East Cobb resident Mary Jo Foster’s Amazon parrot went missing around Thanksgiving, and she was briefly encouraged earlier this week when there was a sighting.
Foster is asking for the public’s help in finding Woody, whom she says is 44 years old and has been living with the Foster family for 25 years.
“Signs are everywhere, flyers have been passed out, and calls have been made, as well as so many encounters with the wonderful people of East Cobb by the Foster family, but so far, Woody is still not home,” she said in reaching out to East Cobb News.
She also sent us the accompanying photo of Woody, who has a Kelly green body and orange wings and who’s between 13-15 inches in height.
“He is smart, loves to talk and has a wide range of words he uses. He whistles, says Hello, How are you, Pretty boy, Sweet Boy, I love you Bobby Bobby boy, and many other words. He copies peoples laughs, and mimics animal sounds.”
Foster told us Woody was seen on Wednesday on Benthill Drive near Sewell Mill Road and Johnson Ferry Road.
There have been a number of sightings, and she had been offering a reward of $500.
Foster has upped that reward to $2,000 for anyone who finds Woody, or whose discovery immediately and directly leads to him being returned home.
She said Woody is drawn to certain foods, including peanuts and tortilla chips, as well as bird feeders.
Woody flies into Leyland Cypress trees (where he finds safety from hawks), as well as in, and between, dark green trees, and he’s typically out and about in the afternoons.
Anyone who sees him may be able to retain him with a towel, enclosing him in a box or a small laundry basket with holes.
Foster said if you’ve spotted Woody, you can call the following phone numbers: 770-334-7225 (first) or 678-522-6700.
She also said the family is asking for prayers.
“If God could bring the animals into Noah’s ark two by two, He can bring Woody back home,” she said.
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The Cobb Board of Education will hold a special-called meeting Monday to hear from Superintendent Chris Ragsdale about a recent “communication” from its accrediting agency “regarding accreditation status.”
That’s according to a special notice issued Friday by the Cobb County School District. The meeting will take place at 12:30 p.m. Monday in the board meeting room at the CCSD central office (514 Glover St., Marietta).
The district indicated the meeting also will be live-streamed at this link, as well as shown on Comcast Cable Channel 24 and Charter Cable Channel 182).
There’s no other information about the specifics of district’s communication with Cognia, an Alpharetta-based education accreditor that conducted a special review of the Cobb school district in 2021.
In releasing its report in November, Cogniadetailed what it called a “Progress Monitoring Review” that includes improvements the district must make in four areas: effective policy-making from the school board, board members adhering to a code of ethics, educational equity and financial accountability.
(You can read through the Cognia report and accompanying documents here, here and here.)
The district has until the end of the year to make those improvements before Cognia would consider whether to retain full accreditation status for Cobb schools.
In 2019, Cognia reaccredited the Cobb County School District—the second-largest in Georgia, with more than 107,000 students—through 2024.
But last March, Democratic board members Charisse Davis, Jaha Howard and Tre’ Hutchins went to Cognia after saying they were being ignored by the board’s Republican majority and Ragsdale to discuss early literacy, educator and employee support and board governance training topics.
Since the Cognia report was released, neither the school board nor Ragsdale have discussed the findings in public.
The Democratic members have tried to get the report put on school board meeting agendas, but have not gotten a majority vote.
Some citizens speaking out at public comment periods of school board members have demanded that the district discuss the Cognia report.
The Cobb school district is considering switching accrediting agencies. The Georgia Accrediting Commission, which accredits individual schools and not school districts, has visited high schools in the Cobb school district in recent weeks.
Cobb school district officials chafed at Cognia’s special review process, saying the agency refused to specify the allegations that prompted the review.
Randy Scamihorn, the Cobb school board chairman in 2021, said when the Cognia report was released that “while I am pleased this review is unlikely to have an immediately negative effect on the District’s students, it did serve as a significant distraction for the staff.”
Public complaints to Cognia cited financial concerns, the district’s handling of COVID-19 matters and even the board’s refusal to consider requests to rename Wheeler High School.
Cobb district officials have cited a loss of accreditation in Clayton and DeKalb public schools in 2008 and 2011 respectively for their concerns about Cognia’s special review.
State Sen. Lindsey Tippins, a West Cobb Republican and former Cobb school board member, has proposed legislation that would restrict the scope of accrediting agencies.
His bill, SB 498, would remove school board relations from the purview of accreditors and would give accreditation authority for elementary and middle schools solely to the Georgia Department of Education.
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Catherine Pozniak, a Sprayberry High School graduate who’s been a teacher and state education administrator, has announced her campaign for Post 4 on the Cobb Board of Education.
Post 4 includes the Sprayberry and Kell and part of the Lassiter High School clusters in a seat that’s been redrawn for the 2022 elections.
The seat is held by third-term Republican David Chastain, currently the Cobb school board chairman.
Earlier this week Pozniak declared her intent to run in the May 24 primary as a Democrat.
Pozniak, who graduated from Sprayberry in 1997, also attended Kincaid Elementary School and Daniell Middle School.
She said she’s running because the current Cobb school board hasn’t done much planning to help students recover from disruptions caused by COVID-19 closures, including use of more than $250 million in federal relief aid to help students.
She said “it’s been disappointing to see partisanship from our Board’s leaders when our schools need their support the most.
“The Board hasn’t even laid out goals since 2018, before the pandemic,” Pozniak said. “So of course there isn’t a plan for any of this.”
Republicans currently hold a 4-3 edge on the Cobb school board. Chastain, who has indicated he will be seeking a fourth term, is the only GOP member up for re-election this year.
Pozniak earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Sydney in Australia, a master’s degree from the University of Cambridge, and a doctorate in educational leadership from Harvard University.
She taught in a school on a Lakota reservation in South Dakota and was an assistant state superintendent of education for fiscal operations in Louisiana and the head of an educational non-profit in Baton Rouge, La.
Pozniak currently is principal at Watershed Advisors, an educational and workforce consultancy started by the former Louisiana school superintendent.
Tammy Andress, a former Lassiter PTSA co-president who ran for Post 5 on the Cobb school board in 2020, said Thursday on her former campaign page that she was considering a run for Post 4 this year following redistricting.
But Andress, a Democrat, said she’s supporting Pozniak, whom she said has a “wealth of experience, knowledge, passion, empathy and determination she would bring to our School Board. She’s the real deal!!!”
Austin Heller, a Kennesaw State University student, previously announced his campaign as a Democrat for Post 4, but was drawn out in reapportionment.
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Redrawn lines for the Cobb Board of Education, at left, and the Cobb Board of Commissioners. For larger views, click here.
Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday signed bills redrawing the district lines for elected members of Cobb Board of Commissioners and Cobb Board of Commissioners.
Those maps have drawn Cobb school board Post 6 member Charisse Davis and District 2 Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson out of areas in East Cobb that they represent now.
Candidates who intend to run in Cobb County and and across Georgia in the May 24 primary will be qualifying all of next week, from 9 a.m. March 7 to 12 p.m. on March 11 (more details here).
The Cobb Elections office has posted general information about qualifying here; the deadline to register to vote in the primaries, if you’re not already registered or if you have moved, is April 25. More details can be found by clicking here.
Davis, a Democrat, is one of three Cobb school board members up for re-election in 2022, and has not indicated whether she’ll be seeking re-election.
Post 6 currently includes the Walton and Wheeler clusters but will be confined to the Cumberland-Vinings-Smyrna area where she lives.
The Post 4 seat currently held by Republican chairman David Chastain also is up, and he has said he will be seeking a fourth term representing the Kell, Sprayberry and some of the Lassiter clusters.
A Democrat, Catherine Pozniak, has declared her intent to run for Post 4, as has Austin Heller, a Kennesaw State University student.
The rest of East Cobb will be included in Post 5, currently held by Republican David Banks, whose term expires in 2024. That post will include the Walton and Wheeler and some of the Pope and Lassiter clusters.
The East Cobb area also has been reduced to one county commissioner in the new maps. Current District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is nearing the end of her third full term and has said she will be seeking re-election.
Judy Sarden, an attorney and homeschooling advocate in Northeast Cobb, has announced plans to run in the GOP primary in District 3.
Richardson, a Democrat who is in her first term, is up for re-election in 2024, but she would have to move to the new District 2 by the end of this year.
All legislative seats in Georgia are up for re-election, including four state Senate seats (Districts 6, 32, 33, 56) and five in the state House (Districts 37, 43, 44, 45, 46) that include East Cobb.
All members of Congress will be up for re-election, including the newly drawn 6th District and 11th District that include East Cobb.
Statewide offices include the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Raphael Warnock; governor; lieutenant; governor; attorney general; secretary of state; state school superintendent; and commissioners of public service, agriculture, labor and insurance.
Cobb voters also will be deciding several non-partisan judicial races, as four State Court judge posts and three seats on the Cobb Superior Court will be on the ballot.
Non-partisan judicial races across Georgia include three seats on the Georgia Supreme Court and two seats on the Georgia Court of Appeals.
Also on the May 24 primary day, voters in the proposed city of East Cobb will be voting on a referendum on whether to create a new city (visit our resource page here).
Voters within the current Georgia House District 45 boundaries will be casting ballots next month in a special election to succeed former State Rep. Matt Dollar for the rest of 2022.
That special election is April 5, and the voter registration deadline is Monday.
Four candidates have qualified in a jungle election; and a May 5 runoff would take place if the top vote-getter does not get a majority.
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The Cobb County School District said Thursday that 98 percent of current employees in “full-time contracted, certificated” job categories have returned job offers for the 2022-23 academic year.
In a release, the district said that more than 8,000 contracts were sent out to those employees, including teachers, counselors, psychologists, administrators and district-level employees requiring certification.
The district did not break down those numbers by job categories.
The next academic and fiscal year in Cobb schools goes from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.
“Our District has some of the smallest turnover of any big district in the country, which, after the last couple years we have been through, is really impressive to see,” Cobb Board of Education chairman David Chastain said in the release.
The district has struggled to fill some positions in other job classifications, especially in staff support positions, such as bus drivers and substitute teachers.
In the current school year, Cobb has twice distributed bonus money to some of what it calls classified employees, including bus drivers and monitors, to improve retention rates.
The district said it is continuing to hire certified, administrative and classified positions for the coming school year, and lists vacancies here.
There also will be a virtual K-12 teacher job fair March 29-31, 2022. More information can be found by clicking here; participants must fill out a formal job application beforehand.
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!
Thanks to Joan Cotter of the Sope Creek Garden Club for the following information and photos:
On a beautiful February Sunday at McFarlane Nature Park (280 Farm Road SE) members of Girl Scout Troop 18328 from the Magnolia Service Unit, along with their leader Karen Dechert, joined along with members of Sope Creek Garden Club, led by President Linda Baker, for a fun lesson on the importance of trees and a memorable planting event.
After a short discussion about the emotional, economic and ecological benefits of trees along with visual aids explaining how to best plant trees for a healthy future, Scouts (accompanied by their parents) along with SCGC Members teamed up into small groups to plant, mulch, label and water Chinquapin Oaks, a Mockernut Hickory, and a taller American Crabapple. Scouts worked hard, doing the digging, planting and labeling and yes, hauling water to get those trees happy in their new home.
By introducing these special tree species McFarlane Park now has a complete representation of all of the native trees in the Piedmont Region of Georgia.
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The East Cobb Alliance is sporting a new logo for the upcoming cityhood referendum.
The East Cobb Alliance, which is opposed to the May 24 East Cobb Cityhood referendum, is holding what it’s calling “show and tell” sessions Saturday for the public.
But unlike the cityhood meeting Monday at Olde Towne Athletic Club, the East Cobb Alliance meetings will be open to citizens living outside the proposed city limits.
(The cityhood group’s event is sold out and plans are being made to show it on a livestream, according to spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman.)
The East Cobb Alliance sessions on Saturday are from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. in the Chimney Springs neighborhood. Pre-registration is required and can be done by clicking this link.
The sign-up page says that each session will have a 20-30 minute presentation followed by a a question and an answer period.
“Learn the facts about the efforts to convert a portion of East Cobb into an incorporated new city…that will add another complicated Government Layer to your life, and one that can tax you and your home beyond your means to pay,” the East Cobb Alliance pre-registration link says.
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid will be having cityhood-related meetings with community groups, starting Tuesday from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting room (100 Cherokee Street, Marietta).
The county also has created what it calls a cityhood resource page that breaks down the four cityhood proposals.
East Cobb, Vinings and Lost Mountain referendums will be voted on in the May 24 primary; a Mableton referendum, if approved by the Georgia legislature, would take place in November.
The East Cobb Alliance was formed in 2019 during the first cityhood campaign making many of the same claims as now: That there’s not a public groundswell for cityhood, that a city would create another layer of government, and that citizens living in the new city would pay more in taxes and other fees.
During 2019, the pro-cityhood group held town hall meetings that generated opposition. In November 2019, East Cobb Alliance member Mindy Seger debated then-cityhood leader David Birdwell.
Not long after that, cityhood proponents dropped plans to push for legislation in the 2020 session.
The cityhood effort was revived with a new bill in 2021, and before the legislature in January, Seger testified against it, especially after several revisions were made, including moving the referendum up from November to May and changing how the mayor is elected.
The East Cobb Alliance has created a 2022 information tab with its analysis of the East Cobb cityhood’s feasibility study and background information on cityhood leaders.
A page entitled “Cityhood Swindle” was written while the East Cobb bill was in the legislature, and takes issue with the cityhood group’s claims that incorporating will make for better local representation.
That was before the bill was amended in the Senate to include clarifying language about how the six city council members are elected. While they are elected citywide, two members must reside in each of three council districts (map here).
In a Feb. 17 Facebook post, the Alliance explained that all voters in the proposed city, regardless of which primary ballot they choose, will be asked on whether they support creating a city and repeated familiar claims:
“A new city will have the power to TAX you more, assess new fees, cite you for traffic violations, jail you for up to 180 days…AND figure out a myriad of ways to extract MORE money from you…on TOP of the taxes you already pay to the County (and will continue to pay).
“The only pot of gold at the end of the ‘East Cobb, Georgia’ rainbow is MORE government costing You MORE MONEY!”
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The following East Cobb food scores for the week of Feb. 28 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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!
When the cityhood effort was revived in 2021, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood said it had considered public feedback in proposing what’s called a “city light” set of services—planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.
New concerns had been raised since the initial cityhood effort began three years before, especially high-density zoning cases. An adult retail store opened on Johnson Ferry Road in June 2020, after skirting code issues to get a business license.
For most of last year, as they conducted virtual information sessions with the public and commissioned the feasibility study, cityhood proponents didn’t mention public safety.
Eligible voters in the proposed City of East Cobb will decide on May 24 on whether to form a new city, made up of around 60,000 people and centered along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.
Three other proposed new cities in Cobb—Lost Mountain, Vinings and Mableton—are sticking with “city light” services designed to preserve those communities or enhance desired redevelopment.
Police and fire services were included in the initial East Cobb cityhood campaign that was abandoned at the end of 2019.
But as the East Cobb cityhood group met with community members last year, public safety “continued to come up in various ways,” said spokeswoman Cindy Cooperman.
A Cobb fire department map of the proposed city of East Cobb area (in blue) served by two fire stations.
They’ve also held information meetings with neighborhood, civic and business groups over the past year, and she said that public safety “continues to be a consistent theme.”
During a special Feb. 16 Cobb Board of Commissioners work session, county public safety officials said the information provided thus far about proposed police and fire services in East Cobb isn’t sufficient.
They said they’re concerned about increased response times and are uncertain about what they may be asked to do in support (see map at right).
When asked about concerns over the expenses involved in having public safety, Cooperman said “I get that. But the [feasibility] study looks at comparable cities . . . that have done it over the long haul.”
Specifically, those include Milton and Johns Creek in North Fulton, which both have police and fire services.
“It’s not that risky,” Cooperman said, and referred to a recent interview with the East Cobb cityhood study researcher about how the feasibility process works.
While a feasibility study isn’t a budget, the East Cobb study doesn’t detail public safety salary and benefit costs, nor continuing training and equipment expenses.
The East Cobb group explains how mutual aid agreements would be worked out over the two-year transition period, and that the new city would contract with the county for police and fire services in the interim.
But that page doesn’t indicate how an East Cobb fire department would be structured. There’s been speculation that East Cobb may follow the City of Roswell, which has many rank-and-file firefighters serving in moonlighting roles from other departments.
Mindy Seger of the anti-city East Cobb Alliance, who debated cityhood leaders in 2019, said too many changes were made to legislation this year for the May 24 referendum.
Cooperman said while she’s heard those rumors, the transition period would provide the time for “experts in the field” to work through those details.
It’s a process, she said, “that isn’t something new.”
The late changes to the proposed city services and governing structure have prompted complaints by an opposition group, the East Cobb Alliance.
The East Cobb cityhood bill sponsored by former State Rep. Matt Dollar was changed three times in the legislature, including moving the referendum from November to May, and having the mayor elected citywide after the initial bill called for council members to choose a mayor among themselves.
East Cobb Alliance leader Mindy Seger also testified before the Georgia legislature that having the vote six months earlier than originally planned won’t give voters time to “thoroughly vet the proposal and the impact it will have on our community.
“Why the rush?” she said when contacted by East Cobb News after the bill had been approved, and after Dollar stepped down from his seat.
“It’s been 4 years, 3 maps, 2 feasibility studies, 2 House bills and one untimely resignation of the legislative sponsor,” said Seger.
“The simple referendum language doesn’t begin to encompass the full weight and responsibility of incorporation and the lasting impact to our community..”
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!
With COVID-19 case rates continuing to fall and new CDC guidance easing risk levels and other recommended restrictions, Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris has lifted the mask mandate for indoor county facilities.
In addition to government office buildings, that means that masks are also optional again at libraries, senior centers and indoor recreation buildings.
The mandate has been in place since the Omicron variant surge began in December.
Masks are still required inside Cobb courthouses, which are operating under a separate order from the Georgia Supreme Court.
An emergency declaration continues in Cobb, but the county issued a release Monday saying that too “is expected to be terminated this week based on the continuing trend of lower transmission rates in the county.”
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!
Gasoline prices in Cobb County and across Georgia rose by an average of 13 cents a gallon in the last week, according to AAA-The Auto Club Group, and are likely to increase more due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Regular unleaded gas prices that were commonly around $3.29 a gallon in the East Cobb area last week are now at or around $3.45 a gallon. In Cobb County overall, the AAA-calculated average is $3.48 a gallon.
The Georgia average is $3.50 a gallon, costing motorists $52.50 to fill a 15-gallon tank of gasoline.
The national average is even higher, at $3.60 a gallon. Current prices are about a dollar more than they were this time a year ago, and are closing in on record prices that exceeded $4 a gallon at the start of the economic recession in 2008.
Last week national crude prices neared $100 a barrel after a sharp 71-cents-a-gallon rise as Russian military troops invaded the Ukraine.
“As the conflict escalates with more sanctions and retaliatory actions, the oil markets will likely respond by continuing to increase the price of crude oil to reflect more risk of disruption to tight global oil supplies,” AAA-The Auto Club Group concluded.
Some tips from AAA-The Auto Club Group on saving money on gas:
Slow down — if you’re on the highway, know that gas use increases as your car passes 50 mph. If you drive the speed limit, you could reduce your car’s fuel consumption.
Drive more gently — gradually brake and accelerate, rather than stomping on the gas pedal or brake pedal.
Avoid engine idling — it can waste fuel.
Make one trip, instead of many — make a comprehensive list of items you need to buy and then make a single trip outside of your home, rather than multiple short trips.
Clean out the car — lighter cars use less fuel. Get the junk out of your trunk, cargo areas and passenger compartments.
Stay regular on vehicle maintenance — get your car checked out regularly and make sure your tires are filled to the correct pressure level.
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Submitted information from the Cobb Chamber of Commerce:
The Cobb Youth Leadership (CYL), a development program sponsored by the Leadership Cobb Alumni Association and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta that focuses on developing leadership skills through interactive participation, is seeking applications for members of its 2022-2023 class.
Created in 1989, the program provides students a unique opportunity to learn about their community as well as meet and interact with students from other high schools. Students attending public or private high schools or home-school students in Cobb County must complete and submit an application for CYL in the spring of their sophomore year. Applications are reviewed by the CYL Steering Committee and approximately 55 students are chosen for the class. Students participate in the program during their junior year of high school.
Applications are now being accepted for the 2022-2023 class. Students may complete the online form at www.cobbchamber.org/cyl. All applications must be submitted by Friday, April 15, 2022.
For more information about Cobb Youth Leadership, contact Katie Guice at (770) 859-2334 or kguice@cobbchamber.org.
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Marietta native Sam Springer has opened an East Cobb location of PuroClean, a restoration and remediation franchise.
Located at 1230 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite J-10, Puro Clean provides 24/7 emergency water damage remediation, smoke and fire damage restoration, mold, and biohazard removal services.
The franchise service area also includes Kennesaw, Dunwoody, Marietta and nearby communities in metro Atlanta.
“Starting business ventures and exploring entrepreneurial opportunities has been one of my greatest passions for well over a decade,” Springer said in a release issued by PuroClean.
“I am proud and excited to be a part of the PuroClean network so that I can continue doing what I love to do – servicing my community in a meaningful way.”
Springer opened his first restoration business after graduating from college, and also was an insurance property adjuster.
PuroClean was founded in 2001 and has more than 375 franchise locations in North America, all independently owned and operated.
For more information on PuroClean East Cobb, call (770) 627-0900.
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!
As it updated its guidance on masks on Friday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control also unveiled a new tool to gauge COVID-19 community transmission levels.
The COVID-19 Community Level tool can be searched for any county in the country, and it rates Cobb County in the medium category. That’s yellow in the map above, while green areas are low and orange areas are high.
Each category—high, medium and low—comes with a recommended set of prevention steps to take, and here’s what the CDC is saying about the medium level:
If you are at high risk for severe illness, talk to your healthcare provider about whether you need to wear a mask and take other precautions
That’s continuing a steep fall from more than 2,500/100K in January at the peak of the Omicron surge.
The test positivity rate in Cobb also is nearing the desired threshold of 5 percent or lower. According to the CDC, it’s currently at 5.45 percent.
The CDC data also indicate that Cobb has 12.6 percent of hospital beds that are being used by COVID-19 patients, and that Cobb is averaging 15.7 COVID-related hospital admissions per 100,000 people.
That order, which continues through mid-March, continues the use of the county’s emergency operations plan and requires citizens attending commission meetings in person to wear masks and observe social-distancing protocols.
A separate mask mandate for indoor county facilities issued by Cobb County Manager Jackie McMorris is set to expire Monday. That mandate includes libraries and indoor recreation facilities.
Roughly 70 percent of the country falls in the low- and medium range in the new CDC calculations. In its new guidance, the CDC is recommending that only people living counties in the high range continue to wear masks indoors in public.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky said Friday that regardless of where one lives that “if you are more comfortable wearing a mask, feel free to do so.”
But Cobb has never had a mask mandate for private businesses or other non-government entities, like Atlanta and several other Georgia cities.
The Cobb County School District also has not had a mask mandate for the current 2021-22 academic year. Most other metro Atlanta school districts are dropping mask mandates.
Cobb government officials said this week they will end COVID-19 tests at Jim Miller Park next Saturday, March 5.
Also next Saturday, the Cobb Emergency Management Agency and Cobb and Douglas Public Health will distribute free COVID-19 test kits from 2-4 p.m. at Piedmont Church (570 Piedmont Road).
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For those who like to shop and give to a good cause, look no further than the Catholic Church of St. Ann’s annual garage sale. Organized by St. Ann’s Council of Catholic Women, the sale will take place March 24-26. Shoppers can come look through a variety of items, such as women’s and men’s clothing, children’s toys, kitchen accessories and much more. All proceeds from the event will go to the parish and local charities.
St. Ann has hosted the garage sale for several years but was forced to put the event on hold due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Event co-chair Beth Kosbab is thrilled to bring the event back.
“The garage sale has the unique benefit of helping our community in three distinct ways,” Kosbab said. “We first provide a convenient place for people to get rid of excess in the homes and aid in their spring cleaning. Secondly, the items are priced quite low, which helps families on a budget get essential things for their home. Finally, the money raised goes to our parish and local charities. Plus, all of the volunteers have a good time.”
The sale will be from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. March 24 and 25 and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 26 at the church, located at 4905 Roswell Road Marietta 30062. Half-price day will be March 25. Then on March 26, shoppers will get to fill a provided bag for $5. The Archdiocese of Atlanta requires those who are unvaccinated to wear masks while on campus. No strollers are allowed and credit cards will be accepted for $10 minimum purchases. For questions, contact garagesalestann@gmail.com or visit www.st-ann.org/garage-sale.
For more information on what you can and cannot donate for the sale, click here.
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“Last week Staci Hannah spoke to the East Cobb Rotary Club. Staci’s company, Aging Navigator, helps clients create end of life care plans who suffer from dementia and Parkinson’s disease and equip their love ones with the tools and techniques to provide quality care. She is shown above with Rotary member, Jonathan Lyons.”
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Let East Cobb News know what your organization is doing, or share news about what people are doing in the community—accomplishments, recognitions, milestones, etc.
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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!
Democrats Charisse Davis of the Cobb school board and Jerica Richardson of the Cobb commission have had the East Cobb portions of their districts removed.
Two first-term Democrats who represent part of East Cobb on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb Board of Education will have different electoral boundaries soon.
The Georgia Senate finalized redistricting bills for both bodies on Wednesday, clearing the way for Gov. Brian Kemp’s signature into law.
The bills were sponsored by Cobb Republicans over the objections of the county’s Democratic-led legislative delegation, and easily passed in the legislature, which has strong GOP majorities.
For a larger view of the new Cobb commissioners map, click here.
Jerica Richardson, who was elected to commission District 2 in 2020, was drawn out of her district in a map that for the next decade will place most of East Cobb in District 3 (in gold on the map at right).
District 2 has included the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area and part of East Cobb. Richardson moved into a new home off Post Oak Tritt Road last year, but will have to move again by the end of the year if she seeks a second term in 2024.
The new District 2 (in pink) will include Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings, some of Marietta and other areas along the I-75 corridor.
The bill’s main sponsor, Republican John Carson of Northeast Cobb, has said that his map will likely keep the commission’s current 3-2 Democratic majority.
But Richardson and other Cobb Democrats have been vocal at Georgia Capitol press conferences in opposing the GOP maps.
“This bill essentially overwrites the vote you made 2 years ago and creates a new map that doesn’t take the community’s input into consideration,” Richardson said on her Facebook page Thursday.
“This is a dangerous precedent, and I plan to continue making my voice heard in order to support this community and its needs.”
District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is nearing the end of her third term this year.
Charisse Davis, who has represented the Walton and Wheeler clusters on the Cobb school board since 2019, also was drawn into a new post that no longer includes East Cobb.
She lives in the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area, which forms the heart of the new Post 6. Davis is up for re-election but has not announced whether she’s seeking re-election.
For a larger view of the new Cobb school board post map, click here.
East Cobb News has left a message with Davis seeking comment.
She noted on her Facebook page recently that the Cobb GOP maps affecting her, Richardson and current 6th District U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath are “ensuring that the east Cobb area will no longer have representation from any of the Black women whose districts currently include east Cobb.”
While East Cobb has been solid terrain for Republicans, Democrats have been making gains in recent elections as the once-conservative county undergoes significant demographic and political change.
Only on the Cobb school board do Republicans have a local majority.
For the last three years, the school board has held a 4-3 GOP edge (after Republicans previously enjoyed a 6-1 advantage), and has been roiled controversies that generally have fallen along partisan lines.
The shifting lines for the school board also reduce East Cobb representation to two members. They are current chairman David Chastain, a Republican who has said he will be seeking another term in 2022 for Post 4, and David Banks, the GOP vice chairman whose Post 5 will now cover most of the Walton and Wheeler areas.
Davis and fellow first-term Democrat Jaha Howard, also of the Smyrna area, have been in the middle of disputes over the senior tax exemption, equity issues, student discipline matters and the Cobb County School District’s COVID-19 response.
The new maps put Davis and Howard, currently of Post 2, together. But he has announced he is running for Georgia School Superintendent this year.
(PLEASE NOTE: The process of redistricting elected school board posts has nothing to do with the boundaries of school attendance zones, which are drawn by school district administrative staff and are done mainly to balance out school capacity.)
McBath, completing her second term, has switched to the 7th district, which includes most of Democratic-leaning Gwinnett County after the legislature redrew the 6th to create a GOP-friendly seat that includes East Cobb, North Fulton, part of Forsyth County and Dawson County.
Part of East Cobb also is included in newly redrawn 11th District, which is represented by Republican Barry Lowdermilk.
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 following East Cobb food scores for the week of Feb. 21 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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!
George Hitchcock, who lives near East Cobb Park, showed commissioners this week photos of flood damage to his property from the Sept. 7, 2021 storms.
Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson will be holding a virtual town hall meeting Tuesday to evaluate options to address continuing stormwater problems stemming from heavy flooding last fall.
Richardson said the meeting is a “follow up” to a previous meeting she held for homeowners who sustained heavy damage from those storms, and who have been critical of the county’s response.
The town hall via Zoom takes place from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the public can sign up by clicking here.
A number of homeowners in Richardson’s East Cobb district have expressed frustration at being told they’re responsible for making repairs ranging from $25,000-$250,000 for what they said was flooding caused by poor stormwater infrastructure.
Several East Cobb residents sounded off to commissioners again on Tuesday about their continuing plight.
Hill Wright, who lives in the Spring Creek neighborhood off Holt Road, has been coordinating an effort to press the county for a stronger response, and said he talks to previously affected residents every time it rains.
“What I hear is that the damage is worse or it’s happening again,” he said during a public comment session. “They tell me they don’t know how long they can hang on, or if the next storm will push them over the edge.”
Dan Larkin, a resident of the Meadow Brook neighborhood off Powers Ferry Road, said one of his neighbors had four feet of water flood their home during the September storm.
Stormwater is collecting in two vacant lots on Oriole Drive, and the amount has been escalating due to runoff from new homes in areas “that should never have been built on.
“This is not looking out for the public at all,” Larkin said. “What will be done to keep this from happening again?”
Rebecca Klein bought a home in 2020 near a creek that feeds into Sope Creek, close to the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.
She said on the night of Sept. 7, “I looked in horror as that peaceful little creek raged to eight feet deep in our back yard.”
There was muddy water in the basement that rose to more than three feet.
The cleanup, Klein said, wasn’t the problem. The floods destroyed her neighbor’s driveway and crushed the culvert in her yard, creating a sinkhole near the foundation of her home.
She said she was told by the Cobb stormwater office that it had no record of the culvert and the homeowners may have installed it.
“This is not possible,” Klein said, her voice breaking with emotion. The culvert “was far too large for us to install with the house in the way. There’s no possible way of the county not knowing as this crosses three properties.”
She said she was told she would be responsible for what she said are six-figure repairs.
“How in the world can a homeowner afford these repairs?” she said. “How can the county pick and choose what to maintain?
“We are facing financial ruin on a home we haven’t even lived in for two years. Every time it rains, I cringe in fear that that hole is going to get bigger.”
George Hitchcock, who lives off Robinson Road near East Cobb Park, said on Sept. 7 his neighborhood received 6-7 feet of stormwater runoff from Robinson Creek. His driveway and those belonging to two neighbors were washed out.
“We recognize that this was a unique event, but in the last two months we’ve had two more flash floods,” Hitchcock said. “Even an inch of rain now is enough to put the creek up and out of its bounds.”
He said while he has FEMA flood insurance, it wouldn’t cover the repair costs from the Sept. 7 flooding, resulting in a “significant out-of-pocket expense.”
At the end of the meeting, Richardson announced the town hall, saying that her presentation will detail a “comprehensive list . . . . of options that we can take as a community to curb this issue holistically.”
She said some items can be addressed immediately, while others will require more time, but the objective is to address the problem systemically.
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!
