The following Cobb food scores for the week of July 18 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!
The addresses include ZIP Codes and the subdivision names and high school districts are in parenthesis:
June 27
4900 Green Pointe Way, 30067 (Powers Pointe, Walton): Saravanan Venkatesan to Pawar and Bhagyashri Shrikant; $658,000
4185 Mulberry Drive, 30067 (Wyngrove, Walton): Cheryl Price to Gerald Misel and Anita Best; $1.5 million
5055 Gardenia Circle, 30068 (The Gardens at Parkaire, Walton): Tony Perotti Italy (USA) Inc. to Sheila Middendorf; $410,000
3609 Sawmill Terrace, 30062 (Hickory Bluff, Pope): Great Place Real Estate LLC to Opendoor Property Trust; $404,300
3335 Ranch Road, 30066 (North Forty, Sprayberry): Jason Michael Barfield to Khamphiou, Soy and Cameron Rassavong; $430,000
2909 Pathview Lane, 30062 (Wendwood, Pope): Nikki Miller to Kevin and Luz Lacourt; $558,000
2681 Meadow Ridge Court, 30066 (Pine Meadow, Sprayberry): James Harris to Schuman LLC; $297,500
4322 Vienna Way, 30062 (Alpine Forest, Pope): Jeffrey Smith to Andrew and Suzanne Boos; $550,000
1774 Hasty Road, 30068 (Hasty Acres, Sprayberry): Debra Foster and Linda Dobbins, executors of the estate of Nancy Baker to Adam and Elizabeth Hill; $370,000
1056 Azalea Circle, 30062 (Eastwood Forrest, Sprayberry): Albert Hammond to Narrow Gate Homes LLC; $295,000
774 Mary Ann Drive, 30068 (Valley Brook Wheeler): Karim Farhat to Opendoor Property Trust; $572,600
4240 Summit Drive, 30068 (Indian Hills, Walton): Harry and Cristin Zegers to Wynn Sowersby; $550,000
510 Indian Hills Parkway, 30068 (Indian Hills, Walton): David Gamble to Jennifer Vehorn; $700,000
4270 Cove Way, 30068 (Kings Cove, Walton): Opendoor Property Trust to RS Rental III A LLC; $380,000
3569 Oak Knoll Drive, 30068 (Heritage Woods, Wheeler): Opendoor Property Trust to to RS Rental III A LLC; $315,000
31 Lott Avenue, 30067 (Cloverdale Heights, Wheeler): SSDNJ Investments Corp. to Glaucio Magno Campos de Souza and Agma Rodriques Silva; $380,000
533 Robin Lane, 30067 (Red Oak Park, Wheeler): Opendoor Property Trust to Boulton Properties LLC; $305,904
June 28
1589 Tennessee Walker Drive, (Plantation North, Pope): Open House Atlanta Realty and Investments to Komatsuya Co. Ltd.; $600,000
4125 Inola Trail, (Indian Creek, Lassiter): Open House Atlanta Realty and Investments to Norihide Shirasaki; $533,000
4191 Longview Cove, (Chatsworth, Lassiter): Timothy and Margaret Kearns to Timothy Cullinane; $732,000
4220 Burns Heritage Trail, (Loch Highland, Lassiter): Craig and Stephanie Smith to Charles LaFage; $650,000
3957 Fairington Drive, Open House Atlanta Realty and Investments to Misho Co. Ltd.; $400,000
2733 Bentwood Drive,30062 (Bentwood, Pope): C&N Transformed Properties Inc. to Qingyu Luo and Katherine Lin; $539,900
1927 Hazelwood Circle, 30067 (Hamby Acres, Wheeler): Scott Loska to Kaitlynn Mockett and Christian Perez; $375,000
702 Cheswick Overlook, 30067 (Belmont, Wheeler): Thomas Tobin to Alan and Andrea Lam; $863,000
July 1
2640 Forest Glen Drive, 30066 (Forest Chase, Lassiter): Amy Cole to Claire Brady and Leonard Rose, trustees, Michael Christopher Brady and Lynn Marie Brady Revocable Trust; $333,000
2948 Summitop Road, 30066 (Lassiter): Marian Crowell to Din Muktar, Roberto Escanio and Kai Cenat; $2.4 million
3320 Devaughn Drive, 30066 (Village North Crossing, Lassiter): Paul John Fontaine, executor, estate of Helga Fontaine to Sidika Seker Celik; $426,000
3558 Chestatee Drive, 30062 (Shallowford Heights, Lassiter): David Wold to Nicolas Betker; $465,000
3401 Camelot Drive, 30062 (Camelot, Pope): Nicholas Collins to Robin James; $489,000
1980 Kramer Way, 30062(Holly Springs Crossing, Pope): Laura Lacagnina to April Snekszer and Amari Roberts; $409,100
1775 Millview Drive, 30062 (Barnes Mill Lake, Wheeler): Ina Zharnitskaya to Roxanne Hill; $343,000
861 Chestnut Lake Drive, 30068 (Hampton Woods, Walton): Matthew and Meghan Cronin to Abbas Arslan; $922,000
2369 Ashton Woods Court, 30068 (Ashton Woods, Wheeler): Stuart Winston Wells Jr., executor, estate of Stuart Winston Wells Sr., to Alex and Elizabeth Freemon; $485,000
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb County School District has pulled a redesigned logo for East Side Elementary School in East Cobb following complaints from parents and others in the community that it looks like the eagle crest from Nazi Germany.
In a note sent out on a non-official school-related Facebook page late Monday, the district said that “the school is aware of concerns about these logos, and therefore, we have paused to consider that feedback. We will be immediately reviewing the logos to determine needed changes.”
Also on Monday night, East Side principal Marcia Clark sent a similar message to parents. Both messages concluded by saying that “stakeholder input has been, and continues to be, important to our school, and we appreciate those who took the time to share their thoughts.”
East Side, which is marking its 70th anniversary this year, is one of several schools in the Cobb district with the Eagles nickname.
East Side is also located at Roswell Road and Indian Hills Parkway, across the latter from Congregation Etz Chaim, the first synagogue in East Cobb.
The new logo was sent out to parents via the district’s Cobb Teaching and Learning Portal.
In rolling out the new logos, a message to the East Side community said that “the new logo and badges were chosen to represent the Eagle soaring into excellence and to honor the history of our great school!”
On her Twitter account Monday night, East Side parent Stacy Efrat said that “our Jewish family has always felt loved and welcome” at the school and that “let’s assume this was an honest mistake and a coincidence.”
After getting Clark’s e-mail, however, Efrat said that “we don’t need to ‘pause to consider’ or ‘review’ the logos. They are symbolic of Nazi images and should be deleted immediately, full stop. The district should apologize to all East Side families for the harm that this has caused.”
Similar comments were made late Monday and Tuesday on other social media channels.
In response to a message from East Cobb News, a district spokeswoman said late Tuesday afternoon that “we understand and strongly agree that similarities to Nazi symbolism are unacceptable. Although this design was based on the U.S. Army colonel’s eagle wings, stakeholder input has been and continues to be important to our schools.”
She didn’t say who designed the logo or explain the process for coming up with a new one, except to state that “the District supports all re-branding requests and decisions by local schools, to ensure our schools are legally compliant.”
The “Reichsadler” or “Imperial Eagle” logo dates back in Germany before the Third Reich. But the Anti-Defamation League considers it a hate symbol, since it has continued to be adopted by neo-Nazi and related groups.
The German government continues to use what it refers to as a “Bundesadler” or “Federal Eagle” logo that’s designed differently from the Nazi-era coat of arms.
It’s been nearly a year since Pope and Lassiter high schools in East Cobb were vandalized with swastika graffiti in bathrooms that prompted a community outcry. Then-Cobb school board chairman Randy Scamihorn was invited to attend a Yom Kippur service at East Cobb’s Temple Kol Emeth.
The “Reichsadler” Nazi Eagle logo that the Anti-Defamation League considers a symbol of hate.
Last October Scamihorn introduced a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and racism that passed by a party-line vote after some members and citizens complained that the matter was added to the agenda late, and saying that the district still needed to do more to address acts of hate in the school system.
In February, photos surfaced of students at East Cobb Middle School wearing swastika armbands and giving the Nazi salute on campus.
The Cobb school district last year dropped the use of teaching materials from the Southeast Regional office of ADL, “No Place for Hate,” that critics continue to insist needs to be reintroduced.
On the East Side ES website, there’s no mention of the now-retracted logo. It did note that July 28, the Friday before the start of the new school year on Aug. 1, is “Eagle Day,” when parents and students can meet teachers and learn about and sign up for other school activities.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to hold a proposed rezoning for a new convenience store, gas station and car wash on Shallowford Road at Trickum Road for a month after community opposition surfaced.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell said in making her motion that the extra time was needed for the applicant to meet with residents over runoff, environmental and traffic concerns.
Southern Gas Partners, LLC is applying to change the current neighborhood shopping and general commercial zoning of two parcels totaling 3.1 acres at the southwest intersection of Shallowford and Trickum to neighborhood retail commercial.
That would allow for conversion of what had been a gas station to a fueling facility and convenience store similar to a Quick Trip or Race Trac and a car wash, according to the applicant.
The plans call for a 2,258 square foot convenience store/gas station that would operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week on the Trickum Road parcel.
Another 2,287 square feet would be used for a car wash to be built on 2.3 undeveloped acres fronting Shallowford Road that would be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
The Cobb Planning Commission voted to recommend approval earlier this month, but Birrell said nearby residents may not have been properly informed of the case, and there has not been a community meeting.
Her Planning Commission appointee, Deborah Dance, also was absent from the vote.
The Southern Gas Partners application had been on the county commissioners’ consent agenda Tuesday when a resident adjacent to the property turned out to show opposition.
Mel Skelton, who lives at the back end of the abandoned gas station property on Sims Court, said he was speaking on behalf of himself and neighbors in the Heatherwood subdivision.
He said he’s endured decades of runoff from a malfunctioning retention pond, a polluted creek and noise from the various businesses that have been there, none of them, including an auto repair shop, he said, that have “passed muster.”
He said the retention pond is practically in his back yard, and that his property, which is separated from the gas station property by a creek, is in a Class a flood zone.
It’s taken a couple of decades since the gas station was first built and the property cleared for wildlife to return, he said.
While Southern Gas Partners said it would be keeping existing wooded buffers, he’s concerned about round-the-clock lights and noise, especially because “when people get their car washed, they like to listen to their music.”
“I’m not against development, as long as it’s done right,” Skelton said of what’s become a community eyesore in an area that he said has many other similar businesses.
There are two other gas stations at the same intersection that also have convenience stores.
“How many car washes do we need, especially behind a residential area?” Skelton said.
Jim Courson, representing Southern Gas Partners, said his client is hamstrung by changes in the county zoning code over the years that have rendered those properties non-conforming.
“It is truly a hardship based for the owner simply because the classifications changed,” Courson said, “and it was through no fault of his own that he is sitting there with two pieces of property he really can’t do anything with unless you grant the rezoning.”
Cobb tax records show Southern Gas Partners purchased the current gas station property in 2017 for $401,800 and the undeveloped land last year for $390,000.
“It would change from an old outdated gas station to a current updated convenience store,” Courson said. “The owner is handicapped by not being able to do anything with the property as it sits there today.”
Carl Carver of the Cobb Stormwater Management agency said the applicant would have to provide for runoff management for the car wash area.
He also said both properties would have to be treated as “hotspots” requiring treatment to improve water quality prior to runoff discharge.
The site plan calls for right-in, right-out access only in eastbound lanes of Shallowford Road, but allows a left turn onto westbound Shallowford.
Amy Diaz of Cobb DOT said that since the left turn intersection meets the county’s minimum of being at least 250 feet from an intersection, that meets “our standard for full-movement access.”
Birrell said she was worried, given DOT’s current grade of “F” on Shallowford, and that Trickum has a “C.”
“I think it’s a safety issue,” she said. “I’m on Shallowford and Trickum a lot and Lassiter [High School] is right down the street. It’s very congested there for them to be turning left out.”
Diaz responded said it’s an area “where I would recommend using caution during high peak periods, but off-peak periods, probably not.”
She said DOT could take restrictive measures in the future if it “showed to be a safety issue.”
In other cases in the East Cobb area, commissioners approved on the consent agenda a special-land use plan permit extension for Mt. Bethel Christian Academy to continue use of temporary space on its North Campus on Post Oak Tritt Road for a high school campus.
Since moving there in 2013, Mt. Bethel Christian has used existing facilities it purchased from the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta for grades 9-12 and for some worship events for Mt. Bethel Church.
The new permit allows the school, which had received previous extensions, to continue through the end of August 2024.
Pulled from Tuesday’s agenda was a rezoning request by Green Community Development to build 16-home environmentally-friendly homes on rocky terrain on Kinridge Court near Sprayberry High School.
The planning commission voted to recommend denial after community opposition surfaced, but the Cobb zoning staff is continuing the case until August.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
“We just fell in love with the business and the community,” said Sprayberry Bottle Shop marketing manager Brij Patel, left, of his family’s 20-year ownership.
In just a half-hour span on a mid-day afternoon, Brij Patel darts around the Sprayberry Bottle Shop filling a variety of roles, almost seamlessly:
Speaking with vendors as marketing manager, checking out customers intermittently and surveying the merchandise in the store his family has grown into a community favorite.
Now 36, Patel has spent the majority of his life at the small box standalone building at 2692 Sandy Plains Road at Kinjac Drive.
He was a teenager when his parents sent him and his older sister to America from his native Kenya to stay with a family friend while they obtained work visas to follow them.
Like many an immigrants’ path, the Patels saw a familiar opportunity as a gateway into a upwardly mobile life in America:
Buy and build up a small business as a way for their children to have an easier time.
For Patel, however, the Sprayberry Bottle Shop is more than just a place that enabled his family’s aspirations to be realized. After 20 years in business, it’s become a way of life for him, too.
“We just fell in love with the business and the community,” Patel said. “Everyone [who comes to the store] almost knows everyone else now. This is pretty much all we have.”
Two decades later, the store is poised for new opportunities to thrive. It sits at what had been planned as the entrance for the redevelopment of the blighted Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center.
The shop’s parking lot, in fact, was split by the road leading to the now-razed retail center.
As the zoning case worked its way through Cobb planning circles, Patel retained an attorney, but negotiations broke off with the developer, Atlantic Residential, to create an entrance solution that worked for all parties.
Patel said all he wanted was for the back part of his lot closed off to cut-through traffic.
But grocery chain Lidl, which was to have been the anchor of the new mixed-use development, pulled out, concerned that traffic access would be difficult.
Fencing at the back of the Sprayberry Bottle Shop surrounds the former Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center.
The tentative entrance to the new development will be right-in and right-out for northbound traffic on Sandy Plains, but Patel said he hasn’t seen any further details.
While he’s glad the cut-through traffic is gone, the construction site also has cut off access from Post Oak Tritt Road and East Piedmont Road.
Patel said those are routes used by a good number of his customers.
“It’s been a bit of a business loss,” he admitted. “It’s gotten slower.”
But he’s optimistic that the redeveloped area behind his store “is going to be awesome for everyone.”
The redevelopment comes after more than two years of business challenges for the Sprayberry Bottle Shop.
While the shop never closed as the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, the stress and strain of labor and supply chain issues eventually took a toll.
Patel’s clever and upbeat updates on the store’s Facebook page (which has nearly 10,000 followers) on occasion included notices of the store closing for a couple of days, just to give everyone some time off.
Josh Stump, a manager at Sprayberry Bottle Shop, confers with a customer.
Social media pushes and word-of-mouth referrals from customers are “100 percent” how the store does its marketing.
Surrounded by five warehouse liquor stores within a small radius, Patel said special events are another way to give the shop some visibility.
Those events include auctioning off a rare bottle of Bourbon for $1,600 for a cancer charity. Patel estimates the store has helped raise $20,000-$30,000 over the years in community give-backs.
As the store marked its 20th anniversary on July 1, Patel penned a heartfelt message, detailing not only his family’s journey, but expressing gratitude.
“To see how much love our community has shown us over the years, leaves me speechless to this day,” he wrote. “I will keep pushing harder, and give back whenever I can and I will become the best game player on our team.
“I wouldn’t change a thing about anything today as I wouldn’t have 20 years ago. To growth, to positive energy, to great friendships in this beautiful world.”
Brij Patel said his family found “a little gem tucked away in Marietta” and “put everything we had into it over the past 20 years.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A grand jury report clearing the Cobb County School District of any criminal wrongdoing relating to procurement practices wasn’t mentioned by the Cobb Board of Education this week.
Neither board members nor Superintendent Chris Ragsdale brought up the topic at their monthly work and voting sessions Thursday.
But some public commenters did, urging compliance with grand jury recommendations to increase school board oversight into how the district awards contracts for goods and services.
The grand jury met in late June to hear the results of an investigation by the Cobb District Attorney’s Office after questions were raised about Cobb school district purchases of COVID-related equipment.
The procurement documents presented to the grand jury were from 2015-2021 and for contracts awarded to companies owned by a late Cobb business owner, David Allen.
The grand jury, in its May/June report released earlier this week, said a review of procurement documents “show a clear pattern of rewarding some contracts outside of” district policy, but those were mostly with resellers and not sole source providers.
The report doesn’t specify which contracts fell into that category; the grand jury concluded that since the Cobb school district is exempt from state procurement law outside of construction contracts, “no criminal violations have been found.”
The panel recommended that the district conduct a peer review of contracts exceeding $20,000 and have the school board approve contracts higher than $50,000 before they are awarded.
The grand jury also suggested that the Georgia legislature consider “changing state procurement law to include county boards of education” and that a grand jury conduct an annual review of the Cobb school district, as grand juries do for other public agencies.
The grand jury also concluded that “there is substantial evidence that the Cobb County School Board has not been operating as a well-functioning school board” that has affected procurement policies and procedures and has resulted in “insufficient transparency among board members, employees, and the stakeholders within the district.”
Stacy Efrat, an East Cobb resident who’s a leader of a school financial watchdog group called Watching the Funds Cobb, read from the report during her public comment period.
“The board and district leadership are trying to fool the public,” Efrat said. “Don’t take my word for it. Read the report. This was not an exoneration. This was a call for change based on the limited jurisdiction that the grand jury has over school district policies.”
Catherine Pozniak, a Democrat who is running against Republican board chairman David Chastain in November for the Post 4 seat in Northeast Cobb, urged the board to make all contracts subject to board approval.
She said the report concluded that “no one’s locking the bank vault at night. [Cobb schools] response is ‘Well, no one’s stolen from us yet.’ ”
“This report is a canary in the coal mine, and this board would be absolutely irresponsible if it did not take immediate action.”
On Friday, East Cobb News contacted Chastain for comment, but he has not responded.
East Cobb News also contacted the district, which issued a statement about the grand jury report that was also provided to other media outlets:
“We appreciate the grand jury explicitly rejecting false allegations of criminal wrongdoing by the District and its staff. We also echo their recognition of the transparency with which the District’s procurement staff operates.”
The district further stated that “some of the grand jury’s misunderstandings appear to come from a retracted report from one of the District’s accreditors.”
Cognia’s initial findings included concerns about how purchasing and resource allocation policies were being followed in the district.
But in addressing the school board in March when he announced the reversal, Cognia CEO Mark Elgar said that “people may disagree” with how the money is spent “but that’s not evidence that the policies weren’t followed.”
In its statement this week, the district said that “it is unusual that the grand jury would directly quote and rely upon an accreditation report that has been publicly rescinded by the issuing organization, because the report was directly contradicted by evidence presented by the District.”
It also thanked the grand jury for noting the availability of procurement information available on the district’s website.
“The District takes seriously its obligation to be a good steward of public funds and is confident that all District purchases follow state and federal law, Board policies, as well as all applicable procurement processes, standards, and best practices,” the district statement said.
The statement further noted that the Cobb school district is one of four in the country to receive the Accreditation for Quality Public Procurement Departments, a distinction it has held since 2003.
The district also employs four of 896 individuals worldwide who are certified procurement specialists by the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, Inc.
Allen, who died last year, also was the owner of AlertPoint, which had been the Cobb school district’s emergency system vendor for the past five years. A former AlertPoint employee has been indicted for bid-rigging in his position as a procurement officer in a Florida school district.
Ragsdale announced last month that the Cobb school district is changing its crisis system vendor for the coming school year.
In February 2021 all high schools in Cobb were put on a brief Code Red lockdown. After initially saying it was due to a false alarm, the district said the incident was a deliberate cyber attack on the AlertPoint system and called in the Cobb Police Department to help investigate.
The Cobb school district’s statement did not make any mention of other grand jury recommendations relating to the school board.
Those include a review of the board’s Code of Ethics “to develop, implement, and monitor a plan of accountability that holds each board member individually and collectively responsible for improving public perception of board leadership, district leadership, and ensures adherence of all board members in effectively and efficiently executing their established roles and responsibilities.”
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!
For one day only, on Monday, July 18 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., visit Cobb Animal Services to meet your new furrever friend. Adoptions for featured pets are FREE. No appointment is necessary, so just stop by the Animal Services lot, take a look at the featured cats & dogs in our trailer and bring one (or more) home as your forever friend.
Thank you to our sponsors who have donated refreshments and treats for the staff, volunteers and forever families who adopt at the event.
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 July 11 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!
A Cobb government spokesman said a repaving project along East Piedmont Road is scheduled to resume next week.
A reader checked in this week to ask about the East Piedmont Road repaving project, which we noted when it began in June that full completion was expected to take until August.
The reader said the top level of the road has been stripped off for some time along the stretch to be repaved—between Allgood Road and at the intersections of Pinkney Drive and Mainsail Road just below Sandy Plains Road—and wondered when work would resume.
“Aside from skipping a portion of the road that needed repaving a few years back, the local politicians are all blaming each other as to why it is taking three weeks to pave less than a mile of road between Allgood and Sandy Plains,” the reader said. “The road has been torn up since mid June and it is now mid July. Work is simply not occurring.”
We drove along that same route Friday morning heading to a previously scheduled appointment, and there are construction signs and cones all along the median and sides of East Piedmont. It is indeed a rough ride.
Later, we checked with Cobb County government, which passed along this information late Friday afternoon:
“The Contractor is scheduled to be back on East Piedmont Road early next week after the completion of Sandy Plains Road. Weather permitting Sandy Plains will be completed tomorrow night—crews are scheduled to work tonight and tomorrow night. The next activity on East Piedmont Road will be deep patching to repair soft areas. This will take a few weeks to complete, and then the final surface course will be placed. Completion by the end of August is still a valid date as long as the contractor remains on the project.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education voted Thursday night to retain the same property tax rate for the Cobb County School District—18.9 mills—that has been in place since 2007.
But it came after some debate that included attempts by two board members to reduce, or consider lowering, that figure.
A motion by board member Jaha Howard to cut the tax rate to 18.8 mills failed 2-3-1.
Voting present was vice chairman David Banks, who earlier had asked Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to provide a review of Cobb school budget options at the current level, and at 18.0 mills and 17.5 mills.
“I have some reservations” about the current millage rate, Banks said, in light of rising property tax assessments in Cobb County, and other economic factors, including inflation, as well as flattening school enrollment.
The original motion to adopt the 18.9 mills rate passed 4-1-1, with Howard voting against and Banks abstaining.
Although he didn’t mention it in his remarks, Banks has long advocated a LEST, or Local Education Sales Tax, to help provide general fund revenues.
Ragsdale emphatically responded that “it will not be my recommendation to lower” the millage rate.
The Cobb tax digest rose by 11.5 percent this year, Cobb schools chief financial officer Brad Johnson told board members at a work session Thursday afternoon.
(That’s less than Cobb County’s overall tax digest growth of 12.3 percent; the Cobb school district does not tax inside the city of Marietta, which has its own school system.)
The digest increase netted the Cobb district an additional $70 million in tax revenues.
Since the board did not “roll back” the millage rate to last year’s revenues, the district is required by state law to advertise a tax increase and hold three public hearings before officially setting the millage rate.
The last of those hearings was Thursday night. A resident spoke in favor of cutting the millage rate, saying her school tax bill was more than $1,000 higher than last year.
But Jeff Hubbard of the Cobb County Association of Educators asked the board to keep the millage rate as is to benefit teachers.
It includes what Ragsdale has said is the largest pay increase in Cobb school district history, ranging from between 8.5 and 13.10 percent for non-temporary employees.
Given that most of the budget is made up of teacher salaries, board member Randy Scamihorn said he could not support reducing the tax rate.
In addition to a required balanced budget already being approved, he said, “I will not vote against our teachers.”
Howard said the slight reduction he proposed “will not affect our teachers or educators at all” but it is important to send “a strong sign to the public, a sign of faith to our community.”
He said he was confident that the district could absorb the lower tax revenue, and board member Tre’ Hutchins agreed, “even if it’s minor.”
Banks asked Ragsdale to provide the budget estimates he requested by October.
But Ragsdale said a clearer picture wouldn’t be possible until March, when the Georgia legislature, which funds nearly half of the district’s budget, is in session.
Georgia law caps public school district millage rates at 20 mills. Ragsdale said some other school districts in metro Atlanta have higher rates than that that were grandfathered in before present limits.
Cobb is one of the few districts in metro Atlanta with a broad senior tax exemption for homeowners 62 and older.
District officials have estimated that the exemption comes to more than $100 million a year. But the board’s four-man Republican majority, including Banks—who receives the exemption—has refused to revisit the exemption, which could be removed only through a state constitutional amendment.
Ragsdale said Cobb is able to do what it does with the budget thanks to a fiscally-conservative finance department that “is all about being a good steward of taxpayer funds.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved a new policy that calls for the Cobb County School District to hire armed, non-police professionals to help provide security.
Right before the board’s vote on Thursday night, however, several citizens in the board room chanted “delay the vote!”
Board chairman David Chastain called for a recess.
After the board reconvened few minutes later, the protestors continued.
Board member Jaha Howard, attending the meeting remotely, made a motion over the chanting to postpone the vote to August, and some in the crowd applauded.
His motion was seconded by Tre’ Hutchins, but it failed by a 2-4 vote (board member Charisse Davis was absent from the meeting).
The original motion, to approve the policy, was approved 4-2, with Chastain, David Banks, Randy Scamihorn and Brad Wheeler voting in favor.
“Shame on you!” shouted some of the protestors, and as it was the last item on the agenda, Chastain adjourned the meeting.
Several of the protestors spoke earlier during a public comment period, opposed to more guns in schools and questioning the identities and qualifications of those who would be hired.
Some wore shirts that said “End Gun Violence” and “Moms Demand Action,” the name of a gun-control organization.
Parent Charles Cole said the policy is “rash, dangerous and vastly open-ended.
“Let’s get some more guns in schools and add some specifics later is not the way we should operate. . . . I understand the intent, but I do not understand or support the execution.”
The policy does not include numerous details due to security concerns, but the new personnel—who could be recruited from the ranks of retired military, law enforcement, and other agents—will assist existing resource officers on campuses, buses and various school functions and extracurricular activities.
While they will be trained as officers in the CCSD Police Department, the armed guards will be paid on a different scale and do not have to be certified by the Georgia POST (Police Officer Training Standards) Council, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said.
He announced last month the addition of such personnel, along with a new security alert system and Code Red drills at every school in the 2022-23 school year that begins Aug. 1.
During a school board work session Thursday afternoon, Ragsdale said the district, like public safety agencies in general, is struggling to hire police officers. POST certifies all law enforcement in Georgia, including school districts that have their own police departments.
“If the board gave me a blank check” to hire a resource officer for every school, “I could not do that,” he said.
The Cobb school district has 67 police officers to cover 114 school campuses. The new armed guards would be “badged” employees of the school district, and select personnel on those campuses would be notified of those who are carrying arms in the schools on a “need to know” basis.
The new guards also will undergo background checks and psychological evaluations and will have annual firearms training.
“We are not going to arm personnel who are not fully vetted,” Ragsdale said.
“This policy will allow us to embark upon that path to make sure we are doing everything possible” to beef up security, he added, in the wake of the deadly elementary school shootings in Uvalde, Texas in May.
Ragsdale also said he is adamant that teachers will not be armed, and the new policy bars teachers and other personnel with classroom supervisory roles from bearing weapons.
The initial policy proposal would have allowed teachers to be armed if they met certain qualifications and in extraordinary exceptions, but Ragsdale withdrew that provision.
When asked by Banks if every elementary school in the district currently has a resource officer, Ragsdale said that “we cover every school but we don’t have an officer at every school.”
Hutchins asked if the new guards would be under Ragsdale’s purview. He said they would report chiefly to Ron Storey, the district’s public safety director, “but I won’t say they won’t only report to Storey.”
Howard said he had concerns about the policy, saying that he’s seen “no data or evidence that more armed professionals will make our students and staffers safer.
“It sounds like we are creating a group of gun-carrying professionals who are not police officers.”
Other commenters who spoke against the policy included Alisha Thomas Searcy, a former Cobb legislator and the Democratic Party nominee for Georgia School Superintendent, and Cobb SCLC president Ben Williams.
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!
The Georgia Symphony Orchestra Chorus enthusiastically invites singers to participate in two open rehearsals and to preview the coming season.
Musical highlights for 2022-2023 include selections by Hogan, Whitacre and Coleridge-Taylor. Carl Orff’s masterpiece Carmina Burana will conclude the season. The GSO Chorus is under the direction of Bryan Black, and rehearses on Tuesday evenings beginning August 16.
Open rehearsals will be held on Aug. 16 and 23 at 7: 30 p.m. at the Marietta Performing Arts Center, 1171 Whitlock Ave., Marietta.
The Georgia Symphony Orchestra also announced this week that it has been approved for a $10,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support its annual Sensory Friendly concerts.
Those will take place on April 15, 2023 and will feature these 50-minute programs, as the orchestra relaxes house rules and encourages the audience to respond to the music however they choose; such as around the concert hall, dancing, or vocalizing along with the music.
A pre-program instrument “Petting Zoo”and a Quiet Zone also are provided.
“It is a tribute to the GSO’s board, staff and musicians to have received this grant from the NEA,” GSO Executive Director Susan Stensland said. “We are excited to contribute to the arts and culture of our region in such a unique and positive way for members of an often-underserved community.”
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Members of the Georgia U.S. House delegation and Georgia U.S. Sen Jon Ossoff have filed bills in Congress to change the name of the Veterans Administration regional office in Atlanta after the late Sen. Johnny Isakson.
“Senator Isaksonspent decades of his life in service to Georgia and our great nation,” said U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of the 6th Congressional District in a statement issued by her office.
“Senator Isakson’s career left an unforgettable mark on the U.S. Senate and the country as a whole. We shared a passion to make Georgia the best place to live and raise a family, and a dedication to upholding our nation’s commitment to the men and women who served in our armed forces. I am proud to join with my colleagues to support this billthat salutes hislegacy of service to Georgia veterans.”
Isakson, a realtor from East Cobb, died in December 2021 from Parkinson’s disease, after a 45-year political career in the Georgia legislature and Congress.
In the U.S. Senate, Isakson, a Republican, was chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee.
“He worked across the aisle to ensure that we honored the sacrifice of those who have served in America’s armed forces,” said U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, like McBath a Democrat from the 3rd District. “He retired from Congress as Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Naming the Veterans Affairs Atlanta regional office after him is a fitting tribute to this proud son of Georgia. I am proud to lead this bill with Congressman Allen to honor Senator Isakson’s legacy with the support of Georgia’s entire U.S. House delegation.”
Georgia Congressional members also wrote a letter to veterans committees in both houses saying that Isakson “championed important reforms to improve the quality and accessibility of services for our nation’s military veterans. We believe that Senator Isakson’s service to the veterans of Georgia warrants this tremendous recognition, and that naming this facility is a fitting tribute to his legacy.”
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 front of Mt. Bethel Church in July 2021, before its battle with the United Methodist Church went to court.
The words “Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church” once engraved on a marquee on its main campus on Lower Roswell Road were scrubbed several weeks ago.
That was in June, when the large East Cobb congregation entered into a settlement with the United Methodist Church to resolve more than a year of public disputes and legal wranglings.
A little more than a month later, the split has become official. Mt. Bethel Church is no longer part of the second-largest Protestant denomination and is an independent church.
Less than a month after entering a formal settlement with the North Georgia Conference of United Methodist Church, Mt. Bethel has fulfilled its obligations in a consent decree.
The Conference Board of Trustees issued a statement Wednesday saying that both parties “recently signed documents that bring resolution to the matter” and that they “appreciate all who have worked patiently and prayerfully to reach this point of resolution.”
No further details were announced, but the consent decree, filed in Cobb Superior Court, required Mt. Bethel to pay the Conference $13.1 million in 120 days. The church conducted a fundraising drive and received a loan to meet that obligation.
Other terms of the decree also no do not permit Mt. Bethel to use certain portions of its properties as offices or headquarters for another religious denomination for several years.
The church also cannot sell any of its Lower Roswell Road properties for seven and a half years without giving the UMC and the North Georgia Conference the right of first refusal to purchase them.
Mt. Bethel has been a founding member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a consortium of conservative Methodist congregations that eventually founded the Global Methodist Church, a new denomination that went into effect in May.
The UMC has planned a separation process for conservative churches to leave over theological issues, particularly regarding human sexuality.
The UMC currently bans gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriages but is likely to change those policies.
However, the denomination hasn’t been able to meet collectively since COVID-19 and its next general conference has been delayed to 2024.
Mt. Bethel officials said when the consent decree was signed in June that they are remaining independent.
Robert Ingram, the lead attorney for Mt. Bethel, previously told East Cobb News that his clients wanted the settlement to include a disaffiliation vote that would have been less costly than what was in the consent decree.
But he said the Conference, “despite our pleas, never did that.”
The dispute began in March 2021 when the Bishop of North Georgia reassigned Rev. Dr. Jody Ray, Mt. Bethel’s senior pastor, to a Conference position on racial reconciliation.
Mt. Bethel leaders balked, saying they weren’t properly consulted and declared their intent to disaffiliate, while Ray turned in his UMC ministerial credentials.
He was retained by Mt. Bethel as a pastor and CEO and has continued in those roles ever since.
Those and other actions by Mt. Bethel prompted charges by the Conference that the congregation—with nearly 10,000 members is the largest in its domain—was violating the UMC’s Book of Discipline governing documents.
Mt. Bethel also refused to accept the Conference’s newly appointed senior pastor, Rev. Dr. Steven Usry, who has since been meeting with disaffected members.
The Conference attempted to seize church property and assets, declared Mt. Bethel not to be a church in good standing, and entered into mediation before filing a lawsuit last September.
Mt. Bethel filed a counterclaim and after several months of litigation, asked Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark to lead settlement talks.
A church picnic has been scheduled at Mt. Bethel for Aug. 14 after its late service.
A group of Mt. Bethel members who opposed the church’s fight with the North Georgia Conference continue to worship and have fellowship and support events at a variety of venues.
Last month, North Georgia Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson met with them at Mt. Zion UMC in East Cobb.
The Friends of Mt. Bethel group has been worshipping once a month at Roswell UMC and has been having “shepherding” events at the East Cobb Library and prayer meetings at Mt. Zion.
Fellowship potlucks are scheduled for this Sunday and Aug. 14 at the clubhouse at the Sibley Forest subdvision.
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!
NASA Ambassador Chris Thompson will present the Exploring the Early Universe with the James Webb Space Telescope program at Sewell Mill Library, 4880 Lower Roswell Road, on Monday, July 18 at 6 pm.
The free program will feature the story of the advanced space observatory JWST along with the latest images and discoveries from the farthest reaches of space. Register at http://ow.ly/zy7L50JTahv.
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 Lassiter Theatre Troupe performed a musical version of “The Addams Family” this spring.
Proposed renovations to the Lassiter High School theatre and classroom additions and renovations at Dickerson Middle School and Dodgen Middle School will be considered by the Cobb Board of Education Thursday.
Contracts to start all three projects are on the board’s agenda, first for discussion at a work session Thursday afternoon and then for approval Thursday night.
The work session begins at 2 p.m. and the voting session starts at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover St., Marietta.
An executive session follows the work session, and the board will conduct a final public hearing on the 2022 millage rate and tax digest at the same venue at 6:30 p.m.
The full agendas for the meetings can be found by clicking here.
The Cobb County District will ask the board to spend $365,334 to hire an architect for the Lassiter project.
That figure is around 5 percent of the full construction cost and the renovations would “expand, upgrade, and renovate the current theater at Lassiter,” according to a district spokeswoman.
The theatre facility is separate from the Lassiter Concert Hall.
The school board also will be asked to hire a construction manager for the Dickerson and Dodgen projects, which include classroom additions and renovations.
Those projects have been scheduled for completion by July 2023.
All three projects will be funded with revenues from the current Cobb Education SPLOST V sales tax collection.
The Cobb school district is proposing to keep the millage rate at its current 18.90 for property taxes.
But because of growth in the Cobb tax digest for 2022, the district must advertise a tax increase, since it is not rolling back the millage rate.
The Cobb school district is taking in $65 million more from local property taxes than in 2021, due mostly to rising assessment. The “roll back” rate would be 16.719 mills.
After the final public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the school board is scheduled to vote on the millage rate at the voting session.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A Sedalia Park ES student is greeted by staff at a STEM event Tuesday. Photos by Daniel Vehar/Courtesy Cobb County School District
The eve of Amazon’s Prime Day on Tuesday netted a big benefit for the STEM program at Sedalia Park Elementary School in East Cobb.
As students gathered for a summer STEM event, Amazon announced it would be making a $50,000 donation for STEM activities at the school.
According to a release sent out by the Cobb County School District, the donation will help Sedalia Park upgrade a number of STEM-related facilities, including its technology lab and production studio.
In addition, Principal Tiffany Jackson said, “Amazon has helped open the doors to create a new Science Lab outfitted with state-of-the-art technology for our students and teachers!”
Activities included a STEM challenge including style art to decorate the science lab, and students took home a free STEM kit.
Plenty of Amazon-provided supplies also were on hand, with STEM-related uses in mind.
“It is our hope that through this giving event, local students will have greater access to the tools needed to support their overall educational experience,” Terreta Rodgers, Amazon Head of Community Affairs, Atlanta Region, said in the release.
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 current Good Mews cat shelter location opened in a standalone building on Robinson Road in 2015. ECN file photo.
The Good Mews Animal Foundation, a no-kill cat shelter in East Cobb, has announced that founder Gloria Skeen Cornell has died.
The organization posted a notice on its website and Facebook page on Monday.
“Gloria’s passion for animal welfare was no secret. She became inspired early in life after witnessing animal abuse and vowed to one day do what she could to put an end to it,” read the message by the shelter’s board of directors.
Gloria Skeen Cornell, Good Mews founder
A former flight attendant, she inadvertently started what became Good Mews out of her townhouse in 1988, taking in an abandoned cat after returning from a trip, then added another stray after that.
The shelter moved to space on Sandtown Road in Marietta, then to East Cobb, initially at the Fountains at Olde Towne shopping center.
When that center was razed for a medical office building, Good Mews built a standalone building on Robinson Road and relocated there in late 2015.
The shelter typically holds up to 100 cats at a time, and Good Mews also has created a foster cat program for about 30-40 cats.
Since its opening Good Mews has placed more than 10,000 neglected, abandoned and abused cats in homes and has an average adoption rate of 450 cats a year.
“It’s a place where thousands of homeless kitties found their forever home, a place that helped Cobb County Animal Services achieve no-kill status, a place that provides on-site TNR services to surrounding low-income areas, and an inviting place many consider a home away from home,” the Good Mews message read.
“Although there are many more programs and community involvement that have come to fruition since Gloria’s founding, we wouldn’t be here without her.”
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!
Tianya Hunter, a recent graduate of Sprayberry High School, is a recipient of a college scholarship from the Cobb Community Foundation.
Hunter is one of three inaugural recipients of the CCF’s Fostering Education Scholarship Fund. They are awarded to students who have been in foster care settings and are aging out as they leave high school.
Hunter, who is 19, plans to attend the College of Coastal Georgia, a four-year public university in Brunswick.
The other recipients are Collins Arrey of Campbell High School, who will be going to Albany State University, and Thinh Nguyen of Duluth, who’s headed to Georgia State University.
The three students combined received $7,500 in scholarship money.
“The instability of life in foster care often proves to be a distraction from learning and school performance,” the CCF stated in a release announcing the scholarship recipients.
“Financial resources, mentorship, support, and stability are not commonly available to help these individuals complete degree programs that lead to well-paying, stable employment. This is the reason why caring individuals in our community have joined together to fund these awards.”
Everlean Rutherford and Isaiah Wilcox created Village Connection which is an organization that supports children in foster care by providing duffel bags containing essential care items. Melissa Conti is a business owner and philanthropist who has a heart for children in foster care. The Cobb Community Foundation introduced the 2 Village Connection leaders to Melissa Conti, and the three of them worked to make the scholarship happen.
The program is the result of efforts by Everlean Rutherford and Isaiah Wilcox, who created Village Connection, an organization that supports children in foster care by providing essential care items. They were introduced to Melissa Conti, owner of Innovative Fitness in Kennesaw, who joined forces to create the scholarship fund.
CCF said it’s accepting donations for scholarship recipients for future years, and they can be made by clicking here.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
