Lower Roswell Road near the Sope Creek Bridge was the last area for the East Cobb Pipeline Project water main to be installed. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
The new 54-inch water main along a 6.1-mile stretch of Lower Roswell Road and Terrell Mill Road has been put in place. But the East Cobb Pipeline Project isn’t quite finished.
Post-installation work continues and will conclude with repaving. The $47 million project, which began two years ago, will still involve some traffic disruption in the coming weeks. More about what’s ahead from Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott, who sent out this message on Friday:
Over the next several weeks, the East Cobb Pipeline project will come to a close. Commuters will continue to see crews on site performing final backfill, testing, paving and cleanup activities with single lane closures decreasing in frequency. By the end of this week, the entire pipeline will be filled with water for pressure testing the week of 9/11 while other crews continue to prepare the road for repaving. During the week of Sept. 18, disinfection of the pipeline will take place, as well as possible paving from Sope Creek to Lindsey Road, depending on weather and progress. After testing and commissioning of the pipeline, final resurfacing will take place by Cobb County Department of Transportation. For questions or concerns, please call the project hotline at 770-514-5301.
When the Cobb Planning Commission meets Thursday morning, two of the most notable cases on the docket may not be heard at all.
That’s because of continued delays in those proposals for major retail, shopping and restaurant developments in East Cobb.
The Planning Commission meeting starts at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb BOC Building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
One of those East Cobb proposals, to redevelop the northwest corner of Powers Ferry Road at Terrell Mill Road, is definitely being continued to October. That’s Z-012-2017, submitted by SSP Blue Ridge LLC, and calling for a mixed-use complex covering 21 acres, anchored by a Kroger supermarket.
The case has been rescheduled to be heard by the Planning Commission on Oct. 3.
The site of the former Mountain View Elementary School also is being proposed for a new center to include restaurants, shops, banking and grocery options on 13 acres of the east side of Sandy Plains Road, just south of Shallowford Road.
Plans to redevelop the former Mountain View Elementary School site include seven buildings and 103,100 total square feet. Click to see larger map.
That case, Z-053-2017, is included in the regular agenda to be taken up by the Planning Commission, but it may be continued. The Cobb zoning staff has offered full comments and a recommendation of approval with conditions.
But at last week’s East Cobb Civic Association meeting (previous East Cobb News coverage here), members were notified that the applicant, Brooks Chadwick Capital, LLC, has asked for an extension to continue working with the community.
Another application by SSP Blue Ridge that was on Wednesday’s agenda also has been continued to October. That’s SLUP-008-2017, a special land use permit request near the Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill proposal to build a self-serve storage facility on an acre along Terrell Mill Road (the land is currently zoned for residential use).
Another proposal for a storage facility in the Canton Road corridor is on the Thursday agenda.
Z-050-2017, by Storage Development Group, would allow for a 760-unit facility on 3.39 acres on the west side of Canton Road, north of Sylvan Drive (staff recommends approval with conditions). Rezoning would be from Offices Services (OS) to Neighborhood Retail Commercial (NRC). The applicant also is seeking a land-use permit (LUP-010-2017) for the site (staff recommends approval with conditions).
As was noted here last week, on Sept. 19, at their monthly zoning hearing, the Cobb Board of Commissioners will consider a site plan amendment that would allow for Taqueria Tsunami resturant to be built at the former Caribou Coffee/Einstein Bros. Bagel site on Johnson Ferry Road, below Merchants Walk (previous East Cobb News coverage here).
At that meeting, the commissioners also will consider a continued application by Lidl Grocery (OB-016-2017) to redevelop the Park 12 Cinema on Gordy Parkway that has generated community opposition. The case has been continued since May.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise: Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott is opposed to raising the millage rate to balance the fiscal year 2018 Cobb County budget.
Commissioner Bob Ott at his East Cobb Library town hall meeting in August. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
With commissioners scheduled to adopt a budget next Thursday, Ott sent out a lengthy message right before the Labor Day holiday weekend explaining why he would not support a rise in the property tax millage rate to cover an estimated $21 million shortfall.
Commission chairman Mike Boyce has proposed an $890 million spending package (PDF here) that includes using contingency funding to close the entire deficit gap.
In July, Ott helped foil Boyce’s plan to raise the millage rate to fully fund the $40 million 2008 Cobb Parks referendum (East Cobb News coverage here).
The proposed FY 2018 budget would be balanced by using reserve funding from the following sources:
$10.4 million from the reserve for a county employees pay and classification implementation study;
$5.7 million from the county Title Ad Valorem Tax Reserve;
$5.3 million from the county economic development contingency.
Ott, who’s been vigorously opposed to property tax increases in general, said he can’t support raising the millage rate now, for a full fiscal-year budget, with contingency money available. In his weekly e-mail newsletter that came out on Friday, he said:
“I believe it is wrong to raise the millage rate before the BOC uses the money from these funds to pay-down the deficit. Together, at their height, these funds totaled approximately $22 million being held in reserve on top of the county’s ‘normal’ reserve funds.”
He also hinted at this position at an Aug. 17 town hall meeting at the East Cobb Library, just days after the budget was revealed, telling constituents “it’s your money.”
In his Friday e-mail, Ott urged finding ways to reduce expenses in some county services, including two familiar targets of his, the annual transfer of Cobb water system revenues to the general fund, and transit subsidies:
“I don’t believe the answer to addressing this $21 million deficit is simply an increase in the millage rate. A complete review of the budget and expenses should be done to identify and eliminate wasteful spending. Two areas that I believe illustrate inefficiencies in the budget are the need to transfer $20 million per year from the Water System to the general fund and the roughly $17 million a year subsidy of the county transit system. CobbLinc provides invaluable service to many county residents. However, many buses travel the routes virtually, if not completely, empty.”
Ott’s also been in a budget fight on another front, with fellow East Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who is proposing to close the East Cobb Library, citing duplication of services.
After hearing from upset East Cobb residents opposed to shuttering the second-busiest branch in the Cobb library system, Birrell defended her proposal at an Aug. 22 public hearing on the budget. She cited a recent report calling for more police officer hires in Cobb (Birrell has long wanted to create a new police precinct in Northeast Cobb) and said she wants to be good steward of taxpayer money.
At his town hall, Ott said he is considering moving some services at the East Cobb Government Service Center to the East Cobb Library and possibly closing an “underperforming” library elsewhere in his district, but he hasn’t elaborated.
Here’s his full statement from Friday; he said he’ll be detailing more suggestions on budget cuts.
Details about the Marietta-Cobb Career Expo are being distributed to the public by Cobb County Government:
Learn how to sharpen up your resume and interview successfully at free readiness workshops and then put those skills into action during the Marietta/Cobb Career Expo. WorkSouce Cobb staff will host Expo Readiness Workshops 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 12, at the Cobb County Civic Center. Topics will include career expo success, resume writing, interviewing, netserving, job search over 40 and resume critique. Registration is required. Register by visiting worksourcecobb.org. For more information, call 770-528-4300.
The Marietta/Cobb Career Expo will be held 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 14, at the Cobb County Civic Center. Employers including Atlanta and North Georgia Building Trades Council, Bank of America, Cana Communications, Carmax, Caraustar, Georgia Tech Police, Hooters, Lockheed Credit Union, Omni Hotel, Verizon, Roswell Police Department and Walden Security will be in attendance looking for qualified candidates. The Civic Center is located at 548 South Marietta Parkway, Marietta.
We know this goes without saying, but Cobb County Government is reminding the public that all of its regular offices are closed on Monday, Sept. 4, for Labor Day, including libraries. County parks will be open, but all offices and libraries will reopen on Tuesday with their normal business hours.
This just in from Cobb County Government: County Manager Rob Hosack is recommeding the hiring of WSB-TV newsman Ross Cavitt as the new county director of communications.
Cavitt, an East Cobb resident, covers Cobb and northwest Atlanta communities for WSB. “Ross will be a great asset to the county,” Hosack said in a statement. “He is an award-winning journalist and will bring a great amount of knowledge and expertise.”
Here’s more about Cavitt in the county release, which indicates that the Cobb Board of Commissioners is scheduled to approve his hiring on Sept. 12. If confirmed, he will start on Sept. 18 and replace Sheri Kell, who left earlier this year:
Ross Cavitt has more than 30 years in television news, 23 of those at WSB in Atlanta. He has covered some of the biggest stories in north Georgia and has won numerous awards including regional Emmys for “Spot News” and “Live Reporting.” His 2013 coverage of the Adairsville tornado garnered a regional Edward R. Murrow Award. For much of the last decade, Cavitt has been the WSB Bureau Chief in Cobb County where he covered notable stories including the murder cases involving Ross Harris and Lynn Turner.
Lower Roswell Road at Indian Hills Court, where pipeline construction is nearing completion. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
Around 4:30 p.m. today Cobb DOT announced there will be night construction of the East Cobb Pipeline project tonight along Lower Roswell Road between Ancient Oaks Court and Indian Hills Trail, just east of the Sope Creek Bridge.
The work is scheduled from 7 p.m. tonight until 5 a.m. Wednesday and traffic will be down to one lane along that 0.8-mile stretch of Lower Roswell.
It’s part of the final phase of the water main installation, and when we drove by there earlier this afternoon, you could see the project was tantalizingly close to being done. Less than a hundred feet of water main installation remains, as crews work primarily around the bridge area on Lower Roswell on either side of Sope Creek.
Weekday traffic is reduced to one lane between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., with crews alternating passage, as has been the case since the project began in late 2015.
Temporary paving of this final stretch of Lower Roswell is expected to take place next week, followed by final resurfacing by Cobb DOT. For more information, call the East Cobb Pipeline Project hotline at 770-514-5301.
The Mabry Park Master Plan calls for an overlook bridge over the pond, with trails leading up to and surrounding the water on all sides.
The Friends of Mabry Park couldn’t wait to break the news this week that construction bids have been issued by Cobb County government for the development of the 26.5-acre tract on Wesley Chapel Road at Sandy Plains Road that’s been the subject of a years-long effort. On the group’s Facebook page was this message on Thursday:
This is truly an exciting time. All the blood, sweat and tears from sooo many in the community is finally paying off!
The construction time line estimate is approximately 12 months. So we’re looking at later in 2018 before we can enjoy the park, but compared to the time it’s taken to get to this point it’s almost like we’ll be cutting a ribbon tomorrow!
Here are the details: The county sent the bids (officially called request for proposals, or RFPs) last Friday, Aug. 18, with advertising for potential contractors continuing through Sept. 8. All bids are due by Sept. 14.
More information below about the process for bidding and awarding a contract comes via commissioner JoAnn Birrell. Her district no longer includes Mabry Park (it’s now in Bob Ott’s District 2) but it’s a project that she has championed for years. Here’s how the Cobb Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Department is explaining the steps and timetable:
“If there is a responsive and responsible low bidder, the Parks team will send the bid to the Board of Commissioners in early October and request that they award a contract. It will take several weeks to obtain all of the required bonds, insurance, immigration affidavits and related documents for a complete contract. Pending any issues, construction should be underway in early 2018. Mabry Park will be under construction for about a year.
The entrance from Wesley Chapel and the roadway into the park will be the first item that needs to be completed. This will allow construction equipment to access the main park property. Although it depends on how the bids come in, the Parks team is confident that the construction funding will support installation of the roadway and all utilities, parking lot, storm water management and water quality features, restroom/maintenance building, most of the pavilion structures, repairs to the dam, and limited dredging of accumulated sediment in the lake. A variety of other features are included as alternates in the bid documents and will be approved as the budget allows.”
Birrell dug the first few scoops of dirt last year during a groundbreaking ceremony at Mabry Park, but that’s as far as it’s gone. Still, that was a big step following stalled attempts to get the park developed during the recession.
The county purchased the land in 2008 with around $4 million funding from the 2006 Cobb parks bond issue, but hadn’t budgeted anything for development into a park.
The Mabry Park Master Plan (PDF here and map below) was completed in 2011. Even after steep budget cuts during the recession meant no money for the park, or even to build the road into the future park area, the Friends of Mabry Park persisted. The group staged a “Mabry Park Preview” in the fall to give residents something to keep hoping and lobbying for.
Many did, including the Friends group, and advocacy from the Cobb Parks Coalition benefitted the Mabry Park effort. The development project costs an estimated $4.25 million, with the funding coming from the 2016 SPLOST approved by Cobb voters.
By now most Cobb property tax owners should have received their bills for 2017; most were mailed out in the last week or so. Here’s what the county sent out earlier this week as a reminder:
More than 261,500 bills, representing $729,711,039 in 2017 property taxes, have been mailed. There were 245,942 bills resulting in $674,891,143 for real property and 15,582 bills resulting in $54,819,896 for personal property. The Tax Commissioner’s Office bills and collects property taxes for Cobb County Government, Cobb County Board of Education, Cumberland and Town Center Community Improvement Districts and the Cumberland and Six Flags Special Services Districts. All six of Cobb’s cities bill and collect their own property taxes. State of Georgia property taxes have now been eliminated. The chart below details this year’s property taxes for our billing and collection authorities:
County General
$ 186,988,125
County Bond
$ 4,237,623
County Fire
$ 79,471,996
School General
$ 442,724,334
Cumberland CID
$ 6,567,316
Town Center CID
$ 3,228,681
Cumberland SSDII
$ 5,681,507
Six Flags SSD
$ 811,457
TOTAL
$ 729,711,039
Payments received or U.S. postmarked after Monday, Oct. 16 will incur a 5 percent late penalty, plus monthly interest on the unpaid balance. Payments can be made online at www.cobbtax.org, by automated IVR at 1-866-PAY-COBB or by mail to P.O. Box 100127, Marietta, GA 30061-7027. In-person payments are accepted at the Property Tax office at 736 Whitlock Ave., Marietta, the East Cobb Government Service Center at 4400 Lower Roswell Road in Marietta and the South Cobb Government Service Center at 4700 Austell Road in Austell. Payment drop boxes are located both inside and outside the Whitlock Avenue location, as well as inside both Government Service Centers. Payments via check will also be accepted at any Motor Vehicle office.
If you need a detailed explanation about what’s on your bill, the Cobb tax commissioner’s office has created this PDF with a line-by-line description.
JoAnn Birrell—speaking here to a business group last week—says closing the East Cobb Library would reduce duplication of services. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
After several East Cobb residents objected to the possibility of closing the East Cobb Library on Tuesday, the Cobb commissioner making the proposal strongly defended her position, and laid out a detailed set of numbers in making her case.
JoAnn Birrell, who represents Northeast Cobb, said at the end of a long Board of Commissioners meeting that “this has never been a personal agenda” but instead addresses what she terms as an issue of duplication of services.
She said she’s proposing the East Cobb Library closure because of the new Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center that will open before the end of the year, replacing the adjacent East Marietta Library.
The two libraries are located five miles apart on Lower Roswell Road, and carry some expensive operating costs, Birrell said. (That’s also about the same distance between the two East Cobb-area libraries in her district, the Mountain View Regional Library on Sandy Plains Road, and the Gritters branch off Canton Road.)
The East Cobb Library opened in the Parkaire Landing Shopping Center in 2010, after being previously known as the Merchants Walk Library and relocated when that shopping center was redeveloped.
“This is about being a responsible steward of the taxpayers’ money,” Birrell said, reading from a written statement, adding that budget decisions will be made by the board, not one commissioner.
The East Cobb Library closure plans were first made public last Thursday, at a town hall meeting held by East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who said Birrell “has been relentless” in proposing the move (East Cobb News coverage here).
Birrell said her proposal “was just one” cost-saving suggestion as the commission was presented last week with a proposed FY 2018 budget of $890 million, including $21.5 million in one-time reserve funding to avoid a property tax increase.
After hearing protests to the closure plan earlier Tuesday at the first formal public hearing on the budget, Birrell said the consolidation of Cobb libraries has been “years in the making,” and referenced the 2011 budget crunch. In the wake of the recession and a steep decline in the Cobb tax digest, then-commission Chairman Tim Lee proposed permanently closing 13 of the 17 county library branches, including East Cobb and East Marietta.
But he backed down after vocal public opposition. While no branches were closed, library hours and staffing levels were reduced.
Most of the funding for the new 8,600-square-foot Sewell Mill library complex, which will include an amphitheater and other cultural arts space, comes from the 2016 Cobb government SPLOST (special local option sales tax) approved by county voters.
Birrell said the new library will have annual staffing and operating costs of roughly $732,000. The East Marietta Library currently costs around $524,000 a year to run, according to her figures.
The East Cobb Library, she said, not only has annual staffing and operating costs estimated at $771,000 a year, but another $263,000 a year, ($21,961 a month) is paid out in lease costs at Parkaire Landing.
For that kind of money, Birrell said, the county “could hire three police officers” as part of a larger recommendation in a recent police chiefs’ report that Cobb add 60 more officers to meet current public safety needs.
Just a few days after seeing the proposed fiscal year 2018 Cobb County budget for the first time, commissioner Bob Ott briefed East Cobb constituents on the numbers Thursday night and offered some suggestions that could punctuate budget discussions over the next few weeks.
At a packed town hall meeting in the community room of the East Cobb Library, Ott outlined the $890 million spending plan proposed by commission chairman Mike Boyce, including using $21.5 million in one-time reserve funding.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners will hold the first of two public hearings on the budget on Tuesday before approval on Sept. 12. That’s not much time to absorb a proposed spending package that’s 3.79 percent higher than the FY 2017 budget, and only weeks after a heated battle over the property tax millage rate.
Click the graphic to view and download the budget proposal.
The budget document also was released this week [there’s a downloadable PDF here] as Cobb homeowners were mailed their property tax bills for 2017. As Ott reminded them, “the tax bill you just got is to pay for [the last fiscal] year.”
The proposed budget is based on the current millage rate established by commissioners last month. Ott and fellow East Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell prevailed in their refusal to raise the millage rate by 0.13, as Boyce had wanted.
The inclusion of the proposed reserve funding to help balance the budget is a dramatic one. A total of $10.4 million would come from the reserve for a county employees pay and classification implementation study; $5.7 million would come from the Title Ad Valorem Tax Reserve; and the $5.3 million would come from the county economic development contingency.
“The board has to decide what are the critical needs,” Ott said. “The bottom line is, it’s your money.”
Specifically regarding the reserve money, Ott, an ardent opponent of tax increases, repeated himself: “It is my belief that it’s your money,” and that there’s “no reason” for it to remain unspent and raise taxes instead.
The Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center under construction on Lower Roswell has an updated projection for its opening: mid-November, according to District 2 commissioner Bob Ott.
The adjacent East Marietta Library that’s been open since 1966 will close in mid-October, as the transition of moving materials into the new facility begins. Here’s more from what Ott’s office issued via email on Friday:
Construction of the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center is moving forward steadily, with only limited interruptions due to rainy days, said Cobb County Library Director Helen Poyer. Progress on the project includes ongoing interior painting, landscaping nearing completion and paving is scheduled for late summer. . . .
The construction project is now ahead of schedule, Poyer said, with officials expecting to re-open library service in new facility around mid-November. “Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center will serve not only the immediate community, but the entire Cobb community,” Poyer said. “The special library and PARKS services will draw citizens from across Cobb County. It will be a destination for people who want to be engaged in traditional library service as well as in technology and the arts.”
Reminder: Ott is having a town hall meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the East Cobb Library (Parkaire Landing Shopping Center, 4880 Lower Roswell Road).
What follows is a summary of the individual East Cobb cases coming before the Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday in their monthly zoning hearing. Here’s an overview of what’s on the agenda and the status of other active cases, including what’s being continued, withdrawn, etc.
Four of the six East Cobb cases are on the consent agenda, which is considered at the start of the meeting.
Two high-profile East Cobb cases listed near the top of the longer agenda summary have been continued to September, and we have mentioned them before: SSP Blue Ridge LLC’s application for a major mixed-use development at Powers Ferry and Terrell Mill Road (Z-12) and Lidl Grocery’s application (OB-016) to turn the Park 12 cinema on Gordy Parkway into a grocery store.
In the case of the latter, Lidl attorney Parks Huff is asking for more time to conduct a traffic study requested by Cobb DOT and that includes school-related traffic counts.
A case that you may see on zoning documents but that was withdrawn without prejudice after the Aug. 3 Planning Commission meeting is the Z-40 application by Saleh Uddin to rezone 0.94 acres on the east side of Terrell Mill Road north of Brookview Road from R-40 to R-20 for two single-family homes.
Here’s what will come before the BOC Tuesday morning, starting at 9 a.m., with links to the individual packet items with the case number:
Z-41: JOM Holdings, LLC, seeks rezoning from PSC to CRC for a specialized contractor’s office at 811 Lecroy Drive, near Robinson Road (consent item; staff recommends deletion to NRC with conditions);
Z-46: CSP Development, LLC, seeks rezoning from R-30 to R-15 of 8.92 acres at 4494 Wesley Chapel Road, on the south side of Sandy Plains Road (consent item; staff recommends approval with some stipulations);
OB-030: Poag Shopping Centers, LLC, seeks a site plan amendment for The Avenue at East Cobb Shopping Center (4475 Roswell Road), for hardscape and landscaping improvements (consent item; staff recommends approval with minor conditions);
OB-034: Narden Kaldani seeks a special exception for reduction of lot size at R-20 zoned site at 2650 Roswell Road, east of Hood Road, from 20,000 square feet to 16,401 square feet (consent item);
LUP-13: Esther J. Kim and Sung Min Brian Ryu seek a special land use permit for R-20 zoned site at 3746 Wesley Chapel Road, south of Beacon Street, to allow seven chickens. The applicants intend to house the hens in a coop that’s at least 30 feet from all property lines, and are filing due to a code enforcement complaint. The nearby Wesley Hills Homeowners Association has consented to the application, but the staff is recommending denial;
OB-028: S & B Investments, Inc., is seeking a site plan and stipulation amendment to build a drivethru window for the Starbucks Coffee location at 31-A Johnson Ferry Road, in front of Paper Mill VIllage, and that would be located on the Paper Mill Road side of the building.
The zoning hearing can be seen on CobbTV (Comcast Channel 23) or streamed live on the Cobb government website
The congested Bells Ferry Road intersection at Piedmont Road and Barrett Parkway is scheduled for a proposed improvement project that would include left- and right-hand turn lanes.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday will consider at $2 million funding request to make the changes, which include the following additions:
northbound and southbound dual left turn lanes on Bells Ferry Road;
a northbound right turn lane on Bells Ferry Road;
a westbound right turn lane on Piedmont Road.
The project was approved in the 2005 Cobb SPLOST transportation list, and the low bidder is Acworth-based Glosson Enterprises. The timetable for completion is projected to be a year.
Another East Cobb-related road project on Tuesday’s agenda (here’s the full book) includes approving a $63,700 contract for Excellere Construction to build a sidewalk on the east side of Providence Road, between Providence Corner Drive and Pine Road.
The commission meeting starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the 2nd floor meeting room of the Cobb BOC Building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
A contentious process over setting the county property tax millage rate has just ended for the Cobb Board of Commissioners, and a new budget process is about to begin.
The commissioners will hold public hearings as they begin work on the fiscal year 2018 budget, which takes effect Oct. 1.
Cobb Commission chairman Mike Boyce will soon deliver his first budget proposal. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
The budget will be formally presented during a special called work session at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 15, and public hearings will take place during regular commission meetings at 7 p.m. on Aug. 22 and at 9 a.m. on Sept. 12, the date the budget is expected to be adopted.
All hearings and meetings will take place in the 2nd floor board meeting room in the Cobb BOC building, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta.
The budget proposal will be made available online, in the Cobb finance office, also located at 100 Cherokee St., and at the Cobb Superior Courthouse, 70 Haynes St., also in downtown Marietta.
Last month, the commission voted not to raise the 2017 millage rate, as Chairman Mike Boyce had proposed, after plenty of opposition from residents (see previous East Cobb News coverage here and here.)
The last-minute decision to keep the millage rate the same was engineered by East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who is holding his next town hall meeting on Aug. 17 at East Cobb Library.
If you hear sirens around noon today, this is the reason. Issued by Cobb County government:
Cobb County has more than 70 outdoor warning sirens to alert residents during a weather-related emergency, including ten sirens that can also broadcast voice messages.
The intent of warning sirens is to alert people who are outside that an imminent danger is approaching; they are not designed to be heard within a home or other building.
Cobb County conducts outdoor warning siren system tests at noon on the first Wednesday of each month, sounding the sirens for 3 to 5 minutes. In the event that there is inclement weather on the first Wednesday of the month, the test will be postponed until the following day, the first Thursday of the month.
District 2 Cobb commissioner Bob Ott has announced he’s holding his next town hall meeting at the East Cobb Library.
The meeting takes place on Thursday, Aug. 17, starting at 7 p.m. in the community room of the library, located in the Parkaire Landing Shopping Center, 4880 Lower Roswell Road.
Ott briefs citizens on happenings in county government, and fields questions from the audience.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted late Tuesday evening to keep the 2017 county government millage rate the same as 2016, instead of raising it, as Chairman Mike Boyce had proposed.
By a 3-2 vote, the commission approved a substitute motion by East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott to keep the overall millage rate at 9.85 mills, instead of going up to 9.98 mills.
East Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell and Bob Weatherford voted for Ott’s motion. Boyce and commissioner Lisa Cupid of South Cobb were opposed.
Boyce had wanted a 0.13 mills increase to pay for the fulfillment of the $40 million parks bond referendum approved by Cobb voters in 2008.
Ott’s proposal included diverting budgeted economic development contingency funding the next two years to make up for the difference.
He has been adamantly against a tax increase, and Birrell objected to a hike for several reasons, including the impact on senior citizens.
Boyce, an East Cobb resident in his first year as chairman, and Cupid said the reduction amounts to “kicking the can down the road” for next year’s budget and in the county’s ability to provide a rising level of services he said Cobb citizens have come to expect.
Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce has said his proposed tax millage increase is to fully fund the Cobb parks referendum approved by voters in 2008. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
As the Cobb Board of Commissioners is set to vote tonight on the 2017 millage rate that includes a proposed 0.13 mills increase, the Cobb Parks Coalition is urging its supporters to wear green in support of full funding of a $40 million parks bond issue approved by voters in 2008.
However, the organization said the increase, proposed by Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce to complete that obligation—and one of his campaign promises—isn’t necessary (previous East Cobb News coverage of Boyce’s town hall meeting in East Cobb last week is here).
In a message sent out late Monday, the coalition said that:
Using $40 million Park Bond 2008 as an excuse for a millage rate increase at the upcoming July 25 Board of Commissioner millage rate meeting misrepresents the facts, and fails to acknowledge that for the past 8+ years the county has delayed, denied and then actually diverted the exact millage rate for Park Bond 2008 into the Braves Stadium Bond.
Cobb commissioners voted to fund $27.5 million of the 2008 park bond last April, and Boyce proposed the millage increase as a means of getting to that $40 million.
On a post on the coalition website from late last week, the group asserted the following:
However, Park Bond 2008 can be fully fundedwithout any increase in taxes for property owners if the county will simply honor the voter referendum with the existing millage available, or if the Board restores the exact millage for the Park Bond shifted into the Braves Stadium Bond this year. Cobb Citizens continue to email and ask that the entire $40 million referendum be funded, and it’s clear this has always been possible without raising taxes.
For the past 8 years the county has delayed, denied and then actually diverted the exact millage funds intended to fulfill the 2008 Park Bond voter referendum into the Braves Stadium Bond. There may be challenges in the county budget; however, to point to Park Bond 2008 as the root cause of a millage increase in 2017 is misleading and doesn’t make any sense given the millage rate history.
More here; the final public hearing on the millage rate takes place during tonight’s commission meeting that starts at 7 p.m. The commissioners meet in the 2nd floor board room of the Cobb BOC building, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta.
If you can’t attend, the meeting will be shown live on the CobbTV local government access channel (Channel 23 if you’re a Comcast cable customer); it will also be live-streamed on the county website.
East Cobb commissioners Bob Ott and JoAnn Birrell have expressed opposition to raising the millage rate.
The Cobb Parks Coalition is having its next meeting in East Cobb, at Harry’s Whole Foods on Powers Ferry Road, a week from today, Aug. 1.
A dusk shot of the Noonday Creek Trail Head at Bells Ferry. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
Since late April, the Cobb Department of Transportation has been holding public meetings and conducting surveys to gain citizen feedback on the county’s first-ever master plan for greenways and trails.
Two such meetings have taken place in East Cobb in the last two weeks, at the East Cobb Library and at Covenant Presbyterian Church, to reveal some of the public comment thus far and show citizens how the plan might be taking shape.
While the plan is a work in progress, the potential map of what may be finalized later this year shows a hodgepodge of trails desperately seeking connections.
“There are little pieces here and there,” said Erin Thoreson of Gresham, Smith and Partners, an Atlanta architectural, engineering and design firm which is consulting with Cobb DOT on the project. “When you look at the map, you see obvious places where connections are needed.”
Cobb County, its six cities and three Community Improvement Districts currently have around 50 miles of multi-use trails and greenways. There are an estimated 150 and more miles of prospective trails that could be linked to existing trails.
In Northeast Cobb, one area that might benefit from more connectedness is the Noonday Creek Trail head on Bells Ferry Road, just north of Piedmont Road/Barrett Parkway. Opened in 2014, the Bells Ferry site has become very popular for bikers, walkers and runners.
Hooking up close to other trails at the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield is one of the attractions of the Bells Ferry Trail Head, which is a project of the Town Center CID.
To the north, a possible extension of the Noonday Creek Trail projects a connection to the Cherokee County line with access to Woodstock, but the route would go through neighborhoods that could likely draw some community opposition.
One of the major objectives in designing the master plan, Thoreson said, is to get citizens to think about the practicalities of local travel.
“Think about how people get from one place to another,” she said. “It’s important that [trails] get you to the places where you want to go.”
According to the Cobb Trail Plan interactive map, plenty of new routes in East Cobb—which is not served amply by existing trails—have been suggested by citizens (indicated by the orange broken lines). A major issue, however, is heavy residential development. There’s not much greenspace available, and much of that is going to new housing construction.
Some commenters have suggested trail head access points near Lassiter and Pope high schools for cross country runners, and at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church.
Soon the project staff will be putting together a draft master plan with an open house to be scheduled in the fall, unveiling preliminary ideas that include citizens’s suggestions.
They can continue to offer comments on the project’s interactive map, or leave messages at info@CobbTrailPlan.com or by calling 770-754-0755.
Citizens also can offer their thoughts by filling out an online survey.
