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!
Santa and Mrs. Claus will be back at East Cobb Park Sunday for Holiday Lights.
With the start of December comes a busy slate of holiday festivities in the East Cobb area, leading off on Friday with the return of the Apple Annie Arts and Crafts Show.
More than 100 vendors will be selling their wares from 9-6 Friday and 9-2 Saturday at the Catholic Church of St. Ann (4905 Roswell Road), along with food from an on-site café and treats at the bake sale.
There also will be the Artisan Gift and Handmade Quilt raffles and plenty of holiday music. Admission is $5 and proceeds benefit local charities.
Overflow parking is at The Episcopal Church of St. Peter and St. Paul (1795 Johnson Ferry Road), with free shuttle service.
Friday marks the first of a five-show holiday performance of an unusual twist on “A Dickens’ Christmas Carol” at CenterStage North Theatre/The Art Place.
Subtitled “A Traveling Travesty in Two Tumultuous Acts,” this the 15th annual tour by the Styckes Upon Thump Repertory Company.
Shows are Friday and Saturday night, as well as Dec. 8 and 9, with a matinee at 2 p.m. this Sunday only.
On Saturday, holiday fun for the whole family is in store at tbe Sewell Mill Cultural Center’s Winter Festival.
It takes place from 10-3 at the library and cultural center (2051 Lower Roswell Road) amid the facility’s 12 Days of Christmas market, and will include holiday arts and crafts workshops, gift-wrapping, kids’ storytime and photos with Cobb PARKS. The event is free, but registrations is required for the photo sessions.
If you want holiday music to enjoy, the Cobb New Horizons Symphony is holding its annual Sounds of the Seasons Concert from 2-4 p.m. Saturday at the Lassiter Concert Hall (2601 Shallowford Road). Admission is free.
An East Cobb tradition since 1992 returns Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings. It’s the Bethlehem Walk display at Mountain View Church (2300 Jamerson Road), and the interactive event takes place from 7-9 p.m. each night.
Visitors walk through the streets of Bethlehem to recapture the atmosphere leading up to Christ’s birth, followed by treats and hot apple cider.
There will be music from local school children and a DJ and hot chocolates and other treats before the park’s trees are lighted and Santa Claus arrives on his sleigh. Kids can have their photos taken with St. Nick.
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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!
The Cobb County School District on Wednesday announced its schedule for 2024 commencement exercises.
All but two of the district’s 17 high schools will have graduation ceremonies at the Kennesaw State University Convocation Center from Monday, May 20 through Saturday, May 25.
Here are the graduation dates and times for the six high schools in East Cobb, all at KSU:
Wheeler: Tuesday, May 21, 7:30 p.m.
Pope: Wednesday, May 22, 7:30 p.m.
Kell: Thursday, May 23, 2:30 p.m.
Lassiter: Friday, May 24, 10 a.m.
Walton: Friday, May 24, 2:30 p.m.
Sprayberry: Saturday, May 25, 7:30 p.m.
More graduation information can be found here; the Cobb school district said it will update that link with more details about each school’s commencement and venue information, as well as links to live-streaming and ordering videos, in the spring.
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!
More than half of all current Cobb residential customers would fall into a stormwater fee tier charging between $2.12 and $2.17 a month.
A number of options to collect stormwater fees from Cobb homeowners, businesses and institutions was presented to the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.
Cobb doesn’t collect a stormwater fee, but for more than a year, the Cobb County Water System has been researching potential options to maintain and upgrade a stormwater system that officials say is under severe strain.
During a work session Tuesday, water system director Judy Jones presented a detailed set of options that include imposing an average monthly fee ranging between $2.12 to $5, based on the amount of impervious surface on a property.
That would amount to a smaller fee for homeowners and a larger bill for commercial and institutional properties.
Cobb water and sewer customers are currently billed according to usage, ranging from $2.14 for 5,000 gallons or less a month for residences to $7.06 for heavy commercial users (15,000 gallons or more) for combined services.
That proposal is less than what nearby jurisdictions charge for stormwater fees, including some of Cobb’s cities.
Basing a fee on impervious surface, Jones said, would “create dedicated funding” for stormwater repairs.
Since 1994, Cobb has funded stormwater maintenance from water and sewer fees, and it’s been nearly two decades since a consultant recommended the county impose a stormwater fee.
The county has admitted it lacks staffing and resources to adequately handle demands on the system, which include older and failing pipes and maintenance of several hundred detention ponds.
Those concerns were accelerated following floods in East Cobb and elsewhere in the county in 2021, and prompted commissioners to explore the possibility of stormwater fees.
The Cobb water system currently spends $8.4 million a year on stormwater costs, including capital improvement projects. Jones presented nine options for expanded services that would increase that total to $19 million annually if they were all approved, by collecting $5.01 a month in stormwater fees from individual customers.
That would include hiring several positions to conduct repairs, provide engineering and inspection services and update the system’s map of detention ponds it maintains.
Jones said her staff is still trying to determine how many detention ponds the county is responsible for, including mowing and landscaping, but the best estimate is around 300.
When Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said “that’s not sustainable,” from a time as well as financial context, Jones said that “we’re not maintaining them the way they need to be.”
Jones presented slides showing such things as a sample bill including a stormwater fee, with the charge for a Tier 2 residence (around 2,000 gallons a month) going up by only 3 cents, from $71.10 to $71.13, using the impervious surface formula.
Cobb Water System director Judy Jones said county water customers “still have the lowest rates” in metro Atlanta.
However, the monthly bill for a “big box” commercial customer would go up by more than $217, from $1,777 to $1,808.
Jones said special lower formulas could be worked out for non-commercial institutions, such as schools and churches, which have a lot of impervious surfaces.
The two Republicans on the commission have said previously they oppose a stormwater fee, calling it a tax.
GOP Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in East Cobb asked Tuesday if there there would be town halls or public meetings ahead of any vote on whether to charge a stormwater fee.
She has been opposed as long as a portion of Cobb Water System revenues are transferred every year to the county’s general fund budget.
This year that figure is 6 percent, after commissioners voted along party lines to raise water rates by nearly 8 percent.
County attorney Bill Rowling said public hearings would be required for any changes to the county code regarding stormwater fees.
Cupid added that “anything you can do to educate the public would be generous,” and she referenced recent meetings about the proposed Cobb Mobility SPLOST.
“I think we can err on the side of being generous,” she said.
Jones said she would make her presentation available on the county website. Commissioners didn’t discuss a timetable for any possible action, but hearings and public feedback are expected to continue into the middle of 2024.
A few other related slides from Jones’ presentation Tuesday are included below, along with a replay of the work session. It lasts an hour and 17 minutes.
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!
Proposed maps by Senate Republicans, left, and the Democratic caucus, at right, would carve up East Cobb representation in sharply different ways.
The Georgia General Assembly will begin a special session on Wednesday to redraw Congressional and legislative districts.
An initial hearing of the House Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee takes place at 1 p.m. at the Georgia Capitol.
The session was prompted following a decision by a federal judge in Atlanta to throw out the maps the legislature adopted in 2022, saying they diluted minority voting strength.
The Georgia legislature has had Republican majorities since 2005. Currently the GOP has a 102-78 advantage in the House, and a 33-23 majority in the Senate.
Party control isn’t expected to change, but the judge ordered that a majority-black Congressional district in the western part of metro Atlanta be created, as well as several majority-black legislative districts in the Atlanta and Macon areas.
None of them are in the East Cobb area, but map proposals released earlier this week show some dramatically different lines.
A map proposed by Senate Republicans would remove District 6, currently represented by Democrat Jason Esteves of Atlanta, out of East Cobb completely.
Instead, District 33, represented by West Cobb Democrat Doc Rhett, would sweep across the county, taking in a sizable portion of East Cobb.
A map proposed by the Senate Democratic Caucus would expand District 6 further into East Cobb.
Both maps would include much of the East Cobb area currently represented by Republicans Kay Kirkpatrick (District 32) and John Albers (District 56).
The House Republican leadership has proposed a House map (at right) that would make some minor changes to East Cobb representation in that body, retaining most of the current areas of Districts 37, 43, 44, 45 and 46. House Democrats have not yet filed a map.
The legislature also will have to redraw all 14 of Georgia’s Congressional districts, which could affect East Cobb representation. Nine of those seats are held by Republicans.
In 2022, the General Assembly drew Congressional maps that included portions of District 6 and District 11 in East Cobb.
Those are currently represented by Republicans Rich McCormick and Barry Loudermilk, respectively.
District 6 had included most of East Cobb and for three terms was represented by Democrat Lucy McBath. But she moved to the Democratic-leaning 7th District in Gwinnett after the 6th was redrawn to include North Fulton and GOP strongholds in Forsyth and Dawson counties.
No proposed maps have been submitted as of yet.
Democratic Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson, who was drawn out of her District 2 by the legislature that is the subject of a current legal dispute, is running for 6th District Congress and has held several fundraising and other events.
The legislature, which has until Dec. 8 to redraw the maps, also is conducting other limited business during the special session.
You can track the session and watch live feeds 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!
Cobb Police said Tuesday a Woodstock woman sustained life-threatening injuries in a single-car crash in Northeast Cobb.
Officer Aaron Wilson said Christy Rowan, 51, was driving a white 2018 Toyota Rav4 southbound on Canton Road at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday when the vehicle struck a mailbox.
The vehicle then went back onto Canton Road, struck a curb near Jamerson Road and collided with “various obstacles” before hitting a raised maintenance hole, he said.
Police said the Rav4 went airborne briefly, then hit a fire hydrant and traffic signal pole.
Wilson said that Rowan was rushed to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital.
The crash investigation is continuing and anyone with information is asked to contact the Cobb County Police Department S.T.E.P. Unit at 770-499-3987.
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The event won’t take place until the middle of 2025, but the Cobb Public Safety Department will ask Cobb commissioners this week for $1.589 million for law enforcement and security services for the 2025 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Truist Park.
That request is an agenda item (you can read it here) for Tuesday night’s meeting, and the funding would come from the fiscal year 2025 general fund contingency budget.
Roughly half of the funding for public safety services would be used for security and supplies, and the other half would be used for overtime for personnel from a number of agencies, including police, Sheriff’s Office, fire, emergency services, transportation and Cobb Parks, according to the agenda item.
The All-Star Game festivities will take place over two days in mid-July 2025 at the ballpark at The Battery and the Cumberland area.
By comparison, in 2021, when Truist played host to three World Series games, Cobb commissioners approved roughly $500,000 in overtime, additional security and other measures, including a watch party at the park when the Braves clinched the championship in Houston.
The agenda item for Tuesday’s meeting states that the All-Star game is considered a “heightened awareness status” event by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The agenda item also states that there could be a “significant economic boom” from having the All-Star Game in Cobb County, and cited data from the Baseball Almanac that the event in other cities has generated between $37 million and $190 million.
The commission meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), and the full agenda can be found 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!
The following East Cobb residential real estate sales were compiled from agency reports. They include the subdivision name and high school attendance zone in parenthesis:
Nov. 6
4080 Riverlook Parkway Unit 102, 30067 (Willows by the River, Walton): $280,000
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!
My goodness do we have so much to be thankful for in East Cobb.
I’m not thinking of the affluence of our community, especially since so many of our neighbors are struggling.
We have had the blessings of fairly good weather for the Thanksgiving holiday that just passed. Earlier Saturday I went to East Cobb Park on a mild, pleasant, partly-sunny afternoon and took a walk.
When my knees are ailing, this is hard to do, but I was determined to have a brisk excursion that was pain free, and so it was.
It was no small personal victory, especially after all the Thanksgiving fare.
As I took a break near the concert pavilion, some young guys were playing a rather spirited game of frisbee—it was really competitive.
The Barnes & Noble opening at the Avenue East Cobb was a popular story for our readers.
Nearby the trees that will be officially unveiled at next Sunday’s Holiday Lights celebration sit waiting, fully decorated.
You can feel the season in the air, to be sure, but in many ways what I have been sensing recently is the sheer gratitude of my community as we approach the holidays.
For the last few months East Cobb News has been asking readers to consider a financial contribution—much like public radio and TV—as we have been marking our 6th anniversary in 2023.
We’re going to continue the “6 for 6” campaign through the end of the year, in which we are suggesting a recurring monthly donation of $6, in honor of that 6th anniversary.
Some of you have been doing that, and for that, I am very grateful.
All of you who read, subscribe to our weekly newsletter and follow us on social media are a big part of the success of this community news site.
I wanted to share with you some very encouraging numbers as we close the books on an eventful calendar year.
Recently East Cobb News surpassed last year’s traffic of 1.46 million pageviews, and in the next week we should surpass our all-time yearly record of 1.556 million.
Likewise, we’re on pace to break our yearly unique visitor high of 866K. That’s an important metric because that’s the number of individual accounts that click on to East Cobb News every month.
Broken down on a monthly basis, we’ve been averaging between 70,000-80,000 unique visitors this year—roughly one-third of our coverage area.
East Cobb Barber Shop employees surprised one of their own for her birthday.
That’s a very good number, and one that I’m proud of. It reflects the deep level of truly hyperlocal coverage and engagement with a growing, community-minded audience.
And we’ve done that in 2023 with a wider range of high-impact stories than ever before. In 2021, when we posted those record numbers, much of that was due to coverage of the COVID-19 response, which was an extraordinary event, coupled with election coverage.
Election coverage drove our numbers in 2022, which also isn’t a surprise.
But this year, the strength of our coverage has broadened. Many of you come for local government and schools, crime and public safety, and zoning stories. What we in the journalism profession often call “hard news.”
Others like our stories about restaurants and retail openings and closings, the local business scene and real estate sales.
And others tell us how much they like what they read about community-level stories about people and non-profits helping those in need.
There’s certainly an overlap with much of that, and that’s what’s been so heartening.
Readers are coming to East Cobb News for a little bit of everything, and that’s been the objective all along.
That’s why we’re asking readers to help us continue giving you the local news you love.
We’ve set up our subscription options along the lines of public radio fundraising drives, to accommodate whatever level you wish to support. You can donate on a recurring basis, or submit a one-time donation via the link below.
The EAST COBBER parade returned for the first time since 2019.
Our payment platform is hosted by Press Patron, which makes it easy to support independent local journalism. Several dozen publishers like East Cobb News are powered by this platform, and we’re proud to be a part of their community.
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’ve got big plans for 2024, with another election year looming. But we want to go even deeper with all of the kinds of stories we know our readers expect from us.
That’s why we’re asking for your support today. We plan to add freelance contributors to help report on politics and many other local stories in 2024, and your donations will go to help pay for that.
We want to expand our coverage of sports and the arts, neighborhoods, health and wellness, home and garden and other subjects we can’t get too as often. We hear from readers who want to learn more about local history, and people-focused stories.
East Cobb News was proud to be a Taste of East Cobb sponsor.
We know how much you value East Cobb News, and we want to make 2024 our best year ever. This year’s progress has been gratifying, but I know we can do so much more for a community that has generously shown its appreciation for our efforts.
The hyperlocal focus of news is the foundation of everything we do, and local businesses that advertise with us and prospective advertisers have noticed that and have told us that as well.
They want to connect with an authentic, local audience, and nobody else is doing this every day in our community.
Simply put, East Cobb News readers are at the center of what this is all about. Unlike many other media outlets, we don’t charge to read our coverage, and we never will. No paywalls here.
We offer this news resource as a public service to the community, but we’re also a small business. We want to continue telling the stories of the people that make East Cobb a special place to call home for many years to come.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with questions about using Press Patron and contributing to our “6 for 6” campaign, as well as general inquiries about East Cobb News: wendy@eastcobbnews.com.
We’ll update you on our campaign in December. Thanks for your support, and Happy Holidays!
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The Lassiter Bands annual Christmas tree sale is underway, and continues through Dec. 9. It’s one of the main fundraisers for the Lassiter Band Booster Program, and takes place daily.
The site is the same—the parking lot of the Highland Plaza Shopping Center on Shallowford Road at Gordy Parkway.
The trees are 6-12 foot locally source Frazier firs that are fresh-cut on site. Also available are 22′ or 32′ Frazier fir bough wreaths, tree stands and disposable bags.
The hours are Saturday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Monday-Friday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
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After nearly eight years in business, Drift Fish House and Oyster Bar is closing at Avenue East Cobb.
In a message to customers and on the restaurant’s social media channels, owner Doug Turbush and his wife Pranee said that Drift’s lease is up at the end of the year, and “we have made the difficult decision to not renew our lease.”
The final dinner service will be Dec. 30, the message said.
Opened in March 2016 as a neighborhood seafood establishment, Drift has focused its dishes around a wood-fired grill and included patio service and a New England-style lobster shack in warmer weather.
Turbush has dramatically influenced the East Cobb dining scene over the last decade or so since opening Seed Kitchen & Bar at Merchants Walk in 2011, and the adjacent Stem Wine Bar in 2013.
In an interview with East Cobb News published in February 2020, he said he decided to open Drift because “there was no dedicated high-quality seafood place here. I could have put a steakhouse there, but there’s a steakhouse on every corner in Atlanta.”
Some initial reviews weren’t good, and after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, Turbush’s three establishments in his Seed Hospitality Group had to pivot with curbside and pickup service.
The announcement of Drift’s closing is the latest change amid a major transition at Avenue East Cobb, and in particular locally-owned businesses. The Olea Oliva! gourmet and artisanal foods store closed in October.
The retail center also is welcoming more places to eat or get food.
The NY Butcher Shoppe opened earlier this year, and Peach State Pizza Co. and Press Waffle are set to open in the coming months, along with a second location of Round Trip Brewing.
The existing Tin Lizzy’s will be adding a family-friendly gaming bar and serving restaurant menu items.
In their message to customers, the Turbushes also thanked North American Properties, Avenue’s management company, “for their invaluable assistance in ensuring a smooth transition. We wish them every success in their exciting endeavor to reimagine Avenue East Cobb.”
They thanked their staff at Drift, which they said have “consistently delivered outstanding dining experiences for our guests since the day we opened our doors.
“Our team looks forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to Drift Fish House & Oyster Bar over the next few weeks as we continue to provide the exceptional dining experience and service that you have come to expect from us. We are deeply thankful for the opportunity to have been a part of the East Cobb community and to have shared our passion for food and hospitality with you. Our sister restaurants, Seed Kitchen & Bar and Stem Wine Bar eagerly anticipate continuing to serve you, our friends and neighbors.”
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A second Methodist church in East Cobb has disaffiliated from the second-largest Protestant denomination in the country in as many years.
Mountain View United Methodist Church, whose membership voted in July to leave the United Methodist Church, had that decision ratified earlier this month.
The UMC’s North Georgia Conference held a special meeting in Athens on Nov. 18 to allow 261 congregations to disaffiliate.
The church located at Jamerson Road and Trickum Road will be known as Mountain View Church, and will be joining the Global Methodist Church, a new denomination, after paying $60,000 in apportionment and other fees to the North Georgia Conference.
Dr. Joe McKechnie, Mountain View’s senior pastor, is staying on, and had to surrender his UMC ministerial credentials.
In an interview with East Cobb News, he said he is considered ordained in the GMC, which was formed in 2022 as a major schism erupted in the UMC.
Dr. Joe McKechnie, Mountain View Church senior pastor
“We’ve lost nobody,” McKechnie said, referencing a church with around 200 members and where he has served since 2020.
He said as the changes were announced to the membership last Sunday, “there were some tears. But this church has been the most amazing ever. We’ve been through a lot together, but our church is more cohesive than ever before.
“I continually sing the praises of our church,” McKechnie said. “We continue to love each other and pledge unity.”
Unlike Mt. Bethel Church—which last year paid the North Georgia Conference $13.1 million in a court settlement after a public and bitter dispute—the Mountain View congregation went through a traditional process to consider disaffiliating.
The UMC has been in turmoil in recent years over a number of theological issues, including human sexuality. There was to have been a vote on allowing congregations to leave in 2020, but that has been postponed due to COVID-19 closures.
The denomination’s Book of Discipline—its governing document—allowed churches to disaffiliate over the sexuality issue on a provisional basis. As that measure was set to expire at the end of this year, McKechnie said, Mountain View church leaders decided to engage in an information process that took several months.
“People were just frustrated,” McKechnie said. More than anything, he added, it was the continuing uncertainty over the future of the denomination that prompted Mountain View into action.
He said that “I never hear our people talk about politics” and specifically the cultural hot topics that have embroiled the UMC.
A page on Mountain View’s website called “The Path Forward” contained information and presentations in favor of and against disaffiliation.
McKechnie said that “I stayed out of it” and never offered his opinion on the matter, even though he was asked to.
“We wanted to focus on education,” he said. During the special meetings over disaffiliation, “there were no harsh words.”
A straw poll last January indicated that nearly 80 percent of Mountain View members favored disaffiliation.
But not long after that, the North Georgia Conference paused disaffiliation applications, saying that “many local churches have been misled about the disaffiliation process.”
In July, Mountain View members formally voted 87-13 to disaffiliate, and were in a state of limbo until this month, when the North Georgia Conference met to approve the 261 disaffiliation requests.
In Cobb, those churches include Covenant UMC in Smyrna; Due West UMC and St. Stephen UMC in Marietta; New Beginnings UMC and Shiloh UMC in Kennesaw; and County Line UMC of Acworth.
“I don’t think that anyone expected that many churches to get out,” McKechnie said.
Combined with more than 70 congregations disaffiliating last year, the North Georgia Conference has been reduced from nearly 900 churches to 440. The South Georgia Conference has lost 60 percent of its churches in disaffiliation votes in the last two years.
The property deed for the Mountain View Church property is expected to be transferred from the North Georgia Conference on Nov. 30.
“This is finally behind us,” McKechnie said.
The GMC has gained 3,500 congregations—almost all of them formerly in the UMC—since its inception. (Mt. Bethel and Grace Resurrection Methodist Church, which was formed by former Mt. Bethel members and its former senior pastor, are independent churches.)
Mountain View started in the early 1980s to serve northeast Cobb and southern Cherokee County. After holding services at a preschool and Lassiter High School, the church moved into its present facility in 1986. Mountain View also has a preschool with around 100 children enrolled.
McKechnie, who has been a pastor for 15 years, said Mountain View feels like home, and that he wouldn’t have been able to continue there without a move to a new denomination. Had he stayed in the UMC, he would have had to uproot his family, which lives in the parsonage on church grounds.
He grew up in West Cobb and his wife is an educator in Cherokee County schools. They have a son who is a senior at Kell High School and a daughter who will be a freshman there next year, and their extended families are also here.
“It is a big step to walk away from the denomination I have been a part of literally my entire life,” McKechnie said. “But staying at Mountain View and in this community is the best thing for my family and me, and I’m grateful that the church offered me the opportunity to stay.”
One of the first public events for Mountain View Church will be the continuation of its Bethlehem Walk display from Dec. 2-4. It debuted in 1992 and averages nearly 6,000 visitors a year.
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!
Some last-minute food shopping is done, and a number of thank-you notes have gone out to supporters and advertisers of East Cobb News.
Another Thanksgiving season has arrived, and this one in particular has me feeling a great amount of gratitude and hopefulness.
This time of year is always a special one, and I want to take some time to thank all of you for your readership of East Cobb News.
As we marked our 6th anniversary in July, we began a fundraising drive asking readers to help support the work East Cobb News does in providing local news and useful community information.
The “6 for 6” campaign will go on through the end of the year, but I wanted to use this occasion to tell you how much your readership and participation with this site mean to me.
I hear from many of you in a variety of ways—e-mail, phone, text message, social media and even good old-fashioned regular mail—for a variety of reasons.
I get story tips and press releases, compliments and complaints, suggestions and queries about how to find something or someone in the community for assistance.
I try my best to answer every message, and while I know I can’t make everybody happy, I want to know what you think about what you see here on East Cobb News. I want to know how I can make it more relevant and helpful to you.
This is a big place with a lot of things going on and with citizens from many walks of life and holding many points of view. Making East Cobb News an online source of what happens here is something I’ve been very honored to develop, and there’s still so much more I want to do.
This community is mine, and I’m gratified by how responsive this community has been to this project.
So thanks. Thanks for reading, subscribing, commenting, getting in touch and donating.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! May it be a peaceful and enjoyable one. We’ll be coming back on Friday with more news as the holiday season begins.
Until then, enjoy!
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Wes Rhea’s life and career has taken him to many places—from professional wrestling to the corporate world and to academia.
The Sprayberry High School graduate recently published a book about those experiences and to help others with career transition entitled “Off the Top Rope,” and on Dec. 9 he’ll have a book signing.
That event will take place from 12-4 p.m. at the 2nd and Charles store (815 Ernest Barrett Parkway).
He tells us his book is “geared towards helping people with career development and career transition with faith and a positive approach as well as my journey from a professional wrestler to a corporate executive to a university professor. I thoroughly enjoy helping others and I feel my book would be an inspiration.”
Rhea is a part-time information systems instructor at Kennesaw State University, his college alma mater. After high school, he was a professional wrestler from the late 1980s to the early 1990s (on his website, there’s a photo of him with Muhammad Ali stemming from those days).
He earned an MBA and law degree and became an executive in the telecommunications, financial and health care industries.
Rhea also was a senior lecturer at KSU teaching in the undergraduate and executive MBA programs and has served as a career coach.
In a recent profile in the Cobb in Focus magazine, Rhea said that “I’m not sure too many people go from being a professional wrestler to a C-level executive to a college professor. Probably not the most straightforward path; however, that seems to be the way I do things. Hey, it may not be the track for everyone but it allowed me to live a semi-charmed life.”
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The Jewish Christian Discovery Center (JCDC) will kick off the holiday season with the 5th annual blessing of Christmas trees at St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Marietta on Friday, Nov. 24 at 8 am. Each year JCDC Executive Director Rabbi Albert Slomovitz joins with the priests from St. Ann’s to bless the trees before the Knights of Columbus sell them. This event kicks off JCDC’s annual J Star Project.
The J Star Project focuses on practical and fun activities that promote understanding between Christians and Jews. Each family that attends this event will receive a holiday packet that includes a menorah Christmas tree ornament, dreidel (plastic spinning top), and some chocolates. Children can hang the ornaments on their trees at home. The fun continues as the children read the included instructions on how to play the dreidel game. It was a popular game played during the time of Jesus.
With the rise of antisemitism in the United States and here in the metro Atlanta area, JCDC partners with St. Ann’s clergy to show the wider community the close bond Jews and Christians should have with each other. For more than five years the JCDC has worked closely with the staff of St. Ann’s to promote interfaith dialogue and friendship including Rabbi Slomovitz’s annual blessing of the Christmas trees.
“It is a blessing to work with St. Ann’s and show everyone that Christians and Jews come together and learn about the shared Jewish traditions we all have. Jesus grew up as a practicing Jew. That included celebrating Hanukkah and other Jewish holidays,” said Rabbi Albert Slomovitz, the founder of the JCDC. “It is important for our Christian friends and neighbors to see not only coexistence but friendship among us all. I look forward to this annual tradition of blessing the Christmas trees.”
2023 marks the 5th year Rabbi Slomovitz is working with Atlanta area church leaders engaging in interfaith dialogue during the holiday season He emphasizes that now it is more important than ever to have these strong interfaith relationships as a defense against antisemitism and other forms of intolerance. During the Christmas and Hannukah season, it is the perfect time of year to educate Jews and Christians about their shared history and values.
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Chattahoochee Tech Student Populations Specialist Catherine Smith and Special Populations & Title IX Coordinator Shanequa Warrington at the Golden Eagle Food Pantry’s “Everything but the Turkey” distribution day.
Submitted information and photo:
The Chattahoochee Tech Golden Eagle Food Pantry is making the Thanksgiving holiday better for nearly 100 college students and their families in need.
On Thursday, Nov. 16, the Golden Eagle Food Pantry distributed “Everything but the Turkey” Thanksgiving food packages, which included items ranging from canned corn, green beans and cranberry sauce to boxes of potatoes, stuffing and gravy packets. The food pantry’s mission is to directly serve college students who suffer from hunger and food insecurity, which is a lack of consistent access to enough food. An estimated one in three students experience food insecurity on college campuses across the country, according to the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments (NCSSLE). Food insecurity may impact not only college student health but also their ability to perform well academically and stay in school.
“It’s hard for students to be successful in class if they’re hungry and struggling to pay for food,” said Shanequa Warrington, the college’s Special Populations & Title IX Coordinator. “We want our students to focus on studying and not worry about being hungry. It’s vital for us to provide them with the resources they need in order to succeed.”
The Golden Eagle Food Pantry was established at Chattahoochee Tech four years ago to help college students who struggle with paying for food. All supplies are based upon donations and are available to students as long as supplies are continually received. For more information about the food pantry and how to help, visit: www.ChattahoocheeTech.edu/Golden-Eagle-Food-Pantry/
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A rendering of a home in Toll Brothers’ 91-unit subdivision planned for Sandy Plains Road near Kincaid ES.
After reducing the number of homes and deciding not to develop on one side of a creek, a residential developer on Tuesday got approval for a 91-unit subdivision on Sandy Plains Road near Kincaid Elementary School.
Following a recommendation by the Cobb Planning Commission, the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 4-0 to approve rezoning of 19.68 acres on Ross Road from rural residential (RR) to RA-6, a medium-density zoning category.
The land is undeveloped property across from the intersection of Sandy Plains and Scufflegrit Road.
Toll Southeast LP Company, Inc. originally planned 105 single-family detached homes in the RA-6 category, next to similarly-zoned neighborhoods in the county and City of Marietta (case filings here).
But opposition surfaced from the adjacent St. Charles Square subdivision for traffic and runoff reasons. The land includes Little Noonday Creek, and other concerns included a number of variances.
The application was held for a month and the Planning Commission earlier this month recommended many of the changes that came before commissioners Tuesday.
That included stipulations for lot sizes ranging from at least 4,000 square feet to 7,000 square feet and beyond, and and impervious surface maximum of 40 percent.
The homes will be at least 2,600 square feet and the neighborhood will feature a mandatory homeowners association and privately-maintained streets.
No one spoke in opposition Tuesday; commissioner Keli Gambrill was absent.
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It’s been nearly a year since there have been events around Cobb’s proposed Unified Development Code.
A UDC is a comprehensive planning guide which incorporates zoning, planning and land-use with design, landscaping, architectural and other guidelines. Local Atlanta-area jurisdictions that have them are the cities of Atlanta and Roswell and DeKalb County.
Cobb commissioners voted along party lines in Aug. 2022 to spend $500,000 for an outside consultant to conduct a public feedback process and assist county staff in creating the code.
The county announced recently that there will be several public meetings about the UDC in December at various locations following the publication of a UDC code assessment draft.
You can read through the UDC assessment draft by clicking here; it’s 149 pages of detailed information and recommendations.
The meeting schedule is rather compact—six meetings eight days, culminating with the only East Cobb meeting on Dec. 14 at the Mountain View Community Center:
Wednesday Dec. 6, 6 – 8 p.m., Windy Hill Community Center, 1885 Roswell Street SE, Smyrna
Thursday, Dec. 7, 6 – 8 p.m., North Cobb Regional Library, 3900 S Main Street, Acworth
Tuesday, Dec. 12, 10 a.m. – noon, West Cobb Senior Center, 4915 Dallas Hwy, Powder Springs
Tuesday, Dec. 12, 6 – 8 p.m., Thompson Park Community Center, 555 Nickajack Road, Mableton
Thursday, Dec. 14, 6 – 8 p.m., Mountain View Community Center, 3400 Sandy Plains Road, Marietta
County officials have said the current collection of zoning, planning and development ordinances are more than 50 years old and need a streamlined overhaul.
“The goal of the Unified Development Code (UDC) project is to produce a document that encourages and enables development and redevelopment in identified centers while preserving the unique character of the county’s rural areas,” the county said in a recent message, adding that:
“The project also aims to protect existing neighborhoods, conserve natural and historic resources, support economic development and provide an opportunity for various housing types.”
At the time the consultant was hired, Cobb Community Development director Jessica Guinn said that “this will be a robust public process.
The December hearings are the first part of a three-step process to gain public input, make revisions and present a final version—following more public sessions—for adoption by commissioners.
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The late Sunday afternoon sky over East Cobb Park was marked only by the contrails from a jet airplane. ECN photo.
The picture-perfect weather we enjoyed over the weekend in East Cobb is going to be changing as Thanskgiving approaches, but it’s still expected to be mild for the season.
Clear skies are forecast to give way to rain starting Monday and later in the week, and 70-degree highs will drop into the 50s starting on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service in Atlanta is forecasting a slight chance of rain overnight Monday, with a 100 percent chance during the day through Tuesday afternoon.
Thunderstorms are included in that wet forecast
Highs will be in the mid 60s but then it’s going to start getting colder at night, with Tuesday’s low in the high 40s.
Wednesday will be mostly cloudy with highs in the mid 50s and lows dipping into the high 30s.
Thanksgiving Day will be partly sunny with highs in the 50s and lows in the high 40s. There is a slight chance of rain in the afternoon and into the overnight hours of Friday.
More rain returns for Black Friday, with a 40 percent chance, and highs ranging from the mid 50s to lows also in the high 40s.
The weekend will be the same and into the first full week of the holiday season.
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The following East Cobb residential real estate sales were compiled from agency reports. They include the subdivision name and high school attendance zone in parenthesis:
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