State Rep. John Carson, a Republican from Northeast Cobb who was the primary sponsor of Georgia’s new hands free law that takes effect July 1, sent this message out today:
ATLANTA – State Representative John Carson (R-Marietta) today clarified that Georgia drivers may utilize music streaming applications and that there will not be a set enforcement grace period after House Bill 673, the Hands-Free Georgia Act, takes effect on July 1, 2018. Rep. Carson sponsored HB 673 during the 2018 legislative session of the Georgia General Assembly, and Governor Nathan Deal recently signed this measure into law to create a hands-free driving law in Georgia.
“According to recent data, we believe the public awareness of this new law is already saving lives,” said Rep. Carson.“We encourage all Georgians to implement the best practices stated in the Hands-Free Georgia Act prior to July 1, 2018, for the safety of all commuters on Georgia’s roadways.”
According to a recent press release from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, drivers can listen to music streaming apps on their phone while driving under the new law, but they cannot activate their apps or change music through their phone while driving.Music streaming apps that are programmed and controlled through the vehicle’s radio system are allowed.However, music streaming apps that have video are not allowed since the law specifically prohibits drivers from watching videos.
Additionally, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, the Georgia Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement officers recently reminded Georgia drivers that the law does not contain a 90-day grace period for enforcement.Many officers will be issuing warnings for violations in the first months of the law as part of the education effort, but citations can and will be issued starting July 1 where law enforcement officers believe they are warranted, especially those violations that involve traffic crashes.
This new hands-free driving law will prohibit drivers from holding or supporting a wireless telecommunication device or a stand-alone electronic device while operating a vehicle. Additionally, this measure will maintain the ban on texting, emailing and internet browsing while driving, but will also prohibit watching or recording videos while driving.GPS navigation and voice-to-text features will still be permitted.
For more information on HB 673, please click here.
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The East Cobb Library has been in operation only since 2010 at Parkaire Landing Shopping Center. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
The Cobb budget crisis will soon be addressed in serious detail by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, which is holding a budget retreat on Tuesday.
The week after that, next Monday, June 18 to be exact, at the East Cobb Senior Center, budget town halls will start around the county. There will be another one in our community, on July 9, at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
Like the proposed library cuts, the cuts on parks and rec “draft list,” if enacted, would absolutely crush the provision of popular services.
Like the proposed library cuts, closing all of the parks and rec facilities on that list wouldn’t do much to close the deficit.
In East Cobb, the “draft list” includes Fullers Park and the Fullers Recreation Center, the Mountain View Aquatic Center, The Art Place and the Mountain View Community Center.
A little more than $3 million, to be exact, is what the parks and rec savings would add up to countywide. The library cuts would amount to less than that, roughly $2.9 million.
Along with new membership fees and increases for classes and rentals at senior centers, the possible elimination of the UGA Cobb Extension Service and shutting down Keep Cobb Beautiful (also on the parks and rec list), that still doesn’t equal what the county spends every year to pay off its obligations for SunTrust Park and other costs for Atlanta Braves games and events there.
The work of local artists on display at the $10.3 million Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which opened last December.
As I wrote back in February: SunTrust is untouchable, having been placed on the “must” list of budget items that are required to be appropriated by commissioners every year.
Parks, libraries and senior services are not. They’re merely on the “desired” list.
Yet the cost of delivering services has grown the most in public safety, transportation, courts, community development and water and sewer.
Library hours have not been added back to their pre-Recession totals. Cobb’s unwillingness to have Sunday library hours anywhere except the Switzer branch, but only during the school year, is ridiculous.
The library system’s budget details were laid out in painful detail months ago. Employees in these endangered departments know their jobs may be eliminated.
Why are these low-cost, high-impact services, which add exponentially to our qualify of life, vulnerable to being gutted with a record tax digest predicted for 2018?
Citizens skeptical of paying higher property taxes think it’s a ploy by Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce to get a millage rate increase. He wants to add 1.1 mills to your property tax bill, which would just about cover the $30 million.
Getting you stoked up over the possibility of losing your library, or park, is an old tactic. His predecessor, Tim Lee, did the same thing. It worked during the Recession, when tax rates went up.
The county released a “Cobb budget journey” explainer this past week with information to bolster the argument that our current general fund millage rate is just about tapped out.
We’re paying a lower millage rate now than in 1990, despite the Cobb population having grown from 450,000 then to around 750,000 now. The tax hike imposed during the Recession was brought down a couple years ago, foolishly, by Lee, with a millage rate reduction right before losing his runoff with Boyce, and just as SunTrust became fully operational.
That vote only added to the budget jam that exists now.
I’m not wild about a tax increase either, and many homeowners are already paying higher tax bills because their assessments have gone up, some dramatically.
Instead of grazing around the edges, threatening to close parks and libraries and the Cobb Safety Village and whatnot, it’s time to tackle the truly big-ticket items. There’s got to be an honest conversation about what it really costs to properly serve a fast-growing county with basic, local government services.
Cobb is no longer the sleepy bedroom community it was when our family moved here in the mid-1960s. Many who simply wanted a quiet refuge in a ranch house on a wooded lot (some built by my father, a now-retired home contractor) are finding the density, traffic, noise and increasingly urban feel to Cobb, and even East Cobb, alarming.
So do I. That’s why a visit to a park, or a library has become something much more than a treat. For me, it’s almost essential to do this, at least once a week, or when I can.
But the truth is we require more public safety services, more court services, more transportation services, more zoning services, more water and sewer services. The current millage rate, even what Boyce has proposed, likely will not cover all of what’s required in a few years. Even if he gets his wish, it may not be enough.
Cobb commissioners recently spent $1.7 million to purchase land on Ebenezer Road for a future passive park.
Some question the wisdom of spending millions on future park land and opening new facilities built with SPLOST money, but that operate with county budget funds.
Those are valid issues, as is the subject of SPLOST reform. These topics are likely to be hashed out during the hot summer budget months ahead. They have to be part of an eventual effort to get ahead of budget issues.
In order for that to happen, Cobb leaders have to offer something of a vision for the county that hasn’t been forthcoming for years, even before the recession.
I’m admittedly a bleeding heart for parks and libraries, but scapegoating the services that Cobb has nickeled-and-dimed for decades, and playing a game of emotional blackmail with the public, isn’t the way to do that.
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Fields at Fullers Park, where the East Side Baseball Association plays. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
A draft plan that would cut roughly 15 percent of the Cobb Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department budget lists several East Cobb parks and recreational facilities for possible permanent closure. They include the Fullers Park and Recreation Center, the Mountain View Aquatic Center and The Art Place.
Cobb PARKS director Jimmy Gisi has included those facilities, as well as the Mountain View Community Center, on a list of parks, recreational and community centers and other facilities under its purview as options for budget cuts that come to $3.3 million.
Cobb County government is facing a fiscal year 2019 budget deficit of at least $30 million, and commissioners will hold a retreat next week before budget town hall meetings take place around the county through early July.
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has proposed a 1.1-mill increase in the general fund property tax millage rate to cover the $30 million gap.
Earlier this year Cobb Library director Helen Poyer recommended cuts of nearly $3 million, or around 25 percent of that department’s budget to be reduced, including the closure of East Cobb Library.
Many of the East Cobb items on the parks and recreation list have undergone extensive renovations and maintenance in recent years with money from SPLOST and not property tax revenues.
There are facilities in each of the four Cobb Board of Commissioners districts that are on the draft list. By far, the deepest cuts would come in District 3 in Northeast Cobb, represented by JoAnn Birrell.
A total of $1.1 million in cost-savings has been identified there: The Art Place, Mountain View Aquatic Center and Mountain View Community Center.
The aquatic center budget is more than $600,000 a year, the most expensive of the items on the draft list. It’s heavily used by high school and club youth swimming teams, as well the general public. The facility was renovated with $1.4 million in 2011 SPLOST funding.
The Art Place, which offers art classes, has art gallery events and sales and an outdoor amphitheater. It’s also the home for numerous community concerts and theater presentations, including those of the Mountain View Arts Alliance and CenterStage North, has a budget of more than $500,000 a year.
Both the aquatic center and The Art Place are part of a consortium of county government services on Sandy Plains Road that includes the East Cobb Senior Center and the Mountain View Regional Library.
The Mountain View Community Center, with a budget of around $6,000 a year, also is in that complex, located next to the former Mountain View Elementary School. The county spent nearly $160,000 last year to make renovations on the small building, which was closed for several months.
The Fullers Park and Recreational Center on Robinson Road cost a combined $315,000 a year to operate, and serve as the home for the East Side Baseball Association and other youth and recreational entities. In recent years the rec center was renovated with nearly $1.2 million in SPLOST funds.
The Atlanta Braves also paid for the renovation of a baseball field at Fullers Park in 2015 as part of its “Chipper Jones Field” community outreach program.
Those are the only two facilities in Commisioner Bob Ott’s District 2 that are on the draft list.
Also included in the draft plan for possible elimination is Keep Cobb Beautiful, with an annual budget of more than $200,000, and which has a strong advocate in Birrell.
The list of the possible parks closures comes as new East Cobb parks projects are underway, or will be soon.
That amount is included in the current fiscal year 2018 budget commissioners voted to fully fund the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum.
Those are passive parks, with minimal cost and staffing compared to what’s been included on the draft plan. Other possible closures include the Lost Mountain Park and Tennis Center and the Ward Recreational Center in West Cobb, and the South Cobb Aquatic Center and South Cobb Recreation Center.
Mabry Park’s annual operating budget is expected to be $104,000, paid via property tax revenues. Funding details for the development of the Ebenezer Road park have not been determined. The county is holding a public preview for that park on June 23.
The county is also spending $284,000 in property tax revenues in both the library and parks budgets for the current fiscal year to operate the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which opened in December 2017. It replaced the East Marietta Library and cost $10 million in SPLOST funding to construct.
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But before that, the Board of Commissioners will gather next week for a budget retreat.
That meeting is next Tuesday, June 12, at 1 p.m. in the Hudgins Hall Conference/Multipurpose Room of the Cobb County Civic Center (548 South Marietta Parkway).
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has advocated raising the millage rate on property taxes as a way for the county to continue to deliver what he calls “five-star” services.
The county government is facing an estimated deficit for fiscal year 2019 of at least $30 million.
Boyce has initially suggested a millage increase of 1.1 mills (which would generate an extra $30 million in revenue) to the current general fund rate of 6.76.
In his weekly video update with county communications director Ross Cavitt (view below), he said that “1.1 mills just puts the finger in the dike.”
A full proposal to fund a balanced budget hasn’t been presented. However, the head of the county library system has proposed cutting nearly a quarter of the system’s $12 million budget and closing the East Cobb Library.
East Cobb’s commissioners generally have opposed property tax increases. Bob Ott of District 2 has said that he wouldn’t support an increase without seeing substantial cuts first. JoAnn Birrell of District 3 won her GOP primary last week after publicly opposing raising property taxes.
In the video, Boyce showed charts illustrating how Cobb’s millage rate has steadily come down over the last 25 or so years, being raised to address the recession. Two years ago, then-chairman Tim Lee, facing Boyce in a runoff, proposed an overall millage rate reduction to 9.85 (and 6.66 for the general fund) that passed, with Ott and Birrell voting with him.
“We have had a lower millage rate although our population has increased by more than 300,000” since the 1990s, Boyce said.
The town hall meetings are scheduled around the county, including another in East Cobb on July 9 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
Commissioners will hold public hearings on the budget and millage rate on July 10, 27 and 25, with adoption of both scheduled for July 25.
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Major Canton Road transportation improvements are coming, and the public is invited to learn more about them and ask questions of Cobb DOT staff at an open house on Tuesday.
The open house is from 5-7 p.m. at Blackwell Elementary School (3470 Canton Road), which is about the midway point along a route on Canton Road for the biggest project in this corridor.
The project, numbered X2602 (details here) includes the addition of turn lanes and sidewalks from the Cherokee County line to Kurtz Road, and also involves changes at the Canton Road-Piedmont Road intersection. It’s estimated to begin early next year, with a completion date in mid-2020 at a cost of $2.6 million.
Another project, X2304 (details here), will add a northbound right turn lane onto Canton Road at the intersection of Highland Terrace, just south of Shallowford Road. Construction is expected to begin late next year and the cost estimate is $696,000.
Tuesday’s open house will not have a formal presentation.
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One resident quipped in reference to the question and photo above included in an image survey about future development in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community: “Did Cobb lose a war to Romania?”
When Cobb community development officials recently asked Johnson Ferry-Shallowford residents to respond to an “image preference survey” of potential future development in the area, the blowback was swift, angry and occasionally sarcastic.
Suggested photos contained in the lengthy survey (see examples below) included plenty of high-rise residential and commercial buildings that are typical in urban areas, sunny resorts and even other countries.
Residential high-rise building.
What they didn’t look like to a good number of those responders was anything like what’s in the suburban Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area now, or what they want to see in the future.
That’s just one of the many subject areas that community development staff is surveying. A final public input session is scheduled for May 9 at the Chestnut Ridge Christian Church (2663 Johnson Ferry Road).
To be sure, the image preference survey did include some photos of single-family dwellings and low-rise office and retail space that looks fairly typical for what’s in the East Cobb area that’s the subject of an ongoing evaluation by county officials.
Residential development.
But many posts over the weekend at the East Cobbers Against High Density Development Facebook group (which has around 1,000 members) tore into much of what the survey was serving up, fearing that there weren’t going to be many other choices besides the high-density options they were asked to comment on.
A few examples of the sharp replies:
“Basically they’re saying we don’t have a choice in the sense of no traditional housing on normal sized, decent lots. They are steering us in their direction, none of which is desirable to the vast majority of us who prefer no high density and more neighborhood like.”
“Even the single family options were right on top of each other.”
“I don’t know why there is a question about what people want. We want what we had when we chose to move here. Single family homes, large lots with room for kids to play, good schools and low crime, libraries that were open etc., and that is slowly disappearing.”
“I tried to make sure they knew they were reaching: ‘Did Cobb lose a war to Romania?’ “
Office/retail/commercial building.
Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, whose District 2 now includes the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford community, weighed in on the Facebook group page, saying he had nothing to do with the survey selections and that what was being suggested was only to solicit feedback.
“This is not some consulting firm telling you what you have to accept. Let’s give staff some credit for taking this to the public for their thoughts,” he said.
To which a resident replied: “Then please give us choices that reflect homes on one acre lots. Nothing remotely resembling that was offered in the pictures presented.”
Similar image preference surveys have been done in previous corridor studies in Ott’s district, including the Powers Ferry Road area and Johnson Ferry Road.
We posted yesterday about the Johnson Ferry design guidelines that are coming up for commission adoption tonight, five years after they were presented. Those guidelines incorporate community feedback, and some of the generic photos in that presentation were included in the JOSH image preference survey.
Public space.
Some of the image survey responders simply asked that future development conform to the current and future land use plans in the area.
Ott said he would have the image survey redone. The original still exists, for now, and includes suggestions on sidewalks, cycling paths, greenspace, public space, stormwater retention ponds and more.
He also reminded citizens who thought their feedback was being sought for political reasons with primaries next month that he’s not up for election this year.
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It’s been nearly five years since the Johnson Ferry Design Guidelines were unveiled and revised following numerous public hearings.
As part of the Johnson Ferry Urban Design project from 2009-11, the guidelines were to meant to foster greater aesthetic unity along one of East Cobb’s busiest commercial corridors, ranging from standards for streetlights and sidewalks to landscaping, park benches and other public amenities.
However, those guidelines have never been acted upon by the Cobb Board of Commissioners. That may change at Tuesday’s commission meeting, which includes an agenda item to adopt the guidelines. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the second floor meeting room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
UPDATED: The guidelines, which were part of the consent agenda, were passed by a 5-0 vote Tuesday night.
Here’s a brief description of why this is coming up now:
“Recently, discussions between the District Commissioner, staff, and members of the community have occurred to bring the Design Guidelines forward for formal consideration by the Board of Commissioners. If approved by the Board of Commissioners, staff will use the guidelines as recommendations to work with property owners when zoning applications, variance applications, and site plans are submitted for review and/or consideration.”
As was the case when the guidelines were made public in 2013, they would apply to commercial property owners who go through the rezoning process and variance applications, as noted above. The design evolution could take many years.
The corridor area is along Johnson Ferry between Roswell Road and the Chattahoochee River (see below streetscape map from the final urban design guidelines).
What’s on Tuesday’s agenda doesn’t look substantially different from where the issue was left in 2013. According to the introduction, the guidelines are “intended to assist architects, engineers, planners, developers and community members to make more informed design decisions based on community preference.”
They also had the support of the East Cobb Civic Association. The design study was prompted by East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who also commissioned corridor studies for the Powers Ferry area and, currently, in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford communitythat is now part of his District 2.
Ott said after the vote that the guidelines were held up because “some folks had issues” back in 2013 but said he wanted to get them adopted with upcoming rezonings and variances to consider.
The guidelines will be incorporated into the design plan’s developmental standards.
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A panoramic view of Highland Lake, the centerpiece of the Loch Highland neighborhood. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
When the Cobb Community Development Agency scheduled a series of public open houses in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area for this spring, residents of the East Cobb community of Loch Highland knew they had a good opportunity to be heard about a long-standing issue they claim hasn’t been adequately addressed by the county.
On Monday, at the second of three “JOSH” sessions to gain input on a range of community development issues, several Loch Highland residents turned out to provide feedback, and make their case for dealing with stormwater problems.
Located between Mabry Road and Wesley Chapel Road, and near the top of the “JOSH” study area (see map inset below, and full-size map here), Loch Highland provides one of the more scenic community environments in East Cobb. Opened in the 1970s and featuring wood-framed homes to blend in with natural surroundings, Loch Highland was designed to feel like a resort while being convenient for commuting and everyday suburban life.
For years Loch Highland homeowners have taken it upon themselves, and at their own expense, to clean out the two scenic lakes that often get filled with silt and other sediments from rain and storms.
Even with a slender dam and spillway that connects both lakes under Loch Highland Pass, the main road in the neighborhood, the lakes often flood during heavy rains. There were lengthy negotiations during the 1980s between Cobb and Loch Highland residents over how to pay for damage to the dam caused during a period of heavy development.
The Loch Highland neighborhood and lakes are circled in red, and are located at the north end of the “JOSH” study area.
“We probably have the largest catchment area in this part of the county,” said Dave Taylor, a long-time Loch Highland resident.
What he and some of his neighbors have been suggesting for years is what they emphasized at Monday’s meeting at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church: The establishment of a stormwater utility fee that would be earmarked for keeping the lakes clean.
“Half of our [homeowners association] dues go to the maintenance of the lakes,” Taylor said. He added that while the lake is healthy, upstream development threatens that health.
More than that, homeowners in Loch Highland, which number around 400, wonder how much more it will cost them, with no financial relief in sight.
Jim Wallace, who’s lived in Loch Highland for more than 40 years, estimates that neighbors have spent nearly $1 million on lake cleanup since the year 2000.
He’s upset that water that runs downstream from public roads and lands have become the sole burden of private property owners.
“If you see an unmowed median in a road, [county] commissioners will hear about it,” Wallace said. “But not when it’s a lake.” Even on private property, “it serves a public purpose.”
That public purpose in Loch Highland, with the dam and spillway bolstering one of the largest retention ponds in Cobb County, is to prevent further stormwater runoff from affecting other communities.
The Loch Highland community website has an information page about the stormwater issues, including an explanation of how a stormwater utility fee would work. That fee would be included in water bills and would cost around $3.50 a month for a home of around 2,800 square feet. The actual rate would be calculated on the amount of impervious surfaces for each home.
When asked if that’s just a complicated way of proposing a tax, Taylor denied that, pointing out that the collected fee revenue would go only to stormwater maintenance functions.
Cobb has 130 dams and more than 15,000 retention ponds, and more than 20 percent of its land is located in a flood plain.
While the JOSH meetings cover many topics, from land use and transportation to parks and other amenities, stormwater management was bound to be a subject of interest. The study area is bordered on the east by Willeo Creek and includes a number of other lakes and ponds.
Cobb Planning Commissioner Thea Powell, a former Cobb commissioner and East Cobb Civic Association leader who lives in nearby Chimney Lake, said another factor that has frustrated citizens about stormwater concerns is that “everything that affects us is outside the study area.”
She noted that the “JOSH” open houses are a rare occasion in which feedback on stormwater issues has been encouraged.
David Breaden, at left, of the Cobb Stormwater Management office, looks over a county topographical map with a citizen at Monday’s “JOSH” open house.
“The fact that the county is looking at this is good,” Powell said.
Jason Gaines, planning division director for the Cobb Community Development Agency, acknowledged that stormwater issues were one of the main areas of input his office is seeking in the JOSH process, which was established at the behest of District 2 Cobb commissioner Bob Ott.
Gaines said a more formal presentation summarizing the first two meetings will take place at the final meeting on May 8, also at the Chestnut Ridge Christian Church (2663 Johnson Ferry Road), from 7-9 p.m.
The master plan concept that is developed from the JOSH meetings will be incorporated into the Cobb 2040 Comprehensive Plan.
Citizens can offer feedback online, and view documents, maps and other information related to the study area, by visiting the JOSH website.
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday authorized county budget officials to begin the process of taking out short-term tax-anticipation notes (TANs) that would be repaid later this year.
By a 5-0 vote the commission approved a measure that would obtain $90 million in TANs, which are short-term loans used to plug county finances and spending between budget years. The current fiscal year 2018 (with a general fund budget of $405 million) ends at the end of the September.
Since the Cobb tax digest is revealed and millage rate is set in July, the county doesn’t begin collecting property taxes until a new fiscal year is underway. Those bills are mailed out in October. The county tax assessor’s office began mailing out assessment values to residential and commercial property owners last month.
According to a background sheet from Tuesday’s meeting agenda, Cobb has been issuing TANs since the late 1980s, a practice that “provides the needed liquidity at attractive borrowing rates to the County.”
(The Cobb County School District also occasionally seeks out TANs, and recently obtained $40 million in short-term loans for construction purposes.)
The TANs are general obligation bonds and interest is usually tax-exempt. Last year Cobb borrowed $60 million in TANs, but the amount has gone up because of a projected fiscal year 2019 deficit of at least $30 million.
The county budget office will begin a competitive bidding process for the TANs in May and present a low bid to the commissioners for approval before any loans would be obtained.
The TANS would have to be repaid by the end of November.
Andy Smith, the newest member of the Cobb Planning Commission.
Also Tuesday, East Cobb resident Andy Smith was formally announced as the newest member of the Cobb Planning Commission, which advises the commissioners on zoning issues.
He is the appointee of District 2 commissioner Bob Ott and will serve at his first meeting in May.
Smith succeeds Mike Terry, who retired after last week’s planning commission meeting. Terry was appointed when Ott first took office in 2009. Ott, a former member of the planning commission, said Terry did “a yeoman’s job” during his long tenure.
Terry was also the board’s chairman. Judy Williams of Northeast Cobb, appointed by District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, will assume duties as the new chairwoman next month.
In other business Tuesday, the commissioners formalized the spending of $47,000 for emergency repairs for a sinkhole on Woodlawn Drive (previous East Cobb Newspost here) and approved a change-order for a $332,781 savings in its final contract with C.W. Matthews for a roundabout project in front of Pope High School.
The final cost for the project, which was completed right before the start of the school year, comes to $3,053 million.
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The East Cobb Library opened at Parkaire Landing Shopping Center in 2010.
What started out as a Facebook page has expanded its presence online. The citizens group Save Cobb Libraries launched a website Monday as part of its continued efforts to stave off proposed Cobb library cuts.
Rachel Slomovitz, an East Cobb resident who started the Facebook page, said Monday in introducing the site that “here we are, gathering our supplies, getting prepared for battle in these next 3 months really.”
The East Cobb Library is one of eight slated for closure or consolidation as part of proposed library cuts amounting to nearly $3 million, or roughly one-third of the Cobb library system budget.
Cobb commissioners will approve a fiscal year 2019 budget in July, with projections of a deficit of at least $30 million. Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce announced last week several budget town hall meetings in June, including one at the East Cobb Senior Center.
At a recent town hall meeting Slomotitz and other library advocates attended, Cobb commissioner Bob Ott pledged that the East Cobb Library “isn’t going to close,” but urged citizens to lobby his fellow commissioners.
The Save Cobb Libraries website has details about the proposed cuts, suggests talking points, urges citizens to contact their commissioners and sign a petition and has testimonials from patrons about the value of libraries.
In her message Monday, Slomovitz also said she’s sending out an e-mail update every Monday for those who aren’t on Facebook (contact info@savecobblibraries.com) and encouraged fellow library advocates to stay active:
“The Commissioners are convinced by those that come up and represent their views. So if no one comes out in favor of the libraries, they say it’s clearly not a priority, it will be an easy one to cut. If people come out with force, then it’s less likely going to end up on the chopping block.”
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A Woodlawn Drive sinkhole that was caused by damage to a concrete pipe has been covered by a metal plate and is surrounded with warning cones.
It’s located just north of Blackland Drive, and is at the entrance to a driveway at 111 Woodlawn Drive. Cobb County Manager Rob Hosack has authorized spending $47,163 to make repairs.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners will be asked on Tuesday to ratify the spending request and formalize the emergency contract to Chatfield Contracting, Inc. of Kennesaw.
According to agenda item information for Tuesday’s meeting, the funding is available in the 2016 Cobb SPLOST transportation category for drainage improvements.
The repair work will include clearing an obstructed part of the 18-inch concrete pipe, repairing it, repaving the road and restoring the shoulder and re-establishing a drainage ditch.
The work should take around 30 days to complete.
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The Noonday Creek Trail Head at Bells Ferry Road. (East Cobb News file photo)
The expansion of two multi-use trails in East Cobb, the Johnson Ferry Trail and Noonday Creek Trail, are among the recommendations included in a new draft master plan issued by the Cobb Department of Transportation.
The Cobb County Greenways and Trails Master Plan, which has been developed after more than a year of public meetings and input, will be the subject of an open house on Tuesday. That will take place from 6-8 p.m. at the Cobb County Civic Center (548 S. Marietta Parkway).
It’s the first-ever master plan for greenways and trails in Cobb, and Cobb DOT consulted with with Gresham, Smith and Partners, an Atlanta architectural, engineering and design firm, in the process (previous East Cobb Newspost here).
The key recommendations of the draft master plan include eight “priority trail projects” (indicatedd in the maps below in gold), two of them in East Cobb, covering a total of 210 new miles.
The draft master plan highlights include:
increasing connectivity between existing trails;
having trails in all six Cobb cities;
having 92 percent of all existing county parks within a mile of a trail;
having 57 percent of Cobb’s total population also within a mile of a trail.
What’s being proposed as the Hyde Farm to Johnson Ferry Trail would add 3.33 miles to the existing trail on Johnson Ferry, with most of that public land, utility easements and existing road right-of-ways.
Click the map to see a larger view
As the name indicates, the proposed recreational trail would start at Hyde Farm, where the utility easement is located, and would connect with the Gold Branch of the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area and to the paved trail along Johnson Ferry.
The new trail would also include guidance for users wishing to connect to trails along Columns Drive and to the Cochran Shoals unit of the Chattahoochee NRA.
The estimated cost of the proposed Hyde Farm to Johnson Ferry Trail expansion is $4.3-$4.7 million.
The proposed Noonday Creek Trail expansion also would follow along public easements and other public land for 3.67 miles northbound from the existing trailhead at Bells Ferry Road. The addition would extend to Noonday Creek Park at Jamerson Road, near the Cherokee County line.
Click map to see a larger view
The expanded trail would cross three major roads and include other complexities that make it a much more expensive project, with an estimated cost between $11.1 million and $12.2 million.
Foremost among the issues is that much of the proposed expansion corridor is located in a floodplain or floodway.
According to the draft proposal, there would be some negotiations with private property owners if the proposed expansion is approved. A signalized crossing at New Chastain Road is also recommended, as is Cobb working with Cherokee to align the expansion with the Noonday Creek Trail Connector in that county.
Tuesday’s open house is not a formal meeting. It’s for the public to ask any question of staff about the draft master plan. If you can’t attend, you’ll have until April 16 to offer feedback by emailing: info@CobbTrailPlan.com or contacting Erin Thoresen at 770-754-0755.
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A number of Cobb budget town halls will be held by Commission Chairman Mike Boyce in June, and the first will take place on June 18 at the East Cobb Senior Center.
The town hall starts at 7 p.m. The East Cobb Senior Center is located at 3322 Sandy Plains Road.
The meetings will take place a month before the Cobb Board of Commissioners is expected to adopt a fiscal year 2019 budget.
Cobb budget officials are projecting a deficit between $30 million and $55 million, but thus far the only proposed cuts have been to the Cobb library system, including the possible closing of East Cobb Library.
Boyce has been suggesting that the Cobb general fund millage rate of 6.76 may not be enough to fund the FY 2019 budget, but he hasn’t proposed an increase or specified what a sufficient levy may be.
That’s despite some good news last week from Cobb Tax Assessor’s Office that this year’s projected tax digest of $36 billion would be a record, and 7.5 percent higher than last year’s record of $33.6 billion.
Boyce has held several town halls meetings before at the East Cobb senior center, including last summer, when he unsuccessfully supported a millage rate to fund the 2008 Cobb parks bond referendum.
Other budget town halls are scheduled for June 19 at the North Cobb Senior Center, June 20 at the Cobb Senior Wellness Center in Marietta, June 25 at the Freeman Poole Senior Center in Smyrna, June 27 at the West Cobb Senior Center and July 9 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
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The good news for county homeowners is that the Cobb tax digest is projected to grow by 7.5 percent in 2018, to around $36 billion in assessed value, after a record $33 billion total in 2017.
The bad news is that growth won’t solve the estimated $30 million-$55 million Cobb government budget deficit that’s being estimated for fiscal year 2019.
What that all that means for your property tax bill depends on a number of factors, including assessments, eligibility for homestead and senior exemptions and whether or not the Cobb Board of Commissioners approves of a possible millage rate increase to help cover the deficit.
Residential property tax assessments will go out in early May, and the tax digest value is finalized in July.
Earlier projections had the Cobb tax digest rising by around 5.5 percent. Cobb budget director Bill Volckmann said that 7.5 percent growth, if that comes to pass, would add around an additional $6 million to general fund coffers.
The average home value in Cobb is now around $285,000, and the assessed value of the Atlanta Braves’ property near SunTrust Park in the Cumberland area has grown from $188 million in 2017 to $360 million this year, according to the Cobb tax assessor’s office.
In a presentation this week, tax assessor Stephen White most Cobb homeowners have a “floating” homestead exemption, which means that the assessed value of that a property remains frozen and does not increase the amount of the general fund.
“The floating homestead on the county general portion of your tax bill means your assessed value stays the same from year-to-year,” White said. “We might increase the fair market value of your home, but the assessed value on a homesteaded property stays the same from the time you purchased the property.”
The general fund portion of the county budget pays for police, sheriff’s office, transportation, parks and libraries, courts and other general government operational expenses.
There’s a separate millage rate that funds fire and emergency services, and the Cobb County School District also levies its own millage rate.
Those categories, White said, likely will benefit from the tax digest growth. The Cobb general fund, on the other hand, is in more severe straits than the current FY 2018 budget of $405 million.
That was balanced with some program cuts and with the use of nearly $20 million in contingency funding.
Cobb Commission chairman Mike Boyce (above) is suggesting that the present general fund millage rate of 6.76 might not be enough to fund the FY 2019 budget, but he hasn’t offered any recommendations.
“We knew this $30 million hole was coming years ago,” Boyce said in a statement issued by Cobb government, “and because the floating exemption prevents the general fund from fully benefitting from the tax digest increase, the board must bring forth a millage rate that will support a quality of life Cobb residents expect.”
Already he’s come under fire for proposing a membership fee and other increased charges for senior services.
Major proposed cuts to the Cobb library system also call for the closure of the East Cobb Library, which also has resulted in a vocal outcry.
District 2 Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, whose district includes much of East Cobb, vowed that he will fight to keep open that branch, one of the busiest in the county, but is asking constituents to communicate with his colleagues about that.
He also has said he does not support any tax increase without finding other budget savings.
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If you missed Cobb commissioner Bob Ott’s town hall meeting held earlier this month at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (previous East Cobb Newspost here), you’ll have another chance in April.
He’s having his next town hall on Monday, April 23 from 7-8:30 p.m. at SunTrust Park. Ott’s District 2 includes the Cumberland/Vinings area as well as East Cobb, and citizens can ask about any topic pertaining to the district or the county.
Those topics figure to include the county budget, proposed library closings, transit and traffic, and the meetings tend to be lively and well-attended.
The town hall meeting will be held in the SunTrust Park Stadium Conference Room. The entrance is at the right field gate, and parking is in the red deck. The address for the deck is 2585 Circle 75 Parkway SE, Atlanta, 30339.
The Atlanta Braves open the 2018 season Thursday at SunTrust in a 4 p.m. game against the Philadelphia Phillies.
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On Monday Cobb government officials will hold the first of three community meetings over the next couple of months to outline what they’re calling a “small area plan” for Johnson Ferry-Shallowford development issues.
The first meeting is slated from 7-9 p.m. Monday at Chestnut Ridge Christian Church (2663 Johnson Ferry Road). That will the site for additional meetings on April 16 and May 8, also in the same time slot.
The area indicated in the map above is called JOSH, and it’s to be a supplement to the Cobb 2040 Comprehensive Plan to address anticipated development issues in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford corridor.
The departments involved in JOSH planning include community development, planning, parks and recreation, and the Cobb Water System’s stormwater division.
Here’s more about JOSH and what county officials are asking for in terms of public feedback:
The purpose of JOSH is to provide guidance to the Board of Commissioners regarding policy and decisions pertaining to land use, design guidelines, parks, greenspace facilities and infrastructure.
It will focus will focus on five key elements: future land use, design guidelines, stormwater management, parks and greenspace, and transportation. Due to anticipated growth, new development and redevelopment, future land use will be a key focal point of the study. Issues and concerns will be identified by community members and addressed through the concept plan and implementation recommendations.
The JOSH plan will be developed in part by way of an extensive public participation program. A stakeholder group has been established, consisting of key individuals representing a variety of groups and organizations. Stakeholders include neighborhood/civic groups and business/commercial representatives. In addition to the Stakeholder Group, the project team will facilitate three community meetings to engage the public in defining problems and concerns and identifying their desires for the future of the JOSH community.
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A rare slice of ample green space in East Cobb is going to stay that way. Two residential plots of land on Ebenezer Road were purchased by Cobb County on Tuesday, and will become a public park.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to acquire the 18.3 acres at 4055 and 4057 Ebenezer Road for a combined price of $1.7 million from the estate of John R. Strother.
It’s the first purchase of land in the East Cobb area with funding from the 2008 Cobb Parks Bond referendum, and the 2017 supplemental resolution adopted by commissioners last year.
The adjacent plots are at the southeast intersection of Ebenezer Road and Canton Road, just south of Noonday Baptist Church. The Strother lands includes a lake and two residences, one in each parcel.
The eastern edge of the property abuts a single-family subdivision. The Ebenezer Road area is a mix of older homes on bigger lots and newer, denser residential development.
Strother, who died in 2015 at the age of 101, was a retired Lockheed-Georgia employee and World War II veteran.
Funding and development of the Ebenezer Road property will be undertaken separately.
“This has been a long time coming,” Northeast Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell said of the Ebenezer Road properties. “We’re getting a beautiful piece of property.”
The only other passive park in development in the area is at Mabry Park, which recently got underway on Wesley Chapel Road. Birrell, who represents District 3, has been a vigorous advocate for that park, which now falls in District 2, represented by Bob Ott.
On Tuesday, commissioners appropriated $6.1 million total for 150 acres, most of it in west and south Cobb.
Only District 2, which includes much of East Cobb, has not had a green space purchase with funding stemming from the referendum.
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a $1.3 million contract to construct a roundabout at Post Oak Tritt Road and Hembree Road.
The low bid amount (among eight proposals) was submitted by Glosson Enterprises and the funding comes from the 2016 Cobb government SPLOST.
The commissioners also voted to proceed with condemnation proceedings involving one property owner on Post Oak Tritt Road to obtain right-of-way for the roundabout project while negotiations continue with that resident.
In addition to the roundabout, the project includes enhanced street lighting and sidewalk ramp upgrades, required under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The intersection currently has only one stop sign, at Hembree Road.
Completion of the roundabout project is expected by July 2019, according to Cobb DOT.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners approved spending $197,990 for design and construction administration work for a new building on the Hyde Farm facility on Lower Roswell Road.
Southern A & E, LLC will design the multi-level building that will support continuing agricultural operations, house farm vehicles and help facilitate the use of farm equipment on the 135-acre property, which is being preserved as an educational and recreational resource for the public.
The contract is “one step closer to the idea for Hyde Farm,” District 2 commissioner Bob Ott said before the 5-0 board vote.
The commissioners also voted to spend $191,726 in “closeout” funding for the finishing touches on the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which opened in December.
The additional money, which comes from the 2016 SPLOST, will be used for rock removal, expanded security, furnishing, signage and acoustical work.
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With the possibility of significant library cuts leading ongoing Cobb budget talks, District 2 commissioner Bob Ott was adamant on Monday that the East Cobb Library would not be among them.
It’s one of several Cobb library branches slated for closure or consolidation in a staff recommendation for fiscal year 2019, and one that has generated strong community opposition.
At the outset of his town hall meeting at the new Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, Ott said that “we’re going to dispel some serious misconceptions about the libraries.”
While the meeting included discussions about transit, zonings, county employee pay increases and tax assessments, many in the packed audience of around 300 people came out to plead for the preservation of the East Cobb Library.
The commissioners met last fall on a budget retreat and heard many recommendations for reducing a projected deficit between $30 million and $55 million.
The proposed library cuts of $2.9 million amount to a quarter of the department’s budget. Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce has proposed a property tax increase of 1.1 mills, but few other major budget proposals have been made public.
That’s what Ott referenced as he held up a thick binder from the retreat at the town hall, held in the Sewell Mill Library’s black box theater:
“Have you heard anything else mentioned?” There are a whole lot of proposals that have come from staff, but [suggestions to cut libraries] gets everybody riled up.”
While the East Cobb Library doesn’t meet the county’s criteria for serving as a regional library due to being less than 20,000 square feet, because of its heavy use, Ott said, “we would all agree it’s a regional library.
“It isn’t going to close,” he said to loud applause.
The East Cobb Library is the third-busiest in the Cobb library system, with more than 250,000 materials checked out in 2017. It’s also the only branch that is in leased space, at the Parkaire Landing Shopping Center.
That rental expense is $263,000 a year, and it’s a factor that Northeast Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell cited when she suggested last year that the branch should close.
That got East Cobb residents in an outcry, and Ott was visibly upset in a town hall meeting he held at the library last summer.
“It’s been based on one commissioner who tried to close it, and she’s not here tonight,” Ott said Monday.
The East Cobb branch relocated from Merchants Walk in 2010, and leasing space at the time was considered more economical than building a county-owned facility, given local real estate prices.
When Ott was asked if it might be possible for the East Cobb Library to eventually get out of a leasing situation, he replied that “it’s a matter of finding the right opportunity.”
Ott opposes tax increases without finding savings in the current budget. Last year, he pressed for the closure of the business office at the East Cobb Government Service Center, a move that funded three new staff positions at the Sewell Mill Library.
He also mentioned the pending relocation of the Lewis A. Ray branch to the West Village development in Smyrna, which is offering 3,000 square feet of library space for $1 a year. That would save half the current operating cost of that branch.
“There are ways of doing this without raising your taxes,” Ott said.
Ott said that while many of his constituents contact him about right-of-ways and keeping medians maintained, his fellow commissioners hear often about keeping buildings open, including libraries.
“I don’t get e-mails about facilities,” he said. “You don’t necessarily want stuff. You want the place to look nice.”
He said that in order to ensure that the East Cobb Library stays open, he needs two other commissioners to vote with him. The budget is expected to be adopted in July.
“Send e-mails, not to me, but to the other commissioners and the chairman,” Ott said. “Let them hear what you think.
“You all know how to turn up the heat. Believe me, I’ve seen it.”
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The Cobb Community Development Department has sent a notice to the owners of the Sprayberry Crossing Shopping Center demanding it address conditions at the decaying retail property that may run afoul of the county’s new “blight tax” provision.
The letter, delivered Thursday to Brannen Goddard, an Atlanta commercial real estate agency representing Sprayberry Crossing Partnership (PDF here), said the owners have 30 days to provide a “reasonable” plan to make improvements to the shopping center, located at the southeast corner of Sandy Plains Road and East Piedmont Road.
Sprayberry Crossing has long been the subject of complaints from nearby residents. Although several small businesses operate there, most of the shopping center is vacant and has been in deteriorating conditions for years.
The community development office conducted an inspection of the property in late January and concluded that Sprayberry Crossing met three of the conditions for designation as a blighted property: having an uninhabitable, unsafe or unsound structure; being conducive to “ill health” to those in close proximity to the property; and being the subject of repeated reports of illegal activity on the premises.
The letter included photographs from the inspection showing boarded-up windows and holes in the structures and a list of 28 reports of criminal incidents dating back to 2014.
In the letter, written by Cobb community development director Dana Johnson, the findings of the inspection include evidence of gang activity near the former bowling alley at the back of the property, no proper storm drainage provisions, vandalized mechanical equipment, utility lines laying across the parking lot and signs of repeated break-ins.
Last July the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved a code amendment called the Community Improvement Tax Incentive Program, which allows for the county to set forth several criteria for determining a blighted property. It can then conduct inspections of run-down businesses and rental properties and prompt repairs. Ultimately, the county could impose a fine of seven times the current millage rate for violators.
Blighted properties that meet compliance after that would be eligible for a millage rate reduction for up to two years.
Joe Glancy, creator of the Sprayberry Crossing Action Facebook group that’s been pushing for a solution, wrote that while the letter from the county represents “a victory for our community and another step in the right direction. . . . I’m sure most of you also know, this is hardly the end.”
The citizens’ group has been frustrated by what it has said is a lack of cooperation from the property owners. Glancy urged his group to “to turn up the heat on the ownership group and county to move this process forward.”
The group has scheduled a community meeting on March 21 at Sprayberry High School.
We’re getting in touch with the property owner and will post a response if and when we get it.
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