August 2020

Kemp extends Ga. public health emergency, safety measures

August 31, 2020 7:31 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb COVID Cases Date of Onset 8.31.20 — *Cobb COVID-19 cases have been going down steadily since mid-July. Source: Georgia Department of Public Health.*

For the sixth time since the COVID-19 crisis began in March, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has extended the state’s public health emergency and safety measures that prevent large gatherings.

Both of those provisions were due to expire Monday. As he has in the past, Kemp extended them on the very last day. The public health emergency will continue to Oct. 10, while the other measures were renewed to Sept. 15.

(Both can be found here.)

The latter executive order “continues to require social distancing, bans gatherings of more than 50 people unless there is six feet between each person, outlines mandatory criteria for businesses, and requires sheltering in place for those living in long-term care facilities and the medically fragile, among other provisions.”

The public health emergency sets provisions to enhance coordinated response from government and the public sector for supplies, testing and health care capacity.

Kemp did not explain why these orders are being extended, but a release issued by his press office said COVID-related hospitalizations are at their lowest point in Georgia since early July and the statewide test positivity rate also has gone down over the last month.

On Monday, the Georgia Department of Public Health reported 1,523 new confirmed cases of the virus and 28 more deaths, but only 32 additional hospitalizations.

Overall, 270,471 COVID cases have been confirmed in the state, along with 5,632 deaths.

In Cobb County, a case spike in July has been followed by a steady descent, both in terms of date of report and “date of onset,” indicated in the graphic above, which indicates when a positive case is confirmed.

Cobb has a total of 16,966 cases, and 391 deaths. The latter is the second-highest total in Georgia, and among the victims was a one-year-old boy who is the youngest to die from the virus.

Cobb reported 90 new cases on Monday and no new deaths.

Another important metric is cases per 100,000. In Cobb on Monday, the 14-day average had dropped to 236 cases per 100,000. Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale has said he’d like that figure to get as close as possible to 100 cases per 100,000—which is considered high community spread—before reopening schools.

Anti-Semitic incidents in East Cobb ‘are not who we are’

September 5, 2020 4:01 PMAugust 31, 2020 1:56 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb anti-Semitic incidents — *Rabbi Larry Sernovitz of Temple Kol Emeth said “the strength of the community is how we respond” to recent incidents of anti-Semitic graffiti in East Cobb. (ECN photos and video)*

A rash of anti-Semitic incidents in East Cobb in recent weeks has jarred an area with a sizable Jewish community.

In response, representatives of that Jewish community, along with other East Cobb faith leaders and local public officials, said Monday their message will be that such actions won’t be tolerated.

With the Southern Division of the Anti-Defamation League they announced the launching of an education campaign that will include bias training and a chance for the larger public to become allies with those unlike themselves.

The first of those sessions will take place virtually on Sept. 9 starting at 7:30 p.m. It’s free to attend but you must register and can do so by clicking here.

Most of all, their response is that love and understanding are the only ways to overcome hatred.

“I want to say ‘I love you,’ ” said Rabbi Larry Sernovitz of Temple Kol Emeth, one of three synagogues in East Cobb, and where Monday’s gathering was held.

East Cobb swastika — *Graffiti found in the Kings Farm neighborhood of East Cobb on Aug. 23. Source: ADL*

“I don’t need to know you to love you.”

He said those who scrawled graffiti in East Cobb—there are at least a half-dozen known incidents since the middle of August—were educated that such expressions can be tolerated.

What’s needed again and again, Sernovitz said, is “a million acts of kindness,” and he referenced the Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, who “believed that redemption can save the world.”

The gathering was prompted by swastika and other graffiti discovered in a neighborhood near Post Oak Tritt Road and Holly Springs Road. Residents there cleaned the spray-paint quickly.

On Sunday, Sernovitz told his congregation that at least five more similar incidents are being investigated.

Cobb Police Chief Tim Cox, who attended Monday’s event at Kol Emeth, said the first incident took place on Aug. 16, and investigators are not sure if the other incidents happened at once or on separate dates.

Lt. Bruce Danz, an investigator with Cobb Police Precinct 4, said all the incidents were in East Cobb. They included anti-Semitic graffiti being spray-painted on road signs on Post Oak Tritt Road that was removed by Cobb DOT.

He said in two-and-a-half years in Precinct 4, this is the first time he’s known of such incidents.

Danz said that “right now, we don’t have any leads,” but that police are “actively investigating.”

Cox said that anyone in the public who may have information about these or similar incidents should contact Lt. Abbott of the Precinct 4 Criminal Investigations Unit at 770-499-4184.

Several clergy members of the East Cobb faith communities were invited to speak, including Congregation Etz Chaim, Emerson Universalist Unitarian Congregation, Unity North Church East Cobb Church, the Church of Latter-Day Saints and the East Cobb Islamic Center.

Also speaking were U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, Cobb District Attorney Joyette Holmes and Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb.

Ott said Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris will be presenting a measure in September to reconstitute the county’s dormant Human Relations Commission.

Those plans had been in the works before the anti-Semitic attacks, but Ott said the timing of these events makes it more imperative to build bridges of understanding in the community.

“This is not who we are,” Ott said. “This is not what we are about.”

The human relations panel was created in the early 1990s, after county commissioners approved a controversial anti-gay resolution.

Among those leading the outcry against the resolution was Steven Lebow, the longtime Kol Emeth rabbi who retired this summer.

Sernovitz started in July as Lebow’s successor, and calls one of his first public actions in his new role “a teachable moment.”

“This can happen anywhere,” he said. “The strength of our community is how we respond.”

Cobb Medical Examiner’s office moves into new $11M facility

August 31, 2020 9:08 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb County Medical Examiner facility

The Cobb County Medical Examiner’s office has moved into a new $11 million building that’s a dramatic expansion of a 42-year-old facility that had been long outdated.

The new place is 19,000 square feet on County Services Parkway, among a cluster of Cobb government facilities.

Some of the funding came from the 2016 Cobb government SPLOST, but in 2018 Cobb commissioners voted to provide the lion’s share of the money––$8 million in general fund reserves––for what Medical Examiner Dr. Christopher Gulledge said would be needed to serve a county of more than 750,000 people.

In 2014 a critical audit of the medical examiner’s office suggested sweeping changes that prompted the resignation of the chief medical examiner. The audit was brought about by complaints by citizen Tom Cheek about the way his son’s autopsy was handled, and revealed wider organizational problems.

“The original Medical Examiner’s office was built in 1978 when Cobb County only had 200,000 people, and it has not significantly been expanded since then,” said Gulledge, who was appointed in 2015.

His office helps investigates criminal cases and works with law enforcement and the judicial system, but is an independent agency of county government.

Gulledge also has been ramping up efforts to grapple with the county’s growing opioid crisis.

The Medical Examiner’s office also is providing real-time data to the Cobb and Douglas Public Health Department related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chattahoochee River relaxation on a late summer afternoon

August 31, 2020 8:02 AM by Wendy Parker

Chattahoochee River relaxation

Sunday afternoon was actually quite pleasant and not too humid, and there were plenty living creatures—humans and animals—who enjoyed the relaxation at Azalea Park in Roswell.

This stretch of the river is just a little east of the Chattahoochee Nature Center, which straddles the Cobb/Fulton line close to the Timber Ridge/Lower Roswell roundabout.

Chattahoochee River relaxation

Some rowers who were getting their paces were also heading northbound, navigating some recreational paddlers.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The weather this week will be good for similar activities, although there’s a strong chance of rain on Monday. From Tuesday through Sunday sunny weather is in the forecast, with highs in the high 80s and low 90s.

Send Us Your News!

If you’ve got information about what your organization is doing, or want share news about what people are doing in the community—accomplishments, recognitions, milestones, etc., or just send along relaxation photos like above, East Cobb News would love to hear from you!

Pass along your details to: editor@eastcobbnews.com, and please observe the following guidelines to ensure we get everything properly and can post it promptly:

Send the body of your announcement, calendar item or news release IN TEXT FORM ONLY in the text field of your e-mail template. Reformatting text from PDF, JPG and doc files takes us longer to prepare your message for publication.

We accept PDFs as an accompaniment to your item. Images are fine too, but we prefer those to be JPG files (more than jpeg and png). PLEASE DO NOT send photos inside a PDF or text or any other kind of file. Of course, send us links that are relevant to your message so we can direct people to your website.

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!

East Cobb synagogue informed of more anti-Semitic incidents

August 30, 2020 5:16 PM by Wendy Parker

The leaders of the Temple Kol Emeth synagogue told their congregation Sunday that following the discovery of swastika graffiti in an East Cobb neighborhood last weekend, they’ve learned of other similar incidents.

Rabbi Larry Sernovitz and Rachel Barich, president of the congregation, said that “through our connections with local law enforcement, we are now aware of at least five similar incidents that have occurred over the past few weeks. This is a serious concern to us and to the Cobb County Police.”

They didn’t elaborate on the specifics of the incidents or when and where they took place, but said that “we know that the actions of a few do not represent East Cobb.”

Their message comes a day before Kol Emeth will be holding a gathering to announce a community response to acts of anti-Semitism.

That meeting will include representatives of the Anti-Defamation League of Atlanta, Atlanta Israeli Consul General Anat Sultan-Dadon, Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott and Capt. James Fincher, commander of the Cobb Police Precinct 4 in East Cobb.

The initiative is to include bias training and other educational programs:

“Through a partnership with the ADL, we will present to the wider East Cobb community a comprehensive program of education which will include bias training and how to be ally. Our fellow Jewish congregations and the interfaith community support this initiative with a high amount of interest. This is the spirit of Cobb County!”

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Monday’s gathering, which begins at 10 a.m., is not open to the general public. Sernovitz and Barich said an educational program to follow will be available to all via Zoom in the coming weeks.

“We also know that we cannot be silent, as silence does not make these things go away. Rather we are drawing on our friendships and ties with so many others in our community to provide a teachable moment, an opportunity for everyone to come together, speak together, and learn together.”

Cobb one-year-old is youngest COVID-19 death in Georgia

August 29, 2020 1:08 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb one-year-old COVID death — *Age breakdowns of Cobb COVID deaths before a 1-year-old boy’s death was reported Friday: Burnt Orange 70-79 119; Yellow 80-89 110; Yellow 90+ 61; Green 60-69 49; Beige 18-59 48. Source: Cobb GIS.*

Before Friday, Cobb County had reported only one death of a person under the age of 20 due to COVID-19.

But a one-year-old boy with a pre-existing health condition was included in Friday’s reported deaths by the Georgia Department of Public Health, making him the youngest victim in the state of a virus that has now claimed 387 lives in Cobb.

The only other information about the boy was that he was African-American, according to Georgia Health News, which also reported that more than 4,000 children under age 4 in the state have been infected, and that Georgia has a COVID-19 case rate for children that’s higher than the national average.

Prior to the one-year-old’s death, the youngest Cobb COVID fatality had been a 19-year-old male whose race was unknown, according to figures compiled by Cobb County government’s GIS office.

While Cobb has seen a spike, along with the rest of Georgia, in confirmed cases of the virus this summer, especially among younger age groups, the deaths are still occurring mostly among older and unhealthier populations.

GIS figures through Friday show that roughly 75 percent of the Cobb COVID deaths have been people 70 and older (as shown in the pie chart above).

At least 311 of Cobb’s 387 deaths have been people who had at least one underlying health issue, or a comorbidity, while 47 have not. The comorbidity status of 29 other victims is unknown.

A total of 48 people each in the 60-69 age range and the 18-59 age range have died in Cobb County, which has the second-highest death total in Georgia. Fulton County now has 503 reported deaths.

The age groups with the highest number of confirmed cases in Cobb continue to be between 20-60. A total of 1,846 cases have been reported for youths 20 and under, while the oldest age groups have the fewest number of cases.

The rising case figures over the summer prompted Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale to start the school year online. Cobb now has 16,630 positive cases, but he’s reluctant to give a date for students returning to school.

The key metric he’s looking at is a 14-day average of cases per 100,000 people, with anything over 100 cases considered high community spread. As of Friday, Cobb’s 14-day average is 227.

That figure had been well above 300 cases per 100,000, and Ragsdale said he was aiming for an average between 100-200 cases before deciding to allow a return to classroom learning.

Georgia has 265,372 confirmed COVID cases and 5,471 deaths. On Friday, Georgia DPH reported 2,383 more cases and 79 additional deaths.

But date-of-onset and date-of-death figures—as opposed to when cases and deaths are reported—have been on a downward trend in the state and Cobb since mid-July and early August, respectively.

Cobb non-profits can apply for relief grants with SelectCobb

August 29, 2020 12:09 PMAugust 29, 2020 8:02 AM by Wendy Parker

Submitted information:

Cobb County Government is partnering with SelectCobb to offer the county’s not-for-profit organizations a $2M funding opportunity to help mitigate financial hardships created by the coronavirus pandemic. The SelectCobb Not-For-Profit Grant will provide up to $25,000 to eligible, Cobb-based 501c3 non-profits to use on rehiring and maintaining personnel and other COVID-related expenses.

The SelectCobb Not-For-Profit Grant application opened Thursday, Aug. 27 on www.selectcobb.com/nfpgrants. Applications close on Friday, Sept. 11 at 5 p.m.

“Cobb County is home to a strong and robust non-profit community,” says Kevin Greiner, president and CEO of Gas South and Chairman of SelectCobb for the Cobb Chamber. “Our non-profits serve Cobb’s most vulnerable populations. And, while each organization has felt the impact of the pandemic through decreased revenue, each has been called to meet a higher demand of service. We are so grateful to be able to partner with Cobb County Government to provide the SelectCobb Not-For-Profit Grant as a financial lifeline to these organizations.”

To be considered for the SelectCobb Not-For-Profit Grant, non-profit organizations must meet the following requirements:

Not-for-profit organization must be a 501(c)(3) organization that files a 990, 990N or 990-EZ form with the IRS;

Not-for-profit organization must have 100 or fewer full-time, W-2 employees, i.e., employees working at least 30 hours per week or 120 hours per month;

Not-for-profit organization headquarters or primary location must be in Cobb County;

Not-for-profit organization may be home-based or located in commercial space;

Not-for-profit organization must have been in continuous operation for a minimum of 1 year as of July 28, 2020;

Not-for-profit organization must have a current registration with the Secretary of State’s office and be current on all required 990 filings, and;

Not-for-profit organization must certify if they have received PPP and/or CARES Act SBA loans funds as of time of application submittal.

“I’m grateful that the Cobb County Board of Commissioners in partnership with the Cobb Chamber has found another way to give hope to these significant partners in our county,” said Mike Boyce, Cobb County Chairman of the Board of Commissioners.

Once the application period closes, SelectCobb staff will review all applications to ensure eligibility. All eligible applications will be reviewed by an independent selection committee to recommend grant recipients and grant amounts, per the eligible tiers. A scoring matrix will be used to review each application so that it is a fair and equitable process. For a full list of eligibility requirements and more information about the application process, visit www.selectcobb.com/nfpgrants.

East Cobb synagogue to begin anti-bias training initiative

August 30, 2020 6:21 PMAugust 28, 2020 4:16 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb swastika

UPDATED, Sunday Aug. 30.: Temple Kol Emeth leaders said they’ve learned of “at least five more” similar incidents in recent weeks.

Following Monday’s story about swastikas and other graffiti found in an East Cobb neighborhood comes word of an event next week that will launch a new community initiative a local Jewish leader said is designed “to build understanding and allyship.”

Allison Padilla-Goodman, vice president of the Southern division of the Anti-Defamation League, told East Cobb News that a gathering at 10 a.m. Monday at the Temple Kol Emeth synagogue in East Cobb will include a developing list of partners in the interfaith effort.

She said “we have several confirmed Cobb County officials and interfaith leaders in the area.” Larry Sernovitz, the new rabbi at Kol Emeth, said “it is a growing list and we are so blessed to know that so many organizations, including the Cobb County Government and Police Department, will be present.”

The event isn’t open to the general public due to physical distancing issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the event will consist of plans to conduct anti-bias training events in the community over the coming weeks.

Sernovitz sent out a message to his congregation on Monday that “multiple swastikas” were found in a neighborhood in the area around Holly Springs Road and Post Oak Tritt Road, and that residents of that community worked to remove the graffiti.

Also spray-painted on a decorative slab was “MAGA 2020,” or “Make America Great Again,” a slogan for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

Cobb schools creates status update for online learning portal

August 28, 2020 5:46 PMAugust 28, 2020 2:25 PM by Wendy Parker

The Cobb Teaching and Learning System, the online learning portal the Cobb County School District expanded for a virtual start to the school year, experienced some more technical issues on Friday morning.

Around 1 p.m. Friday, the district sent out a message to parents saying that around 20 percent of CTLS users experienced intermittent issues due to a hardware failure involving Amazon Cloud Services.

The CTLS system was taken down entirely at 12:45 p.m. for technology repairs, according to the district, which said as of 1:40 p.m. the full CTLS system was functioning and that all users were able to log in.

The district also announced it was providing a real-time status update for CTLS. On the bottom of the CTLS homepage, users can click on the button (shown above) to see which parts of the CTLS system may be down.

They’ll be directed to a Status Monitor page that shows the status of the 23 components of CTLS. That page also indicates when one of those components may be scheduled for maintenance.

Friday’s issues were the third time this week that the district had to address what it continues to call “intermittent” problems with CTLS. The first week of school last week also was affected by numerous problems with logging in and other technology issues and crashes.

Some parents posting comments in response to the status update feature said they were trying to be patient and said they like CTLS when it works.

One parent commented on the district’s Facebook page about the status update: “Awesome—will this have intermittent problems as well?!”

The Cobb school district also said Friday it is overhauling its main website to make it “more user friendly and more responsive for users” and offered a preview of the new homepage that will be noticeable over the weekend.

Georgia Secretary of State launches online absentee ballot portal

August 28, 2020 1:47 PMAugust 28, 2020 10:38 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb Absentee Ballot Envelope

Earlier this week we told you about an online process that’s underway for requesting an absentee ballot for the Nov. 3 general election from the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration.

On Friday, the Georgia Secretary of State’s office launched an online portal for voters to request an absentee ballot.

Similar to the Cobb online portal, this one asks voters to fill out their name and date of birth, and they must also provide a driver’s license or state identification number, as well as their county of residence.

That information will be sent to a voter’s county elections office for processing and for mailing an absentee ballot.

Fall Cobb library book sale cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns

August 27, 2020 8:15 PM by Wendy Parker

East Cobb Library

Submitted by the Cobb County Public Library System late Thursday afternoon:

The Fall 2020 Cobb Library Book Sale, originally scheduled for October 9-11, is cancelled.

The Spring and Fall Cobb Library Book Sales at the Cobb County Civic Center in Marietta are highlights of the year for many in the community drawn to the special events and attracts visitors to Cobb from nearby counties and states. A team of community youth and adult volunteers assists in staging the bi-annual events. The Fall sale is cancelled due to concerns about the COVID-19 virus.

For information on the Cobb County Public Library, visit www.cobbcat.org or call 770-528-2320.

The library system also cancelled its spring book sale, which was scheduled for the weekend of March 13-15. That’s when Cobb government and other entitities began shutting down due to COVID-19.

Proceeds from book sales provide financial support for library system.

Sewell Mill Library reopens after COVID-19 closure

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 school district receives computer devices for virtual learning

August 27, 2020 7:58 PMAugust 27, 2020 4:24 PM by Wendy Parker

The Cobb County School District has received the first 750 of a supply of 2,600 Chromebook computers from a Norcross company to help meet virtual learning demands at the start of an online-only school year.

On Thursday the Stratix Corporation, which provides managed mobility services, announced it had delivered the first portion of the devices to the Cobb school district, which is trying to fulfill nearly 40,000 requests from students and their families.

Felicia Wagner, executive director of the Cobb Schools Foundation, a non-profit that provides financial and other assistance to district, issued this statement through Stratix:

“We want all students to have the tools and resources they need to achieve their goals and be successful. With Cobb students returning to school virtually this fall, we had an immediate need to get additional devices to the schools. We felt Stratix was the right fit. They were local to us, had access to the volume of devices we needed and went to great lengths to get us the devices while working within our budget.”

The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed, but the district also announced Thursday it had received another 750 Chromebooks donated by a collection of churches in Cobb County, with another 1,900 on the way.

North Metro Church raised $150,000 for computers for students in Cobb and Marietta schools, with half going to each district, per a Cobb school district release.

The Cobb school district received $8.1 million from the Cobb Board of Commissioners last month in federal CARES Act funding to build out its online learning portal.

When Commissioner Lisa Cupid asked why computer purchases weren’t part of the request, Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said he was confident the district could provide them. He said some Chromebooks earmarked for students in need had gone unused.

Before the school year began, he said the district received 32,000 requests for devices, and another 6,000 requests have been made since online classes began Aug. 17.

Georgia teachers’ head: Back to school not a return to normal

August 27, 2020 1:07 PM by Wendy Parker

Lisa Morgan, Georgia Association of Educators

As the Cobb County School District continues with online-only instruction, the head of a professional teachers organization in Georgia said that the classroom experience that awaits students when they return will not be the way it was before COVID-19.

In a commentary distributed to news organizations, Lisa Morgan of the Georgia Association of Educators asked parents “to please listen to us—the educators who you are asking to enter the school buildings in the midst of a pandemic.”

The GAE represents 30,000 teachers in Georgia, including those in its umbrella organization, the Cobb County Association of Educators.

Unlike teachers’ organizations in other states, they are not unions.

The CCAE supported a July decision by Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale to start the school year online-only, instead of giving parents an option of virtual or in-person learning.

Ragsdale has said that the cases per 100,000 people in Cobb—now averaging around 300 for the last 14 days—represents high community spread that’s not safe for students, teachers and staff.

Cobb school parents have expressed frustration with virtual learning and the lack of a timetable for returning to a classroom environment. Ragsdale said he will be guided by data, and not dates, in making that decision.

Under the district’s previously announced reopening plans, K-5 and special education students will return first, followed by middle school and high school students.

While the virus transmission rates and case numbers for children remains low, Morgan wrote that placing them in large group settings at schools poses a threat: “If the risk is 1 percent that any individual child will become sick, that means that in a group of 100 the chance that one of our students will become sick is 100 percent. Just as it is objectionable to you knowingly to put your children in a situation that will bring them harm, for any of our students to be harmed is unacceptable to us.”

She said that once students do return, “the adaptations necessary to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 will result in a classroom experience absent of the interactions that your child is missing now.”

Those include one-on-one encounters between students and teachers over homework and class assignments and students working together on projects in class.

Lunchtime will also be different: “The current plans for meals vary from system to system, but all include either smaller groups and social distancing in the cafeteria or meals being consumed in the classroom. The social-distanced cafeteria will, by necessity, be a mostly quiet space.”

Other tasks, such as cleaning and hand-washing, also will be time-consuming and disruptive, but they’re precautionary measures Morgan said must be undertaken.

“As much as we all wish returning to in-person instruction would allow us to engage with our students as we have always done, doing so is simply not possible,” she said. “The mode of instruction is not the issue we must solve. The realities of the virus and the continued high rates of transmission in our communities dictate that we must err on the side of caution and safety. While we all can agree that virtual instruction is not optimal, unusual times call for unusual measures that include sacrifice on everyone’s part.

“Working together to ensure that everyone is first and foremost safe and healthy will allow us to then work together to ensure everyone recovers academically, socially, and emotionally.”

You can read her full commentary by clicking here.

The Avenue East Cobb to hold car show on Sunday

August 27, 2020 1:08 PMAugust 27, 2020 9:11 AM by Wendy Parker

The Avenue East Cobb Car Show

For the second time this summer, The Avenue East Cobb is having another car show this Sunday as part of a shopping promotion.

The hours are from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and around shops will be open, including restaurants. Pop’s Lobster Shack.

Monster Customs is putting on the car show, and if you have a specialty car you’d like to show, click here to reserve a spot.

The retail center is continuing free storytime events for kids through the month of September.

Those take place every Wednesday, and here’s more information:

Sign up, bring your blanket or folding chair and join us in the shaded area between Origins and Hand & Stone Massage. Storytelling begins at 10 am, followed by a Take Home DIY craft. To allow for social distancing, reserve 1 ticket per child over 18 months old. https://avenueecstorytime.eventbrite.com

Siblings under 18 mo. do not need a ticket. Suggested ages 2-8 yrs. NO TICKET NEEDED FOR ADULTS. Masks are recommended. Spaces will be marked and first-come, first-served.

East Cobb Democratic Roundup: Candidates to hold trivia event

August 27, 2020 12:30 PMAugust 26, 2020 6:48 PM by Wendy Parker

Two Democratic candidates for State House seats in East Cobb will be holding a virtual trivia event Thursday night. East Cobb Democratic candidates

It’s along a “Guns and Roses” theme on the final day of the Republican National Convention.

Connie DiCicco is challenging State Rep. Don Parsons of the 44th District, and Luisa Wakeman is taking on State Rep. Sharon Cooper of the 43rd District. Here’s more that was sent to our inbox:

“The theme honors the White House’s newly renovated rose garden and the party’s admiration of firearms. Prizes will be awarded to trivia winners.”

The event gets underway at 8 p.m., and you’re asked to register by visiting www.bit.ly/connieandluisa.

(Before we get any complaints from the other side, sit tight: We’ll do a Republican roundup after the convention.)

Candidate virtual town halls continue

The Cobb Community Alliance, a consortium of African-American organizations in the county, has been holding virtual candidate forums ahead of the general elections.

The invited candidates have come from the State House races above, as well as another contested East Cobb seat, District 45, where Democrat Sara Tindall Ghazal is challenging Republican incumbent. Not all of the invited candidates have appeared.

You can watch previous events at the CCA’s Facebook Live page, and that’s where you can tune in for future town halls.

Coming up on Aug. 31 is State House District 46, also in East Cobb, where Democrat Caroline Holko is challenging Republican incumbent John Carson.

A town hall is scheduled for Sept. 14 for Cobb Commission Chairman, in which Democratic commissioner Lisa Cupid is facing Republican incumbent Mike Boyce.

On Sept, 21 a town hall is scheduled for District 2 on the Cobb Board of Commissioners. Democrat Jerica Richardson and Republican Fitz Johnson will be vying to succeed retiring Republican commissioner Bob Ott, who has endorsed Johnson.

You can learn more about the CCA by clicking here.

On Monday a supporter of Julia Hurtado, a Democrat running for the Cobb Board of Education, is having a virtual meet-and-greet. It starts at 7 p.m and the signup information is here.

Hurtado is challenging Republican incumbent David Banks in Post 5, which includes the Pope and Lassiter and part of the Wheeler cluster.

Send Us Your News!

We’re accepting information about political events, fundraisers and campaign activities surrounding the Nov. 3 elections.

Feel free to let us know what you’ve got going on (that’s open to the public) by contacting us: editor@eastcobbnews.com.

What we’re not publishing—and we’re getting some of this already—are letters to the editor, op-eds and other commentaries endorsing a candidate, or denouncing another one. Some of these have come from candidates and those with partisan affiliations.

Feel free to send us your boilerplate as we dive into more substantial coverage this fall, but bear with us as we navigate what figures to be a very unusual election year—hotly contested races during a pandemic.

Just a quick reminder that East Cobb News does not endorse candidates, and we don’t run guest editorials on any subject, especially politics.

We know passions and tempers are running high about the elections, even at the local level, and we will be incorporating some of that in our regular coverage.

With every seat for public office in East Cobb having both Democratic and Republican candidates, we know there’s going to be a lot of interest, and it’s bound to get ugly before it’s all over.

For more information about how East Cobb News is covering the elections, click our Election Guide link below.

Public hearing on Cobb sex shop changes attracts no comments

August 26, 2020 1:15 PM by Wendy Parker

Cobb sex shop changes

There was plenty of interest from readers to our story on Monday on a proposed ordinance that would make sweeping changes to how sexually oriented businesses can operate.

But on Tuesday, nobody showed up to speak at a public hearing, either in favor of, or against, those proposed code amendments.

Although no businesses were mentioned by name, these proposals brought by Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb follow the recent opening of a Tokyo Valentino store on Johnson Ferry Road, where a more forthright sign advertising its wares has gone up, as seen above.

The City of Marietta recently closed the only other Tokyo Valentino store in the county, on Cobb Parkway across from the Marietta Diner, for violating its ordinances.

The Cobb code amendments would apply only to businesses in unincorporated areas. The primary rationale being given for replacing an entire section of the code pertaining to adult businesses is what’s called “adverse secondary effects,” including crime and loitering, to nearby areas.

County commissioners revise the code several times a year, and before doing so must conduct public hearings.

The new ordinance would limit sexually oriented business to two industrial zoning categories. Tokyo Valentino opened in East Cobb in former Mattress Firm space that is zoned general commercial, and received a business license for a retail clothing store that was to have been called 1290 Clothing Co.

There was vocal opposition before Tokyo Valentino signs appeared, but Ott said the county couldn’t do anything.

You can read through what’s being proposed in the code amendments by clicking here.

There are two more public hearings, on Sept. 1 before the Cobb Planning Commission, and on Sept. 8, the date Cobb commissioners are expected to vote on the code amendments.

Cobb absentee ballot applications available; dropboxes open Sept. 16

August 26, 2020 6:51 PMAugust 26, 2020 9:28 AM by Wendy Parker

Cobb tag offices reopening

The East Cobb Government Service Center will continue to serve as a drop-off spot for the return of absentee ballots for the November general election.

The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration has announced that it intends to have 16 drop boxes available by the Nov. 3 election day.

All of those additional locations haven’t been announced, but the East Cobb center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) was used as a drop box spot for the primaries and runoffs.

The vast majority of Cobb primary and runoff voters cast their votes via absentee ballot.

Cobb Elections is continuing to encourage absentee voting for the general election, given a shortage of poll workers and social-distancing guidelines. Primary voting also was hampered at some precincts, including at Sope Creek Elementary School, by new voting machines not working properly.

The locations listed at the link above will be available for drop box returns starting Sept. 16. Absentee ballot applications can be requested from Cobb Elections by clicking here, and you can also get a prompt to a customized application that will be mailed to you.

The mail-outs won’t start until Sept. 15, and the county and state have not sent out unsolicited ballot applications, as was done for the primaries.

The county sent out a message Tuesday saying there has been some confusion about this, since some private groups and organizations have been mailing out absentee ballot applications.

That’s fine for them to do, but they’re not from official elections agencies. One is the Center for Voter Information, which has been doing this in other states as well.

Keep in mind that these forms aren’t the actual absentee ballots, but an application to have one mailed once it’s filled out and returned.

Cobb Elections had sought federal CARES Act funding to mail absentee ballot applications for all 518,000 registered voters in the county, but earlier this month commissioners rejected taking up that request.

For more information on absentee voting in Cobb County, click here.

Cobb schools named by Forbes among ‘best-in-state’ employers

August 26, 2020 7:40 AM by Wendy Parker

Submitted information:

On August 24, 2020, Forbes announced that the Cobb County School District was being recognized as one of America’s “Best-in-State Employers.” Cobb Schools has been on the list both years since Forbes began the award in conjunction with Statista in 2019.

“We know teachers are the most important part of any student’s experience and this is another confirmation that we are putting our Team first, ” said Superintendent Chris Ragsdale. “Our motto of ‘One Team, One Goal, Student Success,’ is only possible when our employees actually believe it and get the support they need to achieve it. We are grateful for the back-to-back recognition because it shows that we are keeping the main thing, the main thing.”

Cobb Schools moved up one position from 2019—from #23 to #22 in the state. It is one of only two school districts to make the Top 25 in Georgia and landed ahead of notable Georgia companies such as The Home Depot, UPS, and Coca-Cola.

Forbes and Statista select Best-In-State Employers based on an independent survey of more than 80,000 working for companies of at least 500 employees. The surveys are administered using a series of online panels and provide a representative sample of the U.S. workforce.

East Cobb Biz Update: Lidl Woodlawn Square opening date TBA

August 25, 2020 2:54 PM by Wendy Parker

Lidl East Cobb opening

Hiring and other opening signs have been up for months at the forthcoming Lidl store at Woodlawn Square in East Cobb, but there’s still no word yet when the store may open to the public.

We’ve been getting inquiries from readers and today Lidl passed along some information about expansion into Georgia with five more stores, including the East Cobb location, by the end of 2021.

We asked Lidl if there’s a general timetable for opening at Woodlawn Square, if not a specific date, and here’s the reply from the company:

“We expect to have more to share on the East Cobb store over the coming weeks and will look forward to getting in touch with you again then.”

What Lidl is saying for now is that the East Cobb store is part of a $500 million expansion with 50 new stores on the East Coast. The other stores in Georgia are in Marietta (on Whitlock Ave.) and future stores Sandy Springs, Woodstock and Duluth.

Lidl said those five stores will create an estimated 200 new jobs.

Lidl is a German-based discount grocer that competes with another German rival Aldi, and currently has two stores in the south Cobb area.

Lidl first attempted to enter the East Cobb market in 2017 when it sought rezoning of the Park 12 Cobb theatre on Gordy Parkway, but that request was denied following strong community opposition.

Lidl will occupy more than 21,000 square feet of space formerly occupied by The Fresh Market, which closed last October.

The only Aldi store in East Cobb is at the East Lake Shopping Center on Roswell Road, near the Marietta Parkway.

More business news

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!

Proposed Cobb code changes target sexually oriented businesses

August 26, 2020 10:12 AMAugust 24, 2020 2:28 PM by Wendy Parker

Tokyo Valentino East Cobb

UPDATE: Nobody showed up to speak in favor of or against the new ordinance on Tuesday. There will be another public hearing Sept. 8, the same day Cobb commissioners are expected to vote on the matter.

An initial public hearing is scheduled Tuesday for proposed Cobb code amendments that would make sweeping changes in regulating sexually oriented businesses.

At a Monday work session, the Cobb Board of Commissioners was briefed by Cobb County Attorney’s Office about the proposals, which would expand the definition of sexually oriented businesses and restrict where they can operate.

They would be required to get special sexually oriented business licenses, and all employees would have to have permits. Anyone operating such a business would have to meet buffer and other regulatory measures to abate what are termed “adverse secondary negative effects.”

(You can read through the proposed code amendments here. Reader discretion is advised, since there are some explicit descriptions of sexual acts, body parts and devices.)

The proposed code amendments come two months after Tokyo Valentino, an Atlanta-based adult retail store, opened on Johnson Ferry Road in a vacant mattress store in East Cobb.

That store opened after it received a business license to operate as a retail clothing store under the general commercial zoning category. East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott said the county could not stop an adult store from opening there, even if it advertised itself as something else, due to existing ordinances.

The land where the former Mattress Firm store stood has been zoned general commercial since the 1970s

The new store in East Cobb drew community opposition before it opened as Tokyo Valentino and after Morrison initially said that’s not what would be going in that space

Among the court cases attorney Scott Bergthold referenced during the presentation were several current legal disputes involving adult stores in Brookhaven and Sandy Springs operated by Tokyo Valentino owner Michael Morrison.

In June the city of Marietta closed and revoked the business license of a Tokyo Valentino store on Cobb Parkway for violating an ordinance regulating the amount of sexual peraphernalia allowed in a general commercial category.

The proposed Cobb amendments would completely overhaul a section of the county code pertaining to licenses for adult businesses, which Bergthold said hasn’t been updated in decades.

He said courts have ruled that “can’t ban them but can stringently regulate” where they’re allowed to operate and what they can do.

Under the proposed code amendments, the new category of “sexually oriented businesses”—which would include adult retail stores like Tokyo Valentino as well as adult entertainment establishments—would be allowed only in two industrial zoning categories.

Any “lawfully existing” adult businesses operating in other zoning categories would have until the end of 2021 to relocate to an appropriately zoned property, and could apply for “hardship” to extend that period.

Tokyo Valentino aerial map — *An aerial map of the Tokyo Valentino store at 1290 Johnson Ferry Road and surroundings.*

That provision would presumably affect the Tokyo Valentino store on Johnson Ferry Road, the only one currently operating in unincorporated Cobb County.

An adult bookstore would be defined as one that derives at least 25 percent of its revenues from the sale and rental of sexually explicit items and has at least 25 percent of its floor space devoted to displaying those materials.

Sexually oriented businesses also would not be allowed to operate within 750 feet of residentially zoned land, within 1,500 feet of a school, religious facility, government-owned or run building, 1,000 feet of another sexually oriented business and 500 feet of another business licensed to sell alcohol, either on premises or a package store.

The Tokyo Valentino store is located close to some of those kinds of buildings and areas.

The adverse affects Burkholder referenced include declining property values, crime and public safety risks, lewdness, decency and the possible transmission of disease, drug use and trafficking and aesthetic impacts like traffic, litter, noise and blight.

Violations carry a maximum fine of $1,000 per violation, and proposed provisions outline steps the county could take to address repeat violators deemed to be a “nuisance,” including revocation of a business license.

Cobb County Attorney William Rowling said the proposed code changes have been publicly advertised three times since July 31.

Cobb commissioners will conduct a public hearing at their regular meeting that starts at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Action on the code amendments is scheduled after another public hearing in September.

Tuesday’s full meeting agenda can be found here.

You can watch online here or here or via Cobb TV, the county’s public access outlet, on Channel 23 on Comcast cable

Related content

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related stories

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related stories

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Send Us Your News!

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related stories

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related content

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related content

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related stories

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related Content

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related Content

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related story

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related Content

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related Content

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related stories

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Candidate virtual town halls continue

Send Us Your News!

Related Content

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related stories

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related Content

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related Content

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

More business news

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!

Share this post:

Like this:

Related stories

Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!