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 Atlanta Country Club in East Cobb is once again the venue for the Cobb Library Foundation’s annual “Booked for the Evening” fundraising gala.
It’s set for Friday, June 9, and the guest speaker is author Patti Callahan Henry, the author of 16 historical and contemporary novels, and a podcast host featuring her novels.
She is the recipient of The Christy Award Book of the Year, The Harper Lee Distinguished Writer of the Year and the Alabama Library Association Book of the Year.
A resident of the Birmingham area, her latest novel, “The Secret Book of Flora Lea,” was recently published, and is a New York Times bestseller.
It’s the story of a woman who discovers a rare book that has connections to her past, long-held secrets about her missing sister and their childhood spent in the English countryside during World War II.
The subjects of some of her previous novels include Florence Nightingale, C.S. Lewis and the 1838 shipwreck of the Pulaski off the coast of Savannah
The honorary chairman of the event is Gary Miller, CEO and President of Greystone Power.
The gala takes place from 6:30-10 p.m. on June 9 and tickets may be purchased by clicking here.
The Cobb Library Foundation provides support for the Cobb County Public Library System. For information e-mail: cobblibraryfoundation@gmail.com.
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!
With Mother’s Day coming on Sunday the East Cobb bookstore Bookmiser will hold a launch event for a mom-oriented novel.
Jennifer Golden is the author of “Anonymous Mom Posts,”and on Saturday she’ll be at at Bookmiser (3822 Roswell Road) from 1:30-3 p.m.
Mimosas and treats will be served, and you can click here to register.
Goldin is a Miami native and an audiologist by training and has done some writing on the side. Now a Dunwoody resident, this is Goldin’s first novel. Here’s what the story is about:
“Laura Perry is fed up with the snarky attitudes of the moms who post on the Hamilton Beach Moms’ social media page. She hopes the new anonymous posting feature will remind this community they are here to support each other. She enlists her friend, Gabriella, to be a co-moderator. While Gabriella is intrigued by the page, she wonders if the virtual interactions are doing more harm than good. She and Laura hatch a plan to organize an in-person fundraising event, hoping to help the moms connect in real life.
“But, as the moms start to reveal their secrets anonymously, irreverent comments pour in, and the page ignites with controversy. With the in-person event approaching, will one mom’s plan for revenge bring the entire community to the brink?!”
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!
“I feel bad for those who think this is Cobb County,” Cupid said in reference to certain public commenters who speak at Board of Commissioners meetings.
Continuing tensions between Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid and some public commenters who have been speaking at public meetings boiled over again this week, following her remarks delivered at her annual State of Cobb address.
Near the end of that speech last Thursday (you can watch the video replay below; her speech begins around the one-hour mark), Cupid took aim at citizens who have been critical of her tenure, as well as media coverage.
“I’ve got more important things to do than to sit here and read a gossip column about what people think the BOC is doing,” she said. “Or to get my panties in a bunch when people come and criticize us during public comment. We have lives to help, we have a county to move forward, we have agencies to run.”
Those comments came after several references to what she said was political polarization in Cobb since she and a black female Democratic majority on the five-member commission was elected in 2020, claiming that “I have never seen boards of commissioners treated the way we are.”
Cupid said that “what happens if someone comes to Cobb and opens up the paper? Or goes to a BOC meeting? They might think we’re bass-ackwards. I’m serious! That’s not who we are.”
She encouraged citizens who agree with her “All in Cobb” theme to sign up to comment at meetings.
But some of the frequent commenters she’s sparred with had their own response at Tuesday’s commission meeting.
East Cobb realtor Pam Reardon said that “I wish that we could get away from calling people racists, which unfortunately the chair did.”
Reardon, who’s been active in Cobb Republican politics and supported East Cobb cityhood, argued that what Cupid is objecting to are political differences.
“When we come to this podium and talk, we are adamant about our values and the way we want our government to run,” said Reardon, who has been a critic of county budget, tax and spending priorities, as well as high-density zoning.
Pam Reardon
“We are not racists. We are just having a different point of view. . . . We cannot be ‘One Cobb’ if we have a commissioner who is dividing us.”
She also opposes a 30-year transit tax referendum next year that Cupid is floating, saying “we do not want MARTA in Cobb” because crime will increase.
Another regular to that podium, Leroy Emkin, read from a blistering column in Spotlight South Cobb News that called Cupid’s speech a ‘State of Contention Address.’
That publication was founded Shelia Edwards, a black Democrat who lost to current Post 4 commissioner Monique Sheffield in 2020 in the campaign to succeed Cupid.
Edwards, who has been highly critical of Cupid on a regular basis, said in the column about the State of Cobb address that “an evening with Cupid would not be complete unless she introduced race to defend or complain about whatever is going on with her. This time it was credited for the unfair criticism she gets on her leadership. The chairwoman said the attacks on her administration were unprecedented and implied they were racially motivated.”
After hearing Emkin read those remarks, Cupid said that “I’m trying to think when I mentioned race at all. I find it odd to be impugned as a racist by those who bring up race more than I do.”
The political insider column in the Marietta Daily Journal concluded Wednesday by saying that “We don’t know if Chairwoman Cupid’s reference to ‘gossip column’ was directed at Around Town, but we can admit that over the years we’ve been called much worse.”
Cupid is scheduled to appear in East Cobb later this month, as the featured speaker at the May 31 meeting of the East Cobb Civic Association.
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!
Jack Xu, a senior at Walton High School, is one of four students from Georgia and among 161 nationwide to be named a U.S. Presidential Scholar.
The Georgia Department of Education Wednesday announced the news of the 59th such class, which is chosen by the U.S. Department of Education.
Students are selected for “their accomplishments in academics, the arts, and career and technical education fields.”
Xu is an honor student at Walton and this year was named a STAR Student by the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.
He was a varsity swimmer and also participated in a number of academic and other extracurricular organizations at Walton, including the East Cobb chapter of AYLUS, or The Alliance of Youth Leaders in the U.S., of which he is a former president.
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 National Merit Scholarship Corporation is continuing to announce recipients of its 2023 scholarship program this spring, this time for $2,500 scholarships from its own funds.
Three of the students from East Cobb attend Wheeler High School, two are from Walton High School and one each are seniors at Lassiter High School and Kell High School:
Erin E. Cooney, Lassiter. Probable career field: Landscape Architecture
Gavin J. Du, Walton. Probable career field: Consulting
Rithu A. Hegde, Wheeler. Probable career field: Computer Science
Shaunak R. Karnik, Pope. Probable career field: Computer Science
Kabir A. Maindarkar, Wheeler. Probable career field: Chemical Engineering
Lakshmi Valliyappan, Wheeler. Probable career field: Medicine
Chaitanya Sri Yetukuri, Walton. Probable career field: Business Administration
According to the NMSC, they are among the 2,500 students chosen nationwide for this particular scholarship, from a field of 15,000 finalists.
They are “judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.”
The criteria includes their academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned; scores from the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test; contributions and leadership in school and community activities; an essay; and a recommendation written by a high school official.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Cobb commissioners on Tuesday upheld the reversal of an initial denial of a beer and wine license to the Cleaver and Cork retail butcher shop in East Cobb.
Commissioners voted to uphold the Cobb License Review Board’s reversal on their consent agenda, and it’s a process we’ve written about before.
There are requirements in the Cobb County Code for alcohol-serving businesses located within certain distances of residential neighborhoods, public/government buildings and houses of religious, unless they appeal.
In this case, Cleaver and Cork, located in the Shops at Woodlawn (1062 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 162-D), is less than 300 feet from homes and less than 600 feet from a church or school (Johnson Ferry Baptist Church and Johnson Ferry Christian Academy).
The Cobb Business License Division’s denial was appealed to the License Review Board, which voted to reverse that decision on April 27. The appeals are given final consideration by commissioners.
There was no known community opposition to Cleaver and Cork’s request for a beer and wine license.
Other businesses in the same retail center that have been granted alcohol licenses are the Publix store and the newly opened First Watch restaurant.
Cleaver and Cork, which opened last November, said it wants to sell craft beer and boutique wines as part of the store’s offering of gourmet meats, specialty cheeses, breads, charcuterie boards, pasta and desserts.
Audrey Stine, the Cleaver and Cork owner, said during the appeal hearing that “every customer will be required to present a government issued ID to purchase alcohol. Ms. Stine stated the consequence for an underage sale will be immediate termination.”
All of the alcoholic beverages sold there will be for off-premises consumption, she said, adding that employees found to have sold beer or wine to underage customers will be terminated.
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!
Not long after Cobb commissioners approved a site plan change last month to allow for a King’s Hawaiian restaurant in Northeast Cobb, the California-based company decided it would not go ahead with those plans.
Jason Linscott, a principal at Stein Investment Group, which owns the property at Gordy Parkway and Shallowford Road where the eatery was proposed, said King’s Hawaiian made the decision a week after the zoning hearing.
He said the reason was that the conditions included in the approval “weren’t going to make it work.”
In particular, Linscott cited a required 40-foot buffer between the back of the property and the adjacent Harrison Park tennis courts.
Stein had applied to reduce that buffer to just four feet for parking and drivethru access. But Commissioner JoAnn Birrell referred to a 1980s stipulation when the land was previously rezoned about a 40-foot buffer, saying reducing it “would set a precedent. It was put in place for a reason.”
During the hearing, Garvis Sams, Stein’s attorney, said not being able to reduce the buffer would cause “a considerable re-engineering” of the restaurant.
Linscott said that after the vote Stein “tried really hard” to keep King’s Hawaiian on board, but to no avail.
“It’s a little deflating,” Linscott told East Cobb News, saying he’s not sure what kind of development his company can get approved for that land.
East Cobb News has contacted King’s Hawaiian seeking more information.
It’s uncommon, but not unprecedented, for zoning applicants to pull out of projects after they’re approved. In another Northeast Cobb case in 2021, Pulte Homes withdrew from developing a 92-home subdivision on 50 acres on Ebenezer Road near Blackewell Road.
Linscott said there were other conditions that were approved at the request of the Gordy Architectural Control Committee and the East Cobb Civic Association that also were “not going to work” for King’s Hawaiian.
There also was some opposition from nearby residents about traffic issues, similar to those that prompted commissioners to reject plans for a Lidl grocery store at that intersection.
The land proposed for the King’s Hawaiian restaurant (with the gold star) sits at a busy intersection near Lassiter High School.
Birrell suggested in her motion to approve that Stein purchase adjacent county-owned land to address the buffer issues, but Linscott said that involved a complicated process involving title searches and other factors that also proved to be difficult to pull off.
“We tried to find other ways to do it,” Linscott said, but ultimately, King’s Hawaiian “felt they had given a lot of things” to open the company’s first restaurant outside of its southern California base.
“They said they didn’t feel like they were welcome,” he said.
King’s Hawaiian first filed for a site plan amendment in mid-2022, but didn’t get a hearing before commissioners in March.
The 1.14 acres on which the restaurant was to have gone is shaped like a wedge, next to the self-storage facility that Stein built after getting rezoning in 2021 to convert the former GTC Cobb Park 12 movie theater.
“We’re basically starting over,” Linscott said, saying “it’s not feasible to do a restaurant without getting into that buffer.”
Linscott said “we’ll do something there. I hate that it couldn’t have been something like this.”
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!
As I packed my East Cobb News swag bag into my car Saturday morning, I took a deep breath.
I’ve been promoting this community news venture in a variety of ways since launching it in the summer of 2017, mostly on my site and newsletter and before the local business community.
But going before the larger community was something different. The Taste of East Cobb event on Saturday was a great opportunity to meet some of my readers, spread the word about it to those who weren’t familiar and reinforce the value of local news, community information and small business advertising.
It couldn’t have been a better day on the grounds of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, weatherwise and otherwise.
People stopped by the booth, picked up pens, magnets and other goodies I laid out for them, chatted and signed up for the newsletter.
Many of them said simply this: “I really like what you do and I just wanted to tell you that.”
Or words to that effect. Also this:
“Keep up the good work.”
“I love how local it is.”
The response was exactly what I was hoping for, as the audience for East Cobb News continues to grow. Thus far in 2023 we’re averaging between 150,000-200,000 page views a month, and between 70,000-100,000 unique visitors a month.
More than 8,200 of you subscribe to the Sunday newsletter. What I wanted to gauge was what readers were interested in.
Not surprisingly, many of you said it was updates on local businesses and restaurants, as well as zoning cases and development issues.
Some wanted more political news, others wanted more news of a certain political bent, and some were grateful for news about events at East Cobb Park and other community venues.
For the newcomers who signed up, I mentioned the Community Guide of services, businesses and community entities. For those interested in advertising, I’m sending rate information.
One of my current advertisers, real estate agent Sheri Hardy, stayed for a while and offered her testimonial for advertising with East Cobb News, and left behind some Atlanta Braves schedules that were scooped up by many of you.
Oh, and the food. I was lucky enough to be located between the booths for Mediterranean Grill and Belen de La Cruz: I had gyros to the left of me and empanadas to the right.
The kind of community gatherings that we went without for a couple years seem so much more vital and meaningful now. I’ve attended the Taste of East Cobb before, and it’s different when you’re a sponsor.
You really get an appreciation for what it takes to stage such an event when you learn more about what happens behind the scenes.
The folks at the Walton Band Parent Association do a phenomenal job, and I’d like to thank them for how well they worked with this first-time sponsor. Thanks to Pam Duffy, who first reached out to me in February about getting involved, 2023 event coordinator J.J. McKelvey and photographer David Wilson, who let us use some of his many photos from the event, including the cool aerial shot below.
While event proceeds go to Walton High School’s band program, the entire community benefits as well from having such a festive gathering.
I can’t wait for the Taste of East Cobb next year, but East Cobb News will be doing more of these events in the coming months so stay tuned!
And thanks for your readership! As always, feel free to get in touch with your thoughts by e-mailing me: wendy@eastcobbnews.com or calling: 404-219-4278.
The Hand and Stone Massage and Facial Spa had to relocate for the redevelopment project underway at The Avenue East Cobb, and the move has been ideal for the business that first opened in the retail center in 2016.
Last week staff held a grand reopening, treating visitors to mini-massages and refreshments, and showing them around the expanded new space in Suite 900, in the former location of the Sunglass Hut, adjacent to one of the new “jewel box” restaurant buildings that’s under construction.
Hand and Stone ‘s new quarters feature 4,500 square feet with 17 rooms—most of them private suites for massages—in April, and the relocation took place the day after Easter, with the reopening the following day.
“Moving seven years in one day—I don’t think we’ll ever do that again,” said Amy O’Nell, the spa’s senior operations manager. “But it’s been incredible.”
In addition to its core services, Hand and Stone offers waxing, cryoskin treatment and other esthetic services
There’s an introductory tier for massages (Swedish, hot stone and Himalayan salt) and facials (Clarity and Dermalogica) for men, women and teens.
Specialty massages include deep tissue, prenatal and for sports and there are a number of options for cryoskin therapy, which is a non-invasive treatment and freezes and destroys fat cells.
O’Neill said all of the spa’s massage therapists are licensed in the state of Georgia, and one of the private rooms includes two beds for a “couple’s massage.”
She said those often include a mother and daughter, sisters or friends.
Hand and Stone also offers a membership program and accepts walk-in customers, but recommends reservations.
The spa is open Monday-Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and on Sunday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. For information call 770-565-0808.
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!
Belen de la Cruz Empanadas drew good, steady crowds for samples. ECN photo.
The weather was fantastic and the crowds were huge for the 2023 rendition of the Taste of East Cobb, which is a major fundraiser for the Walton Band Parent Association.
More than 100 restaurants, vendors and sponsors (including East Cobb News) set up booths offering food samples, company swag and even mini chiropractic adjustments.
Various bands performed—Walton High School Jazz Bands, Wheeler High School Jazz Band, South Cobb High School Jazz Band, Dickerson Middle School Jazz Band, Dodgen Middle School Pops Ensemble, and Hightower Trail Middle School Jazz Band.
There also were raffle prizes and drawings, and guests voted for their favorite vendors.
We were fortunate to be seated near two savory restaurants, Mediterranean Grill, and Belen de La Cruz: gyros to the left of us and empanadas to the right.
Thanks to David Wilson of the Walton Band Parent Association for sharing some photos. We’ve identified his shots in the photo gallery below.
One of the jazz bands playing at the Taste of East Cobb. Photo: David Wilson
The Chick-Fil-A Woodlawn mascot made the rounds. ECN photo
Walton sports announcer Mark Aston was the emcee for the day. Photo: David Wilson
Cobb’s finest took part in the festivities. Photo: David Wilson
A drone shot of the Taste of East Cobb venue. Photo: David Wilson
East Cobb News was proud to be a Taste of East Cobb sponsor for the first time. ECN photo
Temple Kol Emeth held a Holocaust Remembrance Day observance with a special Shabbat service at the East Cobb synagogue on April 14 and participated in the Parade of Scrolls in Savannah on April 16.
The solemn observation—Yom HaShoah—preceded the international day of observance from sundown on April 17 to the evening of April 18.
The observation also includes educational programs, testimonials from survivors and the lighting of yahrzeit, odr memorial, candles.
“As fewer survivors remain, the congregation at Temple Kol Emeth feels it is more important than ever to remind the next generations about the atrocities of the Holocaust so that it may never happen again,” said Temple Kol Emeth President Jodi Roberts.
“In a time in history when we recognize the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Yom HaShoah calls upon all of us —Jews and non-Jews—to remember the six million Jewish victims and their efforts to resist the Nazi forces. Holocaust Survivor Day reminds us to fight antisemitism and other prejudices in order to be the upstanders the world needs.”
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!
Front row left to right: East Side Elementary Youth Essay Contest winners Cameron Courant (5th grade), Stella Eagen (4th grade), Polly Funk (4th grade) and Gianna Sitaf (3rd grade). Back row left to right: Ryan Behrens (Community Development, Delta Community), Jessica Williams (Assistant Branch Manager/Johnson Ferry Road, Delta Community) and Maria Clark (Principal).
Four students from East Side Elementary School in East Cobb were named recipients of the 2023 Delta Community Credit Union Youth Essay Contest in April.
The contest, held in April in recognition of National Credit Union Youth Month, was open to third, fourth, and fifth graders, and 21 students from metro Atlanta schools were chosen. Delta Community received more than 130 entries and selected seven winners from each grade level.
The East Side students are third-grader Gianna Sitaf, fourth-graders Stella Eagen and Polly Funk and fifth-grader Cameron Courant.
Each of the recipients was awarded a $100 youth savings account. Here’s more from Delta Community about the essay content:
“Winning essays included responses from students that said they would save money for altruistic causes like donating to the National Brain Tumor Society, building a wildfire refuge for animals, or providing necessities for those in need. Another student said they would save money to build a school, and another would save to pay for college.”
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!
Ebenezer Downs contains a lake that’s been used by the public for fishing. ECN file photo.
Nearly three years after a master plan was approved for a new passive park in Northeast Cobb, the project is getting closer to getting underway.
On Tuesday the Cobb Board of Commissioners will be asked to approve a design contract for what’s been named Ebenezer Downs Park.
It’s located on Ebenezer Road near Canton Road and contains 18 acres the county purchased in 2018 with proceeds from the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum.
Funding for the design and construction comes from the 2022 Cobb SPLOST (Special Local-Option Sales Tax).
According to an agenda item (you can read it here), $3 million has been earmarked for the entire project, and $544,828 has been spent, primarily for the master plan.
Its features include a fishing lake and lakeside pavilion, walking trails, a playground and a 30-space parking lot. One of the former homes on the site would be used for small events, including wedding receptions and private parties, and public restroom facilities would be built.
The entry to the park would be aligned with the Ebenezer Road entrance to Noonday Baptist Church.
Two companies bid for the design contract, with WSP USA Environment & Infrastructure, Inc. the low bidder at $218,625.
But the agenda item states that a selection committee voted to award the contract to Pond & Company, which bid $238,450, as it was the “top-ranking firm.”
Included in the design contract are cost estimating, bidding assistance and construction administration services.
A timeline for completing the work wasn’t included. Once the design project is finished, commissioners will have to approve a construction contract separately.
For a larger view of the Ebenezer Downs Park master plan, click here.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners will get an update on the county’s memorandum of understanding with the Atlanta Braves about Truist Park and The Battery and conduct a public hearing on the county’s proposed strategic plan.
They also will be asked to approve a recommended ranking of the top three qualified firms to conduct a disparity study of the county’s procurement policies.
The meeting starts at 9 a.m. at the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta). You can read through the full agenda by clicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
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!
Unicyclists from Mt. Bethel Elementary School are a regular feature at the EAST COBBER magazine parade. ECN file photo.
EAST COBBER magazine announced this week that it’s resuming its signature parade and community festival this year after a nearly four-year hiatus.
A message on the magazine’s website said the event date is Saturday, Sept. 9, with the parade marching off from Mt. Bethel Elementary School at 10 a.m. and down Johnson Ferry Road to Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. where the festival continues until 5 p.m.
It will mark the 25th staging of the festival, which along with the parade hasn’t been held since 2019 due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the sale of the magazine last year from founder Cynthia Rozzo to Laren Brown, the publication’s former advertising representative.
Rozzo started the magazine in 1993 and began the parade in 1995.
After the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, the magazine went from publishing 11 times a year to six times a year. At the start of 2023, the EAST COBBER began publishing again on a monthly basis, with a combined June/July issue.
Mt. Bethel Christian Academy will hold its inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame induction ceremony next Friday, May 12.
The first inductee is Roger Kaiser, who helped establish the school’s athletics program in 2003 and served as its first boys basketball coach.
The event takes place at 7:45 p.m. on Friday, May 12, following MBCA’s Baccalaureate ceremony in the library of the Lower and Middle Schools campus (4385 Lower Roswell Road).
The creation of the Athletics Hall of Fame comes as Mt. Bethel Christian marks its 25th anniversary.
Kaiser served in his dual roles at Mt. Bethel until his retirement in 2018.
Mt. Bethel Christian began its sports programs with the middle school grades, then expanded when the academy began high school classes in 2014.
The Upper Campus is located at 2509 Post Oak Tritt Road, where a new athletics complex is being built. After competing in a private Christian athletic association, Mt. Bethel’s varsity high school teams now participate in the Georgia High School Association.
Football teams were added at Mt. Bethel two years ago for fifth and sixth grade students, and in the current year two teams were formed with fourth-through-eighth grade students.
Kaiser is a former basketball star at Georgia Tech who also served as athletics director at Life University.
He is a member of the Georgia Tech, Life and West Georgia sports halls of fame and the Georgia and Indiana basketball halls of fame.
Those interested in attending the hall of fame ceremony are asked to RSVP@mtbethelchristian.org.
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!
Drift Fish House & Oyster Bar returns as one of the participating restaurants in the Taste of East Cobb Saturday.
The weather is predicted to be perfect for many of the events on our weekend calendar, in East Cobb and beyond, as May swings in full gear.
As we’ve been noting in recent weeks, the Taste of East Cobb is back Saturday from 11-5 at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (955 Johnson Ferry Road), with savory bites, the smooth sounds of Walton High School jazz bands and plenty of family-oriented fun and entertainment.
Parking and admission are free; you purchase the food tickets. All proceeds go to the Walton Band Parent Association to support the school’s band programs.
For the first time, East Cobb News will have a booth at the festival as a gold sponsor, and we’re thrilled to be involved. Stop by, say hello and pick up some ECN swag!
More spring plant sales are continuing this weekend, with the Sope Creek Garden Club Plant Sale on Saturday from 9-4 at Temple Kol Emeth (1415 Old Canton Road). Admission is free, and hundreds of plants and shrubs from members’ gardens will be on sale.
Garden baskets will be raffled off, and decorative garden items, plant stands and bird houses also will be sold.
And a couple of things going on at East Cobb Park (3322 Roswell Road) this weekend:
On Saturday, the Cobb County Water System will have a Sewell Mill Creek Cleanup event from 10-12:30. All the equipment will be provided; you should come with waterproof clothing and closed-toe shoes.
On Sunday, a second consecutive Music in the Park concert takes place from 4-6, featuring the local duo The Woody’s. It’s rescheduled from a postponement in April and is sponsored by Wellstar. Bring your own food, blankets/chairs, pets and friends/family and enjoy Fleetwood Mac and rock covers, among other popular tunes.
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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!
An Atlanta man was given a life sentence this week after a Cobb Superior Court jury found him guilty of raping a woman in her apartment in the East Cobb area.
The Cobb District Attorney’s office said that Cam Melikoglu, 34, must serve 25 years in prison and will be on probation for the rest of his life following the sentencing by Judge Julie Adams Jacobs.
According to the DA’s office, Melikoglu was at a home on Aug. 3, 2020, for drinks and dinner with friends that included two women who are sisters.
Prosecutors said that the victim became heavily intoxicated and her sister took her to her apartment off Wylie Road.
The victim’s sister and Melikoglu messaged each other on Instagram, with Melikoglu saying he wanted to check on them “due to some tension between others at the party,” the DA’s office said.
Melikoglu arrived at the victim’s apartment and her sister let him stay there overnight because it was late, the DA’s office said.
According to his arrest warrant, the attack took place around 3 a.m.
Prosecutors said sometime during the night Melikoglu went into the victim’s bedroom and raped her while she was passed out, and when she woke up he was still in her bed.
The DA’s office said her injuries were “consistent with sexual assault” and his DNA was present. After an investigation by the Marietta Police Department, Melikoglu was charged with rape and was indicted on that felony count.
At the trial, the victim, now 30, testified, according to the DA’s office, as did her sister and others at the party. The jury returned a guilty verdict earlier this week.
“This defendant is a predator. He saw an opportunity and he took it,” Cobb assistant District Attorney Lindsey McClure-So said in a statement. “He thought because the victim was unconscious when he raped her that she wouldn’t say anything. The victim should be commended for her bravery to come forward with what happened to her and to give testimony in front of her rapist.”
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