For one day only, on Monday, July 18 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., visit Cobb Animal Services to meet your new furrever friend. Adoptions for featured pets are FREE. No appointment is necessary, so just stop by the Animal Services lot, take a look at the featured cats & dogs in our trailer and bring one (or more) home as your forever friend.
Thank you to our sponsors who have donated refreshments and treats for the staff, volunteers and forever families who adopt at the event.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The following Cobb food scores for the week of July 11 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A Cobb government spokesman said a repaving project along East Piedmont Road is scheduled to resume next week.
A reader checked in this week to ask about the East Piedmont Road repaving project, which we noted when it began in June that full completion was expected to take until August.
The reader said the top level of the road has been stripped off for some time along the stretch to be repaved—between Allgood Road and at the intersections of Pinkney Drive and Mainsail Road just below Sandy Plains Road—and wondered when work would resume.
“Aside from skipping a portion of the road that needed repaving a few years back, the local politicians are all blaming each other as to why it is taking three weeks to pave less than a mile of road between Allgood and Sandy Plains,” the reader said. “The road has been torn up since mid June and it is now mid July. Work is simply not occurring.”
We drove along that same route Friday morning heading to a previously scheduled appointment, and there are construction signs and cones all along the median and sides of East Piedmont. It is indeed a rough ride.
Later, we checked with Cobb County government, which passed along this information late Friday afternoon:
“The Contractor is scheduled to be back on East Piedmont Road early next week after the completion of Sandy Plains Road. Weather permitting Sandy Plains will be completed tomorrow night—crews are scheduled to work tonight and tomorrow night. The next activity on East Piedmont Road will be deep patching to repair soft areas. This will take a few weeks to complete, and then the final surface course will be placed. Completion by the end of August is still a valid date as long as the contractor remains on the project.”
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The Cobb Board of Education voted Thursday night to retain the same property tax rate for the Cobb County School District—18.9 mills—that has been in place since 2007.
But it came after some debate that included attempts by two board members to reduce, or consider lowering, that figure.
A motion by board member Jaha Howard to cut the tax rate to 18.8 mills failed 2-3-1.
Voting present was vice chairman David Banks, who earlier had asked Superintendent Chris Ragsdale to provide a review of Cobb school budget options at the current level, and at 18.0 mills and 17.5 mills.
“I have some reservations” about the current millage rate, Banks said, in light of rising property tax assessments in Cobb County, and other economic factors, including inflation, as well as flattening school enrollment.
The original motion to adopt the 18.9 mills rate passed 4-1-1, with Howard voting against and Banks abstaining.
Although he didn’t mention it in his remarks, Banks has long advocated a LEST, or Local Education Sales Tax, to help provide general fund revenues.
Ragsdale emphatically responded that “it will not be my recommendation to lower” the millage rate.
The Cobb tax digest rose by 11.5 percent this year, Cobb schools chief financial officer Brad Johnson told board members at a work session Thursday afternoon.
(That’s less than Cobb County’s overall tax digest growth of 12.3 percent; the Cobb school district does not tax inside the city of Marietta, which has its own school system.)
The digest increase netted the Cobb district an additional $70 million in tax revenues.
Since the board did not “roll back” the millage rate to last year’s revenues, the district is required by state law to advertise a tax increase and hold three public hearings before officially setting the millage rate.
The last of those hearings was Thursday night. A resident spoke in favor of cutting the millage rate, saying her school tax bill was more than $1,000 higher than last year.
But Jeff Hubbard of the Cobb County Association of Educators asked the board to keep the millage rate as is to benefit teachers.
It includes what Ragsdale has said is the largest pay increase in Cobb school district history, ranging from between 8.5 and 13.10 percent for non-temporary employees.
Given that most of the budget is made up of teacher salaries, board member Randy Scamihorn said he could not support reducing the tax rate.
In addition to a required balanced budget already being approved, he said, “I will not vote against our teachers.”
Howard said the slight reduction he proposed “will not affect our teachers or educators at all” but it is important to send “a strong sign to the public, a sign of faith to our community.”
He said he was confident that the district could absorb the lower tax revenue, and board member Tre’ Hutchins agreed, “even if it’s minor.”
Banks asked Ragsdale to provide the budget estimates he requested by October.
But Ragsdale said a clearer picture wouldn’t be possible until March, when the Georgia legislature, which funds nearly half of the district’s budget, is in session.
Georgia law caps public school district millage rates at 20 mills. Ragsdale said some other school districts in metro Atlanta have higher rates than that that were grandfathered in before present limits.
Cobb is one of the few districts in metro Atlanta with a broad senior tax exemption for homeowners 62 and older.
District officials have estimated that the exemption comes to more than $100 million a year. But the board’s four-man Republican majority, including Banks—who receives the exemption—has refused to revisit the exemption, which could be removed only through a state constitutional amendment.
Ragsdale said Cobb is able to do what it does with the budget thanks to a fiscally-conservative finance department that “is all about being a good steward of taxpayer funds.”
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The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved a new policy that calls for the Cobb County School District to hire armed, non-police professionals to help provide security.
Right before the board’s vote on Thursday night, however, several citizens in the board room chanted “delay the vote!”
Board chairman David Chastain called for a recess.
After the board reconvened few minutes later, the protestors continued.
Board member Jaha Howard, attending the meeting remotely, made a motion over the chanting to postpone the vote to August, and some in the crowd applauded.
His motion was seconded by Tre’ Hutchins, but it failed by a 2-4 vote (board member Charisse Davis was absent from the meeting).
The original motion, to approve the policy, was approved 4-2, with Chastain, David Banks, Randy Scamihorn and Brad Wheeler voting in favor.
“Shame on you!” shouted some of the protestors, and as it was the last item on the agenda, Chastain adjourned the meeting.
Several of the protestors spoke earlier during a public comment period, opposed to more guns in schools and questioning the identities and qualifications of those who would be hired.
Some wore shirts that said “End Gun Violence” and “Moms Demand Action,” the name of a gun-control organization.
Parent Charles Cole said the policy is “rash, dangerous and vastly open-ended.
“Let’s get some more guns in schools and add some specifics later is not the way we should operate. . . . I understand the intent, but I do not understand or support the execution.”
The policy does not include numerous details due to security concerns, but the new personnel—who could be recruited from the ranks of retired military, law enforcement, and other agents—will assist existing resource officers on campuses, buses and various school functions and extracurricular activities.
While they will be trained as officers in the CCSD Police Department, the armed guards will be paid on a different scale and do not have to be certified by the Georgia POST (Police Officer Training Standards) Council, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said.
He announced last month the addition of such personnel, along with a new security alert system and Code Red drills at every school in the 2022-23 school year that begins Aug. 1.
During a school board work session Thursday afternoon, Ragsdale said the district, like public safety agencies in general, is struggling to hire police officers. POST certifies all law enforcement in Georgia, including school districts that have their own police departments.
“If the board gave me a blank check” to hire a resource officer for every school, “I could not do that,” he said.
The Cobb school district has 67 police officers to cover 114 school campuses. The new armed guards would be “badged” employees of the school district, and select personnel on those campuses would be notified of those who are carrying arms in the schools on a “need to know” basis.
The new guards also will undergo background checks and psychological evaluations and will have annual firearms training.
“We are not going to arm personnel who are not fully vetted,” Ragsdale said.
“This policy will allow us to embark upon that path to make sure we are doing everything possible” to beef up security, he added, in the wake of the deadly elementary school shootings in Uvalde, Texas in May.
Ragsdale also said he is adamant that teachers will not be armed, and the new policy bars teachers and other personnel with classroom supervisory roles from bearing weapons.
The initial policy proposal would have allowed teachers to be armed if they met certain qualifications and in extraordinary exceptions, but Ragsdale withdrew that provision.
When asked by Banks if every elementary school in the district currently has a resource officer, Ragsdale said that “we cover every school but we don’t have an officer at every school.”
Hutchins asked if the new guards would be under Ragsdale’s purview. He said they would report chiefly to Ron Storey, the district’s public safety director, “but I won’t say they won’t only report to Storey.”
Howard said he had concerns about the policy, saying that he’s seen “no data or evidence that more armed professionals will make our students and staffers safer.
“It sounds like we are creating a group of gun-carrying professionals who are not police officers.”
Other commenters who spoke against the policy included Alisha Thomas Searcy, a former Cobb legislator and the Democratic Party nominee for Georgia School Superintendent, and Cobb SCLC president Ben Williams.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Georgia Symphony Orchestra Chorus enthusiastically invites singers to participate in two open rehearsals and to preview the coming season.
Musical highlights for 2022-2023 include selections by Hogan, Whitacre and Coleridge-Taylor. Carl Orff’s masterpiece Carmina Burana will conclude the season. The GSO Chorus is under the direction of Bryan Black, and rehearses on Tuesday evenings beginning August 16.
Open rehearsals will be held on Aug. 16 and 23 at 7: 30 p.m. at the Marietta Performing Arts Center, 1171 Whitlock Ave., Marietta.
The Georgia Symphony Orchestra also announced this week that it has been approved for a $10,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support its annual Sensory Friendly concerts.
Those will take place on April 15, 2023 and will feature these 50-minute programs, as the orchestra relaxes house rules and encourages the audience to respond to the music however they choose; such as around the concert hall, dancing, or vocalizing along with the music.
A pre-program instrument “Petting Zoo”and a Quiet Zone also are provided.
“It is a tribute to the GSO’s board, staff and musicians to have received this grant from the NEA,” GSO Executive Director Susan Stensland said. “We are excited to contribute to the arts and culture of our region in such a unique and positive way for members of an often-underserved community.”
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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!
Members of the Georgia U.S. House delegation and Georgia U.S. Sen Jon Ossoff have filed bills in Congress to change the name of the Veterans Administration regional office in Atlanta after the late Sen. Johnny Isakson.
“Senator Isaksonspent decades of his life in service to Georgia and our great nation,” said U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of the 6th Congressional District in a statement issued by her office.
“Senator Isakson’s career left an unforgettable mark on the U.S. Senate and the country as a whole. We shared a passion to make Georgia the best place to live and raise a family, and a dedication to upholding our nation’s commitment to the men and women who served in our armed forces. I am proud to join with my colleagues to support this billthat salutes hislegacy of service to Georgia veterans.”
Isakson, a realtor from East Cobb, died in December 2021 from Parkinson’s disease, after a 45-year political career in the Georgia legislature and Congress.
In the U.S. Senate, Isakson, a Republican, was chairman of the Senate Veterans Committee.
“He worked across the aisle to ensure that we honored the sacrifice of those who have served in America’s armed forces,” said U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop, like McBath a Democrat from the 3rd District. “He retired from Congress as Chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Naming the Veterans Affairs Atlanta regional office after him is a fitting tribute to this proud son of Georgia. I am proud to lead this bill with Congressman Allen to honor Senator Isakson’s legacy with the support of Georgia’s entire U.S. House delegation.”
Georgia Congressional members also wrote a letter to veterans committees in both houses saying that Isakson “championed important reforms to improve the quality and accessibility of services for our nation’s military veterans. We believe that Senator Isakson’s service to the veterans of Georgia warrants this tremendous recognition, and that naming this facility is a fitting tribute to his legacy.”
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The front of Mt. Bethel Church in July 2021, before its battle with the United Methodist Church went to court.
The words “Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church” once engraved on a marquee on its main campus on Lower Roswell Road were scrubbed several weeks ago.
That was in June, when the large East Cobb congregation entered into a settlement with the United Methodist Church to resolve more than a year of public disputes and legal wranglings.
A little more than a month later, the split has become official. Mt. Bethel Church is no longer part of the second-largest Protestant denomination and is an independent church.
Less than a month after entering a formal settlement with the North Georgia Conference of United Methodist Church, Mt. Bethel has fulfilled its obligations in a consent decree.
The Conference Board of Trustees issued a statement Wednesday saying that both parties “recently signed documents that bring resolution to the matter” and that they “appreciate all who have worked patiently and prayerfully to reach this point of resolution.”
No further details were announced, but the consent decree, filed in Cobb Superior Court, required Mt. Bethel to pay the Conference $13.1 million in 120 days. The church conducted a fundraising drive and received a loan to meet that obligation.
Other terms of the decree also no do not permit Mt. Bethel to use certain portions of its properties as offices or headquarters for another religious denomination for several years.
The church also cannot sell any of its Lower Roswell Road properties for seven and a half years without giving the UMC and the North Georgia Conference the right of first refusal to purchase them.
Mt. Bethel has been a founding member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a consortium of conservative Methodist congregations that eventually founded the Global Methodist Church, a new denomination that went into effect in May.
The UMC has planned a separation process for conservative churches to leave over theological issues, particularly regarding human sexuality.
The UMC currently bans gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriages but is likely to change those policies.
However, the denomination hasn’t been able to meet collectively since COVID-19 and its next general conference has been delayed to 2024.
Mt. Bethel officials said when the consent decree was signed in June that they are remaining independent.
Robert Ingram, the lead attorney for Mt. Bethel, previously told East Cobb News that his clients wanted the settlement to include a disaffiliation vote that would have been less costly than what was in the consent decree.
But he said the Conference, “despite our pleas, never did that.”
The dispute began in March 2021 when the Bishop of North Georgia reassigned Rev. Dr. Jody Ray, Mt. Bethel’s senior pastor, to a Conference position on racial reconciliation.
Mt. Bethel leaders balked, saying they weren’t properly consulted and declared their intent to disaffiliate, while Ray turned in his UMC ministerial credentials.
He was retained by Mt. Bethel as a pastor and CEO and has continued in those roles ever since.
Those and other actions by Mt. Bethel prompted charges by the Conference that the congregation—with nearly 10,000 members is the largest in its domain—was violating the UMC’s Book of Discipline governing documents.
Mt. Bethel also refused to accept the Conference’s newly appointed senior pastor, Rev. Dr. Steven Usry, who has since been meeting with disaffected members.
The Conference attempted to seize church property and assets, declared Mt. Bethel not to be a church in good standing, and entered into mediation before filing a lawsuit last September.
Mt. Bethel filed a counterclaim and after several months of litigation, asked Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley Clark to lead settlement talks.
A church picnic has been scheduled at Mt. Bethel for Aug. 14 after its late service.
A group of Mt. Bethel members who opposed the church’s fight with the North Georgia Conference continue to worship and have fellowship and support events at a variety of venues.
Last month, North Georgia Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson met with them at Mt. Zion UMC in East Cobb.
The Friends of Mt. Bethel group has been worshipping once a month at Roswell UMC and has been having “shepherding” events at the East Cobb Library and prayer meetings at Mt. Zion.
Fellowship potlucks are scheduled for this Sunday and Aug. 14 at the clubhouse at the Sibley Forest subdvision.
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NASA Ambassador Chris Thompson will present the Exploring the Early Universe with the James Webb Space Telescope program at Sewell Mill Library, 4880 Lower Roswell Road, on Monday, July 18 at 6 pm.
The free program will feature the story of the advanced space observatory JWST along with the latest images and discoveries from the farthest reaches of space. Register at http://ow.ly/zy7L50JTahv.
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The Lassiter Theatre Troupe performed a musical version of “The Addams Family” this spring.
Proposed renovations to the Lassiter High School theatre and classroom additions and renovations at Dickerson Middle School and Dodgen Middle School will be considered by the Cobb Board of Education Thursday.
Contracts to start all three projects are on the board’s agenda, first for discussion at a work session Thursday afternoon and then for approval Thursday night.
The work session begins at 2 p.m. and the voting session starts at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover St., Marietta.
An executive session follows the work session, and the board will conduct a final public hearing on the 2022 millage rate and tax digest at the same venue at 6:30 p.m.
The full agendas for the meetings can be found by clicking here.
The Cobb County District will ask the board to spend $365,334 to hire an architect for the Lassiter project.
That figure is around 5 percent of the full construction cost and the renovations would “expand, upgrade, and renovate the current theater at Lassiter,” according to a district spokeswoman.
The theatre facility is separate from the Lassiter Concert Hall.
The school board also will be asked to hire a construction manager for the Dickerson and Dodgen projects, which include classroom additions and renovations.
Those projects have been scheduled for completion by July 2023.
All three projects will be funded with revenues from the current Cobb Education SPLOST V sales tax collection.
The Cobb school district is proposing to keep the millage rate at its current 18.90 for property taxes.
But because of growth in the Cobb tax digest for 2022, the district must advertise a tax increase, since it is not rolling back the millage rate.
The Cobb school district is taking in $65 million more from local property taxes than in 2021, due mostly to rising assessment. The “roll back” rate would be 16.719 mills.
After the final public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the school board is scheduled to vote on the millage rate at the voting session.
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A Sedalia Park ES student is greeted by staff at a STEM event Tuesday. Photos by Daniel Vehar/Courtesy Cobb County School District
The eve of Amazon’s Prime Day on Tuesday netted a big benefit for the STEM program at Sedalia Park Elementary School in East Cobb.
As students gathered for a summer STEM event, Amazon announced it would be making a $50,000 donation for STEM activities at the school.
According to a release sent out by the Cobb County School District, the donation will help Sedalia Park upgrade a number of STEM-related facilities, including its technology lab and production studio.
In addition, Principal Tiffany Jackson said, “Amazon has helped open the doors to create a new Science Lab outfitted with state-of-the-art technology for our students and teachers!”
Activities included a STEM challenge including style art to decorate the science lab, and students took home a free STEM kit.
Plenty of Amazon-provided supplies also were on hand, with STEM-related uses in mind.
“It is our hope that through this giving event, local students will have greater access to the tools needed to support their overall educational experience,” Terreta Rodgers, Amazon Head of Community Affairs, Atlanta Region, said in the release.
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The current Good Mews cat shelter location opened in a standalone building on Robinson Road in 2015. ECN file photo.
The Good Mews Animal Foundation, a no-kill cat shelter in East Cobb, has announced that founder Gloria Skeen Cornell has died.
The organization posted a notice on its website and Facebook page on Monday.
“Gloria’s passion for animal welfare was no secret. She became inspired early in life after witnessing animal abuse and vowed to one day do what she could to put an end to it,” read the message by the shelter’s board of directors.
Gloria Skeen Cornell, Good Mews founder
A former flight attendant, she inadvertently started what became Good Mews out of her townhouse in 1988, taking in an abandoned cat after returning from a trip, then added another stray after that.
The shelter moved to space on Sandtown Road in Marietta, then to East Cobb, initially at the Fountains at Olde Towne shopping center.
When that center was razed for a medical office building, Good Mews built a standalone building on Robinson Road and relocated there in late 2015.
The shelter typically holds up to 100 cats at a time, and Good Mews also has created a foster cat program for about 30-40 cats.
Since its opening Good Mews has placed more than 10,000 neglected, abandoned and abused cats in homes and has an average adoption rate of 450 cats a year.
“It’s a place where thousands of homeless kitties found their forever home, a place that helped Cobb County Animal Services achieve no-kill status, a place that provides on-site TNR services to surrounding low-income areas, and an inviting place many consider a home away from home,” the Good Mews message read.
“Although there are many more programs and community involvement that have come to fruition since Gloria’s founding, we wouldn’t be here without her.”
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Tianya Hunter, a recent graduate of Sprayberry High School, is a recipient of a college scholarship from the Cobb Community Foundation.
Hunter is one of three inaugural recipients of the CCF’s Fostering Education Scholarship Fund. They are awarded to students who have been in foster care settings and are aging out as they leave high school.
Hunter, who is 19, plans to attend the College of Coastal Georgia, a four-year public university in Brunswick.
The other recipients are Collins Arrey of Campbell High School, who will be going to Albany State University, and Thinh Nguyen of Duluth, who’s headed to Georgia State University.
The three students combined received $7,500 in scholarship money.
“The instability of life in foster care often proves to be a distraction from learning and school performance,” the CCF stated in a release announcing the scholarship recipients.
“Financial resources, mentorship, support, and stability are not commonly available to help these individuals complete degree programs that lead to well-paying, stable employment. This is the reason why caring individuals in our community have joined together to fund these awards.”
Everlean Rutherford and Isaiah Wilcox created Village Connection which is an organization that supports children in foster care by providing duffel bags containing essential care items. Melissa Conti is a business owner and philanthropist who has a heart for children in foster care. The Cobb Community Foundation introduced the 2 Village Connection leaders to Melissa Conti, and the three of them worked to make the scholarship happen.
The program is the result of efforts by Everlean Rutherford and Isaiah Wilcox, who created Village Connection, an organization that supports children in foster care by providing essential care items. They were introduced to Melissa Conti, owner of Innovative Fitness in Kennesaw, who joined forces to create the scholarship fund.
CCF said it’s accepting donations for scholarship recipients for future years, and they can be made by clicking here.
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Cobb commissioners on Tuesday accepted a settlement with Rite Aid for $3.5 million after nearly four years of opioid-related litigation.
By a 4-1 vote, commissioners approved the settlement with the pharmacy chain as part of a “bellwether” series of lawsuits that included local governments in Durham, N.C. and Montgomery County, Ohio.
The lawsuit alleges that “Rite Aid failed to effectively monitor and report suspicious orders of prescription opioids from its retail stores and failed to implement measures to prevent diversion of prescription opioids, which contributed to an increase in opioid addictions, overdoses, and deaths” in Cobb, Montgomery County and Durham.
The lawsuit also claimed that “Rite Aid failed to adequately train pharmacists at its retail stores on how to adequately handle prescriptions for opioids and failed to institute policies and procedures at its retail stores to avoid the diversion of opioids.”
A trial was to have begun next year; Rite Aid admitted to no wrongdoing in agreeing to the settlement, which will cost it $10.5 million total to all three jurisdictions.
Cobb also has joined broader litigation against opioids manufacturers, who are being sued for damages stemming from the opioids epidemic.
Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris will be forming a committee to determine how the Rite Aid settlement money is to be spent. The most likely designation could be for recovery and treatment expenses.
Before the vote Tuesday, Missy Owen of the Davis Direction Foundation, an addiction recovery non-profit, urged commissioners to agree to the settlement so the community can “begin to focus on the real task at hand—saving lives.”
Her son Davis died of a heroin overdose in 2014 at the age of 20. Since then, she and her husband founded the foundation that bears Davis’ name, as well as The Zone, a space off Fairground Street in Marietta for those in long-term addiction recovery.
She also began a recovery roundtable with former Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds that continues.
Owen said there were 30 hospitalizations in last month alone in Cobb for fentanyl poisoning, and that “15 of those 30 thought they were taking something other than fentanyl.
“No amount of money will ever make this right,” Owen said, fighting back some emotion. “When you ask a mother to put a price on the life of a child, there will never be enough to cover the cost. However, we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good that can be done with this settlement money right now.”
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell thanked her for her comments, saying “I know that it was difficult to speak up.”
Commissioner Keli Gambrill also noted Owens remarks but said that she wouldn’t vote to accept the settlement because “the lawsuit does not address the root cause” of substance abuse and addiction.
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!
Leadership Cobb, a leadership development program of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, announced on Monday its Class of 2022-23.
They include elected officials and community and business leaders who will spend the next 10 months involved with “leadership training, teambuilding, and educational experiences highlighting our community’s greatest success stories and most significant ongoing challenges,” according to the Cobb Chamber.
The program began in 1983, and the new group includes 54 individuals:
Val Akopov, Wellstar Health System
Alex Almodovar, City of Acworth
Tiffany Barney, Cobb County School District
Megan Benvenuto, Northwest Family YMCA
Chris Britton, Brasfield & Gorrie
Flynn Broady, Cobb District Attorney
Daniel Browne, Georgia Tech Research Institute
Ann Burris, Georgia Department of Human Services
Stacey Chapman, CROFT & Associates,
Robin Cheramie, Kennesaw State University
Braxton Cotton, Cobb County Sheriff’s Office
Stephanie Cox, Cobb Chamber | SelectCobb
Michael Cunningham, Deputy Chief, Cobb County Fire & Emergency Services
Chad Curry, 41 South Creative
Ross Dicken II, Cobb EMC
Joy Doss, The Doss Firm, LLC
Corey Ferguson, Dallas Smith & Company
Lara Ferreira, The Third Door & Temperance Trailers
Marla Ferrell, Genuine Parts Company
Jordan Fessehaie, Delta Air Lines
Lynn Flanders, Cobb-Marietta Coliseum & Exhibit Hall Authority
Matt Giddens, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
Joseph Goldstein, Goldstein’s, Inc. and Marietta City Council
Michael Gordon, Mauldin & Jenkins
Tim Gould, City of Smyrna
Christopher Hansard, Superior Court of Cobb County
Ashley Jenkins, Gas South
Bobby Johnson, Johnson & Alday, LLC
Sheree Knowles, HRKS
Jessica Lee, Atlanta Braves
Joseph Malbrough, The UPS Store Smyrna
Taneesha Marshall, Federal Aviation Administration
Felicia McDade, Salesforce
Tamie Montgomery, Walton Communities
Komal Patel, Lockheed Martin
Drew Raessler, Director, Cobb County Department of Transportation
Taylor Rambo, Sew Dreams Come True
Amy Reeves, Wellstar Medical Group Pediatrics at Brookstone
Adam Ross, Cumberland CID
Mike Schroeder, 1885 Grill
Monique Sheffield, Cobb Board of Commissioners
Jennifer Stanley, Northside Hospital Cherokee
Falecia Stewart, MUST Ministries, Inc.
Sean Stewart, Kaiser Permanente
Lydia Stinson, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Lisa Sunday, SouthState Bank
Andrea TheoJohn, The ADS Agency
Chris Thomas, Chick-fil-A, Inc.
Dennette Thornton, Arthur M. Blank Sports & Entertainment
Hillary Thrower, The Home Depot
Aimee Turner, Croy Engineering
Michael Urbina, Urbina Law Firm, LLC
Bobby Van Buren, The Insurance Gurus
Chris Young, Accenture LLP
The theme of the new class, according to the Cobb Chamber, is “Together We Can. . . . In addition to learning about all the great things happening in Cobb County and beyond, Leadership Cobb wants to confront inequities that exist and provide the class opportunities to step up as leaders to address these challenges.”
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Last year the organization raised nearly $100,000 for a number of local non-profits and drew the interest of more than 800 participants along a course around the McCleskey Family-East Cobb YMCA (1055 East Piedmont Road, between Roswell Road and Sewell Mill Road).
Dog Days Run coordinator Butch Carter, a longtime Rotary member, said the goals this year are to surpass those figures.
“It’s a huge run, but we’d like to get to a thousand,” he said of the number of entries for the 5K event.
But he notes that while “every runner is important,” entry fees comprise only a portion of the money the event raises.
Carter said there’s a real need for more local businesses and organizations to sign up as sponsors, and Rotary members are busy knocking on doors and ringing the phone lines.
“That’s where we need to focus,” said Carter, whose auto repair shop, Honest-1, is among this year’s sponsors. “The vast majority of what we raise comes from some great local companies.”
Other sponsors include the Indian Hills Country Club, the YMCA, Pinnacle Orthopaedics, and the Malon D. Mimms Company.
Sponsorships range from $250 to $10,000, and for $1,000 or more a sponsor will get a table at the race site on the YMCA grounds.
Sponsorship levels also include a company’s name on the race shirt and event signage, as well as social media and website mentions and verbal recognition during the event.
A presenting sponsor—at $10,000—not only is the subject of a featured podcast highlighting its organization, but also receives eight complimentary tickets and gets to offer remarks during the Rotary Club’s Give Back Ceremony.
That’s a dinner held in the fall to announce the grant recipients from the Dog Days Run proceeds.
Recent organizations include Aloha to Aging, the Cobb Library Foundation, Family Promise, the MDE School, the Cobb Public Safety Celebration, The Exenstion, YMCA and the AVID program at Wheeler High School.
Carter said organizations must apply every year, and they “have to explain what they’re going to do” with the grant money.
All sponsorships also have at least one free race entry.
For other participants, registration is $30 through July 31, and $35 afterwards and for “phantom” runners, those participating elsewhere.
The Dog Days Run begins at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 6, and race-day registration begins at 6:30 a.m.
There also are cash prizes for category winners, including overall male and female, master male and female, grandmaster male and female and senior male and female.
To register, and for more information, click here. For volunteer information, click here.
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The Cobb Police Department is continuing to collect school supplies for students who need them through the end of the month during what it calls its Book Bag Palooza.
Donations will be accepted at all five police precincts through July 30 as noted in the flyer, including Precinct 4 (4400 Lower Roswell Road).
KIDS CARE, a local non-profit for youth and teen community service volunteers, is collecting new back packs and school supplies through July 30 at the Cobb Civic Center, (548 S. Marietta Parkway).
Some other other dropoff options not included in the flyer: You can drive up at the Civic Center from 1-4 p.m. Friday, July 15 and from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 30.
Also on July 30, Cobb Police will be holding a back-to-school festival at the Civc Center with bounce houses, games, clowns, train rides and more. This is a free event with free parking and proceeds will benefit KIDS CARE.
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!
From Cobb County government, the deadline has been extended to apply to the end of business today, and vendor selection will be announced next Monday, July 18:
Cobb’s annual International Festival is accepting applications until this Monday, July 11 for food vendors, artists and community groups for the event at Jim Miller Park Event Center in Marietta on Aug. 27. The festival features food, costumes and cultural performances from around the world.
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!
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