Cobb County Tax Commissioner Carl Jackson said Monday all tag offices in the county will be reopening next Monday, June 8, at their usual Monday-Friday times from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
That includes the location at the East Cobb Government Service Center (above) at 4400 Lower Roswell Road.
If you choose to renew your tag in person, they’re asking you to check in with your name or mobile number. Instead of staying in the waiting area, you’ll wait in your car and receive a text message notifying you to come in for service:
“For businesses requiring an in-person visit, the office staff will follow recommendations of social distancing for safe interactions and use personal protective equipment. We are also encouraging visitors to wear a face mask for in-office visits.”
June 15 is the extended deadline for vehicle registrations that were due to expire when COVID-19 prompted closures in March, so Jackson warned that wait times are expected to be longer than usual.
Jackson said Cobb processes around 40,000 in-person tag renewals every month, and encourages vehicle owners to use e-services, tag kiosks, drop boxes, and mail.
Call 770-528-8600 weekdays between 8-5 or or tax@cobbtax.org for more information.
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Due date for all checked-out library materials extended to June 10. There are no late fees on materials originally due during the library system’s closure. The due date for all checked-out materials is extended to June 10. Upcoming reopening phases also include curbside services weekdays at seven libraries starting June 10 to enable patrons to pick up reserved holds. The locations are the Mountain View, East Cobb, South Cobb, West Cobb, North Cobb, Sewell Mill and Vinings libraries. You can call our customer service department at (770) 528-2326 or email your question or comments to our customer service department at contactus@cobbcat.org.
This is part of what the Cobb library system is calling Library Express, in which patrons can return materials to outdoor book drops at most branches and place holds for materials online.
Those curbside pickup hours will be from 10-8 Monday and 10-6 Tuesday-Friday, and you’re asked to call at least an hour ahead before coming to pick up materials. You’ll also need to have an ID and your library card once you arrive at your branch.
One other note: If you’re a Gritters Library patron, you can order holds online and pick up those materials at the Mountain View branch.
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Boyce has held numerous budget and other town hall meetings during his time as chairman. (ECN file)
Ever since he unseated Tim Lee as Cobb Commission Chairman in 2016, Mike Boyce has acknowledged what was behind it.
“They didn’t vote for Mike Boyce,” he says now, as he’s campaigning for re-election.
“They were ticked off by the Braves deal.”
Four years ago, Boyce, an East Cobb resident who also ran in 2012, rode anti-Lee sentiment to capture the Republican primary.
Four years ago, Boyce didn’t have a Democratic opponent, but if he should prevail in a three-way GOP primary on June 9, he would face commissioner Lisa Cupid.
His primary opponents are East Cobb resident Larry Savage, a previous chairman candidate who has challenged the county legally on the Braves deal and business tax breaks, and retired Cobb police officer Ricci Mason, a first-time candidate.
“I have to run on my record,” Boyce said. “Before, I was selling an idea.”
Boyce said he’s proud to tout that record: Preserving the county’s AAA bond rating (via a 2018 property tax increase unpopular with some Republican voters), taking the first measures toward a step-and-grade pay policy for public safety employees and enhancing quality of life with additional park land purchases and expanding library hours.
“People move here for the amenities, and look what we have done for public safety,” Boyce said, referring to three pay raises as well as the first steps in a new compensation and retention plan for police officers, firefighters and sheriff’s deputies.
Boyce defends the 2018 property tax increase, pointing to the commissioners’ vote—on the day he beat Lee in a runoff—to lower the millage rate.
“We faced a $30 million shortfall before I ever took office,” he said. “We came within an inch of losing our AAA rating,” the highest issued by creditors and highly desired by public bodies (the Cobb County School District also is rated AAA) when it borrows for short-term loans and bond issues.
Boyce said the county’s reserves were down to $10 million as well, and now it enjoys a $125 million contingency.
For the fiscal year 2021 budget that takes effect on October, Boyce is proposing to hold the line on the millage rate and continue with public safety pay measures. A merit pay raise for county employees is off the table, due to the economic hit to come from closures related to COVID-19.
Having that money on hand now, Boyce said, is vital.
“This isn’t just a rainy day,” he said. “It’s a rainy year.”
The county’s diversified business base also should help, but Boyce acknowledges it’s still a little early to tell “what the consequences of a loss of jobs, a loss of tax revenue will be.”
Commissioners voted this week to spend $50 million of an allotted $132 million in federal CARES Act funding for small business relief grants.
Continuing the work of addressing public safety issues would be a cornerstone of a second term for Boyce, who said “we have to show our first responders that this won’t be a one and done.”
If he should advance to the November ballot, a local referendum for Cobb voters will be on there too, asking whether to extend the Cobb SPLOST, which Boyce has stressed with road resurfacing and transportation projects, as well as other parks and recreation improvements.
When asked if he felt confident about the SPLOST’s chances of passing, Boyce said a 5-0 vote by commissioners this week to finalize the project list “was a big step. The board understands the importance of this. The emphasis on the roads really hits a sweet spot.”
Boyce also acknowledges he’s never been the candidate of choice by his party establishment. In 2016, Lee had GOP backing as the incumbent, as well as from business leaders.
During the tax increase debate, the Cobb Republican Party formally opposed it, and some critics have alleged all along that Boyce, a retired Marine colonel, is a RINO (Republican In Name Only).
Former Georgia GOP chairwoman Sue Everhart, a Cobb resident, and the Cobb County Republican Assembly, a group made up of fiscal and cultural conservatives, have endorsed Savage.
“I’ve just accepted the fact that they’re not in my corner,” Boyce said. “The only people who matter are all the voters.”
When he was first elected, the changes in the county’s demographics began to be revealed, as Cobb voted for Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. Democrats will be unified behind Cupid, who’s attempting to become the first Democrat to lead county government since Ernest Barrett in the early 1980s.
Boyce said he’s proud to run on a pledge to continue a set of broad-based priorities, with voters across the county in mind.
“I know I’ve done what’s in the best interests of the county,” he said.
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The program is called the Select Cobb Small Business Grants, after the chamber’s economic development arm, which will distribute grants to qualifying businesses in amounts ranging from $20,000 to $40,000. The funding can be used on personnel, rent, utilities and acquiring PPE for employee safety.
Here’s what SelectCobb sent out late Thursday afternoon:
Applications will open on June 8, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. and close on June 26, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. A full list of eligibility requirements and more information about the application process will be available at www.selectcobb.com on June 1. The website and email address for this program—www.selectcobb.com/grants and grants@selectcobb.com—will be available on June 1. Also, a webinar on how to apply for the small business grants will be held on June 10th at 10:00 am through the Cobb Chamber.
“Maintaining jobs and promoting growth within Cobb County has been and always will be our number one priority for our small business community,” said Kevin Greiner, president and CEO of Gas South and Chairman of SelectCobb for the Cobb Chamber. “The SelectCobb Small Business Relief Grants will allow Cobb’s small businesses to stand strong during this pandemic and continue to meet necessary business expenses, as well as providing capital to acquire PPE and other resources to ensure a safe working environment for their employees.”
To be considered for the SelectCobb Small Business Relief Grant, small businesses must meet the following requirements:
Business must be an existing for-profit corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship;
Business headquarters or primary location must be within Cobb County;
Business must have 100 or fewer full-time, W-2 employees, i.e., employees working at least 30 hours per week or 130 hours per month;
Business must have been in continuous operation for a minimum of 1 year prior to March 13, 2020;
Business must have a current business license issued by Cobb County Government, City of Acworth, City of Austell, City of Kennesaw, City of Marietta, City of Powder Springs, or City of Smyrna;
Business must be current on all local taxes;
Business may be home-based or located in an owned or leased commercial space;
Business must certify if they have received PPP funds as of time of application submittal; and
Business cannot be a publicly traded company.
Grant funding will be available in three different tiers based upon the number of full-time, W-2 employees employed by the company as of March 12, 2020. The tiers of grant funding include, up to $20,000 for 1 to 10 employees; up to $30,000 for 11 to 50 employees; and up to $40,000 for 51 to 100 employees.
“I’m gratified that the board came together to address an important segment of our community, the small business community,” said Chairman Mike Boyce after the vote. “It demonstrates when it is all said and done, this board has the best interest of the county at heart. We work every day to do the best we can with the money we have—whether it is county money, state money, or federal money—we all have a duty to make sure the taxpayer’s money is spent appropriately and I think this is one action that reflects that.”
SelectCobb staff will review each application to ensure that all eligibility requirements are met. Once applications are closed, an independent committee of business representatives will review each eligible application and decide which companies will receive grant funds and how much will be provided, up to the maximum allowed by each tier. The committee will be comprised of individuals from all areas of Cobb, and will include a diverse group of industries being represented, including banking, certified public accountants, law, small business and county government.
The committee will review applications per Commission District so that all areas are equally represented in the number of companies being assisted. Once determinations are made, a public announcement of grants funds will be made by representatives of the selection committee, SelectCobb, Cobb Chamber, and Cobb County Government.
“Cobb County should be applauded for creating one of the largest small business grants in the region,” said Dana Johnson, executive director of SelectCobb. “I want to thank the Board of Commissioners for their leadership and commitment to ensuring that Cobb County remains one of the top destinations for small businesses.”
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Among the latter is an $8 million earmark to complete acquisition of 24 acres of land owned by Wylene Tritt next to East Cobb Park.
It’s the most expensive item on a lengthy list of “community impact projects” that are part of a $810 million SPLOST list approved by the Cobb Board of Commissioners in a unanimous 5-0 vote Tuesday.
That list will be included in a referendum on the Nov. 4 general election ballot. If voters approve, the county will continue to collect one percent in sales tax from Jan. 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022 to fund the projects, which include technology and security upgrades, equipment and facilities and other capital improvements within county government.
The current 2016 SPLOST expires on Dec. 31, 2021, but Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce asked for a renewal referendum this year. Boyce scheduled town halls this spring to solicit feedback on the 2022 project list, but they were cancelled due to COVID-19.
Nearly half of funding on that list—an estimated $329.8 million—would go for transportation and road improvement projects. The rest of the projects would be funded accordingly:
$82 million for public safety
$46 million in countywide projects
$32 million for community impact projects
$27.8 million for public services (parks, libraries)
$18 million combined for projects in Cobb’s six cities
At the time, the aspirations were that the county would seek to acquire the remainder of former farm property that had once been eyed for a massive senior-living development.
That project generated strong community opposition and commissioners rejected a rezoning request.
Wylene Tritt had planned to sell her land for $20 million and sued the county in 2016. That case was later dropped, and the county entered into lengthy negotiations with her about a sale for park land.
The Tritt property acquired by the county two years ago has been designated for greenspace, with eventual (but for now unapproved) aspirations of turning it into an extension of East Cobb Park.
Those ideas fall along the lines of what a citizens group that opposed the senior-living project touted in 2014.
Before Tuesday’s vote, Concerned Citizens of East Cobb urged its supporters to contact commissioners to include the Tritt property on the project list.
Another park project on the list is $4 million for the repurposing of Shaw Park in Northeast Cobb. During a commissioners work session on Tuesday, District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell cited the need to change the nature of the park, since the ball fields aren’t used much any more, and to have it tie in with upcoming renovations at nearby Gritters Library.
Replacing the aging Fire Station No. 12 near Shaw Park is included on the Cobb 2022 SPLOST project list.
Also in the vicinity is Cobb Fire Station No. 12, which is on the project list for a replacement. It’s among public safety construction projects that include a new Cobb public safety headquarters building on Fairground Street in Marietta.
A new Cobb animal shelter costing $15 million also is on the list.
Of the transportation projects, the bulk of the funding—pegged at $213 million—would go for road resurfacing, with another $13 million for bridge repairs and $10 million to maintain drainage systems. A total of $25 million would be spent for traffic management, including signal timing and planning, and another $11 million would be devoted to sidewalk construction and maintenance.
Of those new road projects, the big-ticket item is East Cobb is $3.9 million for intersection improvements at Post Oak Tritt Road and Holly Springs Road. Another $2.4 million would be used for Canton Road corridor improvements.
Public park land the county purchased in 2017 on Ebenezer Road would be fully developed with 2022 SPLOST funding, around $3 million, after a master plan for Ebenezer Downs was approved by commissioners last year.
Also on the project lists are renovations and improvements at Fullers Park, Sewell Park, Terrell Mill Park, the Mountain View Aquatic Center. additional amenities at East Cobb Park and video surveillance cameras at the Mountain View Regional Library.
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East Cobb citizens who’ve been communicating with each other and elected officials in the past week over what they claim is a sex shop coming to Johnson Ferry Road took their concerns to the full Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday.
Several of them asked during a public comment session at the commissioners’ regular meeting Tuesday afternoon that the county consider invalidating a business license granted for a clothing store at 1290 Johnson Ferry Road, the site a former Mattress Firm store.
As East Cobb Newsreported Monday, a business license was issued on March 11 by the Cobb Community Development Agency to 1290 Clothing Co., for a retail clothing store.
The land is zoned general commercial and would not require rezoning for a clothing store. The license was issued to Tomika Hugley.
According to state business corporation filings, Rebecca Crider, the registered agent for 1290 Clothing Co., serves in the same capacity for a number of businesses run by Michael S. Morrison, owner of the Atlanta-based Tokyo Valentino adult retail store enterprise.
“This clothing company is much more than the name implies,” said Lisa Sims, a resident of East Cobb for more than 20 years, during the commissioners’ public comment session.
Like others who spoke, she said an adult store on Johnson Ferry Road would be too close to a school (Mt. Bethel Elementary School), a major church (Johnson Ferry Baptist Church) and a number of residential areas, and it’s the type of business that’s incompatible with the East Cobb community.
Michael Morrison, the owner of the Tokyo Valentine enterprise, told East Cobb News he has not been planning to open a store in East Cobb, although he’s listed in the 1290 Clothing Co. business formation documents in January as the organizer authorizer.
His businesses include an adult retail store on Cobb Parkway at Frey’s Gin Road in the city of Marietta.
His main store, on Cheshire Bridge Road at Piedmont Road in Midtown Atlanta, has been the subject of repeated efforts by the city of Atlanta to force him to close. It’s open 24/7 and has video booths and private rooms and a daily admission charge of $20 and up.
His five other stores, including the Marietta location, sell adult books and DVDs, sex toys and accessories, smoking accessories, lingerie and related items.
Hill Wright, another East Cobb resident who addressed commissioners, claimed “there are multiple grounds for invalidating a business license,” including listing an applicant as a “strawman” as he alleged Tokyo Valentino has done with the Johnson Ferry store.
In responding to what he said were several hundred messages from constituents, Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb said Monday that the business as proposed meets all zoning requirements.
He said citizens can organize, referring to a We Buy Gold store on Lower Roswell Road several years ago that eventually closed due to a lack of business after community opposition.
In her remarks, Sims said Morrison is “a master of navigating zoning loopholes—look at the city of Atlanta”—and if an adult store would be allowed in East Cobb “it will spread like the Coronavirus.”
Neither Ott nor the other commissioners addressed the topic during the meeting.
East Cobb News asked Ott after the meeting if the county had any recourse in invalidating a business license and he said “I’m not sure about that. Best to check with the County Attorney.”
Sims, who lives two miles from the Johnson Ferry store, told East Cobb News after Tuesday’s meeting she thinks “the unethical or perhaps illegal way the business license was applied for should be investigated.”
She said “for me, IF the store opens, I’ll be picketing out front. . . .
“I suspect our Commissioners will regret not doing more should this business open . . . as they’ll have a mess on their hands.”
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Commercially-zoned property with a building that housed a Mattress Firm store at 1290 Johnson Ferry Road was purchased in February for $1.55 million (ECN photo)
A vacant retail building located in the heart of East Cobb has a new owner and is being renovated for a new use.
What that use may end up being has been the subject of a flurry of social media chatter in recent days about whether a sex shop is on the way.
Specifically, the subject of that speculation is that a new location of Atlanta-based Tokyo Valentino—with five adult retail stores in the metro area, including the city of Marietta—is replacing the former Mattress Firm store at 1290 Johnson Ferry Road, across from Merchant’s Walk.
Cobb County business license records and a pending building permit application indicate plans for a retail store at that address called 1290 Clothing Co.
That business also has registered as a corporation with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office as 1290 Clothing, LLC, and lists the same registered agent as Cheshire Bridge Holdings, LLC, the parent company of Tokyo Valentino.
Michael Morrison, the Tokyo Valentino owner who has battled the city of Atlanta and other local jurisdictions for years over his businesses, is named in the 1290 Clothing Co. business formation documents as organizer and authorizer.
But he denied he is opening a new store in East Cobb.
In a public statement issued Monday, Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott said he has received more than 500 messages from citizens about the subject, and said there is nothing the county can do if a sex shop is coming to that building on Johnson Ferry Road.
The half-acre on which it sits is zoned general commercial, the broadest of the commercial zoning categories in Cobb County, and includes most kinds of retail shops.
“Unfortunately, due to the zoning already in place on the property dating back to the late 70s, it appears that the retail shop meets all county code requirements,” Ott said in his message. “The U.S. Constitution doesn’t allow a county to come in and arbitrarily change existing zoning and/or add stipulations.”
He also said that contrary to some of the citizens’ queries he’s received, the matter will not come before the Cobb Board of Commissioners during its Tuesday regular meeting.
“That is not true,” Ott said. “There is nothing on the agenda tomorrow related to this store.”
A new business license was granted by the Cobb Community Development Agency on March 11 for 1290 Clothing Co., at 1290 Johnson Ferry Road, to an applicant named Tomika Hugley.
According to Cobb building permit records, an application for a renovation at that same address was filed on May 14 by Pembroke Real Estate Partners, LLC, in Miami.
That’s the company listed in Cobb Tax Assessors Office records as the Feb. 4 buyer of 0.53 acres and a building with 5,444 square feet at 1290 Johnson Ferry Road, for $1.55 million.
Building permit records indicate the renovation project is described as a “move-in only” for the tenant “1290 Clothing Co.” but no inspection has been conducted.
When contacted by East Cobb News Friday about whether he’s opening a store in East Cobb, Morrison said, “I have no idea what you are referring to.”
He said that “any applications that we submit for future stores have my name on them” and noted his store in Marietta, and that he was not involved with the 1290 Clothing Co. enterprise.
According to a Georgia Secretary of State’s business filing, 1290 Clothing Co. LLC was registered on Jan. 21, 2020. The filing names Michael Morrison as the 1290 Clothing Co. organizer and authorizer, with an Atlanta residential address located off LaVista Road in DeKalb County.
East Cobb News has been unable to reach Hugley or Rebecca Crider, the registered agent for the new store on Johnson Ferry Road. Crider also is the registered agent for other Tokyo Valentino businesses, including the Marietta store, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
Many of the social media comments about the new Johnson Ferry Road store have come on a Facebook group, East Cobb Moms Exchange. East Cobb News has been contacted by some members of the group and other citizens, but none could provide further information.
An online petition urging readers to contact Ott has received more than 1,000 signatures.
In 1998, the city of Atlanta first tried to shut down Morrison’s original store on Cheshire Bridge Road, which opened in 1995 and was called Inserection, because of its video booths, massage rooms and private bedrooms.
In 2014, Morrison—who served two-and-a-half years in prison for federal income tax invasion in the mid-2000s—rebranded his business Tokyo Valentino and opened new locations.
Last year Morrison opened a store in Sandy Springs, also in an abandoned mattress store building, initially saying it would be a dancer clothing store under a different name.
The city claimed the store violated its merchandising code by having more than a quarter of its square footage space devoted to adult merchandise sales.
Morrison, who also has had legal disputes with Brookhaven over his Stardust adult retail store, eventually complied in December by adding non-adult items at the Sandy Springs store, now called Tokyo Valentino.
There are two other Tokyo Valentino stores, on Northside Drive in Buckhead and on Pleasant Hill Road in Gwinnett County.
Ott said his staff visited the Tokyo Valentino store in Marietta, at 345 South Cobb Parkway, and said it’s strictly a retail store, unlike what’s on Cheshire Bridge Road.
The Marietta location sells adult lingerie, sex toys, body art and jewelry, books and DVDs, smoking accessories and novelty gifts and is open daily from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m.
The Tokyo Valentino store in Marietta is located at Cobb Parkway and Frey’s Gin Road, across from the Marietta Diner. (ECN photo)
Pembroke Real Estate Partners, the new owner of the 1290 Johnson Ferry Road property, is a registered corporation in Florida, and whose principal is listed as Frank Koretsky.
According to his personal website, Koretsky has added real estate investing and philanthropy to his business interests.
He has sold consumer electronics and video tapes and built up two adult video distribution companies, International Video Distribution and East Coast News, which “now exist as the largest entities in their respective industries.”
Koretsky also is a holder in adult lingerie and sex toy businesses.
On Monday Ott reminded East Cobb residents of community opposition to a We Buy Gold store on Lower Roswell Road near Johnson Ferry Road several years ago.
“There was a large outcry about that store coming to East Cobb,” he said. “Then, like now, there wasn’t anything the county could do because it met all the code requirements. That store is now an ice cream shop in large part because in a very short period it became obvious to the owners that the people weren’t interested in having that business in their community.”
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Delayed by the coronavirus, the 2020 Assessments will soon hit mailboxes countywide.
The Board of Tax Assessors will mail Assessment notices May 21. All owners of taxable real property will receive an assessment notice. The notice will display the Fair Market Value and the Assessed Value that will be used on their 2020 tax bill. The Fair Market Value will reflect the value of the property as of January 1, 2020.
Inquiries can be made by calling 770-528-3100 or by emailing cobbtaxassessor@cobbcounty.org.
As a safety precaution, the Tax Assessors are allowing appeals to be submitted via email for 2020. Appeals will be accepted at assessorappeals@cobbcounty.org.
All sales information can be obtained on the Assessors website at www.cobbassessor.org.
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Commissioner Bob Ott of East Cobb is proposing that $50 million of the $132.6 million in federal Coronavirus-related stimulus funding the county is getting be used to help small businesses get back on their feet.
He’s proposed a spending measure to be considered at Tuesday’s regular business meeting that would call for the creation of an independent body to select the businesses receiving the assistance and for the Cobb Chamber of Commerce to administer the grants, which are provided through the federal CARES Act.
Eligible businesses would have 100 or fewer employees and may not have received previous funding from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or Small Business Administration loans available through the CARES Act.
In addition, 60 percent of the grant money for each small business must go toward hiring or maintaining employees. The businesses cannot be publicly traded and must have a primary or branch location in Cobb County.
The amount of funding selected businesses would receive including the following:
The Chamber would receive $500,000 of stimulus funds to administer the grants, which would be selected evenly across the four commissioners districts by a committee chosen by commissioners and the Chamber.
Ott also has proposed spending $1.5 million in CARES Act money for eviction relief that would be administered through Star-C Communities, an Atlanta based non-profit that works to reduce transiency in affordable housing communities.
The organization would receive $120,000 to administer the assistance program. As drawn up in the proposal, low-income apartment dwellers facing evictions would receive a “scholarship” of up to 70 percent of their overdue payment total. The remaining 20 percent would be paid by the tenant and the landlord would be asked to pay the remaining 10 percent and waive the late fee.
Those items will come up for consideration after a related measure asking commissioners to designate several categories for spending the federal stimulus funding.
They include the following:
Disaster Relief/County Preparedness
Economic Development/Business Loans
Emergency Food Program
Emergency Shelter Program
School Assistance Programs
Job Training
County Contingency
Commissioners could add and change the categories at a later time. Last week they approved the first amount of CARES Act funding, $1 million in reimbursements for non-profit agencies like MUST Ministries that have been providing emergency food aid to those in need.
This Tuesday’s meeting starts at a special time, 1:30 p.m., and this will be a virtual meeting streamed on the county’s YouTube and Facebook pages and Website as well as the Cobb TV23 public access cable channel on Comcast.
Public comment also is available and those who wish to take part by phone or computer must sign up at this link.
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Earlier this week we noted that a very gradual, phased-in reopening plan was announced by Cobb County government, including public libraries, and today more details have been revealed.
Starting Tuesday, you’ll be able to use the book drops at all branches but the main Switzer branch in downtown Marietta and Windy Hill library.
Then, in June, seven branches will be open for curbside pickup of books and other materials that are on reserved holds.
They include the Mountain View Regional Library (above), the East Cobb Library and the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
Later in June, they’ll be among the seven branches designated to reopen to public access inside, but a specific date hasn’t been announced.
When they do open, it still won’t be “complete, unlimited public access” to the libraries, according to information the library system issued Wednesday afternoon:
“Like area restaurants offering grab-and-go take-out service, library patrons will be directed to limit visits for checking out items at the libraries during the limited services phase.
“The next time library visitors greet Cobb librarians and library workers, officials said, they should be prepared to see the staff wearing personal protection equipment (PPE), including face masks and more.”
Also on Tuesday, library staff will return to work to prepare the branches (including rearranging furniture to meet social distancing guidelines), undergo safety training and quarantining returned items in the book drops.
Those items will be quarantined for a few days before they are processed for circulation, so patrons may see them remaining on their accounts until that processing is complete. The library system has been working with Cobb and Douglas Public Health to establish safety protocols.
One other item to note: No late fees will be charged for materials that were due before the system closed in mid-March.
But if you have materials still out from that time, the due date has been extended to next Sunday, May 31.
Said Helen Poyer, the Cobb library system director:
“We will rely on everyone’s understanding and patience as we work together through the challenging, and complex, demands on all of us as we work toward expanding operations again. You can count on Cobb library workers to serve as vital ‘second responder’ heroes with all community helpers.”
More updates on reopening at www.cobbcat.org and 770-528-2320.
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Contact us at the same e-mail address for news about efforts to assist those in need, health care workers, first responders and others on the frontlines of combatting Coronavirus in East Cobb.
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A phased reopening of Cobb library branches will begin in June with limited services. (ECN file)
Cobb County government on Monday offered a few more details about the reopening of facilities and services that have been shut since mid-March due to COVID-19.
As we noted elsewhere, the public will be able to attend Tuesday’s Cobb Board of Commissioners zoning hearing at the county office building in Marietta with social distancing guidelines in place.
This follows the full reopening of outdoor parks last week, except for playgrounds and restroom facilities. The county is “awaiting further public health guidance” in reopening those amenities, and when to allow organized sports.
Also among the new pieces of information announced today is that county summer camp programs are suspended until further notice, due to Gov. Brian Kemp’s restrictions issued last week.
Aquatic centers remain closed, and the county said today it’s targeting the first week of June for limited access at some of those facilities. They weren’t specified.
The same goes for public libraries. Next week staff will begin safety training and preparing for reopening.
Curbside services will begin at seven libraries in June, but those branches also were not specified. After the June 9 primary elections, at which some branches will serve as polling stations, those same seven library branches will have “a phased-in reopening” with limited services.
“Limited services in all remaining libraries will start in early summer,” according to the county’s message, which encouraged citizens to visit the library system’s website for further details.
Safety training and other reopening plans will take place at county senior centers during June, with “select activities” starting after the July 4 holiday.
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Serving two years on the Cobb Planning Commission underscored for Andy Smith what he has been stressing as his “overriding priority” in his campaign for the Cobb Board of Commissioners:
“To preserve Cobb County as the place where we all chose to settle,” he said. “The only way to do that is to plan for growth.”
That’s a delicate issue anywhere, and especially in District 2, which includes most of East Cobb and the Cumberland-Vinings area.
Smith, who lives in East Cobb and is co-owner of Smith Todd & Co., a construction management company, is one of three Republicans running in the June 9 primary to succeed retiring commissioner Bob Ott.
The winner will face Democrat Jerica Richardson in the November general election.
Smith was Ott’s appointee to the planning board as well as the Neighborhood Safety Commission (he resigned from the former when he launched his campaign).
Smith also attended the same high school as Ott in New Jersey, but neither knew the other had resettled in the same part of metro Atlanta until Smith had a case before the Cobb variance board when Ott served on that.
(Ott, who is completing his third term, has not made an endorsement in the race.)
Smith headed south to attend Georgia Tech, getting a degree in architecture, and settled in East Cobb 23 years ago.
At the same time, East Cobb continued to become a magnet for those like him, attracted by the quality of schools and the single-family residential character of the community.
The result is that there isn’t much land left, as high-density zoning cases and related development issues have begun to alter what’s been regarded as a classic suburban enclave.
“If we don’t protect the existing residential neighborhoods, we’ve already lost the fight,” Smith said.
The tricky part is doing that while acknowledging the need to plan for the future, especially around forecasts by the Atlanta Regional Commission of Cobb County surpassing a population of one million by the year 2030.
“We need a commissioner with experience in planning and zoning,” Smith said. “Zoning done right provides a significant benefit.”
Smith said he thinks high-density development needs to be restricted to the Regional Activity Center zoning category.
He realizes that “some people object to high-density in all cases, but some people like that, and want it in areas that are walkable.
“As long as we keep that development where it’s planned to go, then we’ll be fine.”
Senior housing also has generated growing conversation in Cobb, for density and school reasons (senior homeowners 65 and over are exempt from paying school taxes).
Smith noted that in District 2 there many senior residential units that are rentals (including a portion of a mixed-use development under construction on Powers Ferry Road on the site of the former Restaurant Row.
The two other Republicans running in the primary, Fitz Johnson and Kevin Nicholas, have said they are adamantly against East Cobb Cityhood.
Smith said he’s undecided on the issue.
Cityhood leaders had not fully revised the proposed city map and were still considering potential services when they chose not to pursue legislation this year.
“It’s my responsibility to keep an open mind until all the facts are in,” Smith said, acknowledging the cityhood issue has been an emotional one that has generated intense opposition.
“My focus will be to do the job to eliminate the need for cities. Everybody wants Cobb County to remain the place it was when they settled here. It’s going to evolve but we want to have control of how it evolves.”
That task figures to be more challenging as county leaders grapple with the economic fallout from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Smith said he admires Cobb officials “for implementing standards that the state has asked for” but said the important issues facing the county remain the same.
Also among them is enhancing salary and benefit packages for public safety personnel. Smith supports the concept of a step-and-grade system that has begun to be implemented, but noted a “compression issue” has emerged in which officers and firefighters with more seniority are at times being eclipsed along that scale by those with less time in the county system.
Smith said that regardless of how such a plan is finalized, “it’s important to let officers know it’s a plan that they can count on.
“It’s not going to be cheap, but it needs to be fair.”
As for the county’s SPLOST (Special Local Option Sales Tax) program, Smith said he supports the current process of seeking extensive community feedback before finalizing a project list, but “we need to make sure they are true needs and not just wants.”
Smith is heavily involved in activities at Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church, and community organizations that include Habitat for Humanity. He’s also been involved as a youth sports coach.
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners will be using some of its federal stimulus funding to reimburse county non-profits that have been providing emergency food to those in need.
By a 4-1 vote, the board on Tuesday approved a request made by the Cobb Community Foundation, which represents a number of agencies that have been distributing food in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
The request was delayed last month after community leaders, including pastors and business organizations, said food shortages were severe since the outbreak in mid-March.
On Tuesday, Commissioners met and voted in a teleconference meeting with a public comment period that included speakers both for and against the measure, which would reimburse organizations that have been providing food back to April 1.
Mitch Rhoden, a former Cobb Chamber of Commerce president, supported the request, saying this was an extraordinary time.
Lance Lamberton of the Cobb Taxpayers Association was among those who disagreed, saying it’s not the purpose of government, and that elected officials shouldn’t be deciding which non-profits get funded and which don’t.
Commissioner Keli Gambrill, who expressed concerns about how to determine those needing food, voted against the memorandum of understanding, which will be administered by W. Frank Newton Inc., a consulting firm hired by the county to oversee how it spends the $132 million in CARES Act stimulus funding.
“We keep hearing a lot about non-profits,” East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott said. “This is about food and there are things in the memorandum of understanding that dictate it has to be about food.”
Commissioner Lisa Cupid had asked for the reimbursement period to go back to mid-March, but she couldn’t get a colleague to support her.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb said that “we’ve seen the community step up . . .. the need for food has probably tripled. I am in support of this.”
A measure that would have authorized temporary hazard pay for some county employees during the COVID-19 crisis was pulled from Tuesday’s meeting agenda.
Randy Crider
Some “essential” workers would have been eligible for an extra $500 a month between April 6 through June 12, when the current Georgia public health emergency is due to expire.
But the amount of money being sought has not been specified.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners voted 5-0 to confirm the appointment of Randy Crider as Cobb Public Safety Director.
Crider has been the interim director since August 2019 after Mike Register suddenly retired after six months on the job, citing family reasons.
Crider, who has 38 years as a firefighter and administrator, has been Cobb’s fire chief since 2014. His appointment is effective immediately.
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Next Tuesday a group of non-profit organizations will ask the Cobb Board of Commissioners for $1 million to assist their efforts to provide food for those in need in the county during the COVID-19 crisis.
The commissioners will hold a regular meeting next Tuesday that includes a request from the leaders of the Cobb Community Foundation, Northwest Atlanta United Way and the Cobb Collaborative for the funding.
That could come from the $132 million in federal stimulus funding the county government will be receiving in the next few weeks that’s earmarked to replace direct revenues lost to the COVID-19 response.
In a letter sent to supporters Wednesday, CCF executive director Shari Martin said that while “nothing is guaranteed, we believe that this issue has the support of a majority of the Board, largely due to your expressions of support and communications with the Chairman and Commissioners.”
There’s nothing else on Tuesday’s agenda related to the stimulus funding that’s provided by the CARES Act, but two candidates for the Cobb Board of Commissioners are publicly making an informal request elsewhere.
Larry Savage, an East Cobb resident, thinks some of the $132 million should be used to help the Cobb County School District plug what’s expected to a major hole in its finances stemming from the COVID-19 economic fallout.
In a letter to the editor delivered Thursday to The Marietta Daily Journal, Savage—a Republican challenging current chairman Mike Boyce—said the school district could use CARES Act funding for teaching aids and technology used for online learning while in-person classrooms are shut down.
So does Andy Smith, also of East Cobb, a former member of the Cobb Planning Commission who’s running to succeed retiring District 2 commissioner Bob Ott.
Gov. Brian Kemp has ordered state government departments to prepare for 14 percent across-the-board cuts.
The CCSD, whose fiscal year 2021 begins in July, currently operates with a $1.1 billion budget. The CCSD is expected to receive $14 million-$16 million in federal relief funding through the Georgia Department of Education, but a 14 percent cut could be in the range of $70 million to $80 million.
The district has not yet formulated a 2021 budget proposal because the legislative session was suspended due to the virus. Cobb schools gets nearly half of its budget from the state.
“It would be disgraceful for Cobb County government to use this money on frivolous projects, even if they are technically permissible, if there are more valuable ways to deploy the funds in the school district and help relieve the funding crisis the CCSD will face,” Savage wrote in his letter, ending it with “Cobb County School District is one thing we all share that must be protected at all costs.”
Smith also wrote a letter to the MDJ, saying that the $14-$16 million Cobb schools will be getting “will not close this widening gap.
Smith wrote that while he isn’t opposed to Cobb businesses and organizations receiving relief funding from the county, “what I am proposing is that we take care of our future first and provide as the top priority funding to our Cobb County Schools to assist them in offsetting the additional costs they have incurred and will incur educating the County’s students during this crisis.”
The full commissioners’ meeting agenda can be found here. The meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday and will be done via online teleconferencing.
There will be a public comment period near the beginning and citizens can sign up at the Cobb County government website starting at noon Friday.
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East Cobb Park has been locked up since late March. (ECN file)
This just in from Cobb County government:
Cobb PARKS will reopen their outdoor facilities on Monday, May 11th. Trails and passive parks have already been open to the public, so this will reopen the remainder of our outdoor parks. Due to continuing health concerns surrounding the coronavirus, the following restrictions will remain in place:
Playgrounds and restrooms at park facilities will remain closed.
No organized athletic activities will be allowed.
Park Rangers and PARKS personnel will monitor the parks to ensure park patrons maintain proper social distancing. Flagrant violations could result in the closure of part or all of that facility.
Indoor facilities, such as aquatic centers and arts centers, will remain closed.
The county initially kept parks open shortly after Commission Chairman Mike Boyce declared a state of emergency. But he ordered parks closed on March 23 after being advised to do so by public health officials in the “interest of public health and to encourage social distancing.”
The entrances to East Cobb Park and other outdoor parks, including Mabry Park in East Cobb, have been locked up ever since.
On April 23, the county reopened some trails, like the Noonday Creek Trail and the Silver Comet Trail, and a few passive parks, including Ebenezer Downs and Hyde Farm in East Cobb.
Cobb PARKS issued further details of the reopenings on Friday:
1. No organized activities will be allowed. This includes team practices, games, get-togethers, etc. 2. All field lights will remain off and park concession stands closed.
3. On diamond fields, dugouts will be locked.
4. All restrooms will remain locked.
5. Playgrounds will remain closed. Part-time PARKS staff will be stationed at these playgrounds from dawn until dusk to ensure that no one violates the closures.
6. Our staff in the parks will also be monitoring other areas of the parks and will be notifying public safety should organized activities be observed.
The decision to reopen the parks comes as some businesses and other public activities are gradually being allowed to reopen in Georgia.
As of noon Wednesday, there were 30,706 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Georgia, with 1,311 deaths, 5,770 hospitalizations and 1,348 intensive-care admissions.
In Cobb County, there are 1,996 confirmed cases of the virus and 102 deaths, with 506 hospitalizations.
When the parks reopen on Monday, beautiful spring weather will be in store, with sunny skies and high temperatures into the 70s and 80s for most of the week.
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The shelter-in-place order Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp extended once already will be expiring right before midnight Friday.
As the clock strikes midnight, and as April gives way to the month of May, most Georgians will be free to roam about their communities a bit more.
In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, Kemp said he’s still urging citizens to stay at home as much as possible and to observe social distancing practices and wear masks when they go out.
Here’s a summary of his new order, which details provisions for businesses that are open, who must remain in shelter-in-place and criteria for currently closed businesses to reopen by May 13.
He thanked citizens for heeding advice to stay home, “affording us time to bolster our health care infrastructure and flatten the curve.
“We were successful in these efforts, but the fight is far from over,” Kemp said.
As of noon Thursday, Georgia had reported 26,155 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 Coronavirus, with 1,120 deaths and 5,156 hospitalizations. Of the latter, there were 1.171 intensive care admissions.
In Cobb County there are 1,599 cases and 91 deaths, with 464 hospitalizations.
Georgia has a population of 10.6 million people but has conducted only 149,000 tests for the virus.
That’s when statewide a public health emergency was due to expire. However, Kemp on Thursday said he would extend that order through June 12.
Under that order, elderly citizens (aged 65 and older) and “medically fragile Georgians” must continue to follow shelter-in-place rules.
Kemp said extending the public health emergency is also being done to continue testing for the virus, begin contact tracing and provide for adequate emergency response operations.
Senior living, nursing-home and long-term care facilities will be ordered to follow “enhanced infection control protocols” through June 12.
“My decisions are based on data and advice from health officials,” Kemp said. “I will do what is necessary to protect the lives and livelihoods of our people.”
Kemp’s actions to allow some personal touch businesses and restaurants to reopen in the last week has generated plenty of controversy.
On Thursday, Dr. Karen Landman, an Atlanta-based writer and epidemiologist, wrote in an op-ed piece in The New York Times that Georgia’s reopening, the first by a state in the country, has been mishandled.
She accused the governor of using selected data to guide his decision and said overall numbers are still too high.
“It’s not just about having favorable data, or even enough testing,” she wrote. “It’s about having the right infrastructure to assess it and ensure sustained decreases in cases.”
Mull, who now lives in Brooklyn, talked to health experts and small business owners in the state, including Sabra Dupree of Kids Kuts Salon in East Cobb, and concluded that “Georgia’s brash reopening puts much of the state’s working class in an impossible bind: risk death at work, or risk ruining yourself financially at home.”
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A request from Cobb non-profits for $1 million in county funding for emergency food aid during the Coronavirus crisis got an extra push Tuesday from pastors.
Several members of the clergy told members of the Cobb Board of Commissioners that food needs for those thrown into chaos and in many cases out of work in the last few weeks is greater than ever.
The Cobb Community Foundation has made the $1 million request on behalf of various non-profits around the county, and lined up a variety of speakers to plead for the assistance.
At a work session on Monday, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said he would delay the request after objections from Commissioner Keli Gambrill over how to determine those needs.
At Tuesday’s first regular board meeting in nearly a month—partially via teleconference—Boyce also said the delay was necessary for the county attorney to draw up a document stating how the food would be distributed if commissioners approve.
Some speakers were phoning in and others were present.
“We’re seeing people who don’t know how to ask for food because they’ve never done it before,” said Rev. Roger Vest of First United Methodist Church of Powder Springs.
“They are looking simply to survive.”
His church is among those in the South Cobb area that’s been seeing a major increase in the number of people seeking food, whether it’s at churches or via other non-profits.
Dr. Ike Reighard, pastor at Piedmont Church in Northeast Cobb and the CEO of MUST Ministries, said his non-profit’s Food Rapid Response Program has provided more than 227,000 meals since it was formed six weeks ago.
In addition, more than 16,000 people have been fed already this year, compared to more than around 10,000 in all of 2019.
“That’s how rapid the growth has been for people who need food,” he said.
MUST will be conducting its 25th summer lunch program for students in Cobb and Cherokee counties, feeding around 5,000 children a day, a project Reighard estimates will cost around $750,000.
Rev. John Hull, senior pastor of Eastside Baptist Church in East Cobb, told commissioners that at the Mosaic Church in Marietta, an Eastside ministry located on Austell Road, more than 500 boxes of food are being picked up every week, as are “hundreds of snack lunches” for students.
But the needs for food will continue to increase as the summer months approach. Some of the issues he’s facing, Hull added, are about preparing and serving warm meals for those in need, providing meals for seniors with special dietary needs and getting food to those who can’t get to grocery stores or other distribution points.
“We are going to be in this for the long haul,” Hull said.
He also referenced the work of the Noonday Association, which comprises nearly 130 churches in Cobb and metro Atlanta that provide general assistance to those in need.
Howard Koepka of the Noonday Association said the amount of food his non-profit is providing “three to four times” what it had been before the crisis.
Excess food provided by grocery stores is no longer being provided due to supply chain disruptions and stores not having some food available since the crisis.
He also said donations made to the non-profit also are down.
Cobb Chamber of Commerce CEO Sharon Mason also phoned in to urge the commissioners to provide the funding. Even after the worst of the crisis is over, she said, “Cobb’s most vulnerable populations will continue to be hit hard.”
Boyce said there will be a special-called meeting to take up the funding request, but he did not give a date, saying only it will be “sometime in the very near future.”
He said he wants to have “something to take to the board in a format that they can vote on.”
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Ebenezer Downs Park on Ebenezer Road in Northeast Cobb.
Cobb residents will have some more elbow room to get outdoors and recreate as soon as Saturday.
County government spokesman Ross Cavitt said Wednesday that selected passive parks and trails will be reopened, including the Noonday Creek Trail and Ebenezer Downs Park and Hyde Farm in East Cobb.
What won’t be open are East Cobb Park, Mabry Park and other parks with playground facilities, as well as parks with sporting fields.
“The passive parks allow for more social distancing under public health guidelines,” Cavitt said. “Based on Public Health guidance, those who use these facilities and trails will be required to adhere to social distancing guidelines and wear masks.”
Here’s a full list of what’s reopening:
TRAILS
Silver Comet Trail
Noonday Creek Trail
Bob Callen Trail
PASSIVE PARKS
Allatoona Creek Park, 5690 Old Stilesboro Road, Acworth
Camp McDonald, 2726 Watts Drive, Kennesaw
Ebenezer Downs Park, 4057 Ebenezer Road, Marietta
Furr Family Park, Old Westside Road, Austell
Green Meadows Preserve, 3780 Dallas Highway, Marietta
Heritage Park, 60 Fontaine Road, Mableton
Hyde Farm, 721 Hyde Road, Marietta
Kemp Family Park, 4331 Burnt Hickory Road, Acworth
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Three non-profits that assist Cobb residents with essential living services are asking the Cobb Board of Commissioners to provide $1 million in funding to help them deliver emergency food supplies to those who need them.
The Cobb Community Foundation, the United Way of Metro Atlanta Northwest Region and the Cobb Collaborative will make the request at the commissioners’ meeting next Tuesday, April 28.
Here’s the message the non-profits have been sharing:
An unprecedented response to the COVID-19 crisis on the part of non-profits and faith-based organizations is focused on the most significant need of those in poverty… food.
Both of Cobb’s school systems quickly pivoted to ensure thousands of school children who rely on school nutritious meals are still able to access food. Also, Cobb County non-profit and faith-based organizations quickly began collaborating to efficiently deploy resources to the most vulnerable in our community, including children and families. However, the facts are staggering.
An estimated 16,500 families were served at non-profit food distribution sites in March, up from an average of 6,500 in January and February.
In the last 2 weeks of March alone, roughly 460 tons of food were distributed, nearly three times the average for a typical two-week period.
Because of job loss among Cobb’s already most vulnerable populations, it is estimated that the hunger will go on long after COVID-19 is under control.
Despite the heroic efforts, many organizations are overwhelmed by the unrelenting demand and the uncertainty of an end date.
Food has become scarcer, requiring many non-profits to purchase historically donated food in addition to incurring the additional expenses associated with distribution. Some have even incurred debt to provide the food needed.
Funding will provide immediate support for individuals in need.
The commissioners will be holding a work session at 9 a.m. and regular meeting at 1:30 next Tuesday, and it will be held in a virtual setting. No agenda is available yet, but when there is it will be posted here.
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Cobb County government is urging 2020 Census participation during this shelter-in-place time by sending out a response map according to public library districts.
Those living in the East Cobb and Mountain View library districts had the highest response at 59.6 and 58.5 percent, respectively, and the West Cobb and Kemp zones are the others with more than 50 percent responses.
Overall, according to a message the county sent out Monday, Cobb’s response rate is 46 percent, as of Saturday, April 4. That’s just above the national average of 45.7 percent and above the Georgia statewide rate of 43.2 percent.
The 6th Congressional District has a 50.9 percent response rate and in the map below there are a few Census tracts in East Cobb (indicated in dark blue) that have response rates of 70 percent or higher. Click here for a larger map:
Here’s more from the county’s message about what Census information is used for:
We want to ensure Cobb County has a thorough and accurate 2020 Census count, so the appropriate funds and resources are available to our community. The results of the 2020 Census will help determine how hundreds of billions of dollars in funding flow into communities every year for the next decade. The data impacts Head Start programs, school lunches, plans for highways, affordable housing and support for firefighters and families in need. It also determines our representation in government.
The U.S. Census Bureau has been encouraging online participation all along, well before the Coronavirus outbreak. Details and completion forms are available by clicking here.
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