federal health privacy laws.
There were 5,081 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Cobb County on Wednesday, 204 more case than the 4,877 reported on Tuesday by the Georgia Department of Public Health, which updates figures at 3 p.m. daily.
Last week, Cobb reported 685 positive cases, a one-week record.
The Cobb death toll rose by two on Wednesday to 245, the second-highest total in Georgia. Fulton County has reported 314 deaths.
The cumulative hospitalization numbers in Cobb County have gone up to 872, up from 861 on Monday.
Cobb’s cumulative test positivity rate—the percentage of confirmed cases against the number of people tested—is at 5.74 percent, but Memark said in the last few weeks, as noted above, that number has in some cases more than doubled.
On June 26, the last date for which figures are available, the test positivity rate was 9.97 percent (see graphic below). The day before, the figure was nearly 13 percent, the highest since early May, not long after Cobb and Georgia began reopening some businesses and public activities.
Those figures are only for people tested at the Cobb and Douglas Public Health testing facility at Jim Miller Park, where 14,153 total tests have been conducted.
Cobb’s figures are reflected in similar trends in Georgia, which has 2,827 deaths, 11,275 hospitalizations and has 84,237 positive COVID cases.
More than 855,000 people have had viral COVID tests in Georgia, with a positivity rate of nine percent, and nearly 158,000 additional antibody tests have been conducted (Cobb isn’t doing antibody tests).
On Wednesday 22 more deaths were reported in Georgia, along with 2,946 cases and 224 new hospitalizations. Nearly 14 percent of the reported 21.508 viral tests were positive for COVID.
The rising numbers have prompted Gov. Brian Kemp to extend the state’s public health emergency to Aug. 11and continue social distancing restrictions. While he’s calling on Georgians to wear face masks, he’s not mandating it, although on Wednesday he said that having a college football season would be a “tall task” if COVID numbers stay on the rise.
In her order, Memark said those who are medically fragile should shelter-in-place through July 15, leaving home only for food and for medical reasons.
For everyone else, she’s encouraging familiar steps to help prevent the spread of the virus:
Frequently wash their hands or use hand sanitizer
Stand 6 feet away from others when outside their home
Wear cloth masks when social distancing is not consistently possible
Stay at home when you are sick
Continue to frequently disinfect your home and business
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!
We got a text message from a reader showing that California Pizza Kitchen has closed its location in East Cobb at Pinestraw Place (4250 Roswell Road) for good.
The restaurant is located in the same retail center as Trader Joe’s.
There are five California Pizza Kitchen restaurants remaining in Metro Atlanta.
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!
If you’re heading out of town for the July 4 holiday weekend, you’re going to pay a few pennies more per gallon to fill your tank than what it cost last weekend.
AAA––The Auto Club Group, which includes Georgia, said the average statewide increase has been around 8 cents a gallon, continuing an upward trend that has seen prices go up by 25 cents since the start of June.
Georgia motorists are paying an average of around $2 a gallon, and around $30 for a 15-gallon tank of gasoline.
That’s still a lot less than the recent peak of $2.74 a gallon in April 2019.
“Demand levels are likely to ebb and flow in the coming weeks as people continue to be cautious about travel,” said Montrae Waiters, spokeswoman, AAA––The Auto Club Group. “As a result, pump prices will likely continue to increase through the end of July.”
The national average is $2.18, a jump of five cents from last week.
In metro Atlanta, the current average is $1.98 for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline, and in Cobb County, the average price is $1.97.
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!
Socially-distanced desks in a classroom at the Lower School at Mt. Bethel Christian Academy.
Not long after closing the books on a chaotic school year, staff teachers and at Mt. Bethel Christian Academy are preparing for what they hope will be a less disjointed academic year that starts in little more than month.
Although built-in to their plans is the flexibility to be able to handle disruptions.
Classroom instruction is set to begin on Aug. 6, as previously scheduled, and measures are being taken to emphasize in-person learning.
“If we have to go home, we have enough laptops,” said Lisa Nelson Kelly, the head of the lower school campus adjacent to Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church on Lower Roswell Road.
“It’s not an optimal learning environment, and we’re hopeful we don’t have to do it.”
She said laptops would be issued for students in grades 3-12, while those in kindergarten through third grade would get iPads.
Like the Cobb County School District, Mt. Bethel sent students home in mid-March, as the COVID-19 crisis prompted lockdowns of schools, businesses and most aspects of daily life.
Unlike the larger public school system—the second-largest in Georgia, with nearly 115,000 students—Mt. Bethel can adapt easier on the fly.
“We really wanted to be back on campus,” Kelly said. “But we wanted to make sure we could do it safely. We wanted to communicate with [students and their parents] so that they know the expectations.”
More than 530 students are enrolled on both Mt. Bethel campuses, including around 100 or so 9-12 students at the Upper School campus on Post Oak Tritt Road.
Daily chapel services will be streamed into classrooms, instead of students gathering in the church sanctuary. At the start of the school year, lunches will be served in classrooms, with the aim of moving to the cafeteria if and when it’s deemed safe.
The number of students allowed in restrooms or locker areas at any given time will be limited.
While they’re in class, mask-wearing won’t be required. But they will have to wear them as they’re going between classes, or to special classes and other events.
“We’re asking parents to provide 2-3 face coverings for their students” of any variety, Kelly said, “whatever the children feel comfortable wearing, on the limited occasions they’ll have to wear them.
Mt. Bethel parents have been sent a brochure (you can read it here) that explains the many changes that are in the works because of public health guidance.
A task force was created to put those plans into action, and Kelly said that group will be available as the school year goes on.
In addition to spacing out desks (as seen in the photo above), Mt. Bethel will be providing what Kelly calls a “safe room” for students who aren’t feeling well, a place where they can wait for parents to pick them up.
More cleaning and sanitizing of spaces on both campuses will take place, and everyone at both campuses must wash and sanitize their hands before entering a classroom.
A total of 25 hand sanitizing stations will be placed throughout the school buildings.
Water fountains have been shut off, to be replaced by bubblers. Students will be asked to bring water bottles with them that can be refilled.
Should remote learning be necessary, adapted lesson plans are being formulated for students and their parents to follow from home.
Unlike the remote learning option that the Cobb school district is planning, however, Kelly said Mt. Bethel will be offering that only to those families who have students who are health-compromised or if they have a family member who is.
The academic calendar has been altered and won’t have a fall break. The first semester will end before Thanksgiving and an extended break is scheduled around Christmas and New Year’s.
Kelly said after so many months of distracted learning, and so much in limbo about the upcoming year, she’s heard from many parents who are eager for their children to resume as normal a schooling as they can.
“They’re very much in favor of coming back to school,” she said.
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!
