Cobb Police said Tuesday they’re still seeking a suspect in a triple homicide that took at Pinetree Country Club near Kennesaw on Saturday.
Sgt. Wayne Delk, a Cobb Police spokesman, said in a release that “current information reveals there is not an active threat to the public at large and there was not a directed threat to residents of the neighborhood.”
He didn’t elaborate further and no description of the unidentified suspect has been provided.
Gene Siller, 46, the golfing director at Pinetree, was found with a shotgun wound to the head on the 10th hole of the course around 2:20 p.m. Saturday afternoon, and was pronounced dead on the scene.
Two other men were found dead in the back of a white Ram 3500 pick-up truck that was also located on the 10th green.
Delk said Tuesday that detectives believe that Siller was caught up in a “crime in progress” involving the suspect and the other two men.
“It does not appear Siller was in any way targeted, but rather was killed because he witnessed an active crime taking place,” Delk said in a Cobb Police statement Tuesday.
One of the other men who died was identified as Paul Pierson, 76, of Kansas, whom police said was the registered owner of the pickup truck. The other victim was not identified but police said he’s believed to be Hispanic.
UPDATE: Cobb Police said Wednesday that the other victim in the truck has been identified as Henry Valdez, 46, of California.
Those two men, Delk said, “appear to have no relation to the location at all.” He said that “we are aware that the public has many questions, the most pressing one being why this happened; however, it is too early in the investigation to speculate as to motive.”
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A rendering of townhomes lining Johnson Ferry Road, bordered by a wall and a multi-purpose trail.
The Cobb Planning Commission voted Tuesday to hold the East Cobb Church rezoning case after it had a third hearing.
The matter will be taken up again in August at the request of Planning Commission member Tony Waybright, who said that despite improvements in the proposal in some areas, there are still concerns about the residential portion of the development.
He urged the applicant, North Point Ministries, to incorporate continuing concerns over traffic, density, setbacks, buffers and other proposed variances after a new site plan and stipulation letter were submitted last week.
But the request comes with variances that nearby residents and civic leaders said are too many, are not in line with the suburban nature of the area and do not meet Cobb County Code.
The detached homes are three stories, and the applicant is requesting reductions in front and back setbacks, and is proposing the distance between homes be reduced from the minimum 15 feet to 8 feet.
The intensity of the development, said Jill Flamm of the East Cobb Civic Association, “is out of character with this community and belongs in an urban setting.”
She also noted that there’s not a sidewalk proposed for the community because there isn’t room.
The residential portion of the 33-acre proposal at Johnson Ferry and Shallowford roads has been the subject of most of the opposition.
North Point would purchase the full assemblage of properties, keeping roughly 10 acres for East Cobb Church and selling most of the rest of the land to Ashwood, an Atlanta-based residential developer.
A resident of nearby Chimney Lakes told the Planning Commission he’s not opposed to a church, but the residential proposal, saying that even the single-family detached homes are more like “townhomes, just detached.”
The revised site plan includes a multi-purpose trail that would surround the proposed 130,000-square foot church lining Shallowford Road, and North Point also has included a park into the revisions that would be available to the larger community.
Kevin Moore, North Point’s attorney, said his client has gone far beyond what’s called for in the JOSH Master Plan to create “a sense of place,” and that the latest revisions “reflect the community of which [the church] is a part.”
The plans also called for reworking Waterfront Circle, an access point for a nearby subdivision, to align with a traffic signal on Johnson Ferry.
There were 41 people in attendance in support of the rezoning request and 27 in opposition, including a speaker who said the proposal would “urbanize East Cobb. That is not what we want.”
Waybright suggested the RA-6 category be revised to fee-simple townhomes, a medium-density zoning which would “provide a stepdown” from lower-density residential homes in the adjacent MarLanta subdivision.
The Planning Commission also was hearing on Tuesday two other major requests in East Cobb. One is for a 99-home residential development on Ebenezer Road that’s drawn community opposition.
The other would convert the closed Park 12 Cobb movie theater at Gordy Parkway and Shallowford Road into a self-storage facility.
Single-family detached homes would be three stories, with reduced buffers and setbacks even below the minimum in the county code.
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To view more ZIP Code COVID-19 data for Cobb County, click here. Source: Cobb and Douglas Public Health.
Since the COVD-19 emergency began, we’ve been taking occasional looks at case, hospitalization and death data for East Cobb, Cobb County and Georgia.
We’re going to take a deep dive one last time, as all the key metrics continue to plummet to levels close to the start of the pandemic, and as the statewide state of emergency has expired after 16 months.
In East Cobb in particular, here’s how cases and deaths have broken down by ZIP Code in that time, according to Cobb and Douglas Public Health:
30062: 4,696 cases; 62 deaths
30066: 4,520 cases; 60 deaths
30067: 3,899 cases; 41 deaths
30075: 631 cases; 4 deaths
Totals: 16,344 cases; 359 deaths
The data is as of Friday, July 2, and comes from Cobb and Douglas Public Health, and you can check this link for more ZIP Code data across the county.
As of Friday, there have been 62,266 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Cobb County since March 2020, and 1,014 COVID-related deaths.
At that same link is more countywide demographic information that we’ve also been highlighting occasionally.
There are various pie charts breaking down cases and deaths by age, sex, race and ethnicity.
As of Friday, the age groups with the highest percentage of cases in Cobb are 30-39 (17 percent), 40-49 (16 percent) and 50-59 (14.3 percent).
School-age children in Cobb (up to age 18) account for a total of 7,108 of all cases, or about 11 percent. The elderly (70 and above) constitute 7.7 of all cases, or 4,792.
But seniors, as the highest risk group, account for the overwhelming majority of the COVID-related deaths, according to CDPH data.
Of Cobb’s 1,104 confirmed deaths, 728 have been 70 or older, or 72 percent of all the fatalities. Another 151 deaths have occurred for people between 60-69, meaning that 86 percent of all the deaths in Cobb have come from the oldest tiers.
Further data tracked by former Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott included comorbidity information. His last update on June 28 indicated that 857 of the deaths included a known comorbidity, 124 did not and 31 were unknown.
The Cobb County GIS office also has been keeping COVID-19 data at its own hub. Note that the number of cases reported there, 80,344, includes both PCR and Antigen tests.
The Georgia Department of Public Health updates its daily report at 3 p.m., and as of Monday showed that there have been 903,073 cases since March 2020, and 18,517 confirmed deaths.
The daily report also includes community spread data, and shows that the transmission rate in Cobb County (PCR tests only) is a 14-day average of 34 cases per 100,000 people.
That’s well below the “high spread” threshold of 100 cases, and many counties in Georgia are reporting few cases at all. Cobb has had only 268 PCR cases over the last two weeks.
Georgia DPH also is tracking vaccines with a specialized dashboard that shows nearly half of all eligible Georgians have received at lease one dose.
Those 4.48 million people are 43 percent of the population; another 3.976 million, or 37 percent, have received either both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
In Cobb, 379,402 people have received at least one dose, or 51 percent of the population. Another 341,077 are fully vaccinated, or 45 percent.
We’re keeping our COVID-19 information page active as needed and will house previous stories there, but this marks the end of occasional COVID data updates.
We’ll keep reporting COVID-related news as it pertains to business recovery, schools, vaccines and other aspects of the COVID response.
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A rendering of the proposed East Cobb Church from Shallowford Road.
A reminder that the East Cobb Church rezoning case that’s been delayed several times is getting another hearing Tuesday by the Cobb Planning Commission, which also is hearing a couple of other cases of interest in East Cobb.
The church leaders have launched a website with related details, including traffic and density figures that have concerned opponents.
The holdup from the Planning Commission stems from those factors and others, and the continuance until July was for the developer to make design changes.
The 33 acres would include a 130,000-square foot church building and parking lot, 58 single-family detached homes, 71 townhomes and a small amount of retail.
Pulte Homes originally had proposed 112 homes on nearly 50 undeveloped acres between Maybreeze Road and Blackwell Road. A revised site plan was submitted last week, as was a stipulation letter outlining the changes.
Also held over from June is a proposed conversion of the closed Park 12 Cobb movie theater into a storage facility.
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After being cancelled last year for the first time since the Civil War, the Marietta Campmeeting resumes this week through July 18.
The 183rd edition of the religious revival starts Friday with an opening picnic from 6-7 p.m., followed by the opening service at 7:30 p.m.
The full schedule can be found here, with two services daily and three on Sunday.
As in years past, the schedule includes children’s services, an ice cream social and tentholder meetings. After Saturday night’s service, there will be a watermelon-cutting.
The campmeeting dates back to 1837, shortly after Cobb County was formed out of Cherokee County. During those times, Methodist ministers traveled widely as “Circuit Riders,” since many communities did not have their own clergy.
Most of the events are free and open to the public. The Campmeeting grounds are located at 2300 Roswell Road, across from East Cobb United Methodist Church.
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The Georgia Council on Economic Education is one of 20 nonprofits that received a 2021 Delta Community grant. It was awarded $10,000 to train K-12 educators to better teach financial literacy.
Submitted information and photo:
Delta Community Credit Union (www.DeltaCommunityCU.com), Georgia’s largest credit union with $8.5 billion in assets, will accept applications for its 2022 Philanthropic Fund grant program beginning July 1, 2021.
Throughout 2022, the program will distribute a total of $125,000 to non-profit organizations committed to the health and well-being of young people and financial literacy and education, including programs focused on science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEM/STEAM).
“Our Philanthropic Fund is part of our commitment to community investment and a means for Delta Community to broaden its impact,” said Hank Halter, chief executive officer. “The program has enabled us to support the worthwhile missions and efforts of more than 165 organizations that work alongside the credit union to enhance the quality of life and opportunities available in the communities where we are privileged to operate.”
Since making its first distributions in 2014, the Delta Community Philanthropic Fund has invested more than $750,000 in non-profit organizations that offer education, career training, and health and human services to tens of thousands of people in metro Atlanta.
The application window for the 2022 Delta Community Philanthropic Fund opens July 1, 2021 and closes Aug. 31, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. ET. Applications must be submitted via the online portal at www.DeltaCommunityCU.com/PhilanthropicFund.
In addition to its Philanthropic Fund, Delta Community invests in local communities through school sponsorships, scholarship programs, and support of chambers of commerce, industry partners and civic organizations.
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Wellstar Kennestone Hospital celebrated its 71st anniversary by hosting an ice cream social to thank team members for providing care to the community.
Submitted information and photo:
Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, the largest hospital in the nationally recognized non-profit Wellstar Health System, is celebrating its 71st anniversary. In addition, Wellstar Kennestone is marking a year of significant accomplishments and accolades that include national emergency and trauma care designations, as well as community and national recognition for service and care excellence.
“Wellstar Kennestone Hospital has proudly provided lifesaving and compassionate care to Georgians for 71 years,” said Mary Chatman, Wellstar Health System executive vice president and president of Wellstar Kennestone and Windy Hill Hospitals. “We are an integral part of the community we serve, and so grateful for the support we have received over the past year, which has been especially challenging for everyone.”
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After a presentation earlier this week from Cobb Fire & Emergency Services with safety-related tips for handling fireworks, Cobb County government has compiled the following information about when you can use them:
FIREWORKS USE IN COBB COUNTY Cobb County Code bans the use of fireworks from 9 p.m. to 10 a.m. This is spelled out in the county’s code under the noise ordinances. Violations are a misdemeanor offense and you can view the noise ordinances by going here: Cobb County Noise Ordinance
However, the state legislature has spelled out several exemptions to the county code in O.C.G.A. § 25-10-1 et seq. This allows exemptions to county ordinances for use of fireworks on specific dates and times.
December 31 (New Year’s Eve) – Fireworks may be discharged until 1 a.m.
January 1 (New Year’s Day) – Fireworks may be discharged until midnight.
The last Saturday and Sunday in May – Fireworks may be discharged until midnight.
July 3 – Fireworks may be discharged until midnight.
July 4 – Fireworks may be discharged until midnight.
The first Monday in September – Fireworks may be discharged until midnight.
To view the Georgia code section regarding fireworks visit: O.C.G.A. § 25-10-2 Fireworks in County Parks — Pyrotechnics are prohibited at ALL county parks per County Ordinance § 90-63.
Sec. 90-63. – Restricted or Prohibited Uses of Park Facilities
Pyrotechnics prohibited
It shall be unlawful for any persons to possess, display, use, set off, or ignite any firecracker, fireworks, smoke bombs, rockets, or other pyrotechnics.
We wish you a safe and happy Fourth of July holiday weekend and a glorious summer. Please be courteous and safe!
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The Rev. Dr. Steven Usry was to have been a part of “moving day” on Thursday in the United Methodist Church.
July 1 is the calendar date that UMC clergy take up new appointments, and Usry was to have moved into space at Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church in East Cobb.
He was appointed to oversee the largest congregation in the UMC’s North Georgia Conference in April by Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson.
But Mt. Bethel leadership’s dramatic and public decision to oppose his appointment has led to Usry having limited responsibilities for the time being.
The 10,000-member congregation has been roiled by Haupert-Johnson’s decision to reassign Dr. Jody Ray, the congregation’s senior pastor for the last eight years, to a non-ministerial role in the North Georgia Conference.
While Usry’s appointment is being accepted under protest by Mt. Bethel, he has been told there’s no office available for him at the main church campus on Lower Roswell Road. He’s also being paid only a portion of his salary while his Ray, his predecessor, remains in a prominent role.
Usry sent out a letter on Thursday addressed to the “Mt. Bethel family” expressing his disappointment with the opposition and his hope that the dispute can be resolved.
“For the past few months, I have been concerned that the present crisis would only get worse,” Usry wrote in the letter, in which he identifies himself as the Mt. Bethel senior pastor.
“Unfortunately, the actions by some at Mt. Bethel only exacerbate an already unhealthy situation,” he continued in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by East Cobb News.
He wrote that “the best path forward would have been to embrace healthy and Biblical pastoral tradition. Yet I know Mt. Bethel to be a great church. I am FOR Mt. Bethel. I will continue to seek solutions to the present crisis and will not be deterred.”
How many of Mt. Bethel’s nearly 10,000 members got the letter is uncertain. In sending his letter to those members for whom he has contact information, he noted in an e-mail that he had not been provided the church’s official e-mail address list and membership database.
Sybil Davidson, a spokeswoman for the North Georgia Conference, told East Cobb News that “the situation at Mt. Bethel is developing” and said that “the Conference is supportive of Rev. Dr. Steven Usry and appreciative of his faithfulness. Conference leaders are assessing the situation.”
She later provided East Cobb News a copy of a pastoral letter written Friday by Haupert-Johnson and addressed to “North Georgia United Methodists.”
She responded to Mt. Bethel’s actions by saying that “the United Methodist Church does not handle decisions, staff structure, nor compensation in this manner.”
The bishop wrote that “I am deeply concerned about the decisions being made by a small group of leaders at Mt. Bethel. These decisions appear to be in violation of the Book of Discipline [the denomination’s governing and doctrinal document]. I am also troubled that these decisions by a small group of leaders may not reflect the will of the Mt. Bethel congregation.”
She further stated that “I would emphasize that this crisis is unrelated to disaffiliation or theology. What has occurred is simply a rejection by the leadership at Mt. Bethel of the rules and procedures for our church as outlined in the Book of Discipline and amount to an obstruction of the appointment process and polity of The United Methodist Church. The appropriate Conference agencies are evaluating the proper response.”
(Haupert-Johnson’s full pastoral letter can be read by clicking here.)
On Thursday East Cobb News contacted Mt. Bethel leadership for a response to Usry’s letter, but has not heard back as of mid-afternoon Friday.
Part of the dispute concerns doctrinal issues regarding gay clergy and same-sex marriage that has been splitting the United Methodist Church in recent years.
Ray and Mt. Bethel also have protested that the bishop made the reassignment without proper consultation, and filed a grievance against her and a superintendent of the North Georgia Conference.
Ray also surrendered his UMC ministerial credentials and has been retained by Mt. Bethel as a pastor and CEO.
Larger concerns by Mt. Bethel and other conservative UMC churches stem from what they view as the denomination moving away from traditional interpretations of Christian scripture.
The denomination was to have held a conference this year to begin a disaffiliation process for churches wishing to leave, and Mt. Bethel, a conservative congregation, has been considered likely to do that.
But the conference has been postponed to 2022 due to COVID-19 measures, and in a press conference at the church in May Mt. Bethel announced its intent to disaffiliate.
Mt. Bethel is a founding member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a conservative organization created in 2016 that wants to establish what it calls the Global Methodist Church.
While disaffiliation cannot happen for another year, some Mt. Bethel members have urged the leadership in the interim to accept Usry, who resigned as senior pastor at Sugarloaf UMC in Duluth in May.
He’s considered a conservative theologically and among his supporters is Randy Mickler, who was Mt. Bethel’s senior pastor for 28 years.
But a Mt. Bethel member who spoke with East Cobb News said the church is being unfairly portrayed.
He said that while Usry “seems like a nice guy, he’s forcing himself on us.”
The Mt. Bethel member, who called Haupert-Johnson a “heretic,” claims a vast majority of members support church leadership and said there’s nothing draconian going on within the congregation.
“We’re a good-hearted church,” he said, adding that he’d be inclined to find another church home if Usry’s appointment is upheld, and many others would follow.
“They’re playing hardball,” the member said, referring to the North Georgia Conference. “They’re not giving me a choice.”
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Cobb Police said Friday they’ve arrested a Stone Mountain woman and charged her with concealing the death of another person after a toddler’s body was recovered from the banks of the Chattahoochee River in Cobb County on Thursday.
Sgt. Wayne Delk, a Cobb Police spokesman, said in a release that Breyania Cooper, 27, was booked into the Cobb County Adult Detention Center and is being held without bond.
Police said Cobb Fire and rescue personnel conducting a training session along the Chattahoochee River discovered the body of an unidentified child between the ages of 1 and 3 on Thursday morning in the Palisades Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (3444 Cobb Parkway).
Cobb Police and National Park Service Rangers were called to the scene and the Cobb Police Crimes Against Persons Unit got involved, according to police, who said the child’s body was placed in the custody of the Cobb County Medical Examination.
Police said that they believe that the child’s body was in the water “for more than a day or two” and it’s possible the child could have been missing from a location north of Cobb County.
Police said they are asking for the public’s help in identifying the child, and late Friday afternoon released a Georgia Bureau of Investigation artist’s sketch of the child.
Delk said Friday police have not established a connection between the child and Cooper, but that tips from the public led to identifying her as a suspect.
A toddler’s body was found off Cobb Parkway in the Palisades Unit of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Source: Open Street Map.
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Before beginning Independence Day weekend festivities, Cobb Fire and Emergency Services is asking that you practice some common-sense safety tips regarding fireworks.
The agency held a press conference and safety demonstration earlier this week, and DO watch to the end of the nearly 10-minute video below to see what can happen if you don’t take the simplest of precautions.
At the press conference, Cobb Fire officials said there was a related incident that occurred in the county over the weekend. Although they declined to go into too many details, they said the incident included injuries to lower limbs.
The leading fireworks safety statistic, according to the National Fire Professionals Association, is children handling sparklers.
You’re even being advised NOT to use a hand sanitizer before handling fireworks, because that can also produce a dangerous situation.
But the general message is even more adamant—if you’re not a pro at handling fireworks, leave that to the professionals.
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Dodgen Middle School math teacher Fred Veeder embraced by his mother Wende, after being named Cobb’s teacher of the year in 2018. ECN file.
We posted back in April about the multiple hospitalizations of Fred Veeder, a longtime math teacher at Dodgen Middle School who was named the Cobb County School District Teacher of the Year in 2018.
Veeder had been suffering from congestive heart failure and he died on June 23 at the age of 65, according to his obituary, which said he had been in hospice care.
Dodgen teacher Kari Viland, who organized an online fundraiser to help pay for Veeder’s medical expenses, said that “he was with his beloved family and was not in pain. We take comfort in knowing that his legacy will live on in the minds and hearts of so many. Please know that he so enjoyed receiving and reading all of your messages.”
She said there will be a memorial service for Veeder July 28 at Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church (4385 Lower Roswell Road) at 2 p.m.
In honor of his memory donations may be made to the Atlanta Humane Society or any other charity.
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