Next week the Wheeler PTSA will be holding a candidates forum for the Cobb school board Post 6 race.
That forum is Thursday, Oct. 4 at 6:30 p.m. at East Cobb Middle School (825 Terrell Mill Road).
The candidates are Republican incumbent Scott Sweeney of East Cobb and Democrat Charisse Davis of Smyrna.
Sweeney, first elected in 2010, is seeking his third term. He is an executive with InPrime Legal, which provides legal services for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Davis is a first-time candidate and has children at Teasley Elementary School and Campbell Middle School.
She is a youth services librarian in the public library system and former school librarian and classroom teacher.
She supports expanding the statewide pre-K program.
Post 6 includes the Wheeler and Walton and part of the Campbell attendance zones. A map can be found here and Post 6 is indicated in pink.
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!
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Cobb DOT is reminding motorists about Sandy Plains Road lane closures that will be in effect next week:
Beginning Monday, Sept. 24, utility relocation work will reduce Sandy Plains Road to one lane for traffic traveling in both directions between Ebenezer Road and Kinjac Drive, north of Piedmont Road. The shift is expected to remain in place no later than Sunday, Sept. 30. However, completion of this work is dependent upon favorable weather conditions.
Signage and traffic control devices will be positioned to guide motorists. Drivers are advised to take Canton Road or Holly Springs Road and should reduce their speed and exercise caution in the area.
This utility work comes as part of a 2011 SPLOST road safety and operational improvements project for 8-mile-long Sandy Plains Road, where a raised median is present in all areas except between Kinjac Drive and Ebenezer Road. The project will add a median, as well as left and right turn lanes, to this road segment.
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Three students who attended Mountain View Elementary School were killed along with their mother in a traffic accident on Thursday, according to information shared with the East Cobb school community.
The students were Chase, Aaniyah and A.J. Standberry and their mother was Chelsea Standberry, according to a message sent Friday morning by Principal Renee Garriss.
“They touched the lives of many students, parents and staff members,” Garriss said. “Their passing is a terrible loss to all of us.”
News reports in Beaumont, Texas said the family was traveling in a vehicle on Interstate 10 early Thursday morning when it got involved in a multi-vehicle accident that included an 18-wheeler. Some of the vehicles caught fire.
Shaundrea Woodard of Houston, Chelsea Standberry’s cousin and who is organizing a fundraising drive to help pay for funeral expenses, said three others in the car survived, including Chelsea Standberry’s husband Anthony Standberry Sr. and mother-in-law.
Mountain View staff said when contacted by East Cobb News that they could not provide more information and referred questions to the Cobb County School District.
A district spokeswoman said she “could not confirm specifics” related to students in the district. All she would say is the following:
“Our counselors and crisis response team are all well-trained to help those suffering through grief, and we offer various tools and services in addition to in-school counseling.”
Cobb schools are out next week for a scheduled fall break. Garriss said in her message that when classes resume Oct. 1, extra counselors from the district will be available at the Mountain View campus.
“During this time of loss, we are reminded of the importance of the simple acts of sharing kindness with one another each day,” Garriss said. “In tribute to their memory, I hope to see an abundance of such acts between students, teachers and community members. Please keep their family and friends in their thoughts and prayers.”
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Thanks to Kali Mann of the YMCA of Metro Atlanta for the information and photos of last week’s food and housing insecurity outreach event involving Cobb YMCA volunteers, including those from the East Cobb-McCleskey Family and Northeast Cobb branches:
On Saturday, September 15, nearly 80 volunteers assembled more than 300 meal kits and toiletry kits, and knitted 50 blankets for Cobb’s food and housing insecure individuals. Volunteers included employees from J.M. Huber Corporation, members and employees from the Northwest, McCleskey, and Northeast Family YMCAs, and non-Y members.
Helping Cobb’s needy families is not new to the YMCA. Now that the “Days of Service” event is complete, the Northwest YMCA in Kennesaw will begin gathering food to feed Cobb’s children during the Fall and Winter breaks.
“Over the past 160 years, the Y has evolved to meet the unmet needs within communities around the Metro Atlanta area,” said Kristin McEwen, senior VP of operations for the YCMA of Metro Atlanta. “While times have changed since the Y’s founding in 1858, the Y’s focus on serving the community has not.”
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Barbara Barrington of Rocky Mount Elementary School is greeted by Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale. (Photos submitted by CCSD)
The Cobb County School District honored its classified employees of the year earlier this week, and two East Cobb paraprofessionals were included as the grade level recipients.
Classified employees are those in non-teaching roles, including parapros, librarians, administrative assistants, cafeteria workers, police officers, social workers and others.
Lisa Hamill, Pope High School
Lisa Hamill of Pope was named Cobb’s high school level classified employee of the year, and not for the first time by her school Here’s what Pope principal Tom Flugum said about Hamill, in information supplied by CCSD:
“Lisa will do everything from helping with general supervision to working a lot with kids in small groups. She is really invested in our school. She is always looking for how she can help. It’s an honor to work with Lisa.”
Barbara Barrington, a parapro at Rocky Mount, is Cobb’s elementary school level classified employee of the year, and principal Peggy Fleming describes what she does:
“She is the right hand of the kindergarten teacher, and does such a phenomenal job. Barbara is a kind, gentle, and wonderful person, who wants to do anything that she can to help anyone in the building.”
Recipients of classified employee of the year honors for all Cobb schools were invited to a luncheon on Tuesday at Roswell Street Baptist Church, where school board members and top staff also attended. Said Superintendent Chris Ragsdale:
“Our Classified Employees of the Year represent the departments that make it possible for our teachers to do what they do in the classroom. I can’t thank them enough. There is no other industry that we can work in where we can impact the future of not just our community, but also our county, our state, and our nation. That is very important for us to remember. We are helping to shape the future.”
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“Your purpose in life is where your passion is,” said Milton Overton, who became KSU athletics director in the fall of 2017. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)
While Cobb County’s college football team continues to soar on the field, how those athletes prepare for what they do once they graduate is regarded as just as important.
Milton Overton, the Kennesaw State athletics director, pointed to himself as an example.
“I’m a guy who wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for being able to play football,” said Overton, the guest speaker at Tuesday’s East Cobb Business Association luncheon.
An offensive lineman for the powerhouse team at Oklahoma, he has also earned two master’s degrees and nearly completed his work on a doctorate.
“Education is the great equalizer, the vehicle for many Americans to have success.”
Overton, who arrived at KSU last fall, has enjoyed a 25-year career as a college sports administrator, and at some of the top programs in the country, including Alabama and Texas A & M.
Along the way, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of what it takes for athletes to succeed on the field, as well as away from it.
Like many college athletic departments, KSU has a special program to help with the latter. It’s called “Flight Path,” and Overton stressed how good work habits and discipline for athletes now will help when they’re ready to begin their non-sports work careers.
In the Flight Plan program, KSU student-athletes work with a “career coach” to help them assess post-college working opportunities. Those coaches are local professionals who share information about their fields.
Current student-athletes also hear from KSU graduates who played sports, and who offer practical advice on what it’s like in the adult world.
The highly-regimented schedules of college athletes, Overton said, offer them an opportunity to enter the work world with an advantage.
He said the graduation rate for athletes is often higher than non-athletes at many universities because of additional tutoring and academic services.
If a young person is accustomed to “12-hour days over four years,” he said, he or she is “more than likely with an employer to have a good shot” at securing a good job.
Now the third-largest university in Georgia with nearly 35,000 students, KSU has quickly succeeded since beginning varsity football in 2015.
The Owls, who are ranked fifth nationally in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), reached the national quarterfinals a year ago. Overton recently extended the contract of head coach Brian Bohannon through 2023, and KSU is trying to sell 30,000 tickets for a November game at SunTrust Park.
Overton was hired by then-KSU president Sam Olens after two years as athletics director at Florida A & M, which was undergoing financial struggles.
The FCS designation is just below the Football Bowl Subdivision, where Georgia and Georgia Tech play. Overton said that for now, there’s no desire for KSU to make a move up, as Georgia State has done.
“We want to be where we have a chance to complete,” he said. “If we keep doing what we’re doing, at some point” there may be some consideration. “This school is primed to do some good things,” he said, and not just in sports.
“KSU is a rocket ship,” Overton said. “I’m just trying to hold on.”
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The Cobb County School District announced today its graduation rates for 2018, and Lassiter High School is tied for the best in the county.
Lassiter students graduated at 95.6 percent, the same at Harrison High School in West Cobb. Walton High School was right behind at 95.1, while Pope’s graduation rate was next, at 94.1.
Sprayberry’s graduation rate was 86.2, Kell was 83.8 and Wheeler was 77.3, according to the Georgia Department of Education, which released figures for all public high schools in the state (you can view the spreadsheet here).
Cobb schools said the overall cohort graduation rate for all 16 of its high schools is a district record of 85.18 percent, an increase of 1.7 percent from last year and above the statewide average of 81.6 percent.
In the metro Atlanta area, only Fulton County schools (86.8 percent) had a higher graduation rate than Cobb.
Sprayberry was one of several Cobb high schools that has had a significant increase in its graduation rate, up 5.3 percent since 2014.
In a release issued by Cobb schools, Sprayberry teachers Carlos Barrera and Amy Pothel said that staff recognizes the school’s diverse student body. “We provide additional support such as individualized tutoring, more opportunities to master the standards, and assistance with college applications and scholarships,” they said.
The method for calculating graduation rates is mandated by the U.S. Department of Education. It includes all students enrolled during a four-year period, even for a single day of classes.
Cobb schools said when only students enrolled in a county school were counted, the graduation figure is 90.5 percent. For those students who are enrolled in Cobb for all four years of high school, the rate rises to 97.1 percent.
The Georgia overall graduation rate of 81.6 percent is an all-time high.
Grad class size
# Graduates
2018 rate
2017 rate
Kell
382
320
83.8
87.9
Lassiter
565
540
95.6
95.7
Pope
474
446
94.1
91.8
Sprayberry
435
375
86.2
85.5
Walton
675
642
95.1
94.5
Wheeler
520
402
77.3
81.1
Cobb
9,041
7,701
85.2
83.6
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The Raiders moved up from third in the Georgia Sports Writers Association Class 7A poll that was released Tuesday, getting 120 points and edging Grayson, which had been second, by two points. Colquitt County remains on top with 139 points. Two other Cobb schools, McEachern and Hillgrove, also are ranked in the Top 10 this week.
Wheeler, which like Walton is also 4-0, is not. In fact, the Wildcats, the only other unbeaten team from East Cobb, didn’t get any votes at all from the GWSA voters.
But they have a chance to make a statement on Friday at home against Roswell, which received 12 votes, just missing the rankings. Marietta got 13 votes.
Walton will also be at home Friday, against Newnan.
The only other ranked East Cobb team dropped out. Kell, which had been No. 10 in Class 5A, lost to East Paulding last week and still got eight votes, just out of the rankings.
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A total of 64 East Cobb students have been named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists.
They come from Pope, Lassiter, Wheeler and Walton, which has a total of 31 semifinalists, the second-most for any school in the state, according to the Cobb County School District.
The CCSD said 80 students from seven of its schools have made the next round of the process, including Campbell, Kennesaw Mountain and North Cobb.
Below are the names of the East Cobb semifinalists, followed by more information about the program, and how the process works, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation:
Lassiter High School
Sophia D. Babish
Eric Chow
Dennis G. Goldenberg
Peter R. Jacobson
Carter B. Johnson
Carter H. Kubes
Peyton R. Lamb
Delia K. Pung
Audrey J. Safir
Dylan Walters
Pope High School
Jacob T. Evans
Griffin W. Haarbauer
Edward C. Kokan
Maya Nambiar
Olivia D. Popovich
Walton High School
Albert Chen
David Cornell
Alison Cumberledge
Thomas DeBoer
Ava Edmunds
William Ellsworth
Eashan Gandotra
Vineet Gangireddy
Nicholas Hong
Emma Hunt
Jeffrey Key
Darren Kosen
Varun Krishnaswamy
Grace Lee
Ryan Li
Jesse Liu
Arundhati Mahendrakar
Isha Palakurthy
Anika Park
Sara Patyi
David Phillips
Varsha Ramachandra
Alice Shen
Daniel Shu
Elizabeth Sims
Albert Ting
Illahi Virani
Jayson Wu
Kevin Wu
Grace Xu
Margare Zhang
Wheeler High School
Saman A. Bhamani
Fianko Buckle
Mariah K. Butts
Caden M. Felton
Ayush Goyal
Adith Guna
Vanessa I. Leonardo
Andrew J. Mayne
Arya N. Mevada
Shivam A. Patel
Abhinav Piplani
Shraddha Sekhar
Keshav K. Shenoy
Rebecca G. Simonson
Hanna E. Waltz
David M. Weinberg
Zachary R. Yahn
Over 1.6 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2017 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants.
The nationwide pool of semifinalists represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors. More than 90 percent of the semifinalists are expected to be named National Merit Scholar finalists in February.
To be finalists, semifinalists and their high school must submit a detailed scholarship application, in which they provide information about the semifinalist’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received. A semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.
Merit Scholar designees are selected on the basis of their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference.
Three types of National Merit Scholarships will be offered in the spring of 2019. Every finalist will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit® $2500 Scholarships that will be awarded on a state-representational basis.
About 1,000 corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards will be provided by approximately 230 corporations and business organizations for finalists who meet their specified criteria, such as children of the grantor’s employees or residents of communities where sponsor plants or offices are located. In addition, about 180 colleges and universities are expected to finance some 4,000 college-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards for finalists who will attend the sponsor institution.
The 2019 National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in four nationwide news releases beginning in April and concluding in July. These scholarship recipients will join some 338,000 other distinguished young people who have earned the Merit Scholar title.
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We’ve just heard from Jeffrey Glossop, the chief ranger at the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area, who said this morning the panhandler who fled from a pursuit at the Sope Creek trails by his rangers and Cobb Police on Tuesday is still at-large
The park also has released some surveillance photos of the man, who may be homeless and living in the nearby woods.
He’s described as a black male in his early 40s, and is around 5-foot-9 or 5-foot-10 and weighs around 170 pounds, and has a droopy or lazy eye.
Glossop said the man was last seen wearing a dark t-shirt and spotted or plaid light-colored pants.
“We don’t have any reason to think he’s a threat to anyone,” but if you should see him do not approach him but call 911, Glossop said.
The saga actually began on Monday, when Glossop said his office got a call from a park visitor who said a man was sleeping in the woods in the Sope Creek unit.
He said park rangers responded and found him in a tent, but the man got away.
On Tuesday, he said, they got complaints from park visitors about panhandling by a man who matched the description of the individual they spotted on Monday.
Glossop said that man has an outstanding warrant in Rockdale County, but doesn’t know what for.
The Sope Creek trails are open to the public today; Glossop said only the Paper Mill Road parking lot for access to those trails was closed briefly while Cobb Police units were on the scene assisting with the search.
Glossop said visitors were asked during that time to park in the lot off Columns Drive to access the Sope Creek trails.
The park area is located near Sope Creek Elementary School, which was “operating on a normal schedule” on Wednesday, according to a Cobb County School District spokesperson.
ORIGINAL REPORT POSTED 5 P.M. TUESDAY, SEPT. 18
The National Park Service was searching for a panhandler who slipped away on Tuesday in the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area Cochran Shoals Unit in East Cobb, prompting a closure of the Sope Creek Trails.
The Chattahoochee NRA released a public message about the closure around 11 a.m. Tuesday, but didn’t say why.
Sgt. Wayne Delk, a spokesman for Cobb Police, said Cobb Police were called to assist in the search.
He said the individual being sought also has an outstanding warrant in Rockdale County, but he did not know the reason for the warrant.
Delk said the panhandler isn’t considered a threat to the public, and that the NPS is continuing the search.
East Cobb News has left a message with the Chattahoochee NRA and will update with more information.
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The following East Cobb restaurant scores from Sept. 4-14 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing to view details of the inspection:
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A Bells Ferry Road senior living development was approved Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, on a chunk of green space that’s been eyed for a variety of uses over the years.
They voted to rezone 35.8 acres of low-density residential land on Bells Ferry Road and North Booth Road at I-575 for 155 single-family, detached homes for seniors 55 and older. Here’s the agenda item packet.
The vote was 4-0, with commissioner Bob Ott absent.
It was one of two major zoning cases on Tuesday’s agenda that asked for the Residential Senior Living (RSL) category, which is becoming a more frequent request from developers in Cobb.
There was no formal opposition to the application by Jim Chapman Communities Inc., which had initially proposed 178 units. The homes will range between 1,600 and 2,400 square feet and will have an attached two-car garage. The request was supported by the Bells Ferry Civic Association.
District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb wanted to have the case heard due to some e-mails she had received.
Before making a motion to approve the request, she noted that the land had drawn the interest of developers for other types of development, including commercial, which she opposed to due nearby residential communities.
The land is located across North Booth Road from Chalker Elementary School. She also said the property had been nominated to be purchased as county parkland, but that use was rejected.
“The applicant asked for what we wanted,” Birrell said of the Jim Chapman proposal. “RSL is the best fit for this area.”
Among the stipulations as part of the rezoning include a right turn lane to be built from Bells Ferry Road southbound onto North Booth Road, and for sidewalks to be constructed along the frontage for both roads.
Before that case, commissioners approved a similar rezoning near Powder Springs, for 123 senior homes on 53 acres on Old Lost Mountain Road, that drew opposition from nearby residents for traffic and density reasons.
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One of the stipulations that was included in a revised site plan last year for the East Cobb Taqueria Tsunami restaurant was that an existing frontage sign had to go.
But the owners of the popular Asian-Latin fusion spot at 1275 Johnson Ferry Road have already attached their logo to the old round frame in front of what was the Caribou Coffee and Einstein Bros. Bagel eatery.
UPDATED: Commissioners approved the request, which was on the consent agenda.
On Tuesday they’ll be asking Cobb commissioners to amend that stipulation (agenda item packet here). It’s included in the other business portion of a zoning hearing that begins at 9 a.m. on the 2nd floor of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
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Lingering issues over Cobb non-profit funding have been put on hold by county commissioners, who want more time to go over proposals to spend $850,000 for grants to 15 local community service providers.
Rev. Ike Reighard
At last week’s commissioners meeting, they agreed to delay action, possibly to Sept. 25 when they meet again to conduct regular business.
The funding has been set aside in the fiscal year 2019 budget commissioners adopted in July, and would be distributed over the next two years.
Most of the organizations are part of the Cobb Collaborative, an umbrella organization that coordinates non-profit county grant funding.
Last year, commissioners changed the criteria for awarding grants to non-profits. The agencies must provide services related to homelessness, family stability and poverty, ex-offender re-entry and workforce development, and health and wellness.
According to Cobb deputy county manager Jackie McMorris, the Cobb Collaborative received 27 applications for grant funding, totaling $1.8 million, before making the recommendations contained in the chart below.
Several leaders of those non-profits on the recommended list spoke at Tuesday’s meeting about how they spend that money, and how it’s still needed.
Jeri Barr of the Center for Family Resources, which focuses on homelessness issues, said losing that funding “could be a death-knell for a number of non-profits.”
CFR would receive $141,339 under the current grant recommendation, the largest for any of the non-profit agencies on the list. Of that amount, $127,205 would be used directly for homeless-related programs, especially housing assistance.
“We help hundreds of families stay in their homes” with financial assistance that includes rent payments, she said, adding that that kind of stability keeps kids in schools.
Because of its Cobb grant funding, CFR also gets a federal match from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Barr said.
MUST Ministries, which is best known for operating a homeless shelter in Cobb, also provides housing and employment services for its clients.
The non-profit reported 2017 revenues of $10.6 million, and would receive $53,002 in Cobb grant funding under the proposal.
Rev. Ike Reighard, senior pastor at the Piedmont Church in East Cobb and the MUST president and CEO, told commissioners that of that $52,002, two-thirds of it, or around $35,000, goes for shelter services.
The remainder would be used for providing employment services for clients in the South Cobb area.
“You’ve been great partners to us over the years,” Reighard said.
Commissioners expressed some differences not only on how to spend the money, but whether to do it at all.
South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid was upset that other agencies weren’t included on the list that serve her community.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb said she’s concerned about spending taxpayer money involuntarily for such services and favors a voluntary process to fund non-profits.
Ott also has expressed similar sentiments, but his motion to table non-profit action was because he wasn’t at a work session on Monday in which the recommendations were outlined.
“It’s the first time I’m seeing this list,” he said.
Commission chairman Mike Boyce said without the services these agencies provide, the county would likely have to spend more money on incarceration and public health.
“What is the value of this county? Is this for the greater good of the county? My answer is, yes.”
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Dozens of schools, churches, civic groups, political candidates, local businesses and community organizations marched down Johnson Ferry Road Saturday morning in the 23rd annual East Cobber parade.
For nearly three hours, a busy stretch of one of East Cobb’s busiest thoroughfares was cleared of vehicles in a community celebration.
After the parade, more groups and businesses, food vendors and entertainers filled the south parking lot at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church for a community festival.
The dignitaries included school teachers of the year and Miss Cobb County. Several high school bands tooted fight songs in a quick turn-around from Friday night football games.
And kids brought bags to fill with candy thrown by parade participants.
Below are selected videos from the parade as well as a photo slideshow. (All East Cobb News photos and videos by Wendy Parker.)
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Dominick Blaylock scored an 11-yard touchdown with 32 seconds left in the game Friday to cap a Walton football comeback in a 27-24 victory over defending state champion North Gwinnett before a national television audience.
Blaylock was already having another marvelous game before he took the snap and raced down the left sideline, bowling over two Bulldog defenders as he pushed his way into the end zone.
It was the last of Blaylock’s three touchdowns, and helped the Raiders, ranked No. 3 in Class 7A, stay unbeaten at 4-0 in their first home game of the season at Raider Valley.
Walton led 7-0 and 14-7 before No. 4 North Gwinnett (2-2) roared back in the second half. The Bulldogs kicked a field goal with 5:42 to go in the game to take a 24-21 lead, setting up a thrilling finish.
The Raiders also played for a time without starting quarterback Austin Kirksey, who went out limping near halftime and returned in the final period.
“These guys just fight and fight and fight for each other,” Walton coach Daniel Brunner said after the game, hugging Blaylock, his baby-faced star who’s bound for the University of Georgia next season.
“I’m so glad I’ve got this dude here, the best player in the state of Georgia,” Brunner said. “He may look sweet, but he sure doesn’t play like it.”
Dominick Blaylock gets Walton on the scoreboard first late in the first quarter. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)
Blaylock gave Walton a 7-0 lead with 2:15 left in the first quarter on a two-yard run. On its next drive, North Gwinnett answered, with Tyler Goodson finishing off with a short TD for a 7-7 score.
By the time dusk turned to dark, the dramatics heightened.
Walton regained the lead at 14-7 on an eight-yard TD run by Kirksey. But with 29 seconds to play before halftime, he went out of the game, walking gingerly off the field. He was replaced by freshman Zac Rozsman.
Midway in the third quarter, and on fourth down, the Bulldogs drew even at 14-14 on a 38-yard desperation heave from JR Martin to Garrison Minor.
The Walton defense holds on third down.
North Gwinnett, whose only loss last season was to Walton in the Corky Kell Classic, went ahead for the first time at 21-14 with a touchdown with 1:40 left in the third quarter.
At the same time, Kirksey began limbering up on the sideline, as Walton players and coaches tried to figure out how to come from behind. The answer, of course, was with a whole lot of Blaylock, but the Raiders had to climb out of some holes they created for themselves along the way.
Upon Kirksey’s return, he led a drive that resulted in Blaylock’s second touchdown, which made the score 21-21 with 8:41 left in the fourth quarter.
On their next drive, the Raiders were driving deep when a first-down run by KD Alford (below) was nullified because of a penalty. That could have spelled doom for Walton, as well as Kirksey being sacked on the North Gwinnett 45.
That set up a third-and-27 for Walton, and Kirksey hooked up with Blaylock for a first down to the 12. Blaylock finished off the comeback, and the defending state champions, two plays later.
Walton’s defense held off the last chance for the Bulldogs, forcing three incomplete passes, then sacked the quarterback on the last play of the game.
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The planned mixed-use center on the site of the former Mountain View Elementary School will be anchored by a 25,000-square foot GreenWise Market, which features organic and natural groceries and products.
It’s considered a competitor to Whole Foods and Sprouts, which have East Cobb locations in the Roswell-Johnson Ferry corridor.
The East Cobb store will be part of the first slate of GreenWise Market locations opening soon in the Southeast.
The first is coming next month in Tallahassee, with stores in the works and planned to open next year in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., Lakeland, Fla. (where Publix is based) and Boca Raton.
Publix isn’t saying for now when the East Cobb store is opening, but it also could be sometime in 2019.
All that Publix Senior Vice President of Retail Operations Kevin Murphy said in today’s announcement is that “we admire the diverse cultural landscape and deep history of the Atlanta area. We look forward to creating a unique experience for our Atlanta-area customers.”
The new 100,000-square-foot project at Sandy Plains Road and Shallowford Road, which hasn’t been named, is being developed by Fuqua Developmentof Atlanta, which is the developer of The Battery Atlanta and the Kennesaw Marketplace, which includes a Whole Foods store.
Other plans for Fuqua’s East Cobb complex on the former school site include restaurants, retail shops, a bank and a self-storage facility.
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Back in August we noted that tonight’s Walton-North Gwinnett football game was going to be nationally televised.
That’s still the case, but the outlet has changed, and it’s going to show the game to a bigger audience. Instead of being shown on ESPNU, Raider Valley’s going to be showcased on ESPN2.)
The battle between the No. 3 Raiders (3-0) and No. 4 North Gwinnett (2-1), last year’s Georgia Class 7A state champions, is part of ESPN’sGeico High School Football Showcase.
It’s also the first home game of the season for Walton, and please note that if you’re going, kickoff is at 7 p.m., and not the standard 7:30 p.m.
That’s for television reasons, since the Walton game is the part of a doubleheader.
Last year, Walton defeated North Gwinnett in the Corky Kell Classic in what would be the only defeat of the season for the Bulldogs.
All East Cobb high school football teams are in action after four, including Walton, had bye weeks. Tonight’s other games all start at 7:30 p.m.
Wheeler is also seeking to go 4-0 at Lassiter, which is 1-2. It’s also homecoming for the Trojans. A parade starts at 5:30 p.m. from the Wendy’s on Shallowford Road (near Sandy Plains) and will proceed to the school.
At Pope, it’s the Matt Hobby Game, which we posted here yesterday, and as the Greyhounds are seeking their first win of the season. Sprayberry (1-2), travels to play Harrison (4-0), ranked No. 3 in Class 6A.
Kell, the only other ranked team in East Cobb, is No. 10 in Class 5A and puts its 2-1 record on the line at East Paulding (0-2). Last week the Longhorns fell 35-6 at home to top-ranked Rome, the 2017 Class 5A state champion.
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The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved spending $15.66 million to build a new Lassiter High School gym, but it’s going to cost a good bit more than what was initially anticipated.
That’s because the original planning for the new gym was in 2012, including cost estimates, according to John Adams, deputy superintendent for the Cobb County School District.
He told school board members at a work session earlier Thursday afternoon that the original estimate was $10.8 million.
But since then, the Cobb school district has increased its seating specifications for new high school gyms, from 2,500 to 3,000. Annual construction inflation of six percent also was worked into the new figure.
The board later approved unanimously a bid to award the contract to R.K. Redding Construction Inc. of Bremen to build the new Lassiter gym, which will replace the original gym that opened with the school in 1980.
Adams said the cost could have exceeded $16 million, and “we think this is a good price for this gym.”
The project, which Adams said is expected to be completed by November 2019, is included in the Cobb Ed-SPLOST IV notebook.
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Davis is a first-time candidate and has children at Teasley Elementary School and Campbell Middle School.
