The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration on Tuesday appointed Gerry Miller to run the department on an interim basis.
Miller retired as an assistant elections director in Cobb in 2021, and also was an elections supervisor in Fulton and Henry counties.
The Cobb Elections office has been without a director since Janine Eveler retired in April.
Miller was the department’s preparation center director for 11 years, and will serve in the interim capacity as the board conducts a national search for a permanent successor.
“We are grateful that Gerry has agreed to come out of retirement to help lead our elections team,” Cobb elections board chairwoman Tori Silas said in a statement issued Tuesday by Cobb County government.
“We believe he will provide steady leadership while we work to expand our search for a new Elections Director.”
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 far as routine business goes with the Cobb Board of Commissioners, approving neighborhood requests for street lights is as routine as it gets.
When at least 75 percent of a subdivision’s residents sign a petition in favor of pursuing a request for a street light district, that request typically gets added to the commissioners’ consent agenda.
There were four such requests on Tuesday’s consent agenda in various parts of the county.
But for an East Cobb subdivision whose residents include some who’ve wanted street lights for decades, a public hearing was called.
There was some opposition from homeowners living in the Brookcliff subdivision, located off Old Canton Road north of Sewell Mill Road, and a public meeting was requested.
Several others turned out to voice their support for the Brookcliff Street Light District, which would assess a monthly street light service charge for homeowners after the lights are installed by Cobb DOT.
Commissioners voted 5-0 with little discussion to approve the request, but Commissioner JoAnn Birrell noted the novelty of the event, which also was discussed at an agenda work session on Monday.
She said in her more than 12 years in office, she doesn’t recall such a hearing over street lights.
The public hearing and ensuing conversation Tuesday spanned more than a half-hour.
Brookcliff opened in the early 1980s and comprises 155 homes, which are valued in the $400,000 range and above.
It’s a neighborhood of rolling hills straddling Sewell Mill Creek to the north. Like many East Cobb subdivision, it has a formal homeowners association with mandatory dues for homeowners who must abide by legally binding requirements and covenants.
Brookcliff also has a swim/tennis facility and other regular activities, such as a garden club and book club.
What Brookcliff doesn’t have are sidewalks and street lights. Some residents have been eager for the latter for almost as long as they have lived there.
Brookcliff resident Walt Strother
Walt Strother, one of the original homeowners of Brookcliff, said during the hearing that trying to get street lights “was never a spur of the moment decision or effort. For the better part of the last 40 years, several marginal attempts have been made, most recently 20 years ago.”
But ineffective HOA leadership and organization undermined those attempts, Strother said.
Three years ago, he added, “there was a collective enough is enough,” beginning a 27-month journey to making a formal application.
That’s 85 percent in response to the question “What can we do to make Brookcliff a better place to live?”
Strother said the response “was immediate and overwhelming. Street lights.”
He noted that Cobb officials in the late 1970s expressed a desire for all neighborhoods to have street lights.
The Brookcliff POA has collected $45,778 in fees from residents to be forwarded to Cobb DOT, which will install poles and lights.
Residents will pay $9.80 a month for 36 months for installation and upfront fees, then will be billed $3.80 a month after that by the Cobb County Water System.
One of his Brookcliff neighbors, Mike Gault, moved there in 1996, and said “Brookcliff has always been an incredibly dark” neighborhood.
He said when he first moved there, he would walk his black Lab at night after work and spent a lot of time dodging cars.
Gault said the lack of street lights also has been an issue with school bus stops in the winter, with shorter daylight hours.
Cindy Krakowski, a Brookcliff homeowner, was opposed to the new street light district, saying the HOA doesn’t have the authority to use money collected for swimming and tennis use, and claimed the organization was in the red by $54,000 this year.
“They knew if they had to ask every homeowner in the neighborhood for $300 for this initiative, they wouldn’t have gotten 75 percent of the votes,” she said.
Mike Kelly, the current Brookcliff POA president, said the body has met the street light requirements and that it properly followed by-laws in doing so.
In referring to Krakowski’s claims, he said “disengagement from the process is not an excuse” and that the POA reached out extensively to residents for feedback, communication and meetings.
He said the $45,788 sum represents the highest cash balance in the POA’s history and in a slide he showed during the hearing, indicated it would be ahead of budget after paying for the street lights.
“There is no diversion of funds,” said Kelly, noting that the street light request was included as a line-item in the POA budget. “There’s no question there’s a mandate from Brookcliff.”
More than 85 percent of Brookcliff residents said they wanted street lights.
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!
After her husband was arrested, pleaded guilty and sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting a Kell High School student, Jen Faison started a true-crime podcast to process what had happened.
“Betrayal: The Perfect Husband” explores the saga of Spencer Herron, named a Kell Teacher of the Year, who engaged in multiple extamarital affairs and eventually was accused by a female student of sexual assault.
In 2019, he pleaded guilty in Cobb Superior Court to five counts of sexual assault on the Kell campus and was sentenced to serve five years in prison and 15 more on probation.
The documentary is a three-part series that explores, from Faison’s perspective, what she thought was a “storybook romance” that went badly wrong.
The series finale includes an interview with Rachel, the Kell student who accused him of assaulting her when she was 16. According to court filings, Herron admitted to having sex multiple times with a student on campus from early 2016 through the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Faison and Herron were sweethearts at Berry College and married more than two decades later, after he was teaching video production at Kell. He also was a member of the Cobb County School District’s Superintendent’s Teacher Advisory Council shortly before his arrest.
She was a television producer who moved to Georgia to be closer to him as their relationship deepened.
He had been previously married and divorced, but it wasn’t until his 2018 arrest by Cobb Police in connection with the Kell allegations that Faison began to learn about her husband’s double life.
The Hulu series includes material first presented in the podcast about Faison discovering photos of naked and scantily clad women on his e-mail server.
Herron was released from prison on June 1, according to the documentary, but the Georgia Department of Corrections has no further information since he was incarcerated as a first-time offender.
A review of “Betrayal” by the Daily Beastconcludes that the documentary “is stretched thin for maximum melodramatic purposes, lowlighted by cheesy drone shots and songs whose on-the-nose lyrics seem designed to inspire eye-rolls and guffaws. Yet its core tale remains compelling, especially when, during its closing chapter, it lets a sexual abuse survivor detail the step-by-step means by which she was groomed into participating in a criminally inappropriate relationship.”
Republican John Cristadoro, who is seeking the Post 5 seat on the Cobb Board of Education, has filed a financial disclosure report showing nearly $30,000 in contributions.
That’s nearly a year before the 2024 primaries in what’s expected to be an expensive race.
According to a report filed with the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration, Cristadoro received $18,337 in contributions from a variety of individuals and entities through June 30.
He also loaned himself $10,000 for a total of $28,337 in contributions, according to the report (you can read it here).
He is one of two announced candidates for the Post 5 seat, which is held by Republican David Banks, and which includes the Walton, Wheeler and Pope High School clusters.
The other is Democrat Laura Judge, who filed a report showing $9,255 in contributions, also through June 30 (you can read it here).
Candidates are required to file financial disclosure reports at the end of June and at the end of December for each year in an election cycle.
Primaries will be held in Georgia for federal, state and local candidates on May 21, 2024; the Georgia presidential primary is March 12, 2024.
According to Cristadoro’s report, he has several contributors who’s given at least $1,000 or more.
They include former Cobb Chamber of Commerce chairman John Loud, who’s heading Cristadoro’s steering committee.
Other $1,000+ contributors include Pamela Reardon, an East Cobb real estate agent who’s active with the Cobb Republican Party, and East Cobb resident Caryn Sonderman.
She’s an East Cobb parent who frequently speaks at Cobb school board public comment sessions and who according to the disclosure report was the host of a Cristadoro fundraiser.
Attorney Mary Anne Ackourey contributed $1,546 to the Cristadoro campaign. She’s with Freeman Mathis & Gary, a law firm with offices in the Cumberland area that’s representing the Cobb County School District in a current federal lawsuit over school board redistricting.
Judge is a member of Watching the Funds—Cobb, a citizens group that scrutinizes Cobb school district finances. Fellow WTF-Cobb members Heather Tolley-Bauer and Stacy Efrat have contributed $500 and $250, respectively.
Several state lawmakers have contributed to the Judge campaign: Democratic State Sen. Jason Esteves, whose 6th District includes part of East Cobb, contributed $250.
Democratic Rep. Lisa Campbell of North Cobb contributed $500 and Democratic Sen. Josh McLaurin of North Fulton contributed $100.
Banks, a four-term Republican, has not filed a recent disclosure reports. He told East Cobb News this spring that he has not decided if he’ll seeking re-election.
In an interview with East Cobb News in April, Cristadoro estimated he would need to raise around $85,000 for his campaign.
The Post 5 race is one of four campaigns on the Cobb school board in 2024, and party control of the board is at stake. Republicans have a 4-3 majority, but three current GOP seats will be on the ballot.
The others are held by Brad Wheeler and Randy Scamihorn, neither of whom has filed a recent disclosure report.
First-term Democrat Tre’ Hutchins of South Cobb has filed a disclosure report for the first half of 2023.
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 Park Service has reopened stretches of the Chattahoochee River from the East Cobb area and downstream that have been closed in recent days due to elevated E. coli bacteria levels stemming from a Fulton County sewage treatment plant spill.
The Chattahoochee River NRA said late Monday afternoon that the river remains closed from the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell to Powers Island in Sandy Springs.
“The sections of the river below Powers Island have bacterial levels below the criteria recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency, but conditions remain subject to change,” an NPS social media posting said.
“The park and Chattahoochee Riverkeepercontinue to monitor and test water quality through the BacteriALERT partnership.”
Fulton County Public Works continues to treat sewage at the Big Creek facility “to ensure all wastewater meets permitting requirements of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.”
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 East Cobb residential real estate sales between June 19-23, 2023, were compiled from agency reports. They include the subdivision name and high school attendance zone in parenthesis:
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!
Our first post—July 8, 2017—was about the Skip Wells Memorial Ride that began at Sprayberry High School, and we’ve been truckin’ ever since.
This month, East Cobb News turns six years old!
On July 8, 2017, we published our very first post, about a motorcycle ride to honor a fallen East Cobb high school graduate who was shot to death in a domestic terrorist act while serving his country.
Truth be told, I had declared my independence as a journalist well before that, as I was laying the groundwork for East Cobb News.
A quarter-century at newspapers and a few more for various online outlets helped prepare me to take on the task of building a news resource to last for this community, where our family settled exactly 50 years ago this year.
I chose this particular time to make it official and finally push the button, and the journey has been an interesting, challenging and very gratifying one.
As we have recently celebrated our nation’s independence, I’m asking East Cobb News readers to help us celebrate ours, as we have reached an important milestone.
For the first time, I’m asking readers to help support the work we do in serving you with news and useful community information.
We’re suggesting that you contribute a minimum of $6 a month, or $60 a year, in honor of the 6th anniversary of East Cobb News.
We’re calling it the “6 for 6” campaign, and for the rest of the year we will be encouraging all of you to help us out. We’ll have special promotions, swag and other goodies and giveaways for readers and supporters.
While those details are being worked out, let me be clear about a few things:
This is a totally voluntary campaign. You are not required to pay to read and use East Cobb News. You can click on to any link on our site, get our newsletter and follow our social media platforms as you have been without interruption, at no cost to you.
One of our first major events to cover was the opening celebration for the new Walton High School classroom building in late July 2017.
We appreciate our growing readership as we have built up an essential community resource.
A few numbers as we approach the end of 6 years:
Averaging 150K page views/month
Averaging 70K unique visitors/month
More than 8.3K newsletter subscribers and growing
Unlike other local media outlets, we don’t lock down our content behind a pay wall or require you to register to read stories. We don’t bombard visitors to our site with noisy pop-up videos. We don’t clutter our pages with out-of-town clickbait.
But because we’re committed to keeping East Cobb News free and accessible to all, we’re asking for your financial support today, as we continue to build a sustainable local news business that puts community first.
In order for us to do that, we need you to do two things:
Support our advertisers!
Becoming a paying supporter!
Well, three things actually:
Tell your friends, families and neighbors about us too!
Read more here about our recommended contribution options, and how to pay online or by other methods.
You can also donate an amount of your choosing.
Regardless of what you give, you can do so easily by clicking here.
Our payment platform is hosted by Press Patron, which makes it easy to support the journalism you love via one-time or monthly contributions.
The Press Patron platform is safe and secure, and is connected with the prominent Stripe online payment system. When you sign up to contribute, you can control your account and payment preferences.
We’re suggesting at the very least that you contribute $6 a month—in honor of our 6th anniversary!
Six bucks a month. Think about it. That’s a couple of cups of drive-through coffee. Or a lunch entreé. Or an after-dinner dessert.
(Is any of this making you hungry?)
East Cobb News readers eagerly await our coverage of restaurant openings and other “foodie” news.
That’s about what some of the most notable independent journalists in the country charge for their newsletters.
Unlike them, however, we don’t have tens and hundreds of thousands of subscribers and readers.
Local news doesn’t scale, but at its best it is deeply devoted to serving its readership.
That’s where you come in.
“6 for 6” is very similar to a public radio campaign, but for your hometown news site, lovingly started from scratch by a journalist who grew up here and calls East Cobb home.
The Power of Local
Over the last three-plus years, as the COVID-19 pandemic and the response to it affected every aspect of daily life, readers came to depend on East Cobb News for all the details about how this affected our community.
We know this not only because our audience numbers skyrocketed during that time, but also because of more direct feedback we got. Such as this reader who gets our newsletter, and who sent us this message:
“This is a fabulous publication. Thank you so much!”
You have no idea what a shot in the arm that has been as we navigated these unusual times with all of you. We never stopped working to catch you up with all the vital updates about the reopenings of businesses and schools, how to follow your local elected bodies online and how to help out those in need.
Here are a few other reader testimonials we’d like to share:
“You have a great sense of the community and what makes it tick.”
“Appreciate your deep and objective coverage. Thank you.”
“I read it religiously. I have lived in East Cobb for 43 years. It is my community of people and places. Keeping up with things tightens the feelingsI have for East Cobb. Basically, I love your publication!”
Community activism over the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center eventually led to a redevelopment project that’s currently underway.
As we have returned to normal, we’ve resumed chronicling the things you’ve come to expect from East Cobb News:
Local government, schools, public safety, getting around, development
Business openings, especially retail and restaurants
Events, quality of life issues and community service
Elections, candidate profiles and how to cast your vote
Human-interest features and the activities of our community’s youth
What we’ve seen in the last three years is how vital local news has become to a community, and people in East Cobb have been generous with their compliments and with their eyeballs.
We greatly appreciate the many reader contributions we get, letting us know about an event or fundraiser, honoring people for their good works and accomplishments, and sending along feel-good stories in a time of great stress and anxiety.
Now East Cobb News needs something else from you to continue doing the work we’ve done not just for the last three years, but for the last six.
To say launching East Cobb News was a labor of love is an understatement.
What was truly behind the idea was the sense of opportunity it presented to create something just for this community.
Journalism has been my profession for 40 years, but East Cobb is the place I’ve called home, and that nurtured my aspirations for my career and life.
But local news has taken a very deep hit as my profession and the news industry have been transformed over the last two decades.
There’s been so much destruction and job loss, and communities have been deprived of vital information they need.
As I wrote here last Labor Day, this is a time to build, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished thus far with East Cobb News.
Readers tell us constantly how important quality-of-life issues matter to them in our coverage of the community.
The Power of Now
You depend on us to get you the news. We depend on you to help us financially. Now is not time to sit on the sidelines waiting for someone else to support local journalism.
We offer some affordable and dynamic ways to promote local businesses, and we’ve got enticing readership numbers to help those running small businesses to reach new customers.
Our “Six for Six” campaign also includes some advertising specials, so please visit this link for more.
Business owners and marketing professionals can also check out our other advertising information. We have a variety of products and price points and most importantly, the flexibility to work with you to craft a package that fits your needs and your budget.
If you really want to stand out with your message, East Cobb News can give you something no other local outlet can provide—dozens of dynamic online display and newsletter formats, including video, slideshow gallery and rotating cube features that dazzle readers and convert into sales.
To me, The Power of Local also extends to local business, and East Cobb News is the ideal marketing partner for local businesses that are trying to thrive in the post-pandemic world.
We love to share news of new and expanded businesses in East Cobb—hey, we’re a local small business too!
We approach advertising the same way we do the news—as a fellow business owner and citizen, fully invested in our community. We want you to grow and thrive, because we understand how local businesses form the backbone of our community.
Now more than ever.
As we have recently celebrated the birthday of our nation’s founding ideals, we’d like to ask our readers to help us as we continue the work of providing independent, online local news and useful community information.
That’s our one and only mission, and it’s unlike anything else in East Cobb.
Please consider giving the suggested amounts with the options below, or whatever you like. While we greatly appreciate recurring annual monthly or annual contributions, we also accept one-time donations that can be renewed as you like:
Here’s the link to contribute, and to create an account with the Press Patron platform. It was formed with local news publishers in mind to help them grow and become sustainable.
I’ve set some substantial, but reachable goals for the “6 for 6” campaign: We’d like to have 500 subscribers by the end of September, and another 500 by the end of the year.
Frankly, I think we can achieve much more than that, and I’ll update those numbers and encourage more readers to take part as we go along in the coming months.
Please keep in mind that East Cobb News is a for-profit business. While your donations are not tax deductible, they will go a long way to help us keep giving you the local news that you love!
As always, please feel free to reach out with questions, news tips and advertising queries: wendy@eastcobbnews.com.
Enjoy your summer, stay safe and be well East Cobb!
Cobb County Government said Saturday that the county’s water system is cleaning up a sewage spill in Sewell Mill Creek near East Cobb Park.
Cobb spokesman Ross Cavitt said in a release that the leak has been stopped and repairs are underway, but the county is advising the public to avoid exposure to the creek from East Cobb Park and southward.
Cobb Water said a structural sewer line failed on the creek near Pimlico Court in the Roswell Downs neighborhood early Saturday morning, dumping an estimated 152,750 gallons of overflow into the creek.
The release said the overflow was stopped around 12:45 a.m. Saturday as crews “have put a bypass pump in place” as a temporary measure:
“The Georgia Environmental Protection Division has been notified, and Cobb County Water System employees are following EPD protocols for such an event. Monitoring of bacteria levels in the creek is already underway.”
Cavitt said that the testing of waters downstream can take up to 24 hours and that signage has been posted informing the public.
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!
LM Frame and Gallery of East Cobb will be the venue for an upcoming exhibit displaying the work of a notable sports artist.
An opening event for the exhibit will take place on Thursday, July 20, from 5:30-8 p.m. at its location at 1062 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 150.
The exhibit features the work of Jace McTier, based in Augusta, and will continue through Aug. 15.
He’s part of a family of artists that specializes in Impressionist, figurative and sports painting (Lucy and Jace McTier). His mother, Lucy McTier, has been among his influences, along with William Turner, Vincent Van Gogh, and the sports art of George Bellows and LeRoy Nieman.
Jace McTier’s sports art portraits include Tom Brady, Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams and Rory McIlroy.
A portion of sales from the exhibit at LM Frame and Gallery will be donated to the Tim Luke Hope for Minds charity, helping children with brain injuries.
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!
Bookmiser, an independent bookstore in East Cobb, is starting a reading club for middle school students that has its first gathering next week.
The Middle Grade Book Club will hold its first meeting July 14 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Bookmiser (3822 Roswell Road).
The club, which is limited to 10 participants in grades 4-7, will meet the second Friday of every month after that.
Participation is free but books must be purchased from Bookmiser.
July and August books have been selected but future books will be chosen by participants and the club’s moderator, Carlie Sorosiak, a children’s author, creative writing teacher and former bookseller.
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 Tin Lizzy’s restaurant at The Avenue East Cobb will be closing next week for renovations.
North American Properties, which manages the retail center on Roswell Road, said the restaurant will close after dinner service this Sunday, July 9, and reopen for dinner service next Friday, July 14.
“The newly refreshed Tin Lizzy’s at AEC will exude surfer-cool vibes with a fresh, crisp color palette, bold textiles and vintage-style artwork,” NAP said in a release “The breezy, all-weather patio, adorned with cafe tables, lush plants, and corn hole, will be the perfect oasis for a celebration.”
The menu will remain the same, featuring tacos, salads and bowls, salsas, and Mexican skillets, as well as drink specials featuring margaritas.
The renovations come at Tin Lizzy’s amid continuing redevelopment of The Avenue to include jewel box restaurant space and a plaza area and the tentative opening of a Barnes & Noble bookstore this fall in the former Bath, Bed and Beyond space.
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 East Cobb Park Garden Club is meeting Saturday morning.
What was initially planned as another in a series of Hyde Farm Walking Tours has been expanded into a full-fledged outing for the whole family.
Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson has organized what’s called Cobb Family Day from 9-12:30 p.m. Saturday at Hyde Farm (721 Hyde Road) that includes a Cobb PARKS fishing rodeo.
The walking tours will take place at 10 and 11, and other activities include “Touch a Truck” with the Cobb Fire Department, cooking demonstrations from the UGA Extension Office, a “Story Walk” with Cobb Libraries and a scavenger hunt.
Everything but the fishing rodeo is free, which has a $5 charge, and you’ll need to sign up. The event is for youths 3-16, and trophies will be awarded for the biggest fish caught.
Also on Saturday morning, the newly formed East Cobb Park Garden Club is getting together for another outing from 10-11:30 a.m. as they tackle beautification efforts.
They’ll start out at the gazebo overlooking the back quad of the park, and are accepting new volunteers and donations.
The group was started by the Friends for the East Cobb Park volunteers organization.
You can find all of our calendar listings in one handy place on our site. If you have events to share with the public, please e-mail: calendar@eastcobbnews.com and we will post them here.
Send Us Your News!
Let East Cobb News know what your organization is doing, or share news about what people are doing in the community—accomplishments, recognitions, milestones, etc., as well as community events.
Pass along your details to: editor@eastcobbnews.com, and please observe the following guidelines to ensure we get everything properly and can post it promptly.
Send the body of your announcement, calendar item or news release IN TEXT FORM ONLY in the text field of your e-mail template. Reformatting text from PDF, JPG and doc files takes us longer to prepare your message for publication.
We accept PDFs as an accompaniment to your item. Images are fine too, but we prefer those to be JPG files (more than jpeg and png). PLEASE DO NOT send photos inside a PDF or text or any other kind of file. Of course, send us links that are relevant to your message so we can direct people to your website.
Stacy Efrat, left, and Debbie Fisher are sworn in by Cobb Probate Court Chief Judge Kelli L. Wolk. Photo: Cobb County government
Two East Cobb residents were recently appointed to the Cobb Board of Elections.
Stacy Butler Efrat was appointed by the Cobb Democratic Party, and Debbie Fisher was chosen by the Cobb Republican Party.
They were sworn in last week and began four-year terms on July 1.
Both are citizen-activists who have been involved in party politics at the local level.
Efrat is a member of Watching The Funds-Cobb, a watchdog group that monitors finances and spending by the Cobb County School District (see our profile story from 2021).
The group has been critical of Cobb school district purchases of COVID-19 sanitizing lights and handwashing machines that were the focus of a Cobb grand jury report, as well the district’s alert system vendor that changed last year after malfunctions.
Efrat has been active in canvassing for Democratic candidates in an East Cobb community that has been traditionally Republican. But in recent election cycles, Democratic candidates have been either winning or become more competitive.
Efrat is a risk manager in the financial industry and is a parent in the Walton High School cluster.Last year, she protested a new logo for East Side Elementary School, saying it resembled the Nazi eagle crest.
Fisher, retired from the internet security industry, is currently a vice president for party and grassroots development with the Cobb Republican Party.
In addition to those and other local GOP roles, she has been involved in civic affairs as a critic of Cobb County government spending and has spoken out against high-density zoning cases in East Cobb.
Earlier this year, she filed an ethics complaint against Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson over the latter’s political action committee activities.
But that complaint was dismissed by the Cobb Board of Ethics.
Fisher is the only appointee of Republican interests on the elections board. Jennifer Mosbacher, another East Cobb resident, is the appointee of Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.
Chairwoman Tori Silas and Steven Bruning are appointees of the Cobb legislative delegation, which has a Democratic majority.
The first meeting for Efrat and Fisher is July 10.
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 Planning Commission voted 5-0 today to allow the applicant to withdraw without prejudice, meaning the matter could be refiled at any time.
ORIGINAL REPORT:
A development company that applied to rezone land including the former Mt. Bethel Church Community Center for a small office building wants to withdraw that request.
We noted last month that the 1.13 acres at 4608 Lower Roswell Road includes a 6,250-square-foot building that has been vacant and that was one of several parcels owned by the church that has been put on the real estate market.
But the zoning signs have come down and the applicant’s attorney filed notice with the Cobb Zoning Office last Thursday that they’d like to withdraw without prejudice.
The application was scheduled to be heard by the Cobb Planning Commission on Wednesday, but the withdrawal request would have to be voted on by that board since it came after the deadline for doing so, which is a week in advance.
MRE Properties & Investments, LLC was seeking low-rise office (LRO) zoning, which would permit professional office uses. The current building, which housed various Mt. Bethel Church activities and non-profits, including Aloha to Aging, is a single story on land zoned in the RA-4 residential category.
The Cobb Zoning staff is recommending that the zoning stay at RA-4, with a limited professional services permit (full analysis here).
The land is bordered by an O & I designation at the corner of Lower Roswell and Woodlawn, where a Mt. Bethel Church day care center once stood, and a single-family subdivision.
The staff analysis concluded that “the applicant’s rezoning proposal is in conformity with the policies and intent of the Cobb County Comprehensive Plan, if deleted to RA-4 with a LPSP. Approval of an LPSP would be more appropriate to the residential neighborhoods surrounding the site.”
Another East Cobb case that has been delayed for months is being continued again. It’s for a standalone Starbucks at Paper Mill Village, and was to have been heard by the Planning Commission Wednesday.
The applicant originally wanted to tear down a small building at 31 Johnson Ferry Road at Paper Mill Road where the current Starbucks is located and build a two-story structure.
That has been reduced to a single story, and attorney Parks Huff said his client continues to work on design.
The Cobb Planning Commission meeting Wednesday will take place starting at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
The meeting will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.
The Planning Commission recommendations will be considered by the Cobb Board of Commissioners on July 18.
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 East Cobb residential real estate sales between June 12-16, 2023, were compiled from agency reports. They include the subdivision name and high school attendance zone in parenthesis:
June 12
1097 Willow Field Drive Unit 64, 30067 (The Oaks at Powers Ferry, Wheeler): $512,500
1627 Lake Holcomb Lane, 30062 (Holcomb Lake Village, Sprayberry): $495,000
2305 Chimney Cottage Circle Unit 8, 30066 (Chimney Cottage, Sprayberry): $368,000
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 Park Service has extended the closure area further downstream. Here’s the release from Monday afternoon:
“The partial closure of the Chattahoochee River from Chattahoochee Nature Center to all downstream sections of the park remains in effect due to elevated E. Coli contamination and the associated risk to health.
The park and Chattahoochee Riverkeeper continue to monitor and test water quality as Fulton County Public Works begins treatment. An issue at Big Creek Water Reclamation Facility has been reported to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. Fulton County is diverting the maximum quantity of wastewater to a plant in Cobb County, and the Army Corps of Engineers generated an additional release to help with dissipation.
Water quality tests received on July 3 reveal bacteria levels that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency recommended limits for recreation. The partial river closure will remain in effect until the water quality is safe for visitors.
“While this closure impacts some of the most popular units of the park, over 30 miles of river remain open. The Chattahoochee River is accessible from Buford Dam to Azalea Park in Roswell. All hiking trails, picnic areas and the Hewlett Lodge are open. Current information about the closure status will be available at www.nps.gov/CHAT.”
ORIGINAL REPORT:
A stretch of the Chattahoochee River that includes most of East Cobb is closed for the time being due to high E. coli bacteria levels in the water.
The National Park Service said water access to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area was closed on Saturday between the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell and the East Palisades-Whitewater Creek Unit, close to where the Interstate 75 crosses the river.
The NPS said that “dangerously elevated E. coli levels” were caused by “conditions consistent with an ongoing sewage spill near Willeo Creek Park.”
The agency said it received water quality tests “that exceed the Environmental Protection Agency recommended limits for recreation. The river’s current E. coli levels pose an elevated risk to human health, especially in vulnerable populations.”
All park trails are open, as well as the Hewlett Lodge visitor center.
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 all-day 4th in the Park Celebration will take place in Marietta on Tuesday, with a familiar schedule.
The “Let Freedom Ring” parade begins at 10 a.m. at Roswell Street Baptist Church and traverses westbound on Roswell Street to the Marietta Square, where a festival continues until 6 p.m.
There will be arts and crafts, a kids’ zone, food and free musical concerts.
A concert featuring the Patriarchs Band begins at 7 p.m., followed by a concert by Boogilicious from 8-9:30 p.m.
That’s the run-up to a fireworks display.
The City of Marietta has issued a temporary street closure map (click here).
Parking in downtown Marietta will be available; there are some free lots and others are paid lots run by Cobb County government (see map).
Cobb Travel and Tourism has more options, including celebrations in Acworth, Kennesaw and Six Flags.
For those wishing to set off their own fireworks, Cobb County government sent out a reminder this week that fireworks may be discharged until midnight both Monday, July 3, and Tuesday, July 4.
Here’s more from the county about when and where you can use fireworks, and other restrictions and safety tips:
Fireworks and other pyrotechnics are prohibited at all county parks. This includes historic sites, recreational areas or state property. It is illegal to use them within 100 yards of an electric plant, water or wastewater treatment plant, gas station, refinery, electric substation, jail, helipad, hospital, nursing home or other health care facility.
You must be 18 or older to purchase or ignite fireworks. It is illegal to let young children play with them.
Other safety tips:
Keep a bucket of water or a garden hose handy in case of fire or other mishaps.
Keep pets indoors, close the curtains and play music to drown out the noise. Make sure your pet is wearing a collar and tag and is microchipped in case it bolts and becomes lost.
Never try to re-light or pick up fireworks that have not ignited fully.
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!
Despite another year of double-digit growth in the county tax digest, the Cobb government fiscal year 2024 budget proposal does not include a reduction in property tax millage rates.
Cobb budget officials presented a fiscal year 2024 budget proposal of $1.2 billion on Tuesday to the Cobb Board of Commissioners (you can read it here), a $43 million increase from the current fiscal year budget of $1.16 billion.
The budget proposal holds the line on the general fund millage rate, which funds most county government operations, at 8.46 mills.
Because that millage rate is not proposed to be rolled back to reflect current revenue and tax digest levels, the state considers that a tax increase and the county must advertise and hold public hearings.
Those hearings will take place on Tuesday, July 11 at 9 a.m., Tuesday, July 18, at 6:30 p.m. and on Tuesday, July 25, at 7 p.m., when the board is scheduled to adopt the budget and set millage rates.
For the second year in a row, the fire fund millage rate that funds fire and emergency services would go up slightly, to 2.99 mills.
Cobb Chief Financial Officer Bill Volckmann said some of the increases in additional revenues in the proposed budget stem from rising tax assessments.
The Cobb Board of Tax Assessors on Wednesday approved the 2023 county tax digest of $58.1 billion, which is up 15.7 percent from last year.
While that figure combines the assessed value of all commercial, residential and other real property in Cobb County, homeowners are feeling the pinch of skyrocketing assessments, and as the average price of a home has surpassed $400,000.
At an East Cobb Civic Association meeting in May, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid was asked by East Cobb Newsif she was pondering similar relief.
She said she had been hearing from many citizens about their assessments, and said “she couldn’t say” if she would be proposing a cut.
“I could do it and look good,” Cupid said, “but somebody’s going to have to pay the price.”
The proposed FY 2024 budget includes 34 new positions across county government, compared to 147 in the current budget.
Nineteen of those new jobs would be funded through the general fund, and six of them are state-mandated. Four more are for the county’s family advocacy center.
Another 15 jobs are outside of general fund, seven in fire, and in 911.
Volckmann said the fire and emergency services department is struggling to maintain operating revenue due to salaries and benefits for personnel, and that there aren’t capital expenses that are a factor.
Cobb Chief Financial Officer Bill Volckmann
This is the second year of Cobb’s 2022-24 biennial budget process, and some agencies are proposed to have double-digit increases in spending.
A total of $198 million is being earmarked for agencies overseen by elected officials (Board of Commissioners, Sheriff, District Attorney, courts), an increase of 35 percent from fiscal 2023.
Administrative costs are up to $111 million, or nearly a 20 percent jump, and the overall public safety budget is $97 million, or 17 percent higher than the current year.
Budgets for public services (parks, libraries, senior centers, etc.) would go up by 10 percent, as would the budget for support services, which includes facilities and property management, technology and information services and fleet management.
The other proposed millage rates include the Debt Service (Bond Fund) millage at 0.00 mills; the Cumberland Special Services District II millage rate at 2.45, and the Six Flags Special Service District millage rate at 3.50.
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!
Miller retired as an assistant elections director in Cobb in 2021, and also was an elections supervisor in Fulton and Henry counties.
