Month: April 2022

Legislative special election in East Cobb to be decided

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Early voting has ended in a special election for Georgia House District 45, and final balloting will take place Tuesday.Georgia runoff elections

Eligible voters in the current District 45 boundaries—not the new lines that will be in effect for the May 24 primary—will be able to vote at their normal precincts on Tuesday.

The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Absentee ballots also must be returned by 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Cobb Elections has more information on who is eligible to vote in the special election, what the current District 45 boundaries look like, and how you can check your registration status.

The Cobb Elections office said there are 12 precincts with voters who are eligible to vote in the special election:

  • Chestnut Ridge; Dickerson; Dodgen; Hightower; Murdock; Mt. Bethel 1; Mt. Bethel 3; Pope (portion); Roswell 1; Roswell 2; Sewell Mill 1 (portion); Timber Ridge

As of Thursday, Cobb Elections said 1,861 people have voted in the special election in person. A total of 204 absentee ballots have been accepted.

The “jungle” special election includes three Republican candidates and one Democratic candidate who are vying to fill the remainder of the term of former State Rep. Matt Dollar.

If the leading candidate does not get a majority of the votes, there will be a May 3 runoff.

Dollar, a Republican who had been in office since 2003, resigned Feb. 1, and his successor will serve only through the end of 2022.

The Republican candidates are former State Rep. Mitchell Kaye and Darryl Wilson and Pamela Alayon, both of whom have been involved in Cobb GOP activities.

The Democratic candidate is Dustin McCormick, a project manager at McKesson.

Kaye and McCormick have both come out publicly against East Cobb Cityhood; Dollar has been the chief sponsor of a Cityhood bill that passed the Georgia legislature calling for a May 24 referendum.

McCormick is the only candidate in the special election who has qualified for the primary election in the new District 45. Current State Rep. Sharon Cooper of District 43 and Carminthia Moore have qualified as Republican candidates.

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The Art Place to hold 30th anniversary celebration event

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The Art Place

Next Sunday, The Art-Place Mountain View (3330 Sandy Plains Road) will mark its 30th anniversary with a free celebration for the community.

The event takes place from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and will include a gallery exhibition, music, a pottery demonstration, food and a theatre performance.

No reservations are required and all members of the public are invited.

The Art Place is a service of the Cobb Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs that offers a wide variety of arts classes and leases art and theatre space for community organizations.

Activities include summer camps for children and performances of the Center Stage North Theatre, a community theater group.

Cobb County converted restaurant space in East Cobb into an arts center in 1986, opening the Steeple House Arts Center the following year at Johnson Ferry Road and Paper Mill Road.

But demand for arts programming grew quickly, and the county embarked on building a larger facility that became The Art Place.

The volunteer support group Mountain View Arts Alliance was formed in 1993 to partner with The Art Place for programming, events and outreach.

The facility currently serves 20,000 members of the public on an annual basis, and holds a number of other community events.

 

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Cobb tax digest projected to rise by 10.49 percent in 2022

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Residential property values in Cobb are expected to rise by 13.15 percent in 2022.

Cobb Tax Assessor Stephen White is predicting that the county’s tax digest will grow by more than 10 percent this year, the first double-digit yearly increase in more than two decades.

In a release issued by Cobb government, White said that the projected rise of 10.49 percent is based on an additional $5 billion increase in the value of residential, commercial and personal property as of March 31.

That includes a predicted growth of 13.15 percent in residential values, an increase of 6.56 precent in commercial values and 0.83 percent more in personal property values.

The tax digest is the overall value of property—real and personal property, motor vehicles and public utilities—adjusted after such things and homestead exemptions and the senior school tax exemption.

For 2022, the tax digest is projected to be a record $48.4 billion. The 2021 tax digest is $36.1 billion.

In a statement accompanying the county release, White said that due to the strong real estate market in Cobb “it is apparent we need to make changes to values that are reflective of what properties are worth. Many neighborhoods have properties selling for more than our value. The majority of our residential properties will see an adjustment in their Fair Market Value on their assessment notice because our value for last year is no longer reflective of what properties are worth.”

The final 2022 tag digest numbers will be revealed in July. Residential assessment notices go out to Cobb homeowners in May and commercial assessments are issued in June.

White’s prediction comes as Cobb commissioners are bracing for a summer budget season.

In recent weeks, they’ve been hearing budget requests from department heads that 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.

Commissioners are expected to adopt a fiscal year 2023 budget by the end of July.

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Willeo Creek Bridge reopens after 10-month closure, delays

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Willeo Creek Bridge reopens

Work crews were putting the finishing touches on the newly reopened Willeo Creek Bridge Friday, 10 months after it closed for an overhaul.

There were construction trucks on the Cobb County side of the bridge and the roundabout linking Azalea Drive in Roswell with Lower Roswell Road and Timber Ridge Road when we drove by.

A few pedestrians were making their way along the expanded multi-use trails on either side of the $3 million bridge, which replaced a 60-year old bridge.

The joint project between the City of Roswell and Cobb DOT was delayed several times by the contractor.

Originally set to reopen last September, the bridge reopening was pushed back to last December, then March 2022 when Baldwin Paving Co. said it couldn’t meet that deadline.

The county threatened to issue fines for any further delays. On Wednesday, with just a day left in March, all forms of traffic reopened, just in time for spring break for the Cobb school district and the start of a busy spring and summer season for recreational activities along the Chattahoochee River.

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