Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell got in touch to let us know a few more details of the start of the demolition of the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center.
Birrell said that process will start at 1 p.m. and that the public is invited.
Joe Glancy of the Sprayberry Crossing Action Facebook group that’s been pushing for redevelopment of the blighted retail center posted on Wednesday that fencing is starting to go up around the property that will become a mixed-use development.
“Cut throughs connecting Post Oak Tritt to East Piedmont will no longer be possible,” he said.
Construction on a project to include senior apartments, townhomes and some retail is expected to begin in August.
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The following Cobb food scores for the week of March 28 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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!
Earlier this week we saw not one, but two, giant signs against the May 24 East Cobb Cityhood referendum that were posted along the edges of the East Cobb Crossing Shopping Center.
They were produced by the East Cobb Alliance, the main group opposed to cityhood, and were planted in prime viewing range in the heart of the community—the Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road corridor.
But the Alliance noted in a Facebook post Wednesday night that the signs will have to be removed because “there was an internal miscommunication with the property owner/manager.”
The message didn’t indicate what the miscommunication was.
East Cobb Crossing is managed by The Shopping Center Group, and recently it welcomed a new Publix store.
East Cobb News has left a message with The Shopping Center Group seeking more information.
The sign above fronts Roswell Road at the intersection of East Cobb Drive; another is adjacent to Dick’s Sporting Goods on Johnson Ferry Road.
The Alliance has been handing out smaller signs with a similar design that have been placed in residential yards.
There are a few along Robinson Road and the Chimney Springs subdivision, as well as Indian Hills.
Some pro-cityhood signs were spotted along Paper Mill Road in the Atlanta Country Club area.
Representatives for the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood and the East Cobb Alliance will be squaring off in debates: April 19 by the East Cobb Business Association, and May 4 by the Rotary Club of East Cobb.
As for the East Cobb Crossing signs, the Alliance is asking that “if you have locations for these bold beauties let us know.”
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After decades of continuing growth, enrollment projections for public schools in East Cobb are expected to remain relatively stable in the near future.
A demographic report presented to the Cobb Board of Education in February showed that areas of the highest growth in Cobb County continue to be in the Smyrna and South Cobb areas.
That’s the focal point of new and near-future construction projects in the Cobb County School District.
Pockets of increasing enrollment in East Cobb have resulted in expansions and new classroom space in selected schools.
The newly adopted Cobb Education VI SPLOST calls for the replacement of the main classroom building at Sprayberry High School, as well as expansions and additions at Dickerson and Dodgen middle schools, and Bells Ferry, Kincaid, Mt. Bethel, Murdock, Sope Creek and Tritt elementary schools.
Dr. James Wilson, a former Cobb and Fulton superintendent, told school board members in February that Cobb County is back to where the suburbanization trends began in the 1950s.
“It just moved around,” Wilson said. “It has moved all the way around, and it has moved back to the south.”
The counterclockwise trends then shifted to East Cobb through the 1980s and then to North Cobb and West Cobb.
He showed a county land-use map showing that most of the undeveloped areas of Cobb are in western and southern areas. Cobb commission Districts 2 and 3, which include East Cobb, have less than 5,000 acres of undeveloped land combined.
“We’re running out of land,” Wilson said, noting that continuing the kind of large-scale residential development of previous times, including Chimney Lakes in East Cobb “is just simply not there.”
He cited 2020 Census statistics showing a sharp drop in county permits from the start of the economic recession in 2007.
“We’re not going to get back to the building of 2003 and 1998 and so on,” Wilson said.
Wilson also showed board members a chart (above) breaking down school-age groups in each high school cluster, with the Campbell High School attendance zone experiencing the biggest increases.
These figures too are based on 2020 Census data; the high numbers of ages 15-19 in the North Cobb zone are because of students enrolled at Kennesaw State University.
“This allow us to plan accordingly, Cobb Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said during the presentation, “where we might need a new high school, a new elementary school, and what the trend is telling us about families.
“They may start out in one area and then relocate to a different area. So this is very important data for us to be able to utilize.”
Wilson also showed enrollment figures by school from the start of COVID-19. The Cobb school district enrollment has fallen to around 107,000 from the nearly 112,000 students pre-pandemic.
You can watch a replay of the enrollment presentation by clicking here and then going to the Feb. 10 work session; the presentation begins around the 53-minute mark.
The tables below show five-year enrollment figures at East Cobb schools, starting with the disrupted 2019-20 school year, including the present 2021-22 school year, and projections for the 2023-24 school year.
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The Cobb County School District is continuing online registration for kindergarten and first grade for the 2022-23 school year.
There’s a special link to sign up for students who are new to the district. For parents who already have a child in the district, they can use their ParentVue accountto register additional new students.
The parents of new students must provide the following information:
Proof of residency: Home ownership documentation or lease/rental agreement; and current utility monthly statement;
Certificate of Immunization (Form #3231): Available from a Georgia physician or the Cobb and Douglas Public Health Department;
Certificate of Vision, Hearing, Dental, and Nutritional Screening Form 3300B:Available from a Georgia physician or the Cobb and Douglas Public Health Department and must be dated within 12 months of the first day of school;
Proof of Birth Date: The school will accept one of the following documents: a certified copy of Birth Certificate, Military ID, Passport, Adoption Record, a religious record authorized by a religious official, an official school transcript, or an affidavit of age;
Social Security Card or CCSD waiver Form JBC-4: The state will require the social security number for students applying for the HOPE scholarship.
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!
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Cobb Police said a woman and her dog were killed after they were struck by a pickup truck as they were crossing Sandy Plains Road near Sprayberry High School Monday night.
Police said the woman was walking her dog around 9:13 p.m. at the intersection of Sandy Plains Road and Whitlock Road when she crossed into the path of a Ford Ranger heading south on Sandy Plains.
The woman and dog were both killed on impact, according to police, who have not released her name pending notification of kin.
Police said the driver of the Ford Ranger, Robert Liebmann, 53, of Marietta, was not injured.
Police are asking anyone with information about the crash to call 770-499-3987.
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The centerpiece of the MarketPlace Terrell Mill mixed-use project will be under construction soon.
Kroger held a groundbreaking celebration Tuesday for its planned superstore at 1310 Powers Ferry Road.
It’s on the site of the former campus of Brumby Elementary School, and is the last component of the development to get underway.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, current commissioner Jerica Richardson and former commissioner Bob Ott were on hand, as were representatives of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance.
The Kroger store will total 90,000 square feet and will include a gas station. Completion is expected by March 2023.
Inside the store the features will include a cheese shop, expanded deli offerings, grocery pickup and self checkouts.
It will replace the Kroger store at Powers Ferry and Delk Road.
“This new store signifies Kroger’s ongoing commitment to the community and to the ongoing economic prosperity of the region,” said Felix Turner, Kroger’s manager of corporate affairs for the Atlanta division.
Kroger received $35 million tax abatements from the Development Authority of Cobb County, but a Cobb judge rejected issuing those bonds after a legal challenge from Larry Savage, an East Cobb resident who has run for Cobb commission chairman.
But in 2019, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the issuing of the bonds. Kroger had indicated it might pull out of the project if it didn’t get the tax breaks.
The 23 acres at the southwest intersection of Powers Ferry Road and Terrell Mill Road was rezoned for the mixed-use project in 2018, and regarded as a transformational redevelopment in the community.
In addition to a 289-unit apartment building, the $120 million MarketPlace Terrell Mill development includes retail and restaurant space.
Among the new business there is a Regions Bank, Lush Nail Salon and Ideal Dental. Restaurants include Chick-fil-A, Panera Bread, Wendy’s and Los Abuelos Mexican Grill.
The first building to be completed in the complex is Extra Space Storage, a self-storage facility.
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Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid will deliver the annual State of the County address on Thursday.
The event typically has been sponsored by the Cobb Chamber of Commerce but this year she opted for it to be conducted independently by county government.
The address comes as Cobb commissioners and county government officials are preparing for budget season—Cobb’s fiscal year starts on Oct. 1—and with four cityhood campaigns on elections ballots this year.
County department heads have been submitting their budget requests in recent weeks, and their requests total around $1.2 billion, an increase of nearly $180 million more than the current fiscal year 2022 budget.
Much of that comes from combined requests to add nearly 700 county employees to address staff shortages in a number of departments.
Only four new full-time positions were filled in the current budget and none were approved for FY 2020.
Cobb officials also have been addressing the three cityhood referendums coming up on May 24, including East Cobb, Vinings and Lost Mountain, and a likely referendum in November in Mableton.
At a town hall meeting last week at the Sewell Mill Library, they repeated estimates that if all four cityhood referendums pass—affecting more than 200,000 people, more than a quarter of Cobb’s population—the county would lose an estimated $41 million a year.
In April, Cobb commissioners will get a preview of the 2022 county tax digest, which typically is formalized in July as they are completing budget adoption.
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What had been the site of a longstanding Chevron gas station at one of East Cobb’s busiest intersections may soon house an oil change business.
Valvoline Instant Oil Change has requested a site plan revision from the Cobb Board of Commissioners to develop the acre lot for a 2,088-square-foot oil facility.
Filings with the zoning office indicate the facility will have three bays and will have right-in and right-out access only on Roswell Road (see rendering at the bottom).
There also will be landscaping a trash enclosure and 15 parking spaces.
Since rezoning isn’t required, the application doesn’t have to go to the Cobb Planning Commission. But county commissioners must approve changes to site plans.
Commissioners approved general commercial rezoning for the property in 1999, and it’s been the site of gas stations since the early 1970s.
The Chevron station closed in late 2020, and was demolished in early 2021, not long after we stopped in and snapped the above photo.
The Valvoline filings and county property tax records indicate that the two parcels making up the 0.95 acres have a combined appraised value of $822,240.
The owner of a 0.89 acre tract in that assemblage, Ruth McLaughlin, also owns 0.71 acres directly behind it that’s valued at $1.24 million.
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The debut food truck lineup includes Island Chef (Caribbean items), Willie B’s Sisters (soul/comfort food), Baltimore Crab Cake ATL and Hermanas Italian Ice.
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!
Money Smart Week 2022 will be held Saturday, April 9 – Saturday, April 16. This week-long free virtual programming provided by governmental, non-profit, and educational institutions will focus on supporting the needs of low-to-moderate income households to encourage greater financial well-being in our communities.
This year’s line-up includes:
Monday, April 11: 2 pm: Spend Smart. Eat Smart, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach (register here)
Tuesday, April 12, 2 pm: Credit: Build & Improve It!, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (register here)
Wednesday, April 13, 2 pm: Buying or Refinancing a Home: Options & Tools, North West Housing Partnership (register here)
Thursday, April 14, 2 pm: Social Security: Understanding Retirement, Spouse, & Survivor Benefits, Social Security Administration (register here)
View more details at www.moneysmartweek.org. Registration is advised. Questions for the panelists can be submitted during the registration process.
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 latest in a series of what Cobb government officials are calling objective “information sessions” about four cityhood referendums came to East Cobb this week.
One of those referendums will take place May 24 for a proposed City of East Cobb, which was the focus of a town hall Thursday at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
(You can watch a replay of the nearly hour-long town hall at the bottom of this post.)
Commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Jerica Richardson, whose districts include East Cobb, also attended, but they spoke only briefly, saying they can’t publicly take a position.
“I encourage you to ask the hard questions,” Richardson said, “because this is about your future. We want to make sure that you’re equipped with the information that you need so you can make the best decision for you and your family.”
She said she didn’t know at the time that she was supposed to have been impartial, although county officials typically have been mum on other referendums, including Special Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) extensions.
Cobb finance officers estimate the county could lose more than $41 million in annual revenue if all four cities—East Cobb, Lost Mountain, Mableton and Vinings, totalling more than 200,000 people—are created, with only a few hundred thousand dollars in savings.
Of that, around $23 million of that would come out of East Cobb, which unlike the other proposed cities wants to provide police, fire and E911 services.
That was the subject of many of the audience questions read by Cobb communications director Ross Cavitt.
Cobb public safety department heads repeated many of the same points they made at a March 10 town hall, saying the East Cobb financial feasibility study has incomplete information.
They said that transferring equipment and facilities and mutual aid agreements would have to be negotiated, and response times and fire insurance rates would likely rise for those living in a city of East Cobb.
Interim Cobb Police Chief Scott Hamilton said that response times vary, depending on what kind of call is dispatched, but that a “city would probably have fewer officers for major calls.”
Michael Schutz, the deputy Cobb Fire Chief, noted a recent house fire in Indian Hills that prompted a response from nearly 30 personnel and several engines and trucks.
In rattling off the staff and equipment at the two proposed East Cobb fire stations (currently Cobb 15 and 21), he said the numbers don’t come close to that total.
The East Cobb city hall would be located at the East Cobb Government Service Center, and a question was asked about how much it would cost to transfer that facility.
Cavitt read a statement prepared by the Cobb County Attorney that state law specifies only two hard figures about transferring county properties to a new city—$5,000 for a fire station (minus engines and other equipment) and $100 an acre for public park land.
After the town hall, Sarah Haas, a member of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, took issue not only with some of the county finance and staffing estimates, but also with the scope of the county’s information campaign (including an online resource page).
“It’s hard for me to believe that this information is purely educational,” she said. “I get the sense that they’re trying to instill fear, uncertainty and doubt, more than to provide information.”
Haas said the “financials don’t pass the smell test,” including county estimates that fire expenses in East Cobb would come to $12 million (the cityhood group’s financial study estimates an annual fire department budget of $5.7 million).
She said that previous cityhood efforts have always come with issues to be hammered out during a two-year transition period, including finances. A feasibility study provides only an outline for what a future city might provide.
“I’d love to have a crystal ball and say that this is what we should create as a budget,” said Haas, who led the cityhood group’s recent town hall meeting.
“There are always going to be unanswered questions about cityhood. We’re doing our best job to educate people about the benefits of a city.”
He’s concerned about high-density development issues that have prompted all four cityhood campaigns in Cobb County.
A member of the Cobb Neighborhood Safety Commission, Smith said he’s perplexed about the addition of public safety services in East Cobb, which also would provide planning and zoning and code enforcement services.
But he said recent zoning decisions on the Cobb Board of Commissioners—including the East Cobb Church mixed-use development and a controversial rezoning around Dobbins Air Base that resulted in an unusual land swap—have led to him support cityhood.
“It’s about having local control of zoning,” Smith said, adding that Cobb’s building codes are also a problem.
Smith said given recent developments, it’s crucially important to have a more locally focused governing body writing those codes to retain East Cobb’s suburban character and control how redevelopment—commercial and residential—is handled.
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The Cobb County School District will be paying a $2,000 bonus to all permanent full-time and part-time employees at the end of April.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced the bonuses at Thursday’s Cobb Board of Education meeting and said the funding comes from the district’s allotment of federal CARES Act money.
Permanent employees include teachers and administrators, paraprofessionals and other staffers who are not hired on a seasonal basis.
The state of Georgia previously said it would be giving similar bonuses to bus drivers, custodians, and cafeteria workers.
The Cobb school district did not indicate in a release issued after the meeting the total cost of the bonuses.
The Cobb school district has given two retention bonuses to school bus drivers and monitors during the current school year to help prevent staff shortages.
The district’s website has nearly 200 open positions posted. The Cobb school district has nearly 18,000 employees and is the largest employer in Cobb County.
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A second candidate in an April 5 special election for a legislative seat in East Cobb said this week he’s opposed to East Cobb Cityhood.
Mitchell Kaye, a former legislator and one of three Republicans in the four-candidate field for Georgia House District 45, issued a statement Wednesday saying that public safety services for the proposed City of East Cobb “continue to bother me.”
Voters in the proposed city will be deciding in a May 24 referendum on whether to create a city, and to approve a charter on how the city would be governed.
When cityhood legislation was filed in March 2021, it proposed planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation services.
But when a financial feasibility study was released in November, it included police and fire services. Cityhood leaders said public safety was an issue that kept coming up when they met with citizens and community groups over the last year.
Kaye said the initial services “offer a real benefit to local residents, but unfortunately the original legislation was hijacked to include an unnecessary public safety component.
“The more I looked into the public safety component, the worse it looked. In my 33 years in East Cobb, I have heard no complaints regarding our excellent police and fire protection,” Kaye said in his statement.
“Regarding our own police force, there will be no benefit, but costs will rise with the duplicative requirement for our own municipal court, municipal judge(s) and a jail.”
East Cobb is the only of four cityhood campaigns in Cobb proposing public safety. Lost Mountain and Vinings referendums also will be on May 24, and a Mableton cityhood bill is still pending in the Georgia legislature.
Early voting is underway for the District 45 special election, which was called in February when former State Rep. Matt Dollar, the East Cobb Cityhood bill sponsor, resigned his seat.
Dustin McCormick, the only Democrat in the special election, has said he is adamantly opposed to cityhood.
The other two Republican candidates, Darryl Wilson and Pamela Ayalon, previously told the MDJ they encourage voters to inform themselves about cityhood issues but didn’t state a personal position. East Cobb News has contacted both seeking further comment.
Wilson replied by saying he doesn’t have a vote on cityhood since he lives outside the proposed boundaries. He also told us this:
“Ultimately, all voices have to be heard and vote on the best way to control the character of your community.
“I believe that is what is about to happen in East Cobb with the referendum.
“The people will decide and I will represent the people.
“If you agree, I really need your vote and all of your neighbors friends in our district with the widest distribution possible.”
Kaye said he supports citizens having the right to vote on a referendum.
But in his statement he said that a friend’s home was destroyed last week by fire (and the man suffered extensive burns), and he noted the extensive response from Cobb Fire.
“They were able to use county-wide departmental resources, resources that a city the size of East Cobb could not,” Kaye said.
“This incident only reinforces my NO position on cityhood. The safety and well being of our community cannot be jeopardized.”
Early voting continues through April 1 for the special election in the current boundaries of District 45. The winner will fill the remainder of Dollar’s term, through the end of this year.
Cobb Elections has more information on who is eligible to vote in the special election, which is different from those who may be voting in the primaries.
McCormick also has qualified for primary in the new District 45. State Rep. Sharon Cooper, a Republican, has qualified after serving in District 43 since 1997.
Cooper is a co-sponsor of the East Cobb Cityhood bill has a primary candidate in Cobb GOP activist Carminthia Moore.
None of the special election GOP candidates qualified to run in the new District 45.
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The Cobb County School District announced Thursday that Dr. Thomas Flugum is retiring as the principal of Pope High School.
The news was announced after the Cobb Board of Education held an executive session where personnel matters are discussed.
Flugum’s retirement is effective June 1, according to Keeli Bowen, the Cobb school district’s chief human resources officer. His replacement has not been named, but new principal appointments are typically made in the spring for the following school year.
Flugum has been the principal at Pope since 2017, after arriving at the East Cobb high school in 2010 as a teacher and coach and later serving as an assistant principal.
He is a former Army officer and Cobb police officer who became a teacher and coach at a number of Cobb high schools. He was an assistant football coach at Sprayberry and Lassiter and was head football coach at Wheeler.
In October 2020, Flugum was charged with DUI in Woodstock in a case that is still pending in the Cherokee County court system.
Last year, he and Cobb school district officials came under fire from local Jewish groups after swastika graffiti was found in a boys bathroom at Pope. Flugum’s letter to the school community did not specify that it was an anti-Semitic incident; Rabbi Larry Sernovitz of Temple Kol Emeth later spoke to students on the campus.
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The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved construction projects for a replacement building for Eastvalley Elementary School and a sports complex near Walton High School.
The contracts recommended by Cobb County School District passed by 7-0 votes. The Eastvalley replacement facility will cost $36.7 million and the campus will be relocated to the former East Cobb Middle School site on Holt Road.
The Walton sports complex costs $6.738 million and will house the school’s baseball and tennis teams.
During a board work session Thursday afternoon, district officials said the Walton complex will have access points on Providence Road and Pine Road and will have 80 parking spaces.
The Walton complex has been delayed several months after residents in the nearby Independence Square subdivision expressed concerns about the baseball bleachers and public address system being located near their homes.
Jennifer Sunderland, who went public with those concerns, told East Cobb News on Wednesday that they have been addressed, “and we are pleased with the new design which moved home plate and concessions so they are not directly behind neighborhood homes.”
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said at the work session that the configuration of the baseball field has been switched 180 degrees, with the outfield fencing being located closest to the homes.
Board member David Banks said he has safety issues about students using a crosswalk at Bill Murdock Road and Pine, which is a three-way stop.
He told by staff that the district is discussing the possibility of having a traffic signal at that location.
The Walton complex is expected to be completed by the end of the year, while the new Eastvalley campus is slated to open for the 2023-24 academic year.
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LaVonya Williams-Tensley, owner of All Things Inspiration, a new Christian bookstore serving the East Cobb area, reached out to us about her business having what she’s calling a “soft opening” on Saturday.
The address is 2745 Sandy Plains Road, Suite 156, in The Corners Shopping Center (where the Queen of Hearts antique store is located), and the opening event lasts from 12-4 p.m. Saturday.
It’s the second such store for Williams-Tensley, who also has a store on Veterans Memorial Highway in Austell with the same name.
All Things Inspirational sells books and Bibbles, Bible study materials, church supplies, gifts, and games, music and DVDS. For more information you can click here or call 786-208-4560.
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 following Cobb food scores for the week of March 21 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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!
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!