The Walton football team’s dream season ended in heartbreak Wednesday as the Raiders suffered their only loss.
Milton took advantage of four turnovers by Walton in the second half to win the Georgia High School Association’s Class 7A championship game 31-21 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The Raiders entered the game at 14-0 and were trying to win their first state title in school history, featuring an offense that averaged nearly 50 points a game during the season.
Walton was held well below its offensive average across the board as star quarterback Jeremy Hecklinski was harassed all evening by an active Milton defensive pash rush.
Walton led 14-7 at halftime, but disaster struck right after the third quarter began.
The Eagles converted a fumble into a field goal and two interceptions into touchdowns on Walton’s first three possessions of the second half.
On the second interception, Ty Redmond returned a Hecklinski pass 58 yards, setting up a touchdown by Milton quarterback Luke Nickel that widened Walton’s deficit to 24-14.
Hecklinski struck back right away, throwing a 43-yard touchdown pass to Cameran Loyd with 7:28 to play in the game.
In the final minute, Raiders defender Oliver Skeean intercepted a pass as Walton set up on its own 1-yard-line. But Milton’s Jacorey Stewart stepped in front of a Walton receiver at the 5-yard-line and picked off Hecklinski again, scoring the final touchdown of the game.
The title was the second for Milton since 2018. Walton, which reached the finals in 2011 before losing to Grayson, is a state runner-up for the second time.
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The Atlanta-based professional singing company Coro Vocati will be performing Saturday at St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church.
There are still a few holiday-related events taking place in East Cobb this weekend, largely of the performing arts variety.
On Friday, the East Cobb-based MDE Vocational Academy will be holding its annual Winterfest Market. Students from the special-needs school will be selling their homemade hot chocolate bombs, ornaments, Mason Jar cookie kits, pot holders, and other gift items, and Santa and Mrs. Claus are rumored to be making an appearance.
The event is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the school (1523 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 200) and admission is free.
On Saturday is the 4th annual Dance Stop Company Holiday Spectacular, featuring performers from the East Cobb-based dance school. Two shows will take place at the Lassiter Concert Hall (2601 Shallowford Road)—at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Tickets are $15, and Dance Stop students get a free ticket with every single ticket purchase.
On Saturday night, St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church (571 Holt Road) will be the venue for “Christmas with Coro Vocati,” with carols and songs to celebrate the season.
Coro Vocati is an ensemble of professional singers based in Atlanta, and the program includes traditional carols, arrangements by modern composers, and Christmas-themed standards.
The concert begins at 7 p.m. and the public is invited to the free event, a presentation in the 12th Annual Friends of Music series at St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church. A reception follows with opportunity to meet the artists.
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“I can’t support a 30-year tax, but it will be up to voters to decide,” commissioner JoAnn Birrell said.
In a partisan vote, the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved adding a referendum to the November 2024 general election ballot on whether to collect a 30-year sales tax for a major development of the county’s transit system.
Commissioners also approved a project list for the referendum that in East Cobb would include the reinstatements of bus routes running along Roswell Road and connecting to the Dunwoody MARTA station, and a new transit station in the Roswell-Johnson Ferry area.
The Cobb Mobility Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax, if approved by voters, would collect a one-percent tax for an estimated $10.8 billion, financing the creation of several high-occupancy bus routes, the construction of transit centers and expanding microtransit, paratransit and other transit options around the county.
Cobb collects a SPLOST for overall county projects, and the Cobb County School District also has its own SPLOST for school construction, maintenance and technology projects.
But Cobb DOT officials have been planning for a possible transit referendum for several years, with Atlanta Regional Commission projections that the county’s population will near a million people by 2050.
The board’s three Democrats voted in favor of having the referendum, while Republican commissioners were opposed.
The items on the project list would add 106 miles of bus and transit routes to the existing CobbLinc service, which has only one route in the East Cobb area, along Powers Ferry Road.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of District 3 in East Cobb said the length of the proposed tax is far too long, and consists only of transit projects.
“In the past I’ve always supported our county SPLOST going to a referendum, but the maximum they were was six years,” she said. “But they had not only transportation, but libraries, parks, public safety and other departments.
“I can’t support a 30-year tax but it will be up to voters to decide and that’s the bottom line.”
Commissioner Monique Sheffield of South Cobb, who grew up in Brooklyn, said she might not have had the educational opportunities she had without being able to ride the subway in New York City, and that many young Cobb citizens are facing similar obstacles.
“The generations are getting younger, things are changing,” she said. “I look forward to see how this plays out in the community.”
Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said that “we have moment of transformation before us today.”
She compared the chance to vastly expand transit options to the 2013 vote by commissioners to enter into a 30-year memorandum of understanding with the Atlanta Braves to build a baseball stadium, and the county’s buildout of sewer systems in the 1980s.
“I’m sure there were reasonable voices of concern about those times, but there are reasonable considerations of why now,” said Cupid, who was the only commissioner to vote against the Braves stadium deal.
“This is a board of action, this is a board that wants to get this done,” she said. “I’ve seen moments of opportunity come and go.”
Cobb voters rejected a referendum in 1971 to join the then-now Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. In 1989 the county created Cobb Community Transit (now called CobbLinc) to provide a limited amount of transit services, including express buses serving commuters in downtown Atlanta.
She said Cobb has had “consideration of a robust investment in transit for almost 50 years now. . . . and we’re at a key time to offer commensurate options for our community.”
Commissioners voted along the same 3-2 split to approve spending $187,000 for an education campaign to take place in 2024 ahead of the referendum.
That effort, which includes a combined donation of $100,000 from the Town Center and Cumberland Community Improvement Districts, will include town hall meetings and other information presented to citizens.
After the vote, citizens spoke on the issue in public comment sessions.
Kevin Cutliff of East Cobb, a 21-year-old who supports the transit tax, said many in his generation are struggling to afford cars to get around.
He uses a combination of an electric bike and CobbLinc, but said he doesn’t feel safe with the former and feels “disconnected” with the latter, saying the current system has very limited access to the rest of metro Atlanta.
“This transit referendum hopefully will change that going forward,” Cutcliff said. “When voters use transit, this affects all of us, when all of it is connected.”
But Cobb resident Tracy Stevenson said the overall cost of the Mobility SPLOST—nearly $11 billion—”is a buttload of money.
“Do we need to overhaul the system? Probably? Do we need to have compassion for people? Absolutely. Are there are better ways to do it that use a 30-year technology to move forward. We put rosy new names on things, but it’s still a bus system.
“If we can manage the system better than we have now then why don’t we?”
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Brunessa Drayton, a former Cobb Library System supervisor and chief assistant to Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, announced Tuesday she is running for Cobb Superior Court Clerk in 2024.
Drayton, a Democrat who declared her intent to run in November, said she is running “because the Clerk’s office is in need of leadership that’s focused on the details. I’m ready to bring leadership, integrity, and transparency to the Clerk’s office.”
She the second Democratic hopeful challenging incumbent clerk Connie Taylor, who has come under fire for personally pocketing more than $400,000 in passport fees—which are legal—but far beyond her salary of $170,000.
More recently, Taylor has been the subject of complaints from lawyers, judges and prosecutors, as reported by the MDJ, for a backlog of filing online court records going back several months.
The newspaper reported last week that Cobb Superior Court Judge Robert Leonard even posted a message on his Facebook page telling attorneys with cases before him that “if you have something important that needs attention, or even a responsive pleading with a hearing coming up, please send my office a courtesy copy.”
Taylor was elected in 2020, defeating Republican incumbent Rebecca Keaton.
In a release announcing her campaign, Drayton didn’t mention Taylor by name or specify those issues, but said that “I know the importance of a government that works for people and makes the most of our community’s hard-earned taxpayer dollars. Under my leadership, the Clerk’s office will solve problems instead of creating them.”
In her time in Cupid’s office, Drayton helped provide oversight during the county’s COVID-19 response and to develop programs such as the county’s first Youth Commission and Cobb African American Public Policy Forum.
She also was the Northwest Georgia Outreach Coordinator for U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Drayton and her husband have four sons and live in Powder Springs. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University and a master’s degree in public administration from Kennesaw State University and has been a member of the Cobb Library Board of Trustees.
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The following East Cobb residential real estate sales were compiled from agency reports. They include the subdivision name and high school attendance zone in parenthesis:
Nov. 20
807 Snider Walk, 30068 (The Reserve at Olde Towne, Walton): $695,000
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A proposed bus route from Marietta to the Johnson Ferry Road corridor would restore service to East Cobb that was eliminated in Cobb budget cuts during the recession.
A project list for the proposed Cobb Mobility SPLOST would include what is being called an Arterial Rapid-Transit line along Roswell Road to the Johnson Ferry Road area, a total of 6.6 miles, and with an estimated cost between $125 million-$150 million.
That project list also includes a proposed East Cobb Transit Center, one of several planned as part of a proposed 30-year tax that would collect nearly $11 billion in sales taxes.
Cobb DOT officials will ask commissioners on Tuesday to place a referendum on the November 2024 ballot on whether to approve the tax, and to approve the project list it has compiled.
That list (you can read it here) details the cost breakdown for eight different project types, with nearly $6 billion devoted for what’s called “high-capacity” transit bus lines.
The proposed Roswell Road route is one of three in the Arterial Rapid-Transit category, along well-traveled routes and that connect to major activity centers.
The East Cobb route would extend to Avenue East Cobb, just east of Johnson Ferry Road, and down to Merchants Walk Shopping Center.
The East Cobb Transit Center location wasn’t specified in the project list information, but it would connect the East Cobb ART route with two proposed bus routes serving Fulton County and DeKalb County.
Those routes would extend to South Atlanta Street in the city of Roswell and the Dunwoody MARTA Station, according to the proposed project list.
The former is included on a list of local bus routes; the latter in a rapid-bus transit list of routes that would make fewer stops.
Currently the only transit option in the East Cobb area is a CobbLinc route along Powers Ferry Road.
Republican commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill oppose a 30-year tax.
In September, county officials held a town hall at Fullers Recreation Center, where residents expressed skepticism to a transit tax.
The commission meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), and the full agenda can be found by clicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
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The proposed 11th District would include all of East Cobb and Marietta as well as the Town Center area and I-75 corridor north of Smyrna.
The Georgia legislature completed a special session Thursday by adopting Congressional maps that would place all of East Cobb in the 11th U.S. House District.
But Cobb Democratic commissioner Jerica Richardson, who has announced for the 6th Congressional District that was substantially redrawn, said she doesn’t think the maps will “hold up.”
They don’t pass “the smell test,” she said in an interview Thursday on the Politically Georgia podcast, before the maps were passed.
The Republican-majority legislature was called into a special session following a federal judge’s order to redraw legislative and Congressional lines for violations of the U.S. Voting Rights Act.
Specifically, lawmakers were ordered to create a new majority-black Congressional district in metro Atlanta. That appears to be the new 6th District, which includes most of South Cobb and covers an area represented by longtime Democratic incumbent David Scott.
In a posting on her campaign Facebook page, Richardson said Thursday night that “the maps that Republicans drew are in clear violation of a federal court order to add a new majority-minority district. We fully expect a legal challenge to this map, and there’s a high likelihood that it can succeed.”
Richardson said she hasn’t decided which district she may decide to run in—candidates do not have to live in their Congressional districts—but ruled out competing against any Democratic incumbent.
“We will evaluate where the need is and decide whether my message will resonate with the communities in that district,” she said in the Politically Georgia interview.
While she was asked if she may take on current 6th District Republican incumbent Rich McCormick in the new 7th District, Richardson didn’t mention the prospect of running in the new 11th District.
That seat is held by Republican Barry Loudermilk, and the new lines would include some of Cherokee County, as well as all of Bartow, Pickens and Gordon counties.
She continued in her social media message that “while the battles play out in court over the next few weeks, I remain committed to running a grassroots campaign on the same issues that have driven me from the start: connecting all communities to power and ensuring they have a voice in government, protecting our fundamental rights, expanding access to healthcare, improving infrastructure and transit, and enhancing economic empowerment.”
Richardson, who was drawn out of her Cobb Commission District 2 home in East Cobb by the legislature last year, has been holding meetings and events in the current 6th—which stretches from East Cobb up through North Fulton, Forsyth and Dawson counties—since she announced her Congressional ambitions this summer.
Richardson and her two Democratic colleagues on the commission invoked home rule over reapportionment, which critics say violates the state constitution.
A Cobb Superior Court judge is expected to rule this month on that legal dispute.
“At every roadblock, there has been an incredible outpouring of community support,” she said on the podcast. “I don’t expect this to be any different.
“At the end of the day, people just want people to represent them. If we can keep the focus, we’ll all be okay.”
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The U.S. Department of Education this week launched an investigation into the Cobb County School District after receiving a complaint of what it calls “shared ancestry” discrimination.
The education department’s Office of Civil Rights is investigating the complaints under Title VI of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars schools receiving federal funds from discriminating based on race, color and national origin.
Those complaints can also include harassment based on a person’s shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.
The OCR, which has been stepping up probes since mid-October at the behest of the Biden Administration, did not specify the nature of the Cobb school district investigation, which was launched on Tuesday.
East Cobb News has not received a copy of the complaint and contacted the Cobb school district seeking information.
A district spokeswoman said in a statement Thursday evening that “despite social media posts made by familiar political activists which are simply not accurate, there is no antisemitism OCR complaint against the District. We are aware of a single complaint, at a single school, that isn’t related to antisemitism. All students in Cobb should feel safe and welcomed, we do not tolerate hate of any kind.”
The Cobb school district was the subject of public complaints by Muslim and Palestinian parents shortly after the Middle East conflict began for a message that went out informing school families of an “international threat” by Hamas.
The message said that “while there is no reason to believe this threat has anything to do with our schools, parents can expect both law enforcement and school staff to take every step to keep your children safe.”
Nazia Khanzada, mother of a Cobb fifth-grader, told the Cobb school board at its Oct. 20 meeting that the school district’s message “has directly resulted in hate, harassment and bullying threats directed at Cobb’s Arabic and Muslim students and their families, including myself.”
At the same meeting, Cobb superintendent Chris Ragsdale replied to the criticism by saying that “the information we received required us to let the entire district and parents know we were taking the threats seriously” and that “bullying and hate of any type will not be tolerated in the Cobb County School District.”
A Jewish Campbell High School student told the Cobb school board Thursday—the first night of Hanukkah—that she’s experienced several instances of anti-Semitism and doesn’t feel safe on campus.
A Palestinian high school student also complained that she and those like her are being silenced and demanded that the district provide more resources to increase diversity and inclusivity.
The district has come under fire in recent years for how it has treated anti-Semitic acts at schools, including swastika graffiti at Pope and Lassiter high schools in East Cobb.
A number of parents and citizens have asked the district to bring back a “No Place for Hate” educational program produced for schools by the Anti-Defamation League.
The OCR also launched Title VI investigations Tuesday at Montana State University, Union College in New York, the University of Cincinnati and Tulane University in New Orleans.
A number of other notable educational institutions, including the New York City Department of Education and Harvard University, also are being probed for complaints of anti-Semitic treatment since the start of the Middle East conflict.
If the Cobb school district is found to have violated Title VI, it could be asked to submit a plan for compliance or OCR could conduct its own enforcement.
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“Before we take our final bow, we ask you to join us once more. Let’s fill our dining room with the sound of clinking glasses, the aroma of favorite meals, and the warmth of shared stories. Come, be part of the grand finale of a place that’s touched lives and fostered a spirit of togetherness.
“Here’s to the traditions, the bonds, and the simple joy of a meal shared. Christos is not just saying farewell; we’re commemorating the indelible mark we’ve made in each other’s lives. Let’s make these last days glow with the essence of what we’ve built together.”
The Giannes family opened their first restaurant at Terrell Mill Junction in 1979, then moved it to the Delk Spectrum shopping center.
The renamed Kouzina Christos opened in the revived Terrell Mill Village shopping center in 2012, but closed it in December 2020 following COVID-19 closures that Giannes said were crippling to mom and pop restaurants like his.
That’s across the street from the MarketPlace Terrell Mill redevelopment, and Giannes wrote at the time that “chains are happy to see the mass failure of independents, expanding the labor pool, increasing competition and increasing downward pressure on hourly wages. Corporate greed and avarice…supporting the Chinese economy.”
Giannes moved Kouzina Christos to the former Aurelio’s Pizza spot at the Market Plaza Shopping Center on Johnson Ferry Road in March 2021.
Om Thursday, Giannes said that “Christos is not just saying farewell; we’re commemorating the indelible mark we’ve made in each other’s lives. Let’s make these last days glow with the essence of what we’ve built together.”
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Chabad of East Cobb is hosting a Menorah Lighting event Sunday at Avenue East Cobb to kick off Chanukah.
There’s plenty of music in the air this weekend across East Cobb, as the Christmas and Hanukkah seasons overlap.
Two East Cobb congregation choirs are joining together for what they’re calling “There’s A Song in the Air” concerts at each respective church.
The first is Friday from 7-8 p.m. at Grace Resurrection Methodist Church (1200 Indian Hills Parkway) and then on Sunday from 5-6 p.m. at East Cobb United Methodist Church (2325 Roswell Road).
The public is invited to these free events.
Likewise, east and west Cobb churches and the Georgia Festival Chorus are combining for “Handel’s Messiah Sing-Along” concerts in two parts. The first is Saturday at 6 p.m. at Due West Methodist Church (3956 Due West Road) for Part I, followed on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Eastminster Presbyterian Church (3125 Sewell Mill Road).
The concerts are free and open to the public.
The annual Christmas at Johnson Ferry festivities this year are dubbed “Sounds of the Season,” featuring a Christmas concert in the sanctuary, with the Johnson Ferry Baptist Church choir, orchestra, sing team, students and children in performance, followed by what we’re told are very, very snowy family activities in a winter wonderland setting.
The free events are Saturday-Sunday from 5-730 p.m. at the church (955 Johnson Ferry Road).
The last two shows of CenterStage North Theatre’s “A Dickens’ Christmas Carol” are set for Thursday-Friday starting at 7 p.m. at The Art Place (3330 Sandy Plains Road).
The Styckes Upon Thump Repertory Company embarks on its fifteenth annual tour of the Dickens classic, subtitled “A Traveling Travesty in Two Tumultuous Acts.”
Tickets are $15-$27.
The weather on Saturday should be pleasant enough for another Hyde Farm Walking Tour. Cobb PARKS leads tours at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. to explore the 1840s-era working farm, as well as fields, pastures an orchard and more natural wonders near the banks of the Chattahoochee River.
The tours are free and participants should gather near the red gate at the end of the parking lot. Call 770-528-8840 for information.
The Hanukkah season is getting underway, and once again the Chabad of Cobb synagogue will lead the celebrations with a Menorah Lighting at Avenue East Cobb on Sunday.
The free family-friendly activities begin at 5:30 p.m. with music and treats, including the Gelt Drop, with chocolates falling out of the sky, thanks to Cobb Fire Ladder 20.
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They said that “due to unforeseen delays in the construction and permitting process with East Cobb County, we are being forced to postpone the grand opening event.”
The Belgian-style waffle eatery is set to occupy one of the new “jewel box” spaces at Avenue East Cobb, a key component of the retail center’s overhaul under North American Properties.
Grand opening festivities were to include live music from local schools and churches, discounts and more.
The announcement comes a day after Press Waffle formerly sent out word of its opening. Keith Ginel told us that a new opening date hasn’t been set and that “our contractor is working on an updated schedule for us now.”
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A couple of new fitness centers in East Cobb are collecting gifts and toys for children in need this holiday season.
The Strongvibe studio at Paper Mill Village (147 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 4110) is having a holiday party on Saturday starting at 11 a.m. and is asking attendees to bring a gift for Cobb students who are experiencing homelessnesss.
Owner Erica Manning has started a wishlist spreadsheet (you can read it here) where you’re asked to indicate what items (and how many) you’ll be bringing.
The items include clothing, shoes, pajamas, coats and gift cards. Just sign up accordingly and you can bring your items during regular studio hours through the holiday party.
RSVP at erica@strongvibefit.com or 770-573-4010.
Stretch Zone East Cobb is pairing with East Cobb-based Simple Needs GA to collect holiday toys in a drive that continues through Dec. 15.
The studio (4371 Roswell Road, East Cobb Crossing Shopping Center) is accepting a variety of unwrapped toys for children of all ages. Stretch Zone will offer donors a free stretch session (up to two per customer) with a new or existing contract.
“Many of the families referred to us by school social workers and others have missed out on other local holiday programs because of unforeseen circumstances,” Simple Needs GA founder Brenda Rhodes said. “We want them to experience the spirit of Christmas just the same. In 2022, SNGA supplied Christmas gifts to about 300 Cobb County kids from over 100 families.”
Requested items include gift cards, Bath & Body Works products, art supplies, African-American baby dolls and accessories, Legos, VTech and Leapfrog educational toys, bike helmets, Fisher-Price play sets, board and card games, and gloves, mittens, hats and scarves in adult and older teen sizes.
For information email eastcobb@stretchzone.com or call 770-282-7941.
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The Cobb Planning Commission voted Tuesday to recommend approval of a proposed Guthries’ Chicken drive-through restaurant in East Cobb.
After continuing the application for a month, the board placed the application on the consent agenda by a 4-0 vote when no opposition arose.
The initial request to convert 3.17 acres at the southwest intersection of Lower Roswell Road and Johnson Ferry Road from planned shopping center (PSC) to neighborhood retail commercial (NRC) was on consent.
East Cobb Guthries LLC wants to convert an empty medical building for a two-lane drive-through only restaurant and purchased the property last year.
But the East Cobb Civic Association objected to some of the variances and was concerned about the lack of a detailed site plan and asked for more time to review the request.
Guthrie’s hired noted zoning attorney Kevin Moore, who submitted a stipulation letter dated Nov, 27 that addressed some of those issues and included a site plan (you can read it here).
The 1,500-square-foot building will be remodeled and the property will include 10 parking spaces, down from an original range between 22-25 spaces. The operating hours will be daily from 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and access will be on Lower Roswell only.
The stipulation letter indicates that Guthries “will utilize outdoor employee order service . . . during expected, heavier volume times.”
Traffic concerns also came up during the initial hearing in November. Cobb DOT revised a traffic study and requested that Guthrie’s donate right-of-way to complete the project and for an upcoming improvement project along Lower Roswell.
District 2 Planning Commission member David Anderson included in his motion to place the application on the consent agenda a stipulation that Guthrie’s conduct a traffic study.
The Cobb Board of Commissioners is scheduled to hear the case on Dec. 19.
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Peachtree Immediate Care, an urgent care facility with more than 50 locations in metro Atlanta and North Georgia, will be opening a clinic in East Cobb this week.
A ribbon-cutting is scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m. at the clinic at Woodlawn Point Shopping Center )1100 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 510). It’s part of an open house event slated from 12-2 p.m.
Peachtree Immediate Care is part of the Emory Healthcare Network, and provides comprehensive urgent care services.
The clinic is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week and offers urgent and family care services, treats minor illnesses and injuries, conducts sports physicals and X-rays, practices occupational medicine and has on-site labs.
Appointments are not required and both insurance and self-pay options are available. Patients can also check-in online and receive referrals to specialists.
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 residential real estate sales were compiled from agency reports. They include the subdivision name and high school attendance zone in parenthesis:
Nov. 13
884 Edgewater Circle, 30062 (Barnes Mill Lake, Wheeler): $339,000
1701 Old Canton Road, 30062 (Pope): $1.1 million
2674 Piedmont Oak Drive, 30066 (Oaks on Piedmont, Sprayberry): $432,000
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The Walton football team will end the 2023 season in the same place where it started—Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
The powerful Raiders clinched a berth in the Georgia High School Association’s Class 7A state championship game with a 41-25 win over Camden County on Friday.
Senior quarterback Jeremy Hecklinski threw for 325 yards and six touchdowns in his final game at Raider Valley, as Walton remained undefeated at 14-0.
This will be the second trip to the finals for Walton, which lost to Grayson in the 2011 championship game.
On Dec. 13, the Raiders will face Milton, which downed Grayson 45-35 in the other semifinal.
Walton’s high-powered offense, which has averaged more than 46 points a game, got off to a fast start, as the Raiders led 21-0.
But Camden County—coached by former Walton and Wheeler coach Jeff Herron—scored the first 10 points of the second half, as its Wing-T offense began to get momentum.
The touchdown was scored on an interception return for a touchdown, but Hecklinski—who is headed to Wake Forest—guided a long drive that led to a touchdown for a 28-17 Walton lead.
And the Raiders’ defense shut down Camden after that, allowing only another touchdown later in the game.
After the game, Walton coach Daniel Brunner told Georgia Public Broadcasting that he thinks Hecklinski is the best quarterback in the state.
“There’s no doubt about it. Look at the stats, look at the numbers. Best quarterback in the state. Bar none.”
Hecklinski has thrown for 3,708 yards and 48 touchdowns during the season, and running backs Makari Bodiford and Austin Williams are approaching 1,000-yard seasons.
They could surpass that in the state finals against Milton. The game will be played on Wednesday, Dec. 13, at 7 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where Walton opened the season with a 49-27 win over Grayson in the Corky Kell Classic.
But more importantly, Walton has a chance to become the first school from East Cobb to win a football state championship.
Walton lost to Grayson 24-0 in the 2011 state finals under former coach Rocky Hidalgo.
In 1973, Wheeler reached the Class 3A state championship game but lost to Thomasville.
Brunner, who was named head coach at Walton in 2017, has taken the Raiders to the state playoffs each year and has a record of 66-22.
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Two years after carving up East Cobb into two Congressional districts, the Georgia legislature could be dramatically tearing up those lines again.
During a special legislative session that got underway earlier this week, Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee Chairwoman Shelly Echols submitted a map that would put most of East Cobb in the 11th Congressional district.
Lawmakers were called to a special session after a decision by a federal judge in Atlanta to throw out the maps the legislature adopted in 2021, saying they diluted minority voting strength under the federal Voting Rights Act.
The legislature has until Dec. 8 to finish reapportionment work under the court order.
The 11th District been represented since 2016 by Cassville Republican Barry Loudermilk, and currently includes some of East Cobb.
The proposed 11th district would include some of Cherokee County and all of Bartow, Pickens and Gordon counties.
The map, proposed on Friday, would take the 6th District out of East Cobb completely. Some of the area is currently in the 6th and is represented by first-term Republican Rich McCormick.
Instead, the 7th District would include much of what is now in the 6th—North Fulton, Forsyth and Dawson c0unties, plus some of Hall and Lumpkin counties.
The proposed 11th District would include all of East Cobb and Marietta as well as the Town Center area and I-75 corridor north of Smyrna.
That would likely make the 11th an even stronger Republican district than the 6th. Cobb Democratic commissioner Jerica Richardson has announced her candidacy in the 6th, and she has appeared at events in more conservative reaches of the district.
Richardson was drawn out of her East Cobb home when the legislature reapportioned seats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners in 2021. Richardson and her two Democratic colleagues voted to invoke home rule and honor maps drawn by the Cobb delegation, an action that’s currently before a Cobb Superior Court judge.
In a social media message Friday, Richardson issued a statement saying that “these maps are an affront to the idea of fair representation and fly in the face of the judge’s order to the state.”
She referenced a similar action in Alabama, where Republican lawmakers under a court order created a second black-majority district in that state.
“My hope is they will see the error of their ways and fix these maps again before the judge’s Dec. 8 deadline,” Richardson said of the Georgia GOP lawmakers.
“If they do not, then I would support further legal challenges until the core message of the judge’s order is fulfilled.”
Nine of Georgia’s 14 Congressional districts are represented by Republicans, and eight seats are majority-white.
The judge ordered that a majority-black Congressional district in the western part of metro Atlanta be created. But the map proposed Friday would not do that.
Instead, it would add a minority-white district, keep the number of majority-black districts at four and leave one district that doesn’t have a racial majority.
That’s the current 7th District represented by Democrat Lucy McBath, who left the 6th District after 2021 reapportionment. It would have a strong Republican majority under the proposed map, and would take out all of Gwinnett County that she now represents.
The legislature also was ordered to create several majority-black legislative districts in the Atlanta and Macon areas.
The Georgia General Assembly has had Republican majorities since 2005. Currently the GOP has a 102-78 advantage in the House, and a 33-23 majority in the Senate.
Maps enacted in 2021 split East Cobb into the 6th and 11th districts.
The House on Friday voted out a House map along partisan lines proposed by Republican leaders in that chamber, and it will be sent to the Senate.
GOP State Reps. Sharon Cooper, John Carson and Don Parsons, who have East Cobb constituencies, voted in favor.
Voting against was State Rep. Solomon Adesanya, a first-term Democrat who represents District 43 in East Cobb.
Three redrawn districts in the House would pit Democratic incumbents against one another, including current Cobb delegation Chairwoman Teri Anulewicz and Doug Stoner.
Adesanya said in a social media message that “rather than doing the right thing, this time, they targeted our White Democrats, coupling members in three different House seats, which, essentially under their map, three Democrats will have to go, and three Democrats will remain. The Republicans in the Georgia House of Representatives must know their time as a majority is nearing the end. They are desperate to cling on to power.”
Senate Republicans on Friday also passed a map that would add two majority-black districts, and that will go on to the House.
Committee meetings are scheduled for Monday for the Congressional maps.
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Workers are still putting some of the finishing touches on windows and the exterior as we’re a couple weeks away from the official opening of Press Waffle Co. at Avenue East Cobb.
It’s occupying one of the new “jewel box” buildings that’s a key part of the retail center’s overhaul. Owner Keith Ginel told East Cobb News this week that the first day of business is Friday, Dec. 15, kicking off a weekend of special events, discounts and entertainment.
A ribbon-cutting takes place at 9 a.m. Friday, with the first 100 customers receiving free swag bags. Live Christmas music takes place on the patio from 4-7 and all day there will be photo booth “post and tag” opportunities for special discounts.
That latter promotion continues all weekend. On Saturday, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church musicians will perform live music on the patio from 12-1, and from 4-7 Walton HS will do the honors in the same place.
Sunday’s musicians are from Pope HS and will be featured from 2-3 p.m.
Press Waffle Co., which began as a food truck venture in St. Louis in 2016 and vaulted into fame via the television show “Shark Tank,” has seven locations in Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and Colorado.
The 1,200-square-foot space at the jewel box is the company’s first venue in Georgia. Gitel and his wife Niki are East Cobb residents and franchisees. Press Waffle, which features Belgian-style “Liège” waffles handmade (from dough, not batter) on-site.
There are a variety of sweet and savory options (including chicken and waffles, customizable toppings and a waffle ice cream sandwich), along with locally roasted coffee and espresso.
Press Waffle is partnering with Marietta-based Cool Beans Coffee Roasters and Rock House Farm & Creamery in Newton County.
Updates are being posted at the restaurant’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
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