Keep Cobb Beautiful’s annual Bring One for the Chipper Christmas Tree recycling program starts Christmas Day and ends next Saturday, Jan. 4.
Starting Christmas Day and continuing through Jan. 4, you can drop off trees at the Home Depot stores at Providence Square (4101 Roswell Road) and Highland Plaza (3605 Sandy Plains Road).
On Saturday, Jan. 4, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the following county parks in East Cobb will serve as drop-off locations:
Fullers Park (3499 Robinson Road)
Sewell Park (2055 Lower Roswell Road)
Noonday Park (489 Hawkins Store Road)
When you bring a tree you’ll get a free sapling, as long as supplies last.
No flocked trees will be accepted, and all trees must have decorations, mesh, lights, stands, strings and other items removed.
Free mulch also is available; for more information, call 770-528-1135 or visit keepcobbbeautiful.org.
An East Cobb boy scout troop is collecting trees this Saturday, Jan. 28, and next Saturday, Jan. 4, as a fundraising project.
It’s Troop 565, which meets at Eastminster Presbyterian Church, and they’ll be making curbside pickups those days starting at 8 a.m. within the Walton, Wheeler, Pope, Lassiter and Sprayberry attendance zones.
The cost for the retrieval is $25 a tree, and they’re asking that you sign up here for the service. The donations are tax-deductible and the proceeds go toward troop programs.
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GRACEPOINT School for dyslexic learners announced today their accreditation received for the school’s Orton-Gillingham program by the AOGPE (Academy of Orton Gillingham Practitioners and Educators). The Orton–Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling does not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia. All academic teachers at GRACEPOINT are trained as Orton-Gillingham Classroom Educators. Training involves methods to teach and Enremediate all areas of literacy, not just reading and spelling and to provide this instruction one-on-one, in a classroom, or with any size group.
Students at GRACEPOINT receive 90 minutes of explicit Orton-Gillingham reading instruction each day.
GRACEPOINT’s instructional program is now 1 of only 16 programs in the nation to receive this accreditation.
“To have your OG instruction endorsed by the Academy is such a high honor,” shared Joy Wood, GRACEPOINT Head of School. “I am very proud of the teachers and staff at GRACEPOINT that are so dedicated to restoring hope to the brilliant dyslexic minds we serve each day. There is incredible reward in seeing realize they are not ”
This news comes in the wake of many recent initiatives and accomplishments of the company, including:
Enrollment growth from 4 to 124 students since the school’s beginning in 2012
Accreditation by the SAIS (Southern Association of Independent Schools)
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The original Mt. Bethel Community Center on Johnson Ferry Road also housed a school and was the first Cobb Police precinct location in East Cobb. (Special photo)
It’s hard to imagine the East Cobb we live in now being mostly farmland not that long ago. But going back in history turned out to a delightful departure from current news cycle for many of our readers after we published a story this summer about a family that remembered the community when it was called Mt. Bethel.
As the siblings of a prominent Mt. Bethel family told us, the changes have been rather recent: They were among the first graduates of Walton High School in the late 1970s, attending classes with suburban peers while they grew up on a farm on Lower Roswell Road at Woodlawn Drive.
Some of their cows occasionally wandered into a new planned community with a golf course that changed the area for good.
“When Indian Hills opened, that was a huge caveat to a changing community,” said Cherie Chandler, the fifth of the six Poss children. “That’s when it went from being Mt. Bethel to East Cobb.”
Her sister Gail Poss Towe saw a story we published in May about the demolition of a home near theirs belonging to Wilce Frasier, and was eager to share stories about a very different time.
We sat down with the three youngest children of Arthur and Evelyn Poss, who threw themselves into family and community life with eagerness and impact.
From left, Gail Poss Towe, Mark Poss and Cherie Poss Chandler, the youngest children of Arthur and Evelyn Poss. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
The response from readers to this story was heartwarming: More local history, please! While we haven’t been able to do that as much as we had hoped, we’ve got some ideas along those lines heading into 2020.
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East Cobb Cityhood leader David Birdwell met a skeptical and at times hostile crowd at the group’s first public appearance in March. (ECN file photos)
The leaders of the East Cobb cityhood effort did the right thing this week by calling off their push for legislation and a referendum in 2020.
They were running out of time to get too many things done—including finalizing a map and a proposed list of services—and had stoked even more opposition, suspicion and confusion for months this spring and summer when they barely connected with the public at all.
County elected officials, including legislators, hadn’t been told what was going on.
State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick said she got a lot of negative feedback about East Cobb cityhood.
After its first town hall meeting in March, the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb had its work cut out, as citizens packed a church parish hall and demanded to know who, what and especially why this was being proposed.
A month later the cityhood group had a town hall meeting at Walton High School. Like that and future events it held, citizens could ask questions only by writing them down on a note card for a moderator to read. Or not.
This is no way to have a meaningful dialogue with the public about a dramatic change in their local government, in an initiative that would ultimately be decided by citizens.
Neither is having a cityhood bill filed in the legislature the day after that first town hall meeting, and on the next-to-last day of the General Assembly session.
At the time, I thought it smacked of another bad-faith effort on the part of the cityhood group, which paid for a financial feasibility study issued last November, but whose members remained anonymous and unwilling to meet with the public.
At one point on its website, the cityhood group explained that it wasn’t identifying its donors or others involved for fear of harassment from their “enemies” and the media.
By dodging such basic questions, and setting up a non-profit 501(c)4 “social welfare” organization to conceal donors, original cityhood leaders likely created more opponents than they ever conjured up in their paranoid imaginations.
Public suspicions were immediate, and they continue today: Development interests are behind this. Nothing but a land grab. Look at what’s happening in Sandy Springs. We don’t want that coming here.
Also: We don’t want another layer of government. My property taxes are bound to go up. The services I get from the county are just fine.
When the cityhood group finally faced the public, newly appointed cityhood leader David Birdwell didn’t stand much of a chance.
East Cobb cityhood leader Rob Eble speaks at a Wheeler HS town hall meeting in November.
I’ve found him and Rob Eble, another newcomer to the group, to be well-intentioned. But overcoming the bad start of others has been a tall order, and it’s dogged them ever since.
So has the lack of any kind of public groundswell for a City of East Cobb. When prominent civic leaders say they were blindsided by this, that’s telling.
Trying to push through legislation in two years, hiring high-profile lobbyists and keeping the public in the dark for months hurt the cityhood case even more.
Another big question: What’s the rush?
Other cityhood efforts in metro Atlanta have taken several legislative cycles. There is so much to work out, in addition to finances: Intergovernmental agreements, start-up costs, staffing even a bare-bones city hall, and that darn map.
Eble told me this week the cityhood group never finalized an expanded map to include the Pope and Lassiter school zones. It was an estimate provided by a GIS service that detailed the original map.
Ultimately, the East Cobb cityhood effort struggled from a lack of organization more than having what many consider a shadowy agenda.
Eble admitted the cityhood group made mistakes communicating with the public. As for the idea of cityhood, he said, “I still believe in it. But nobody’s trying to shove anything down anybody’s throat.”
There are many who will never believe this, of course, and they will remain ever-vigilant to stop cityhood.
Yet I’ve also talked to, and heard from, citizens who are unsure. They weren’t necessarily opposed to cityhood but wanted more information, and didn’t feel like they were getting it.
Some others roiled by an annexation spat this summer with the City of Marietta have been open to the idea of an East Cobb city, fearing the county can’t protect them.
As these last few months have transpired, I do think the idea of cityhood is worth considering. I’ve been accused of being biased, both for and against a city, but I don’t really have an opinion.
Too big to succeed?
As someone who grew up in East Cobb, I’ve seen my community become suburbanized, and now more densely developed in some areas.
This is happening all over the county, which has more than 750,000 people and is projected to have a population of one million by 2050.
Before the cityhood issue was raised, I had been wondering if Cobb County government could continue to operate as it has.
There are serious concerns about public safety staffing, the county’s growing pension obligations and addressing transportation and development concerns.
Is Cobb too big to govern the way it is, with a countywide chairman and four district commissioners serving nearly 200,000 people each? And representing communities that are distinct from one another?
Tre Hutchins and Galt Porter of the South Cobb Alliance, a pro-cityhood group in Mableton.
There are times when commissioners are squabbling during their meetings that I wonder if they can even agree on what to have for lunch.
I’ve thought a citizen-led, grassroots cityhood movement in East Cobb could gain some traction, especially around zoning, development and land use issues.
I could see a City of East Cobb providing those and other community development services, including code enforcement.
I’ve never understood why the cityhood effort centered upon providing expensive police and fire services to supplant excellent, if not fully-staffed county departments? We have the lowest crime and fire rates in Cobb County.
Why not provide something better than what exists now, in say, sanitation, where the increasingly monopolized American Disposal private hauler is the subject of many complaints?
A financial review group studying the East Cobb feasibility study recommended that option, at least to start.
A “city light” form of government could serve East Cobb much better than one worrying about how to pay for new fire trucks and police cars and trained professionals to staff them.
Transparency matters
The “pause and reset” phase for cityhood, to borrow Eble’s phrase to me, is a good time to rethink those matters, as well as to be fully forthcoming with the public before gearing up for 2021.
At the outset, the cityhood group should lay out all of its finances, including how much money has been spent, and who’s been footing the bills.
Identify everybody who’s given money to the cause, and been involved in the effort in a significant way. Everybody.
This isn’t a private business deal, but an entirely public matter that could affect the lives of more than 100,000 people.
Follow the lead of the Mableton cityhood effort, which conducted extensive town halls over a couple of years to really hear what the public thinks, without note card questions and a “here’s what we want to do” mentality.
East Cobb cityhood leader David Birdwell at an East Cobb Business Association debate in November.
Like Mableton, have a city map fully detailed, including city council districts that were indicated in the East Cobb bill but never visualized, and provide an online survey.
Better communications include regular use of social media. The East Cobb cityhood group barely updated those platforms and its website, which is absurd heading into the third decade of the 21st century.
Cityhood leaders should have regular discussions with legislators and other local elected officials, since without their support a referendum will likely never happen.
The East Cobb cityhood group certainly has serious intentions. It had the money to buy access and line up the mechanics of getting a bill passed in the legislature.
What it didn’t have was a concept of what it really takes to gather public support, and its efforts to explain its reasons for cityhood were belated and underwhelming.
Something as substantive as creating a new local government shouldn’t be accepted as easily as cityhood leaders may have thought. Nor should it be categorically rejected as the anti-city East Cobb Alliance has maintained.
For those of us who have an open mind about the issue, we’re still receptive to hearing a better case being made.
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A young visitor approaches the stage at the Sewell Mill amphitheater. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
It was around 50 degrees when Cocoa and Concert began Friday at the Sewell Mill Library, as a few dozen people brought coats and concert chairs, sipped on hot cocoa, enjoyed crafts and the music of local artists.
After a colder and wet weekend, the week of Christmas will be warmer, with temperatures reaching the mid-60s by Christmas Day and staying in that range the rest of the week.
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Thanks to reader Karen Fox, who sends along word that her family home in East Cobb is having a special holiday lights treat on Saturday night.
The lights are synchronized to music that you can listen to on your car radio at 88.3FM, and the display features two snow machines, leaping arches, an animated skating pond and a frozen display.
She says Santa will be visiting Saturday, starting at 7 p.m., and will be available for free pictures, hot chocolate and treats. He usually stays an hour or so, or until the last child is seen.
The display is free to enjoy between 6-11 p.m. nightly through Jan. 6, but Karen says they’re accepting donations for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church.
The address is 2994 Clary Hill Court, located off Post Oak Tritt Road near McPherson Road, in the Clary Lakes subdivision. Below is a map to help you get there, along with more photos and a video.
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East Cobb cityhood has been greeted with skepticism since the group’s first public appearance in March. (ECN file photo)
The Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb announced Thursday it will not be pursuing legislation next year that would call for a referendum later in 2020.
A bill introduced this year by State Rep. Matt Dollar of East Cobb was to have been considered in the upcoming legislative session.
But after two public events last month, including the announcement of an expanded proposed city map, the cityhood group said it’s opting to go through another two-year legislative cycle.
“We are committed to continuing this process,” cityhood CEO David Birdwell said in a statement. “We want to take the time to do it right because we know that the more educated voters are on this issue, the more they will support it.”
East Cobb News has left messages with Birdwell and Dollar seeking comment.
Rob Eble, another cityhood leader, told East Cobb News the group “got a lot of feedback,” and “people feel like the process was rushed. That was the biggest complaint.
“We really took that to heart. The last thing we want is for this to be divisive and this was becoming divisive.”
Eble said the cityhood group wants to make a renewed effort to engage more with the public.
He acknowledged that while there are those who oppose cityhood, others said they weren’t sure what they thought but felt they didn’t have enough information and felt the process was being rushed.
Last month, the cityhood group conducted a town hall meeting at Wheeler High School and participated in a debate with cityhood opponents.
The cityhood group had not made any further public comments or appearances since then, until Thursday’s announcement.
The expanded map was to have included the Pope and Lassiter attendance zones, but the cityhood group has not produced a detailed map for the public.
Legislators, including State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick of East Cobb, who would be the bill’s likely sponsor in the Senate, said they haven’t seen a map.
When contacted by East Cobb News Thursday, Kirkpatrick said she was glad for the cityhood delay, because of feedback she got from constituents.
“I think that’s a wise decision,” she said. “This is going to be much more fair to the people of East Cobb.”
She said the group was running out of time to have a new map ready for the legislative session, and constituents were all over the map on what they thought about cityhood.
Kirkpatrick said some were opposed, others worried about their taxes going up, and some were concerned about development issues.
“There’s just been a lot of confusion,” she said, referring to the changing map and suggestions to change the proposed services of a City of East Cobb.
She said she was preparing to do a poll before the legislature begins, but holding off on cityhood for now “is a better approach.”
East Cobb Cityhood leaders David Birdwell, Karen Hallacy and Rob Eble at an April town hall meeting at Walton High School. (ECN file)
Earlier this week, the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes cityhood, produced what it called its best estimate of the revised map. Birdwell estimated the new population would exceed 115,000.
The Alliance said it still considers the legislation active, since the cityhood group “is no longer in control of what happens in the Legislature.”
“Until/Unless [Dollar] says he will withdraw the bill, and does withdraw the bill, he can, and very well may, continue to push this bill forward, regardless of what the Cityhood Committee says they want.”
Dollar, who sponsored the cityhood bill in the house on the next-to-the-last day of the 2019 legislative session, told East Cobb News earlier this month that the map was still being revised and probably would be until the 2020 General Assembly starts.
Eble said the map Birdwell showed during the Wheeler town hall was an estimate done by a GIS firm for the cityhood group.
“That’s one of the reasons we don’t want to do this during the legislative session,” Eble said.
The decision to delay cityhood comes a little more than a year after the group unveiled a financial feasibility study conducted by Georgia State University.
That study concluded that a City of East Cobb, in unincorporated Cobb in Cobb Commission District 2 east of I-75 and with a population of 96,000 was financially viable.
The study concluded that a city could provide community development, police and fire services at or below the current Cobb millage rates, and with a surplus.
But skeptics of the study and of cityhood emerged quickly, as the group declined to identify donors and others pushing for a municipality.
The group asked several citizens to examine the feasibility study. One of them, Joe O’Connor, quit the ad hoc group when he was told it was none of his business to know who funded the study.
O’Connor said he was told most of the study was funded by Owen Brown of the East Cobb-based Retail Planning Corp., which leases shopping center space. Brown is the cityhood group’s treasurer, but the refusal to name others has fueled suspicions of development interests behind the cityhood drive.
Earlier this year, Birdwell, a retired entrepreneur with a real estate background, became the public spokesman for the cityhood group and is listed as its CEO.
He conducted the first public meeting involving the cityhood group, during commissioner Bob Ott’s town hall meeting in March, and was met with skeptical and at times hostile reaction.
Under state law, cityhood bills must go through a two-year cycle. A bill would have to be reintroduced in 2021 and must be passed by the full legislature by 2022 for a referendum to take place.
Alliance leader Bill Simon said his group will continue to track Dollar’s bill unless or until “it dies in committee, or is defeated in the Legislature. One thing we know from experience in watching the Georgia Legislature: Nothing is ever guaranteed, and we trust nothing we hear or read when it comes to legislation.”
Eble said the cityhood group’s plan is “not to give up,” but to use public feedback it received to offer a fresh approach to connecting with the public.
“We made some mistakes,” he said, “but there’s no ulterior motive here.”
Mindy Seger of the anti-city East Cobb Alliance debates David Birdwell of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb in November (ECN file)
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U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath voted with her fellow House Democrats Wednesday as DonaldTrump became the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.
The 6th District Congresswoman, who represents most of East Cobb, voted for both articles of impeachment that she also had supported last week in the House Judiciary Committee.
The vote on Article 1, abuse of power, was 230-197; and for Article 2, obstruction of Congress, the vote was 229-198.
Trump was charged on the first article for allegations that he threatened to withhold foreign aid to the government of Ukraine if it did not investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate.
The second article alleged that the president impeded its investigation in the Ukraine matter.
Only two Democrats voted with the Republican minority. Another Democrat, Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who’s running for president, voted “present” on both articles, saying she preferred that the House censure and not impeach Trump.
Barry Loudermilk, a Republican who also represents Cobb County and is a strong Trump supporter, noted in floor remarks before the votes that:
“One week before Christmas, I want you to keep this in mind: When Jesus was falsely accused of treason, Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers. During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this president in this process.”
Republicans have charged the impeachment process has been motivated entirely for partisan reasons, and that it’s being done to subvert the 2016 presidential election.
McBath is among a few dozen House Democrats who represent districts that voted for the president. Trump carried the 6th District, which also includes North Fulton, Sandy Springs and North DeKalb, but only with 51 percent.
McBath, who last year became the first Democrat to win the district in 40 years, is being targeted again nationally.
The two Republicans running for the seat, former Rep. Karen Handel and Marjorie Greene Taylor, have been critical of McBath on impeachment.
Trump joins Andrew Johnson (1867) and Bill Clinton (1998) as presidents who’ve been impeached in the House. Both were acquitted in trials in the U.S. Senate and served the remainder of their terms.
The current Senate has a Republican majority. Georgia Sen. David Perdue is a strong defender of Trump, and incoming Sen., Kelly Loeffler, who succeeds the retiring Johnny Isakson in January, blasted the House process as an impeachment “scam.”
Trump has been Tweeting his displeasure with the impeachment vote, calling it a “hoax,” and retweeting others critical of the Democrats. He also Tweeted this:
I got Impeached last night without one Republican vote being cast with the Do Nothing Dems on their continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history. Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!
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The last two school days before the holiday break in the Cobb County School District will be shortened days.
On Thursday and Friday, schools will be releasing early for local school professional learning sessions, so the buses will be out and about around the lunchtime hours.
Students will be served lunch at school before they’re released.
Here’s the early release chedule, and it’s the same for both days, two hours earlier than usual.
11:30 a.m. – High School
12:30 p.m. – Elementary School
1:30 p.m. – Middle School
The first day of the second semester is Monday, Jan. 6.
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A number of initiatives have been begun to address those trends, including the Cobb Opioid Fatality Review Project under the auspices of the Cobb District Attorney’s Office. That project received a nearly $900,000 U.S. Justice Department grant to cover three years.
On Wednesday DA Joyette Holmes sent out the following message about the project’s first review:
In the DA’s Office, Judicial Case Manager Latoya Inzar and Inv. Matthew Mize are dedicated to the Fatality Review Project.
“Cobb County completed its first opioid fatality review (OFR) on Nov. 20, with great participation from stakeholders and the U.S. Department of Justice,” Inzar said. “We were able to review three recent overdose deaths, and recommendations followed to improve policy and practice. As the OFRs are still new to Cobb County and the state of Georgia, our team will continue to improve the process.”
Among the accomplishments, Inzar created a treatment guide and community resource booklet of food, housing, healthcare and other resources available to Cobb residents impacted by the opioid crisis.
Project leaders have attended various trainings, and they participated in Marietta Police Department’s opioid symposium in September. They regularly review findings of the Cobb Medical Examiner on overdose deaths and are engaged in mapping and analyzing individual cases.
Mize, who works to identify the drug dealers behind overdose deaths, said: “The significance of this work is that it will save lives, but more importantly, we aim to transform the lives of those suffering from addiction so that they may reach a sustainable recovery.”
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From Jane Lang of the Good Mews Animal Foundation comes the following information about an ongoing cat adoption special, and the flyer has more details:
Good Mews has a lot of cats that have been with them for months, some even years. They’d love to find their long-time residents a forever home in time for the holidays! So from December 16th-31st, all cats that have been at Good Mews 6 months and longer will have a reduced adoption fee of $25!
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The following East Cobb food scores from Dec. 16-20 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing to view details of the inspection:
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East Cobb cityhood leaders still haven’t made public details of a revised map of the proposed city, more than a month after announcing new boundaries at a town hall meeting.
A group opposed to cityhood isn’t waiting around. On Monday, it released what it calls a “best-estimate” of what it thinks the new proposed map will look like.
The East Cobb Alliance said its version of the map was done with donated efforts from South Avenue Consulting, a Smyrna-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS) firm. The map, according to the Alliance, is 95 percent accurate.
The map was done, the group said, without exact GIS coordinates from the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb and was drawn from the image cityhood leader David Birdwell displayed at a Nov. 11 town hall meeting at Wheeler High School.
At their first town hall meeting in April, cityhood leaders said they would be revising the map, most likely to include the Pope and Lassiter attendance zones.
Cityhood leader David Birdwell points to a revised map at a November town hall meeting, but that’s all the public has seen of the proposed new boundaries. (ECN file)
Birdwell indicated at the Wheeler meeting the new boundaries would indeed include most of the Pope and Lassiter areas.
He didn’t offer precise details, saying he had first seen the new map only that day. He wasn’t sure if a financial feasibility study done for the cityhood group based on the original map would have to be revised or redone.
East Cobb News has left messages for Birdwell seeking comment.
He did not respond to a message earlier this month when East Cobb News contacted State Rep. Matt Dollar of East Cobb, the cityhood bill sponsor. He wasn’t at the Wheeler town hall and said he had not seen the map shown at that meeting.
Dollar did say that the map is undergoing revisions and probably will be after the Georgia legislature convenes in January.
His bill must pass the full legislature in order for a cityhood referendum to be held next year. Lawmakers also would approve the final map and proposed city charter.
But other local lawmakers, including State Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick of East Cobb, said they haven’t seen the new map as they hear from citizens about cityhood.
The original map included all of unincorporated Cobb in commission District 2 east of I-75, excluding the Cumberland Community Improvement District.
That map hasn’t been updated to reflect the proposed new boundaries.
The East Cobb Alliance estimate indicates that the northern boundary of the city would be the Cobb-Cherokee line, stretching from extreme Northeast Cobb to the Trickum Road-Jamerson Road intersection.
The original map would included only one quadrant of the Holly Springs-Post Oak Tritt intersection in the City of East cobb; a new estimate would include all but the southwest corner.
The additional areas would some of the Ebenezer Road corridor, mostly below Blackwell Road, and most of the Holly Springs Road corridor, and would fill in the area between Holly Springs and Sandy Plains with the area in the original map.
Also in the proposed new city would be the Sandy Plains-Shallowford area with a cluster of commercial and retail properties as well as several county facilities:
Mountain View Regional Library
East Cobb Senior Center
Mountain View Community Center
The Art Place
Mountain View Aquatic Center
Carl Harrison Park
Sandy Plains Park
Sweat Mountain Park
The original map included a population of around 86,000; at the Wheeler town hall, Birdwell said the new map would include a population of around 115,000, but that was an estimate.
The cityhood group is proposing a City of East Cobb provide community development (including planning and zoning), police and fire services.
Those new areas all fall in Cobb commission District 3, represented by JoAnn Birrell, who’s opposed to cityhood.
She said after a Nov. 12 debate between Birdwell and Mindy Seger of the East Cobb Alliance that nobody from the cityhood group had contacted her about the new map.
“They’re encroaching in my district,” she said at the time. “So now I’m being outspoken.”
Since then, Birrell has included cityhood information in her weekly newsletter, urging her constituents to get in touch with their elected officials, including Cobb’s state lawmakers, to tell them what they think.
She also included contact information for members of the House Governmental Affairs Committee, the first step for the cityhood bill’s consideration.
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A revised senior-living proposal would have primary access on Sandy Plains Road (bottom right in the rendering).
Imagine that the primary means of access into your neighborhood is performing a U-turn across two lanes of traffic on Sandy Plains Road, then making a quick right turn onto your residential street just below the intersection of Ebenezer Road.
Some Cobb commissioners were aghast at a revised proposal by Traton Homes that would call such a deft (daring, even) piece of driving at a Tuesday zoning hearing, and that Cobb DOT concurred.
They voted instead to delay the case until their February zoning hearing.
“I have serious concerns about any access from Sandy Plains,” commissioner Bob Ott said. “I don’t know how you allow U-turns there.”
After getting a favorable recommendation from the Cobb Planning Commission earlier this month for a proposed 31-home senior-living community, Traton attorney Kevin Moore presented a revised site plan that provided main access along Sandy Plains.
Under the revision, residents heading southbound on Sandy Plains would make a simple right turn into the community from a deceleration lane.
But residents traveling northbound on Sandy Plains would have complete a U-turn that Cobb DOT transportation engineer Amy Diaz said was doable.
“You’re kidding me?” Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce said. “You’re asking for trouble.”
He said the U-turn “may be difficult, but you know drivers.”
The blue star is the proposed senior-living development, with U-turn access indicated in red at the Sandy Plains-Ebenezer intersection.
The initial application called for sole access on Ebenezer Road, close to the Sandy Plains intersection, which Cobb DOT indicated would be problematic, as did some residents living in the adjacent Kerry Creek subdivision.
Traton’s new submission includes right-in access southbound along Ebenezer into the development, and a right-out exit to turn northbound on Sandy Plains.
Diaz said a senior-living development typically yields less traffic than other residential subdivisions, and there had been “no safety red flags at Sandy Plains at that location” to recommend against a U-turn.
But members of the nearby Sandy Plains Baptist Church, located just below the 10-acre tract sought by Traton, said the new traffic plans would have a detrimental effect.
They’re not against the development and had no problem with Ebenezer Road access, but Sandy Plains Road access would affect more than Sunday worship traffic. The church also has a preschool during weekdays.
“It’s been said that the previous plan was dangerous,” said Edward England, a church deacon. “Sandy Plains Road is much more dangerous than Ebenezer.”
The proposal comes as major road construction along Sandy Plains between Piedmont and Ebenezer roads is due to be completed this month.
“I know DOT said that’s a good alternative,” church leader Walter Stevens said, referring to Sandy Plains access, “but I’m telling you it’s not. I think this is a bad alternative to what was originally proposed.”
Boyce said he thought the U-turn proposal was “trying to make a traffic pattern fit a development. This just doesn’t fit.”
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who represents the area, made the motion to hold the application. It won’t be heard until February, since commissioners don’t consider rezoning cases in January.
Moore said “we’ll have to take a look at” whatever would be proposed as a traffic alternative, but he reminded commissioners that other types of residential zoning on that land would result in more vehicles on Sandy Plains.
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After the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved a master plan for the new Ebenezer Road park property Monday night, commissioner JoAnn Birrell said the name of the 18-acre park would be Ebenezer Downs.
The master plan approval came on a 4-0 vote (with commissioner Bob Ott absent), and after a brief presentation by Cobb parks director Jimmy Gisi (previous ECN post here).
The land at Ebenezer and Canton Road was two homesteads that features a lake and wooded areas.
The features of the master plan are a fishing lake and lakeside pavilion, walking trails, a playground, a 30-space parking lot. One of the homes would be used for small events, including wedding receptions and private parties, and public restroom facilities would be built.
The entry to the park would be aligned with the Ebenezer Road entrance to Noonday Baptist Church.
Gisi said community suggestions during public feedback meetings in recent months that the county took back to its parks consultant resulted in a better master plan.
“It’s a beautiful piece of property,” Birrell said. “I go by there a lot and people are fishing all the time.”
The master plan approval does not include park construction; that funding would have to approved separately by the commissioners and no timetable for that consideration has been announced.
Also on Monday, commissioners approved spending $373,000 in 2016 SPLOST funds for an operations barn at Hyde Farm in East Cobb. Gisi said construction is expected to be completed by next June.
Also approved was relocation of parking space at the Mountain View Community Center, costing $572,000 due to the adjacent Sandy Plains MarketPlace that’s in private development.
The county formerly shared parking with Mountain View Elementary School before it relocated to make way for the retail center.
Commissioners also voted to rename the East Cobb Senior Center the Tim D. Lee Center, in the memory of the late Cobb commission chairman (previous ECN story here).
Lee’s widow and children were in attendance, as was former chairman Sam Olens, who like Lee served District 3 in Northeast Cobb on the commission.
Commission chairman Mike Boyce also presented a proclamation to Tejas Veedhulur of Boy Scout Troop 1776 for his Eagle Scout project cleaning up the Gold Branch of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area off Lower Roswell Road.
The troop meets at the Catholic Church of St. Ann.
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Thanks to East Cobb real estate agent Ariel Starke (@ArielStarke on Instagram) for sending along these photos of homes decked out for the holidays, with lights, trees and other displays.
The photo above is from the Five Lakeside neighborhood off Casteel Road.
If you’d like to share your photos, we’ll be posting them through the holidays (and that includes New Year’s). E-mail us: editor@eastcobbnews.com and we’ll share them with the community!
Normandy neighborhood off Casteel Road.Normandy neighborhood off Casteel Road.Ariel’s children decorating the family Christmas tree.
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!
Mountain View Regional Library staff is hosting the Caring Heart Foundation’s Holiday Toy Drive through Friday,Dec. 20. The three county libraries serving as toy drive collection locations for the local nonprofit organization are:
West Cobb Regional Library, 1750 Dennis Kemp Lane, Kennesaw (770-528-4699)
South Cobb Regional Library, 805 Clay Road, Mableton (678-398-5828)
Suggested donations of new, unwrapped toys for children ages 2-17 include action figures, sports equipment, dolls, arts and crafts sets, board games, building sets, toy vehicles, pretend play and dress up sets, puzzles and books.
The Holiday Toy Giveaway program will be held at Mountain View Regional Library on Saturday, Dec. 21. The Caring Heart Foundation team will have gifts set up from 1 to 3:30 p.m. for registered families to select toys.
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Trump supporters wave to motorists during Saturday’s protest at U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath’s Sandy Springs office. (Photo courtesy Trump Victory Committee)
Supporters of President Donald Trump protested outside the 6th Congressional District office of U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath Saturday afternoon in Sandy Springs.
McBath, a Marietta Democrat, voted with her party Friday when the House Judiciary Committee returned two articles of impeachment against Trump, who is accused of abuse of office and obstruction of Congress.
The Trump protestors got approving social media messages from U.S. Sen. David Perdue and U.S. Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, both strong Trump supporters, as well as the Cobb Republican Party.
Danielle Alvarez, regional communications director for the Trump re-election campaign, said around 50 people turned out for the protest.
Georgians are fed up with the Democrats’ obstruction & impeachment sham. They want results: Growing the economy, rebuilding our military, and leveling the trade playing field. @GaRepublicans#gapol#gasenpic.twitter.com/XMsrn6QXJ9
Trump is accused of threatening to withhold U.S. foreign aid to Ukraine if it didn’t investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential candidate. House Democrats also charged the president with obstructing their investigation.
Republicans and Trump supporters have been charging that the Democratic-led House investigation is a “sham impeachment” process. Former U.S. Rep. Karen Handel, who’s campaigning to win back the seat McBath claimed from her in last year’s elections, has used similar language.
After Friday’s committee vote, Handel said “that since the beginning of this sham process, Lucy McBath has been purely partisan and has had no interest in finding the facts. She promised us she would be independent and bipartisan, but it is obvious that promise was empty.”
Handel was at a North DeKalb Republican women’s event on Saturday.
Saturday’s rally wasn’t the first time Trump supporters have gathered outside McBath’s office.
The 6th District includes East Cobb, North Fulton and Sandy Springs and North DeKalb, and it is being eyed as another battleground seat in House elections in 2020. McBath is the first Democrat to represent the district in 40 years.
The full House is expected to vote on the impeachment articles next week.
The protest was organized by Stop the Madness, which is supported by the Republican National Committee.
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Cobb Police said they’ve arrested Zaire Dhanoolal, 18, of Marietta, on two counts of aggravated assault, and Joweer Ponce, 19, also of Marietta, who’s charged with reckless conduct and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.
Cobb Police spokeswoman Officer Sydney Melton said both have been taken to the Cobb Adult Detention Center.
She said the person who was shot, Ethan Green, 18, is being treated at WellStar Kennestone Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Melton said Anthony Ezell, 21, was a victim of aggravated assault because the suspect pointed a gun at him before firing at Green.
Police have not indicated a possible motive for the shooting but are continuing to investigate.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Cobb County Police Department Crimes Against Persons Unit at 770-499-3945
ORIGINAL POST:
Cobb Police said one person was shot at the food court at Cumberland Mall Saturday afternoon, prompting a temporary closing of the shopping center while they’re searching for a suspect.
Police said the victim was taken to a hospital but did not identify the person or disclose the severity of the injuries.
Police they were called at 1:18 p.m. and that out of an abundance of caution initial indications were that it was an active shooter situation, police said.
But police said when they arrived on the scene they determined there was no random shooting, which is what usually triggers an active shooter alert, and said that a dispute led to shots being fired.
The suspect fled the scene, and police did not have a description of the suspect or offer other details.
Law enforcement presence around the mall is heavy and motorists in the area are being asked to use alternate roads.
