With 300 people under the stars for a festive night of beautiful music, Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Metro Atlanta raised $118,000 at its inaugural fundraising concert, Harmonies for Homes. The event was held on the 18th green of Atlanta Country Club on Monday, August 9. The concert was produced by local event production company, Moon Crush, and featured music from artists Edwin McCain, Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, and Clay Cook of Zac Brown Band, with accompaniment by Faye Petree on fiddle.
The money raised will be used for a full house build for a future waitlisted Habitat homeowner in 2022. The concert was part of the affiliate’s yearlong 35th anniversary celebration. The fundraiser’s Presenting Sponsor was local custom home builder, Bercher Homes. The Gieryn Family Foundation, Young Contracting Foundation and an anonymous sponsor were Habitat Hero Sponsors. Genuine Parts Company, S.A. White Oil Company, Inc., The Walker School, Keybank, London and Jerry Andes, and Alayne and George Sertl were Hope Giver Sponsors.
Innovative Construction, Jan-Pro, Stadium Spot, LLC, George and Donna MacConnell, and Ann and Sheldon Taylor were Helping Hand Sponsors. Mauldin & Jenkins, Elemica, Dr. Eric Brown, Sandy Cooper, Meredith and Ed Houseworth, the Leech family, Kelly and Sean Sullivan, and Jonathan Tibus were Heart-to-Heart sponsors.
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!
Fifth-grade students at East Side Elementary School in East Cobb were sent home early on Wednesday and ordered to learn remotely until Aug. 23 due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
In a message sent to the parents of fifth-graders at 9:35 a.m. Wednesday, East Side said the “ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and high positive case numbers” prompted the decision.
Fifth-grade students were to be picked up by 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, and can return to campus on Monday, Aug. 23, according to the message.
“During this time of quarantine, live instruction will occur following your 5th grade student’s normal daily schedule,” the message said. “At this time, ONLY 5th grade classes are moving to remote learning.”
The message did not indicate why only 5th grade classes are affected, nor did it indicate how many COVID-19 cases and close contacts have been determined.
Nor did a Cobb school district spokeswoman, who provided East Cobb News only with the following message:
“Based on our District protocols, fifth-graders at East Side Elementary School will learn virtually August 12-20. When providing high-quality instruction in a classroom is not possible, due to the number of students or staff in quarantine, we look forward to each student receiving a high quality virtual experience through Cobb teachers and the Cobb Teaching and Learning System (CTLS).”
The East Side developments come a week after the district revised its protocols last week to “strongly encourage” mask use, and requires masks for 10 days for asymptomatic people who have been allowed to return to school after being exposed to the virus.
During the first week of classes, Cobb reported 185 COVID-19 cases, including three at East Side.
Cobb remains one of the few school districts in metro Atlanta without a mask mandate.
Some parents have scheduled a rally at Cobb school district headquarters Thursday afternoon demanding a mask mandate.
Transmission rates of COVID-19 in Cobb County have risen rapidly over the last month, well past the “high community spread” threshold of a 14-day average of 100 cases per 100,000 people.
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!
Parents demanding that the Cobb County School District issue a mask mandate will be holding a rally Thursday afternoon.
That’s scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the district’s central office (514 Glover St., off Fairground St. in Marietta), and is scheduled to last for two hours.
Attendees are asked to wear masks, practice social-distancing and to bring water and signs.
One of the organizers is parent Shannon Mathers Deisen of East Cobb, and among the messages at the rally will be urging the district to follow recent guidance by the Centers for Disease Control and the American Association of Pediatricians recommending indoor mask usage in schools.
Cobb is one of several school districts in metro Atlanta that have a masks-optional policy (along with Marietta, Paulding, Cherokee and Forsyth).
Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Janet Memark also has been encouraging indoor mask use, including at schools, and her agency issued a separate message last week saying that while it is “committed to being a trusted resource for planning, mitigation, case identification, and contact tracing” the final decision on masking policy rests with local school districts, per state law.
Cobb revised its protocols last week to “strongly encourage” mask use, and requires masks for 10 days for asymptomatic people who have been allowed to return to school after being exposed to the virus.
Cobb students and staff were under a mask mandate for all of the 2020-21 school year, and a group of parents sued the district because of it.
They dropped their suit after superintendent Chris Ragsdale announced in the spring that the mask policy would be optional for 2021-22.
That’s when the COVID-19 transmission rate was considered low (below a 14-day average of 100 cases per 100,000 people.
As Cobb students began their school year last week, that figure had soared to more than 300, and is approaching a 14-day average of 500 cases per 100,000 people, PCR and Antigen tests combined.
A Cobb school district spokeswoman told East Cobb News this week that all but around 2,000 of the district’s estimated enrollment of 109,000 students were signed up for in-person instruction.
Parents had until the late spring to choose virtual or in-person learning options, and are not allowed to change them during the school year.
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!
To view vaccination rates by census tract, click here. Source: Georgia Department of Public Health.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Cobb County has risen 600 percent over the last six weeks as community transmission grows well above the high spread category, the director of Cobb and Douglas Public Health said Tuesday.
Dr. Janet Memark said in a briefing to the Cobb Board of Commissioners that more than 90 percent of those hospitalized have not been vaccinated, and repeated messaging from the Centers for Disease Control that “this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
Memark did not disclose the number of people hospitalized to commissioners, and said that in Cobb there a severe shortage of emergency and critical care beds.
A Cobb and Douglas Public Health spokeswoman told East Cobb News that currently there are 151 COVID patients admitted currently in Wellstar Kennestone Hospital and Wellstar Windy Hill Hospital, and 120 more people who are under investigation for having contracted the virus.
Most of the cases now are part of the Delta variant, which is considered more transmissable that the original strain of COVID-19. Memark said the Delta variant is spreading so fast that anyone feeling symptoms should get tested immediately.
In Cobb County, the 14-day average of combined PCR and Antigen cases per 100,000 people is 446 (100 cases per 100,000 is considered high community spread). In addition, the test positivity rate is 12.2 percent (anything more than 5 percent is also considered high).
Across Georgia, Memark said, the 14-day average is 587 cases per 100,000, a figure she said has shot up 168 percent in the last 10 days.
Also statewide, Memark said there’s been a 60-percent jump in cases involving children between ages 5-17 in the past week, and an 82-percent increase for children from 0-4.
She reiterated CDC guidance from late July recommending indoor mask usage everywhere, including schools.
Memark didn’t mention that that guidance is not being followed by the Cobb County School District and Marietta City Schools, the only school districts in metro Atlanta that have masks-optional policies.
Cobb revised its protocols last week to “strongly encourage” mask use, and requires masks for 10 days for asymptomatic people who have been allowed to return to school after being exposed to the virus.
“We are at high spread, but we have brought this down before,” Memark said.
She also urged vaccinations for eligible individuals (ages 12 and older) who have not received them. Currently 48 percent of Cobb residents are fully vaccinated, and 41 percent have received at least one dose.
That’s better than most of the rest of the state, but Georgia lags nationally
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!
“There should be more access, not less access,” East Cobb resident Hill Wright said.
A proposal to cut total public comment time to 30 minutes and to limit individual speakers to three minutes was pulled to allow for more consideration, board chairwoman Lisa Cupid said.
The proposed changes drew the opposition of the head of the Cobb Republican Party as well as the local SCLC chapter, and individual citizens, some of them from East Cobb.
The changes would have revised a 30-year-old policy of allowing up to 12 speakers to speak for as long as five minutes each.
In an agenda item, the county said the existing policy was formulated before such forms of communication as e-mails and social media.
But some citizens said those electronic communications often don’t get a response, and they were critical of the proposed changes that would push all public comments to the end of meetings, after commissioners had taken votes.
“This is the one time that we citizens can look all five of you in the eye and tell you what we think, give you feedback and advocate [against] what we feel are bad policies,” East Cobb resident Hill Wright said.
“Yes, there’s e-mail, there’s other communications, but it’s not like standing up here and letting you know. It’s not the same as a room of people showing up to let you know. This is really how our government should work.”
Another East Cobb resident, Christine Rozman, called the proposed changes “a real assault on our freedom of speech.
“Every encroachment on our freedom is starting to add up. People are waking up,” she added, alluding to protests in Europe, Australia and elsewhere over COVID-19 restrictions.
“We don’t trust you now and maybe that’s what you don’t want us talking about.”
To change the public comment policy, four of the five commissioners would have to approve it. But commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Nottheast Cobb was absent from Tuesday’s meeting.
In her weekly newsletter, District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson said the following:
“I wanted to let everyone know your voice was heard regarding the proposed policy change for public comment. The agenda item was pulled off the list and will go back into review. As I shared in my meeting preview, the intent of the change was for streamlined meetings and identifying consistency with other counties. It was initiated several months ago with that goal in mind. The changes proposed, however, do not get us to that place. Let us know your thoughts as public comment is a great avenue for those to be heard, but we did find a disconnect in individuals speaking and then leaving without any resolution to their issues as we cannot respond to public comment. Many areas are under review in the policy, and I am sure many of you have thoughts on those as well. So, please keep sharing as we all work to come up with policy that best represents and addresses the needs of the community.”
The public comment proposal will likely be taken up at the commissioners’ next voting meeting on Aug. 24.
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!
There’s an item on Tuesday’s agenda of the Cobb Board of Commissioners that’s already promising to generate some public comment.
The item is asking the board to consider changes that would reduce the time for public comments in half.
Currently the board policy is to have up to 12 public speakers who are given a maximum of five minutes, for a limit of 60 minutes.
Up to six speakers are given time at the start of meetings, with the rest commenting near the end.
But the proposed revisions would cut back the allotted slots to 10 speakers who would be given no more than three minutes to offer comments, for a maximum of 30 minutes.
In addition, all of the public comment period would come at the end of meetings.
The agenda item is here; and further details are here.
Those changes have sparked some heated reaction from citizens who got in touch with East Cobb News over the weekend.
One of them is Christine Rozman of East Cobb, who has been an occasional public speaker, and who said in an e-mail that “this is not sitting well with ALL citizens.”
She most recently addressed commissioners last month about the county budget, imploring them to “rein in” spending (comments are around the 40-minute mark).
Another resident, Michael Ashton, noted that by pushing the public comments to the end of meetings, “there would be no public comments on any of the current agenda items until after the items had either been approved or denied.”
East Cobb resident Jan Barton, who has been a frequent public commenter over the years, especially on county finances, taxes and spending, said that “it is outrageous that they plan to limit our free speech.”
The agenda item said that the current public comment period has been in effect since 1991, “before the advent of many means of communication we take for granted today including, email, newsletters, and social media. This agenda item will update the county’s Rules of Procedure involving public comment to include revising the time per speaker to three minutes to match the allotted time per speaker in public hearings, consolidating all public speakers into one agenda position, limit the overall time allowed, and eliminate certain prohibitions for those allowed to speak before the Board.”
The proposal stressed that “there is no limitation on the number of times an individual may speak throughout the year nor a limitation on the number of times a person may address any given subject matter,” policies that also date back to the 1990s.
The proposed changes come shortly after the Cobb Board of Education changed its public comment procedures, including a requirement that speakers sign up online and in advance.
Unlike other votes needing a simple three-vote majority, revising this policy will require approval of four of the five commissioners.
The agenda item will come up near the end of the meeting, before the second public comment period.
The full agenda for Tuesday’s commission meeting can be found here, and it includes an appointment by District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson of East Cobb resident David Anderson to the Cobb Planning Commission; previous post here.
Tuesday’s meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta, and will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.
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!
There’s still fencing around what remains a construction site, but the new gusto! East Cobb location has a specific opening date: Next Thursday, Aug. 19, at 10:30 a.m.
In addition, the Atlanta-based fast casual chain announced that there will be free drive-thru service from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 21. Here’s how that will work, per a gusto! release:
“Each car will receive up to two complimentary adult meals, and all kids’ meals will be free. All cars will receive a BOGO card to redeem on first purchase. Only one visit per day is permitted.”
Other features from the Thursday grand opening:
The first 50 guests will receive 10 complimentary meal vouchers and exclusive “First Fifty” gusto! swag;
10% of sales from opening day will go to benefit Bert’s Big Adventure, an organization that provides a free, week-long trips to Walt Disney World for children with chronic illnesses in the Atlanta area.
We mentioned in an April post how the gusto! menu concept works, and the company announced in the release that the local operating partner will be Misty Granados, an East Cobber who was a former Panera Bread manager.
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 Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County are resuming some of their in-person events, and on Tuesday will begin its fall Gardeners’ Night Out series at the East Cobb Library.
It’s one of four monthly educational sessions featuring selected topics—Tuesday’s features fall bloomers—at various library branches around the county.
See the flyer below for more information; in a recent message president Gayle Bender said the organization also will be restarting its “How Does Your Garden Grow” series in person in September, and others will continue to be held virtually.
More details about the Master Gardeners can be found here; they’re also planning next spring’s annual plant sale and garden tour.
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 summer draws to a close and children start heading back to school, family life can get hectic. It’s important to remember – and share with your children – some key tips that will help keep them safe and healthy throughout the school year.
Transportation Safety
Whether children walk, ride their bicycle or take the bus to school, it is extremely important that they take proper safety precautions. Here are some tips to make sure your child safely travels to school:
Review your family’s walking safety rules and practice walking to school with your child. Walk on the sidewalk, if one is available; when on a street with no sidewalk, walk facing the traffic. Before you cross the street, stop and look left, right and left again to see if cars are coming. Make eye contact with drivers before crossing and always cross streets at crosswalks or intersections. Stay alert and avoid distracted walking.
Teach your child the rules of the road and practice riding the bike route to school with your child. Ride on the right side of the road, with traffic, and in a single file;
Come to a complete stop before crossing the street; walk bikes across the street
Teach your children school bus safety rules and practice with them. Go to the bus stop with your child to teach them the proper way to get on and off the bus. Teach your children to stand 6 feet (or three giant steps) away from the curb. If your child must cross the street in front of the bus, teach him or her to walk on the side of the road until they are 10 feet ahead of the bus; your child and the bus driver should always be able to see each other. Here are some injury facts on bus safety.
Stay alert and avoid distracted driving. Obey school zone speed limits and follow your school’s drop-off procedure. Make eye contact with children who are crossing the street. Never pass a bus loading or unloading children. The area 10 feet around a school bus is the most dangerous for children; stop far enough back to allow them to safely enter and exit the bus.
Car crashes are the No. 1 cause of death for teens. Fortunately, there is something we can do. Teens crash because they are inexperienced; practice with new drivers every week, before and after they get their license. Set a good example; drive the way you want your teen to drive. Sign the New Driver Deal, an agreement that helps define expectations for parents and teens.
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 Cobb food scores for the week of Aug. 2 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!
As first week of the 2021-22 school year in the Cobb County School District comes to a close, the district is reporting 185 new cases of COVID-19.
As it did last year, the district is updating those figures every Friday at this link, which includes a cumulative figure of 235 cases since July 1.
The numbers are not broken down between students and staff.
The school-by-school numbers include a district-high of seven cases each at Sprayberry High School, Hillgrove High School and Lost Mountain Middle School.
Among the provisions is to allow staff or students who are identified as a “close contact” and who are asymptomatic to return to school within 24 hours if they remain asymptomatic and wear a mask on campus for 10 days following exposure.
The Cobb school district’s COVID-19 figures don’t include how many people are quarantined or how many are identified as close contacts.
The district also said it would be “strongly encouraging” but not mandating indoor mask use for everyone, as it did last year.
Cobb, Marietta, Cherokee, Paulding and Forsyth are the only school districts in metro Atlanta that do not have overall mask requirements.
That policy runs counter to recent Centers for Disease Control guidance recommending “universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.”
On Thursday, Cobb and Douglas Public Health released a message saying while it is “committed to being a trusted resource for planning, mitigation, case identification, and contact tracing” that according to a state public health order issued Monday “all schools have local, final authority over their COVID-19 policies and quarantine protocols within certain parameters.”
The CDPH message also linked to the CDC guidance and stated that “each school system has their own unique challenges to meet the needs of students and faculty and we respect their authority to make the final decisions.”
Here’s the case breakdown for schools in East Cobb:
Elementary: Addison 2; Bells Ferry 0; Blackwell 2; Davis 0; East Side 3; Eastvalley 4; Garrison Mill 2; Keheley 1; Kincaid 2; Mt. Bethel 1; Mountain View 2; Murdock 5; Nicholson 0; Powers Ferry 0; Rocky Mount 1; Sedalia Park 0; Sope Creek 0; Timber Ridge 1; Tritt 0.
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!
From our inbox: Another opening at the MarketPlace Terrell Mill, a drive-through only (for now) location of Chick-fil-A, which will begin serving on Wednesday.
It’s located at 1440 Terrell Mill Road, adjacent to Panera Bread, and will be open Monday-Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
There’s not going to be a traditional grand opening, but instead Chick-fil-A has chosen to honor 100 local citizens “making an impact in Marietta” with free food for a year. Chick-fil-A also will donate $25,000 to Feeding America, a non-profit that will distribute funds to partner organizations in metro Atlanta who address hunger issues.
The owner-operator of the new restaurant is Mark Reed, who previously was owner-operator of Chick-fil-A on Windy Hill Road.
In addition to Panera Bread, a Wendy’s has opened at MarketPlace Terrell Mill (along Powers Ferry Road near what was the entrance to Brumby Elementary School). Other restaurants are planned for the mixed-use development, including a Los Abuelos Mexican Grill.
A Regions Bank also has opened at the development, and the 289-unit apartment building that’s been completed, Marketplace Vista Apartments, recently was sold for $87 million.
The final phase of MarketPlace Terrell Mill will be a Kroger superstore, but there’s construction work that’s begun.
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!
Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson is set to announce a new appointment to the Cobb Planning Commission next week, days after her holdover representative steered through a vote on a major rezoning case in East Cobb.
According to Tuesday’s meeting agenda, Richardson will appoint East Cobb resident David Anderson to succeed Tony Waybright.
Waybright had been appointed in March 2020 by former District 2 commissioner Bob Ott, whose time in office ended last December. Planning commissioners, who serve as an advisory board on planning and zoning cases, serve terms running concurrently with the commissioners who appoint them.
According to an agenda item, Anderson would serve through the end of 2024, when Richardson’s term expires.
Anderson is a real estate executive and entrepreneur with a background in commercial real estate investment and development, urban planning and data analytics.
He has been a project manager with the New York City Economic Development Corporation and according to a biographical profile sent by Richardson’s office, “his goals as Planning Commissioner include enhancing the transparency of, engagement with, and usefulness of planning guidelines and data for all stakeholders.”
Anderson earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. East Cobb News has contacted Richardson seeking more details.
Anderson would be the fourth person on the five-member Planning Commission to be appointed this year.
They include Deborah Dance, a former Cobb County Attorney who was appointed by Northeast Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell after longtime board member Judy Williams died of COVID-19 in January.
Dance assumed her position just as the Sprayberry Crossing rezoning case went before the Planning Commission. After a third hearing, the board passed her motion in June not to make a recommendation, although county commissioners approved that mixed-use proposal.
Waybright, a civic and school activist in the Smyrna/Vinings area, stayed on when Richardson began her term in January, and as the rezoning application of North Point Ministries at Johnson Ferry and Shallowford roads continued.
They held a virtual town hall meeting in February in which Waybright offered some conceptual changes to the North Point Ministries application for a mixed-use proposal for East Cobb Church, high-density residential, retail space and a community park and multi-use trail.
After full Planning Commission hearings in May, June and July ended with votes to delay, the Planning Commission voted on Tuesday to recommend approval. Cobb commissioners will take action on Aug. 17.
The North Point Ministries rezoning is the first major East Cobb case for Richardson, whose district stretches from the “JOSH” corridor through the Smyrna/Vinings/Cumberland area.
Nearly 60 people turned out in support of the rezoning at Tuesday’s Planning Commission hearing and nearly 30 came in opposition.
In his motion to recommend approval, Waybright made numerous changes, including capping the number of units and density.
Also on Tuesday, commissioners will consider a proposal to make changes to the public comment portion of their meetings. The agenda item is here; and further details are here.
The meeting begins at 9 a.m. in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta, and will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.
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!
Marietta teen Cecelia Pumpelly will make history on August 8, 2021 when she is set to be recognized as one of Metro-Atlanta’s first female Eagle Scouts – a prestigious achievement attained by some of the country’s most noteworthy figures. Cecelia is among hundreds of young women who make up the Inaugural Class of female Eagle Scouts.
Cecelia graduated from Campbell High School IB program, is a National Merit Scholarship winner, and will be attending the honors program at University of Georgia in the fall to study economics and Spanish.
“Earning the rank of Eagle Scout takes hard work and perseverance, and we are honored to recognize Cecelia for this significant accomplishment,” said Tracy Techau, Scout Executive/CEO of the Atlanta Area Council, BSA. “Along the journey to Eagle Scout, young people gain new skills, learn to overcome obstacles and demonstrate leadership among their peers and in their communities. These benefits are invaluable for everyone, and we are thrilled that they are now available to even more youth.”
Young women have been part of Scouting for decades in co-ed programs offered by the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The BSA expanded that legacy further in recent years by welcoming girls into Cub Scouts and then into Scouts BSA. Since then, tens of thousands of young women across the country have joined the organization’s most iconic program with many, including Cecelia, working their way toward the rank of Eagle Scout.
“Being a part of Scouting has changed me as an individual and likely the trajectory of my life. On a surface level, merit badges like Emergency Preparedness made me rethink how I wanted to change the world, shifting my focus from a medical degree to a position in public health.” “I have had the opportunity to know what it truly means to be a leader and a teacher, and that being able to grow in both those areas is just as much about developing the people you’re leading as it is developing yourself. Yet, most of all, Scouting has taught me that whatever the boys can do, the girls can do too!”
Cecelia is the first Eagle Scout in her Troop 2019, chartered to The Episcopal Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in East Cobb. Eagle Scout is the program’s highest rank, which only about 6% of Scouts achieve on average. To earn it, an individual has to take on leadership roles within their troop and their community; earn a minimum of 21 merit badges that cover a broad range of topics including first aid and safety, civics, business and the environment; and they must research, organize and complete a large community service project.
Cecelia’s Eagle Scout project consisted of building a flag retirement box and three portable benches for the church. The box serves as a way for community members to properly dispose of their flags, as well as education on proper flag etiquette.
Packs and Troops around Metro-Atlanta are welcoming new Scouts throughout the fall. If you are interested in learning more about becoming a Scout, visit www.AtlantaBSA.org/Join.
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!
Cobb County’s temporary call center to help residents make vaccination appointments and deal with rental assistance questions will end its four-month run on Friday. The center, funded with a Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act allocation, took more than 1400 calls and was expanded to help link people to the county’s Emergency Rental Assistance program.
“We proposed the call center at a time when people were desperate to make an appointment to get the COVID-19 vaccine and supplies of the vaccine were low,” Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said. “When the volume of calls dropped, we transitioned the call center to help with rental assistance. Even though it is closing, we have the infrastructure in place to reopen it if the situation with the latest COVID surge starts overwhelming our resources once again.”
After an initial surge of calls, the call volume dropped precipitously after cases of COVID declined and the supply of the vaccine increased. The contract with the vendor also includes software that could form the basis of a future 311 information center should the county decide to move in that direction.
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!
Three days into a new academic year, the Cobb County School District has gotten more specific about its quarantine policy.
Before classes resumed on Monday, the original guidance released July 20 required quarantine for “any student or staff member who is identified as a close contact” according to Centers for Disease Control and Cobb and Douglas Public Health guidelines.
Those individuals were to receive a “close contact” letter outlining further instructions.
“Students or staff who are identified as a close contact and are asymptomatic are able to return to class or work the next day if the student or staff member remains asymptomatic and wears a mask while on school district property for ten days after exposure. Students or staff who are identified as a close contact and are symptomatic must follow directions contained in the close contact letter.”
The new guidance issued Wednesday continues the Cobb school district’s masks-optional policy for staff and students outside of quarantine provisions, but said that mask use is “strongly encouraged.”
The changes also come a week after the CDC issued new guidance regarding indoor mask use in general, and “recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.”
Cobb is one of the few school districts in metro Atlanta, along with Marietta City Schools, that does not have a mask mandate.
The transmission of COVID-19 in Cobb County in recent days has surpassed the “high community threshold,” a 14 day average of 100 cases per 100,000 people. That figure is now more than 300, and late last week Cobb and Douglas Public Health director Dr. Janet Memark urged citizens to mask in public and get vaccinated.
The new Cobb policy also limits volunteers on school campuses, and parents and guardians are not allowed to eat lunch in the cafeteria with their children, topics not included in the initial guidelines:
“Non-staff volunteers will be limited in their ability to enter the school and volunteer in roles that involve any degree of proximity to students during the instructional day. At the discretion of the principal, volunteers are allowed to enter the school and work in an isolated location away from students and staff. Volunteers are still welcome on campus for afterschool activities and special school events. Additionally, and until further notice, no parents/guardians will be permitted to eat lunch with their child in the school cafeteria.”
The Cobb school district said as it did last year, it will post weekly updates of COVID-19 cases every Friday at this link.
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!
Proposed townhomes fronting Johnson Ferry Road would be bounded by a brick wall and a community walking trail.
The Cobb Planning Commission voted 4-1 Tuesday to recommend approval of a request to build a church and a high-density residential development at Johnson Ferry and Shallowford roads in East Cobb.
The vote came during the fourth presentation by North Point Ministries for its proposed mixed-use development on 33 acres, and after more than an hour of discussion Tuesday morning.
Despite concerted community opposition, based mostly on density and traffic issues, the advisory board signed off on the application, which will go before the Cobb Board of Commissioners for final action on Aug. 17.
North Point Ministries is planning a 130,000-square foot East Cobb Church, a smaller activities building and a parking lot along the Shallowford Road portion of the land, and will sell 22 acres at Johnson Ferry Road and Waterfront Circle to Ashwood Atlanta, a residential developer, for 71 townhomes and 59 single-family detached homes.
At the hearing Tuesday there were 58 people attending in favor of the request, and 29 opposed.
The residential portion of the project has raised the most concerns, and on Tuesday nearby residents and civic leaders repeated their objections.
They included numerous variances being requested for the homes, which North Point attorney Kevin Moore said were necessary after community pushback against what originally had been 125 townhomes.
Jill Flamm of the East Cobb Civic Association called the proposed residential visuals “watercolor renderings.”
Those variances include setbacks, separation between single-family buildings, lot sizes and guest parking.
“There will still be some lot-size variances,” said Planning Commission member Tony Waybright, who represents District 2 in East Cobb where the development would take place. “We’ve got to give a little to get somewhere.”
He also noted that North Point donated right-of-way along Shallowford and Johnson Ferry for a multi-purpose trail that will be open to the community.
“That’s the benefit to the public in return for looking at the variances,” he said, noting that they were a better option than seeking other zoning categories.
Waybright had recommended a fee-simple townhome designation for the townhomes, but North Point kept its request at RA-6, with a proposed density of 5.8 units per acre.
Moore said that’s less than a townhome development behind the Kroger on the southeast corner of Johnson Ferry and Shallowford with six units an acre.
“This is not some isolated suburban neighborhood with single-family homes,” Moore said, saying that 75 percent of the assembled property in the rezoning is bordered by commercial property.
But Ruth Michels, who lives in the adjacent MarLanta subdvisision, countered that while she and her neighbors want the land to be redeveloped, “this is not the right development.”
She said she is concerned that the amount of developable land is unclear because a flood plain study has yet to be done. That process, which would provide an assessment of land in a drained lake, typically comes after a rezoning vote, in what’s called the site plan review stage.
Michels cited what she called a “lack of transparency” in submitting a stipulation letter late Monday.
“What is the real density?” she asked, adding that “it’s impossible to have an accurate picture of how this property is to be developed.”
A July 27 site plan shows the church at left, townhomes at the top and single-family homes on the bottom.
Jill Flamm of the East Cobb Civic Association also expressed opposition to the number of variances, a lack of lot-size specifics, no landscape plan, few details on a proposed community park and no sidewalks within the residential areas.
In his motion to recommend approval, Waybright incorporated some of those issues. His conditions would cap density at 129 units and 5.82 units per acre, conceding those figures could go down depending on the results of a flood plain study.
He also said the residential building heights should be no more than 35 feet and no more than two stories (some of the renderings include three stories).
Other stipulations include at least one pavilion and gazebo in the park, streetlights and benches along the multi-purpose trail, sidewalks on at least one side of all internal roads in the residential development and limitations on external lighting, including a ban on floodlights.
Another stipulation Waybright added was to prevent right-turn traffic coming out of the church on Sundays, to keep vehicles out of the nearby neighborhoods.
The only vote against was Planning Commission chairman Fred Beloin, who said while he “liked the look” of the townhomes, wanted to keep the density under 5 units an acre. His motion to cap that figure failed.
Another East Cobb case that was to have been heard Tuesday is being delayed again. The Cobb zoning staff has continued a request by Pulte Homes for a proposed 99-home single-family detached development on nearly 50 acres on Ebenezer Road, between Blackwell Road and Maybreeze Road.
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 Atlanta Jewish Film Festival (AJFF) is excited to announce its return to the movie theater for the first time in 18 months with AJFF North, a mini-festival on Aug. 28-29, 2021, that will combine in-theater and virtual screenings. Made possible by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta through its “Making Jewish Places” initiative, AJFF North brings the best in Jewish cinema directly to residents of Alpharetta, East Cobb, Johns Creek, Roswell and surrounding North Metro communities, though is open to all audiences. Moviegoers can enjoy a diverse mix of dramas, documentary, family-friendly fare, a Hollywood classic comedy, and even short films in a series of screenings at the Aurora Cineplex in Roswell (5100 Commerce Pkwy, Roswell, GA 30076), as well as via streaming in the AJFF Virtual Cinema. Tickets are available for purchase on Aug. 4 and are $16/person for in-person screenings and $16/household for films presented in the Virtual Cinema. In-person screenings at the Aurora Cineplex represent the festival’s first return to movie theaters since February 2020 and provides an opportunity for audiences to rediscover the joy of seeing films back on the big screen, as AJFF plans for a larger theatrical experience at next year’s 22nd edition of the annual festival in February 2022. “We’re thrilled to be the official venue for AJFF North,” says Barbara Scoggins, operations manager of the Aurora Cineplex. “As the world starts going back to the movies, community events like this one provide us an opportunity to serve film lovers in the North Atlanta metro area and beyond.” As AJFF continues to prioritize the safety of audiences and staff, organizers will follow COVID protocols in accordance with CDC and local guidelines, as well as theater partners. This will include measures to encourage all audiences to wear masks inside the theater venue, as well as social distancing during entry and exit from the theater. “After nearly two years of planning with our partners at Jewish Federation and community volunteers, AJFF North is a milestone initiative that both welcomes audiences back to theaters while also serving fans in North Metro neighborhoods,” says AJFF Executive Director Kenny Blank. “AJFF has always taken care to listen to the needs of the community, and this mini-festival further provides an opportunity to understand how the moviegoing experience will evolve as we plan for next year’s annual festival and beyond.”
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!
Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Metro Atlanta is pleased to announce its inaugural fundraising concert, Harmonies for Homes, to be held on the 18th green of Atlanta Country Club on Monday, August 9 at 7:30 p.m. The concert is produced by event production company, Moon Crush, and will feature music from artists Edwin McCain, Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls, and Clay Cook of Zac Brown Band, with accompaniment by Faye Petree on fiddle. The event is nearly sold out, with remaining tickets available at http://www.habitatnwma.org/concert.
Funds raised by the event will benefit Habitat for Humanity Northwest Metro Atlanta, to build and repair homes for families in need in Cobb, Douglas, and Paulding counties.
The concert is a part of the affiliate’s 35th anniversary celebration. The fundraiser’s Presenting Sponsor is local custom home builder, Bercher Homes. The Gieryn Family Foundation, Young Contracting Foundation and an anonymous sponsorare Habitat Hero Sponsors. Genuine Parts Company, S.A. White Oil Company, Inc., The Walker School, Keybank, London and Jerry Andes, and Alayne and George Sertl are Hope Giver Sponsors.
Innovative Construction, Jan-Pro, Stadium Spot, LLC,George and Donna MacConnell, and Ann and Sheldon Taylor are Helping Hand Sponsors.
Mauldin & Jenkins, Dr. Eric Brown, Sandy Cooper, Meredith and Ed Houseworth, the Leech family, Kelly and Sean Sullivan, and Jonathan Tibus are Heart-to-Heart sponsors. For more information, contact Christine Morris at cmorris@habitatnwma.org.
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 cases of the COVID-19 Delta variant continue to rise, the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office has also seen an increase in positive cases among staff and detainees in the Adult Detention Center.
After mass polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing on July 28th, 51 individuals tested positive for the novel coronavirus; however, the majority are not exhibiting symptoms.
To keep people safe and reduce the spread of the virus, Sheriff Owens has implemented the following measures:
individuals receive a rapid test upon booking in the Adult Detention Center;
upon booking, detainees are placed in a separate pod for 14 days;
detainees may request a COVID-19 test at any time;
any detainee exhibiting symptoms will receive a test and be placed in a separate pod; and
masks are now mandatory, regardless of vaccination status.
“The data is clear; the Delta variant is especially dangerous for the unvaccinated,” said Sheriff Craig D. Owens, Sr. “I urge our employees and all detainees to take advantage of the free, safe COVID-19 vaccine for their safety and the safety of the general public.”
The Sheriff’s Office has already vaccinated more than 475 detainees and continues to work with the county judges to vaccinate those with upcoming court trials.
“Unfortunately, misinformation has resulted in vaccine hesitancy within the Adult Detention Center,” the sheriff added. “We are organizing a vaccine education clinic with outside professionals to address detainees’ concerns and encourage full participation in our next vaccine clinic.”
The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office remains committed to doing everything possible to keep detainees safe during this unprecedented time.
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!
