The Cobb County District Attorney’s Office is taking part in National Crime Victims’ Week (April 24-30) with several events designed to raise awareness about the issues and rights of crime victims.
The DA’s Victim Witness Unit will commemorate the advancement of victims’ rights with the presentation of a homicide memorial, a social media campaign and an office-wide virtual 5K walk.
Local non-profits agencies that provide support services to victims also will be recognized, including LiveSafe Resources, Inc. and Safepath Children’s Advocacy Center.
LiveSafe Resources provides the only emergency shelter for victims of domestic violence in Cobb County.
For more information about National Crime Victims’ Week visit the DA’s website; contact the DA’s Victim Witness Unit at 770-528-3042 to assist with crime victims.
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Brumby Principal Amanda Richie (in black dress) at the 2018 ribbon-cutting for the new school campus on Terrell Mill Road.
The Cobb County School District announced Thursday that longtime Brumby Elementary School principal Dr. Amanda Richie is retiring.
The district’s human resources officer, Keeli Bowen, said Richie’s retirement is effective July 1.
Richie’s successor will be Sanda Alford, currently an assistant principal at Pitner Elementary School and a former assistant principal at Dickerson Middle School.
The news was announced after the Cobb Board of Education held an executive session where personnel decisions are discussed.
During a Thursday night voting meeting, the board voted 7-0 to approve a contract for $3.4 million and hire CGLS Architects Inc. of Atlanta to design the new classroom building at Sprayberry High School.
Although the funding for the Sprayberry rebuild is coming from the Cobb Ed-SPLOST VI that begins in 2024, starting the architectural planning work now is necessary, district officials told the board.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said that the project will be similar to those at Wheeler and Osborne high schools, which were rebuilt in increments.
He also said starting right away makes sense given a current project at Sprayberry to construct a new gymnasium and a new CTAE (Career, Technology and Agricultural Education) facility.
The board also approved a request to issue a formal “closeout” of the Eastvalley Elementary School campus on Lower Road.
That facility will remain open while a replacement school is constructed on the former site of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road.
But a closeout declaration needs to be submitted to the Georgia Department of Education before construction can begin, according to Chief Technology and Operations Director Marc Smith.
The board also recognized four wrestlers from East Cobb high schools who won state championships: David Panone, Lassiter (Boys 6A traditional 138 pounds); May Prado, Lassiter (Girls All-Classification traditional 132 pounds); Joey Robinson, Pope (Boys 6A traditional 160 pounds); and Zyan Hall, Wheeler (Boys 6A traditional 170 pounds).
Hall finished his senior season with a 26-0 record and will be attending the U.S. Naval Academy.
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In what’s becoming an annual occurrence, the varsity football teams from Kell High School and Walton High School have been selected to compete in the 2022 Corky Kell Classic.
The season kickoff event, named after the late Wheeler High School coach, takes place at various locations from Aug. 17-20.
Kell is slated to play in the very first game on Aug. 17, at 5:30 p.m. against Cherokee Bluff in Johns Creek.
The Longhorns have been reclassified to Class 5A by the Georgia High School Association and have a new coach in Bobby May, who had been at Westlake High School in Atlanta.
Kell was 6-5 in 2021 and reached the first round of the state playoffs under former coach Brett Sloan, who resigned after five seasons. He is now the offensive coordinator at Collins Hill, the defending Class 7A state champion.
Walton Raiders once again has been chosen to play in Mercedez-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta. They’ll face Mill Creek at 4 p.m. on Aug. 20.
The Raiders reached the Class 7A semifinals in 2021.
The Corky Kell Classic features 32 teams and has added a spring jamboree in May that includes Marietta High School. Other Cobb teams taking part will be Kennesaw Mountain, and McEachern.
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The intersection of Roswell and Johnson Ferry roads would be in the heart of a City of East Cobb.
A lawsuit was filed in Cobb Superior Court Thursday trying to stop or delay a May 24 Cityhood referendum in East Cobb by the same attorney who’s making similar challenges in Lost Mountain and Vinings.
Atlanta attorney Allen Lightcap said he filed the suit on behalf of Colin Brady, a longtime East Cobb resident and retired businessman opposed to a new city being formed in the community.
Like suits filed earlier this month regarding the Lost Mountain and Vinings referendums—also scheduled for May 24—the defendants are members of the Cobb Board of Registration and Elections and Director Janine Eveler.
And like the other two complaints, Lightcap said he would be seeking an emergency hearing given the timeliness of the referendums. The East Cobb case has been assigned to Chief Judge Robert Leonard, who also has been given the Lost Mountain and Vinings suits.
The East Cobb suit claims that the bill passed this session by the Georgia legislature is unconstitutional, violating state home rule provisions on four grounds.
Lightcap said that the General Assembly “may not limit or regulate a city’s home rule supplementary powers except by general law.”
The East Cobb bill, like the Lost Mountain and Vinings bills, he said, is a local law.
The East Cobb suit claims that the bill’s “unconstitutional defects go to the heart of the bill, and they cannot be severed without completely defeating the purpose of the law. . . .The voters should not be forced to vote for or against a proposed city whose charter is clearly unconstitutional.”
Specifically, the suit claims that the East Cobb bill, HB 841—which you can read here—unconstitutionally regulates how the proposed city can use its supplementary powers, including services to be provided.
Secondly, the lawsuit states, the legislation “takes away the proposed City of East Cobb’s discretion to use or not use some of its supplementary powers. Supplementary powers are purely discretionary for counties and municipalities; this discretion is constitutionally protected and cannot be abrogated by local law.”
The charter in the East Cobb legislation specifies five services to be provided—planning and zoning, code enforcement, police, fire and emergency services and parks and recreation.
New cities in Georgia are required to provide at least three services from a list of 14 services, but home rule provisions allow for a choice by the municipalities.
The East Cobb complaint said that city charter in the legislation also violates home rule law by capping the millage rate, something that cannot be done via a local law.
The suit also alleges that Cobb County’s home rule provisions would be unconstitutionally regulated during a two-year transition process if a city of East Cobb is created.
“This provision forces Cobb County—without regard to its own agency or discretion—to use its supplementary powers and provide services in the transition for the benefit of the City of East Cobb,” the lawsuit states.
The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood is denouncing the lawsuit, calling it a “last-second, copycat and desperate legal maneuver [that] is nothing more than a shameless attempt to stop the vote.”
Committee chairman Craig Chapin said in a statement that “opponents of Cityhood are hoping to legislate from the bench and block the citizens of East Cobb from having their voices heard in the May 24 Cityhood referendum. It has nothing to do with the actual merits of forming the City of East Cobb.”
Lightcap said last week he was not intending to be a part of a lawsuit to stop the East Cobb vote, but plans fell through for retaining another attorney.
He said there are no other plaintiffs. In Lost Mountain, the leader of a group opposing the referendum there, West Cobb Advocate, is the plaintiff.
But Lightcap said the East Cobb Alliance, the main group opposing cityhood here, is not involved in the suit he filed Thursday.
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Brad Johnson, the Chief Financial Officer of the Cobb County School District.
The Cobb County School District is presenting a proposed fiscal year 2023 budget of $1.4 billion that will include what Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said is the biggest salary increase for employees in district history.
At a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday afternoon, Ragsdale made the announcement, saying the raises for full-time, non-temporary employees will range from between 8.5 percent and 13.1 percent.
The proposed budget was then presented by Chief Financial Officer Brad Johnson, who said the millage rate will we staying the same—18.9 mills.
Roughly half of the school district’s budget comes from local property taxes, and the state provides most of the rest through the Quality Basic Education Act.
The budget documents have been posted on the district’s website at this link.
The board adopted a tentative budget Thursday evening, but another public hearings will take place next month before the budget is formally adopted on May 19.
Ragsdale said the number of work days for teachers will be reduced to 187 days and salaried year-round employees will work 237 days.
Part of that is due to Juneteenth being a county and state holiday in June.
But Ragsdale said that there will “not be diminished pay to go with the diminished days.”
Ragsdale, who has been superintendent since 2015, added that this is the second time during his tenure that the district has proposed a record pay raise.
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More community events are taking place as spring gets underway and COVID-19 measures are being phased out.
We’re back to compiling calendar listings in one handy place on our site (If you have events to share with the public, please e-mail: calendar@eastcobbnews.com and we will post them here) and we’ll round up weekend events on occasion.
This weekend’s events kick off on Thursday with a school festival—they’re coming back strong too! From 5-8 p.m. it’s the “Dragonpalooza” health fair at McCleskey Middle School (4080 Maybreeze Road) presented by the school’s physical education department.
Other activities include a student art show, a craft fair with local vendors and a silent auction. The public as well as the school community are invited; admission is free.
Friday marks the return of the Cobb Library Book Sale at the Cobb Civic Center (548 South Marietta Pkwy). Hours are 9-5 Friday and Saturday and 1-5 Sunday. Parking and admission are free, and you’re encouraged to load up on books for all ages in both hardcover and paperback, DVDs, Books on CD and audiocassette, and magazines.
Prices range from 10 cents to $4. Proceeds benefit the library system’s purchase of items for its 15 branches.
This is a big weekend for the Pope High School band programs. From 7-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday they’re having their XPlosion Show at the school’s performing arts center (3001 Hembree Road). Tickets are pre-sale only and available on GoFan—$10 for adults, $5 for students and $15 VIP seating.
In between, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, it’s the Pope Band Recycling Fundraiser at the Northeast Cobb YMCA (3010 Johnson Ferry Road). Admission is $10 per vehicle, and they’ve put together a detailed list of what they will and won’t accept, and additional charges for specialty items.
The Good Mews Animal Foundation is having another of its Microchip and Vaccination Clinics Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the shelter (3805 Robinson Road). Services for cats and dogs also include nail trims and appointments are required. Fees range from $10 to $25.
Also back, after a two-year absence, is the Taste of Marietta Festival. It’s from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday on and around the Marietta Square. Admission is free, and food tickets will be on sale throughout the premises.
The event includes cooking demonstrations, and live musical performances.
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East Cobb Business Association president Brian Kramer introduces the representatives of the Cityhood debate at Olde Towne Athletic Club.
When a May 24 referendum on East Cobb Cityhood was called earlier this spring, John Beville said was undecided on how he might vote.
A resident of the proposed city of nearly 60,000 residents, Beville said he initially thought he could support voting in favor of a new municipality when “city light” legislation was introduced last year.
Unlike a previous East Cobb Cityhood effort, this one would be centered not around public safety services but planning and zoning as a means to preserve the suburban character of the community.
Even after a financial feasibility study was released last November that included police and fire services, Beville said he was riding the fence.
But after hearing arguments for and against Cityhood at an East Cobb Business Association debate Tuesday, Beville said he’ll likely vote no.
“There’s still a lot of information that has not been feathered out,” Beville, an ECBA member, said after the Olde Towne Athletic Club event. “You’re dealing with a lot of ‘what ifs.’ ”
A former banker and now a financial advisor, Beville said the Cityhood supporters “are trying to sell an emotional issue without a financial substantiation of that issue.
“I’ve been ambivalent all along, but there’s no way I can support this.”
Beville, wearing a button in support of Republican gubernatorial candidate David Perdue, said he’s not enamored with some of the Cobb zoning votes of the Democratic majority on the county commission.
But he thinks the East Cobb financial study, prepared by researchers at Georgia State University, doesn’t contain enough details for him about the costs of police and fire equipment, personnel and training.
Stressing local control
During the hour-long debate, moderated by EAST COBBER publisher Cynthia Rozzo, who asked predetermined questions, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood and the East Cobb Alliance repeated familiar talking points they’ve been raising for the last few months.
Before the Q and A session began, Susan Hampton of the ECBA said to the audience that even “if you have already made up your mind, please listen to the other side. We’re all neighbors.”
Cindy Cooperman and Craig Chapin of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood.
The pro-Cityhood group stressed the need for development and growth to be handled at the truly local level. The East Cobb area, they noted, will have one commissioner for nearly 200,000 people who could be outvoted.
“What’s the future of East Cobb going to look like?” asked Cindy Cooperman of the Cityhood group.
In response to a later question, she said that “you have to look at the decisions have been made” regarding rezoning, density and growth elsewhere in Cobb.
“It’s just a matter of time” before the East Cobb area must confront that reality, Cooperman said. “Why not elect people who reflect you views and your values?”
Mindy Seger of the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes Cityhood, said that “We do love East Cobb just the way it is.”
She repeated the familiar claims that incorporating would create an extra layer of government, and that residents of a city would be paying more in taxes, as those living in Cobb’s existing six cities do.
And commissioners “are up for re-election. That’s where you can make that change.”
Questioning public safety
Both sides hashed out repeated positions on the quality of services provided by a city against the current county services.
Unlike the three other Cobb Cityhood referendums—Lost Mountain, Vinings and Mableton—East Cobb is providing police and fire.
At previous town hall meetings, Cobb officials have expressed concerns about increased response times.
Alliance representatives were eager to repeat them.
Robert Lax and Mindy Seger of the East Cobb Alliance
“I’m most concerned about public safety services,” said Robert Lax of the East Cobb Alliance. “Those services are hard.”
He said the “aggressive assumptions” in the financial feasibility study “make it less difficult to provide the same quality.
“City light was what was proposed. Why are we taking heavyweight services here?”
The Alliance has said in previous public meetings that the Cityhood forces are underestimating the cost of acquiring public safety equipment beyond the state-approved $5,000 transfer of a fire station.
But Craig Chapin, chairman of the Cityhood committee, said that they’re “the top services that you can get in a smaller community.”
It’s part of a larger question Cityhood supporters have been asking during their campaign: “What’s your vision of East Cobb?”
Chapin said that Cobb government officials are “crystal clear” about proceeding with “the urbanization of our neighborhoods.”
He said he’s also confident that “we do not need to raise taxes to create a city.”
While East Cobb Alliance representatives poked holes in the feasibility study, Cooperman and Chapin said their questions are all contained in the report, including start-up costs and franchise fees.
But many of the details of the provisions of services and negotiations of intergovernmental agreements would be hammered out by a future East Cobb mayor and city council.
Should the Cityhood referendum pass, those elections would take place in November, followed by a two-year transition period to begin in January 2023.
More than 200 citizens turned out for the debate at the Olde Towne Athletic Club.
Alleged developer ties
The debate remained relatively civil—with members of each side passing a microphone back and forth—until a question was asked about commercial real estate interests on the Cityhood side, and what their agendas may be.
During the 2109 Cityhood campaign, the Alliance noted that 11 of the 14 members of the Cityhood committee either were in the development industry or had connections to it.
“Those people are still around,” Seger said, adding that if a city is formed, pressure will mount to increase a City of East Cobb’s commercial tax base (the feasibility study said the proposed city has a tax base that is 90 percent residential).
Chapin took umbrage at the suggestion to “follow the money.
“That’s categorically false and a conspiracy theory,” he said with some emotion.
Cooperman was also visibly upset.
“This time it’s the sweat of this man [Chapin], myself and the committee members who have been doing it.
“What evidence do they have? Zero evidence,” said Cooperman, who like Chapin was not involved in the the 2109 Cityhood campaign.
Handing out flyers in support of Cityhood at the debate was Andy Smith, an Indian Hills resident and a former member of the Cobb Planning Commission who ran for the Cobb Board of Commissioners as a Republican in 2020.
Smith said while he understands the concerns about public safety services, East Cobb citizens need to be watching the kinds of zoning decisions that have been made in recent years in the county.
He referenced the East Cobb Church rezoning last year in the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford area, and specifically the residential component of the mixed-use project that generated community opposition.
While the community-focused idea of a church fits in with the JOSH Master Plan, Smith said, housing density at around five units an acre is out of line with the nearby community.
Smith applauded the work of his Planning Commission successor, Tony Waybright, in pushing for a site plan that lowered the density cap, but said in the future that kind of effort is no guarantee.
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A former bakery owner charged with plotting the murder of his former roommate and business partner in East Cobb more than eight years ago was sentenced this week to 20 years in prison.
Ross Byrne, 58, pleaded guilty in Cobb Superior Court on April 8 to charges of violating the RICO Act, conspiracy to commit concealing a death, conspiracy to commit hindering apprehension of a suspect, and criminal solicitation to commit murder, according to the Cobb District Attorney’s Office.
The Cobb DA said in a release Tuesday that the sentence was handed down by Judge Mary Staley Clark.
Byrne was arrested in 2018 for his role in the death of Jerry Moore, who was found stabbed to death 32 times in his home off Holly Springs Road in January 2014.
They were partners in The Best Dang Bakery Around in Woodstock and both lived together for a time at Moore’s East Cobb home.
Byrne was charged two weeks after Johnathan Wheeler, an employee at the bakery, was convicted of killing Moore and sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole.
According to Byrne’s indictment and testimony presented in court, Byrne—who had since moved elsewhere—helped clean blood from Wheeler’s clothes after the murder and kept items stolen from Moore’s home.
Prosecutors said after the murder, Byrne became the sole owner of the bakery, which opened on Highway 92 in Woodstock in 2008.
Byrne had denied knowing anything about the murder, but prosecutors claimed in court that after Wheeler’s trial, Byrne asked an inmate to kill Wheeler, fearful he would testify against him.
The DA’s office said that in entering his guilty plea, Byrne admitted his roles in both plotting Moore’s murder and in wanting Wheeler killed.
“Despite having introduced Jerry Moore to his killer, this defendant showed absolutely no remorse for Johnathan Wheeler’s vicious killing,” said Cobb Senior Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Green said in the statement, who prosecuted the Wheeler and Byrne cases.
Wheeler is serving his sentences at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The first step toward the rebuild of the main Sprayberry High School classroom facilities comes before the Cobb Board of Education Thursday.
It’s a proposal to hire an architect to design the reconstruction, which includes other upgrades and renovations.
The Cobb County School District is recommending that a $3.464 million contract be awarded to CGLS Architects Inc. of Atlanta.
According to an agenda item, that amount is 5 percent of the estimated cost of the rebuild, which was earmarked as a major project on the Cobb Ed-SPLOST VI list.
The rebuild is part of a larger renovation project underway at Sprayberry that currently includes the construction of a new main gymnasium and renovations to the school’s CTAE (Career, Technology and Agricultural Education) facility.
That roughly $20 million project is being funded with SPLOST V revenues and is expected to be completed in 2023.
The school board will be presented with the rebuild architectural proposal at a work session that begins at 2 p.m. Tuesday. There also is a board business meeting where it is expected to be voted on starting at 7 p.m.
The meetings will take place the board room of the Cobb County School District central office (514 Glover St., Marietta).
The board also will have an executive session between the meetings.
At 6:30 p.m., the board also will conduct a public hearing on the proposed fiscal year 2023 budget. The board will be presented with the proposal at the work session, and the hearing also will be livestreamed.
Also on the school board’s agenda for Thursday is a request for formalized the phase-out of the current campus of Eastvalley Elementary.
A new facility is being built on the former campus of East Cobb Middle School on Holt Road, and the state requires old campuses to be phased out.
At the 7 p.m. meeting on Thursday, the board will recognize student-athletes who recently won Georgia state championships, including David Panone and May Prado, Lassiter wrestlers; Joey Robinson, a Pope wrestler; and Zyan Hall, a Wheeler wrestler.
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The proposal by Valvoline Instant Oil Change to build a 2,088-square-foot building at the site of a former Chevron station was included on the commissioners’ consent agenda during a rezoning hearing.
The new business will have three bays and will have access on a right-in, right-out basis. Plans call for a landscaping plan and 15 parking spaces. The Chevron station, which closed in 2020, was demolished last year and the nearly three-acre tract has stood vacant ever since.
The land stands in front of, but is not part of, the Merchants Festival Shopping Center.
Also submitted before the vote were comments by the East Cobb Civic Association that were not immediately available online.
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Last week Soliant, a health care, education and life sciences staff outsourcing company, held a ribbon-cutting for its new Cobb offices at the Atlanta Galleria Office Park.
The new space includes nearly 23,000 square feet and initially will have 130 employees, with a goal of having up to 300 employees by 2023.
Soliant currently has a workforce in metro Atlanta of around 850 employees, including a recent expansion in Peachtree Corners.
The company has other locations in Tampa, Boston and Jacksonville.
Solana was founded in Atlanta in 1992 The Atlanta Galleria Office Park will offer convenient amenities to Soliant’s internal colleagues, including a fitness center, outdoor sports league and fitness, daycare, concierge service, on-site restaurant, café, bike share, and electric vehicle charging stations. They also have direct access to The Battery, which includes Truist Park, home of the 2021 World Series Champions the Atlanta Braves, as well as more than 500,000 square-feet of dining and entertainment options.
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The Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County wish to thank the community for coming out and supporting our 22nd Annual Plant Sale and Expo. About 3,000 guests supported almost 100 vendors selling plants and crafts over this two-day event. Mark your calendars for April 21-22, 2023 for next year’s event.
Birdhouses, art and other garden decoratives for sale.
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(L-R) John Kone, Marietta Golden K president elect; Kaye Cagle, Vice President of MUST Marketing; Rev. Ike Reighard, Senior Pastor Piedmont Church and MUST CEO; Rosie Teague, Vice President of Marietta Golden K and MUST ministries chairperson.
Submitted information and photos:
On April 2 members of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta Golden K toured the “state of the art” MUST Ministries HOPE HOUSE. Kiwanis members Jim Perry, Rosie Teague and John Kone joined alongside other visitors as they toured the $14 million Hope House.
Kaye Cagle, VP of Marketing & PR added, “The shelter was $16 million of the consolidated campus expense of $23 million. We are now remodeling the Marietta Client Services and Headquarters building next door to the shelter and some funds went toward paying off the Donation Center behind the shelter.”
MGK members are regular “food donation” contributors to MUST Ministries and on the 1st Thursday of each month, MGK members bring in their food donations. After the meeting, members take the food sacks out to the parking lot where they are loaded into the trunk of Rosie Teague (Vice President of MGK and MUST Ministries designated chairperson). Then, Rosie takes the food over to MUST Ministries.
The new shelter includes the following:
43,556 square feet and two stories
136 beds and 36 respite beds for inclement weather
A chapel, where clients can pray and have a moment of reflection
The dining hall features picture windows to help alleviate claustrophobia
A rooftop retreat for families features play areas, tables and seating
The playground area allows our youngest casualties of poverty to play during their time at the MUST Hope House
Clients with minor medical needs can be seen by medical professionals in one the three examination rooms
Those in need of clothing can “shop” at an onsite clothing boutique.
10 Family Rooms with 5 beds and a private bath in each allows families to stay together.
The Children’s Afterschool Learning Center allows children to read, study, do homework and work with tutors.
Workforce development offers clients private rooms to make phone calls and work on resumes and job applications. A computer lab houses 10 work stations and a “jobs” professional.
Other amenities include:
Two classrooms
Staff Offices
Laundry rooms
Outreach showers and restrooms
Staff and volunteer breakrooms
Meeting/conference rooms
Staff workrooms
For the past 33 years, MUST has given thousands of families shelter in the Elizabeth Inn in Marietta.
But we wanted to do more, help more, and have a place for those families that was built with their needs at the forefront. Thanks to a successful capital campaign and an ambitious vision, the MUST team designed and built this new shelter to house those experiencing homelessness, while also being one of the first in the nation to do so. At the MUST Hope House, MUST is able to more than double the number of people we are able to shelter and serve. This shelter not only gives those in need a place to sleep – its amenities provide them with a sense of dignity and respect.
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An attorney who’s filed lawsuits in Cobb Superior Court to stop May referendums to create cities in Vinings and Lost Mountain said it’s “inevitable” a similar lawsuit will be filed to prevent a referendum next month in East Cobb.
But Allen Lightcap, an Atlanta lawyer, told East Cobb News Thursday that he’s not involved in a potential East Cobb lawsuit.
Proposed East Cobb city boundaries include three council districts. For a larger view click here.
“There will be a suit,” he said, “but I’m not part of it.”
Lightcap said he doesn’t know which parties may be approached about serving as plaintiffs in an East Cobb lawsuit, but anticipates that one will be filed soon.
That’s because it’s a little more than six weeks before May 24 referendums in Vinings, Lost Mountain and East Cobb.
Last week, Lightcap filed suit to stop the Vinings referendum (you can read it here) on behalf of Joseph Young, a Vinings resident who was a legislative director to former Gov. Roy Barnes.
On Wednesday, Lightcap’s suit (you can read it here) names Dora Locklear, the head of West Cobb Advocate, a group fighting Lost Mountain Cityhood, as a plaintiff.
Both suits were filed against the Cobb Board of Elections in order to stop the referendums due to what Lightcap calls unconstitutional language.
State law requires cities to provide three services, and under home rule provisions they can choose from a list of 14 services.
The Vinings, Lost Mountain and East Cobb bills passed by the legislature this session and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp specify in their proposed charters which services those cities would be providing.
Under the Georgia Constitution, that cannot be done via local legislation, according to the two lawsuits, which have been assigned to Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Leonard.
No hearings have been scheduled for either lawsuit, according to court records.
The Vinings bill includes a charter saying that city “shall” provide specific services: planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.
The same language is included in the bill for Lost Mountain, which would provide planning and zoning, code enforcement and sanitation services.
The proposed East Cobb charter calls for planning and zoning, code enforcement, police, fire and parks and recreation services.
As we noted last week, here’s the provision of the East Cobb bill (you can read it here) that specifies which services the city “shall” provide, in lines 157-161:
“Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, the city shall exercise the powers enumerated in subsection (a) of this section only for the purposes of planning and zoning, code adoption and enforcement, parks and recreation, police and law enforcement services, fire and emergency services, and those items directly related to the provision of such services and for the general administration of the city in providing such services.”
A fourth cityhood referendum in Cobb, in Mableton, is expected to take place in November, but that legislation doesn’t contain the same language about specific provision of services.
But a county spokesman said they will continue, including a town hall next week in Vinings, and that Cobb officials are providing objective information for citizens who’ve been asking.
Representatives from the East Cobb Cityhood Committee and the East Cobb Alliance will be debating the referendum twice in coming weeks, including a Tuesday forum sponsored by the East Cobb Business Association at Olde Towne Athletic Club.
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The Gold Branch Unit trails of the Chattahoochee NRA in East Cobb. Photo: National Park Service
The National Park Service is soliciting comments from the public about major proposed changes to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
The feedback period ends April 30 for the Chattahoochee NRA’s Comprehensive Trails Management Plan and Environmental Assessment. You can read through and download the 508-page report and related documents and submit comments online by clicking here.
The Chattahoochee NRA currently has 65 miles of trails and in 2021 attracted more than 3 million visitors. The proposed changes would cost around $10 million.
The proposal includes changes to the design and feel of the Gold Branch, Johnson Ferry and Cochratrails in East Cobb.
The “desired condition statement” for the Gold Branch Unit would be to provide “active and scenic opportunities for birding, hiking, and trail running, including longer duration hikes and runs that include both ridgetop and water-adjacent trail experiences.”
To accomplish that. the report states (page 33), the trail system would be redesigned “to take advantage of the significant topography and be more conducive to hiking and running.”
That would include constructing 1.8 miles of contour-aligned trails would be constructed and limiting trail access points while existing the parking lot at the main trailhead.
An ongoing Hyde Farm Trail and Environmental Assessment would help drive proposed changes to the Johnson Ferry North trail, including a potential new trail to connect to the 1830s farmhouse and community garden.
The Cochran Shoals trails would undergo a “full-scale redevelopment and environmental restoration to create a sustainable, manageable trail system with a high diversity of quality trail experiences.”
That would include overlaying two “largely separate” trail networks—one for pedestrians only and another that would allow cyclists.
During periods of heavy use in what’s been a very busy portion of the trail system, bidirectional traffic requirements, alternate day uses or separate trail segments might be implemented, according to the report.
The Sope Creek mileage area would be increased from its current 9.4 miles.
The report also contains information about environmental impact and several appendices with maps and other information and data about the Chattahoochee NRA.
If you prefer to submit written comments via standard mail, here’s the address:
National Park Service
Denver Service Center
Attn: CRNRA Trails Plan / Charles Lawson
12795 West Alameda Pkwy
Denver, CO 80228
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
On Wednesday, March 30th, The Janice Overbeck Real Estate Team held a BBQ lunch to honor some of Cobb County’s finest. Local police officers, K-9 units, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, and military veterans & personnel congregated on the private patio and enjoyed hamburgers, hot dogs and a variety of sides served by The Capital City Home Loans Food Truck.
This appreciation lunch gave local citizens and businesses a chance to say “thank you” to some of the hardest-working men and women in the community. Local partners such as Arrow Exterminators and AmeriSpec showered our heroes with praise and some fun swag to show their gratitude.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education is beginning the process for adopting the fiscal year 2023 budget, and will start holding public hearings next week.
The first public hearing is scheduled for next Thursday, April 21, from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office (514 Glover St., Marietta).
That’s before the board’s monthly business meeting at 7 p.m. The hearings also will be available for public comment on the district’s allocation of American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act funding.
Members of the public wishing to speak can do so at that time, and will be able to sign up between 6-6:25 p.m. Speakers will have between 1-5 minutes to speak, with time to be determined by the board chairman.
A tentative budget request is expected to be made to the board at a work session Thursday that starts at 2 p.m.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Brumby Elementary School is the proud new owner of what may be the first Non-Fungible Token (NFT) work of art at a public school in the U.S.
“The Aku Mural” is the collaboration of Brumby, its foundation, the Cobb County School District and a local non-profit, PaintLove and artists to transform what had been a blank 1,100-square-foot retaining wall into an inspiration for students.
The muralist is Muhammad Yungui, and the artwork is designed to serve as a backdrop for school community events, including musical performances, cookouts and movie nights.
“The Aku movement seeks to serve as a source of inspiration for children to dream big and not allow limits to be set on their dreams,” the district release states. “While Aku inspires children to chase their dreams, he is also about building a community where members help and encourage the success of others.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
