It’s a traveling project of Love Love Beyond Walls, and illustrates the stigma of poverty in Atlanta and around the country with interactive technology, research and storytelling.
Exhibit tours will take place Monday, Nov. 7 to Friday, Nov. 11 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the KSU East Parking Deck (305 Hopkins Drive, Kennesaw).
Admission is free but tickets for the tour are required and can be reserved by clicking here.
Terence Lester, founder of Love Beyond Walls and the Dignity Museum, explains that the “one of the most distinguishable characteristics of our organization is our focus on telling the stories of the unseen. We are committed to the people that the world passes by because we believe the people struggling with poverty and sleeping on the streets have lives and stories that are just as valuable as ours.”
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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!
Reapportionment carved up East Cobb substantially across the board for the 2022 elections, including legislative seats.
Two of them—one each in the Georgia House and Senate—are guaranteed to have new representatives.
The Senate District 6 seat was vacated by Jen Jordan, who is the Democratic nominee for Georgia Attorney General. It’s a district that now includes some of East Cobb and the Cumberland area but is mostly in Buckhead, and the two candidates are both from the city of Atlanta.
They are Democrat Jason Esteves, the former chairman of the Atlanta Board of Education, and Republican financial services business owner Fred Glass.
House District 43 has been represented by GOP Rep. Sharon Cooper since 1997, but she was drawn into District 45 (map here), where Republican Matt Dollar served until resigning early in the 2022 legislative session.
A special election was held in April that was won by Republican Mitch Kaye, a former lawmaker who said he would not be running for the seat this fall.
His Democratic opponent, Dustin McCormick, is challenging Cooper, the chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee and who had close calls in the 2018 and 2020 elections.
District 43 (map here) has been redrawn to include much of the East Marietta area, Wheeler attendance zone and the Powers Ferry Road corridor.
Anna Tillman
The candidates vying for that seat are running for office for the first time in a race that could determine party control of the Cobb legislative delegation.
Cobb Democrats hold a one-seat advantage in House representation, and District 43 is in an area of East Cobb that has produced stronger Democratic results in the last two election cycles.
Democrat Solomon Adesanya is a restaurant owner whose priorities are expanding Medicare, protecting abortion rights and addressing climate issues.
Republican Anna Tillman is a retired geologist who is campaigning to support small business, promote job training and technical education and champion public safety, saying she would “oppose radical efforts to defund the police or any other Public Safety organization.”
Two Republican House members from East Cobb are seeking re-election in districts that include some of Cherokee County. They are Don Parsons of District 44 (map here), who was first elected in 1994 and who is the chairman of the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee.
His Democratic opponent is Willie Mae Oyogoa, who owns a travel business in Woodstock.
In District 46 (map here), GOP incumbent John Carson is seeking another term against Democrat Micheal Garza, who owns a web development business.
District 37 (map here) retains some portions of Northeast Cobb. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Mary Frances Williams is seeking re-election against Tess Redding, who works in the criminal justice field.
State Senate District 32 (map here), which had included most of East Cobb, also has been redrawn to include Woodstock and other areas of Cherokee.
Republican incumbent Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick is seeking a third full term after winning a special election in 2017. The Democratic candidate is Sylvia Bennett, an ordained minister and former social worker.
Georgia Senate District 56 has been expanded from its North Fulton base to include some of East Cobb (map here). Incumbent Republican Sen. John Albers of Roswell, who has been in office since 2011, is running for another two-year term.
His Democratic opponent, also from Roswell, is Patrick Thompson, a clean energy entrepreneur with technology sales and marketing experience.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb County School District will be conducting interviews for a number of staff support positions at a job fair in early December.
The fair takes place on Tuesday, Dec. 6, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cobb Energy Centre (2800 Galleria Parkway).
Open positions include bus drivers, food nutrition workers, school nurses, substitute teachers, custodians, and campus police. The job fair will also include positions with the maintenance, fleet maintenance, and special education departments.
Ahead of the job fair, candidates can preview current vacancies by clicking here.
Online registration is available by clicking here; and a district job application can be completed in advance by clicking here.
Cobb school district staffers will be at the fair to assist those who are unable to submit an advance application.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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 Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer is the featured speaker at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s East Cobb Area Council breakfast next Thursday.
A 32-year department veteran, VanHoozer was appointed in May. He will provide updates about the department, including the construction of a new precinct in East Cobb, as well as policing issues that include gang activities in schools.
The Council meeting begins at 7:30 a.m. next Thursday, Nov. 10, at the Indian Hills Country Club (4001 Clubland Drive).
The event also includes the announcement of the 2022 East Cobb Citizen of the Year.
Tickets are $25 for Cobb Chamber members and $35 for general admission. Registration closes and refunds will no longer be available after November 8. Walk-up admissions and payment cannot be granted.
This event is sponsored by Series Presenting Sponsor, Kaiser Permanente, and Program Sponsor, Cobb EMC.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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 Tunnel Rats have performed Vietnam-era pop tunes and country/bluegrass songs at previous United Military Care events. (ECN file photo)
United Military Care, an East Cobb-based non-profit, is holding its sixth annual free picnic to salute veterans at East Cobb Park (3322 Roswell Road) on Saturday.
The event is free to veterans and takes place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and includes Kelly’s Zeroes, military memorabilia, and re-enactors from Columbus as well as The Aviation Museum in Marietta.
The Tunnel Rats, a Vietnam Veteran band, and Jason Von Stein will debut “She Cried Douglas,” a song written about a photograph found in an old basement of a military couple and a soldier who didn’t come home.
It’s the second consecutive year for the event to be staged at East Cobb Park, after initially being held at the UMC office on Old Canton Road.
For more information about United Military Care, click here.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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 food scores for the week of Oct. 31 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!
A social media comment by a Cobb Board of Education member that “the Roman Catholic Church cannot be Christian” is being used by the political opponent of one of his colleagues in next week’s general election.
David Banks, the board’s current vice chairman who represents Post 5 in East Cobb, was the subject of an MDJpolitical insider’s column on Tuesday after making the remarks.
The newspaper reported in an unsigned piece on its editorial page that Banks was responding to a Facebook post by Jason Shepherd, the former Cobb Republican Party Chairman, about Martin Luther and the Reformation.
The report carried a screen shot of Banks saying that Catholicism is “more paganism in its beliefs. If Roman Catholics read the Bible They would realize the false doctrines. Only Jesus Christ is the head of the church.”
The comment either has been hidden or removed from the Facebook thread. The MDJ quoted Cobb school board Chairman David Chastain saying that he couldn’t comment because “Mr. Banks is expressing an opinion, and it has nothing to do with school board business. All of our board members are free to express their opinions on social media.”
A school district spokeswoman echoed similar comments in a statement that the personal views of board members don’t reflect the school district or its policies.
Banks didn’t respond to the paper’s request for comment.
Chastain, a Republican, is seeking a third term representing Post 4 in Northeast Cobb in what’s become a testy campaign with Catherine Pozniak, a Democrat who’s running for public office for the first time.
On Wednesday, Pozniak denounced Chastain’s comments on her Twitter account, saying that “here’s what Chair #theotherDavid Chastain misses time and again: it’s OK to say hate is wrong. That’s the leadership test Chastain fails when he says this is a board member simply expressing an opinion. Well, so can you, Mr. Chair.
“Whether formal action follows, condemnation of such remarks should be clear and unequivocal. Families and staff should hear that @CobbSchools welcomes and embraces all faiths/religions/beliefs. And that message should come from leadership, not an anonymous spokesperson.”
East Cobb News has left messages with Chastain and Banks seeking comment.
In 2021 the Cobb school board approved a social media policythat limits the public comments that can be made by the nearly 18,000 Cobb school district employees.
One provision bans employees involved with official social media accounts from sharing content “containing personal or political viewpoints, or any information unrelated to the District or school it was created to serve.”
The provisions also include refraining from making comments that “place in doubt the reliability, trustworthiness, or sound judgment of the district, the Cobb County Board of Education, or any of its employees.”
Employees also can’t post anything on social media “that may discredit the district,” including comments that violate privacy laws or that use any type of “hate speech.”
This isn’t the first time Banks has made comments that caused a storm. He sent out a newsletter from his official board member account last year urging people not to get the COVID-19 vaccines, and previously dismissed the disease as the “China Virus.”
In that instance, Chastain, who also was chairman at the time, said the comments didn’t fall under the purview for the school board to address.
When Banks ran for re-election in 2020, he said in an East Cobb News interview that the biggest challenge facing the Cobb County School District is for it “not to become a school system like Atlanta, DeKalb and Clayton” that he says have declined due to “white flight.”
Banks, who attends Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, has not weighed in on religious topics.
Last year, after swastikas and anti-Semitic graffiti were scrawled on bathroom walls at Lassiter and Pope high schools—both in his Post 5—Banks condemned the acts, saying the perpetrators have “no Christian values.”
Some citizens, parents and educators unsuccessfully requested the Cobb school board to reinstitute a “No Place For Hate” program prepared by the Anti-Defamation League that the district had dropped.
Those individuals included Cobb resident Hershel Greenblat, a Cobb resident and Holocaust survivor, but the board hasn’t discussed or taken up the matter since then.
Banks, a retired technology consultant, is serving his third term, which ends in 2024.
The newly redrawn Post 5 includes most of the Walton, Pope and Wheeler attendance zones.
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 Avenue East Cobb is donating all proceeds from special holiday event ticket sales to the Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Metro Atlanta.
The Habitat branch announced the news on Wednesday, with the retail center set to put tickets on sale starting next week. Sales begin at 9 a.m. next Monday, Nov. 8.
Those events include Experiences With Santa and Storytime With Santa, which runs from Dec. 1-23.
“We are so grateful Avenue East Cobb selected us as its holiday giveback partner, which will help empower the families we serve during a season that can be tough for many to enjoy,” Jessica Gill, CEO, Habitat for Humanity of Northwest Metro Atlanta, said in the release.
Other ticketed events at The Avenue East Cobb include Letters to Santa on Dec. 1, Christmas Crafts With Santa on Dec. 8, Canvases + Cocoa on Dec. 15 and Milk + Cookies on Dec. 22.
The Habitat chapter will participate in each event, offering more information on the organization’s mission and how to get involved.
“Everybody loves a reason to get together for the holidays, and what could be better than celebrating the season while also supporting those in need,” Madison Murphy, marketing manager at Avenue East Cobb, said in the release. “We’re thrilled to bring these experiences back to AEC and look forward to contributing toward the wonderful work Habitat for Humanity does in the community.”
For more about The Avenue East Cobb’s holiday programming and to purchase event tickets click here.
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!
Walton, Wheeler, Pope and Lassiter students in the Class of 2022 posted average scores on American College Testing (ACT) exams that are among the best in Georgia.
According to a Cobb County School District release, they were among the five Cobb high schools with average scores of 25 or higher.
Walton High School led the district with an overall score of 26.0, followed by Wheeler (25.2), Pope (25.0) and Lassiter (24.7).
The district said those four schools, along with Kennesaw Mountain (24.0) were among the top 30 in the state.
The composite score at Sprayberry was 21.4 and Kell’s was 21.2 (see table at bottom).
The Cobb district’s average score was 23, down from 24.3 in 2021, as were most individual school composites, including those in East Cobb.
Cobb students averaged scores of 22.7 in English, 22.0 in math, 23.9 in reading, and 22.7 in science.
The district’s composite score is tied for the top in metro Atlanta along with Fulton County Schools, according to the release, and 1.4 points higher than the statewide average of 21.6.
Marietta City Schools had a composite score of 22.9, comprising students at Marietta High School.
The ACT is a standardized test similar to the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) that is taken by college-bound high school students.
The ACT tests students in English, mathematics, reading and scientific reasoning on an overall score range of 1-36.
The Georgia Department of Education released district- and school-level numbers on Wednesday, with more detailed numbers from ACT testing in the six high schools in East Cobb.
The 21.6 statewide average is a point below 2021 scores. More than 35,000 Georgia students took the ACT in 2022, compared to more than 29,000 last year.
Walton (294), Lassiter (231) and Pope (214) were among the small number of schools that had 200 or more students taking the ACT in 2022, according to the Cobb release.
Four Cobb students had perfect scores of 36, the district said, including one at Walton and another at Wheeler.
The Top 15 ACT scores by school in Georgia is as follows:
Gwinnett School of Science, Mathematics and Technology—30.2
Northview (Fulton)—26.5
Alliance Academy for Innovation (Forsyth)—26.4
Lambert (Forsyth)—26.3
Walton (Cobb)—26.0
South Forsyth—25.5
Decatur—25.4
Johns Creek (Fulton)—25.3
Columbus, Wheeler, McIntosh (Fayette), North Forsyth, North Gwinnett, Savannah Arts Academy—25.2
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!
A developer whose plans for a “sustainable” subdivision in Northeast Cobb was recently rejected is suing Cobb commissioners and a prominent civic group.
Christopher M. Hunt of Green Community Development LLC of Atlanta filed what he said is a $100 million class-action suit on Oct. 20 in Cobb Superior Court that also names the East Cobb Civic Association and its current president, Richard Grome, as defendants.
Hunt claims in the court filing (you can read it here) that the rezoning rejection is “an unconstitutional denial” that has caused “economic devaluation of property” and “extreme financial damages” to the plaintiffs.
Commissioners voted 4-0 in September to turn down his request to build 13 eco-friendly homes on 7.5 acres on Kinridge Court.
The case was frequently contentious, as Hunt accused the East Cobb Civic Association of sabotaging his efforts to build what he initially declared would be an award-winning development.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who represents the area, held a public meeting before the vote but said she left when “name-calling began” that was directed at Cobb zoning staff and the ECCA.
She didn’t specify Hunt by name but said that comments were made that “I don’t appreciate or tolerate.” During the rezoning process, he spoke in often animated and at times confrontational fashion, especially toward those who opposed his case.
In his lawsuit, Hunt referred to Birrell—whom he misspelled as “Burrell” throughout the court filing and who is up for re-election Nov. 8—of “whoring herself to gain a few ECCA votes to the detriment of 700,000 citizens of Cobb County. ECCA does not represent homeowners but own agenda.”
Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit is Brian Johnson, the Cobb County Senior Associate Attorney.
The ECCA is a citizens group that represents roughly 9,000 homeowners that makes advisory recommendations on zoning cases. The group assigns caseworkers to examine cases and frequently speak at public meetings about them
The ECCA was opposed to the Green Community Development rezoning due to traffic, density and stormwater runoff concerns that were echoed by zoning staff in recommending denial.
According to Cobb Superior Court Clerk’s records, Hunt is representing himself in the lawsuit, which thus far has not received a formal reply from the county.
When East Cobb News asked for the county’s response to the lawsuit, a Cobb government spokesman said “per legal we will have no comment.”
East Cobb News also left messages with the ECCA and Grome. He replied that neither he nor the organization would be commenting.
The lawsuit accuses Grome of “unethical hypocricy[sic]” and is demanding that he resign his position.
He also said the ECCA and Grome “have proven to have a private unethical and illegal anti-development agenda of ‘means justify the ends’ against any development even when super sustainable, legally mandated and net positive to existing!”
He complained during the rezoning process that he wasn’t invited to attend a community meeting at which, he claimed, the ECCA “unethically and illegally gave patently false and misleading information to trusting neighbors to gain petitions of opposition” to the rezoning request.
While Hunt focused much of his ire in the court filing at Birrell, he said “the other commissioners were unethical and proved incompetent by abiding by unwritten but proven rule of ‘whatever a commissioner votes in their district the rest support’ no matter how crazy illegally bad!”
He said he wouldn’t pursue the $100 million in damages he is seeking if all of them decline to run for re-election.
In his lawsuit, which included several other spelling errors and incorrect e-mail addresses, Hunt said he will be asking for a jury trial.
He also wants homeowners’ associations to be “mandated to provide a list for rezoning approval at least 30 days in advance of any BOC hearing and agreed perjury will be prosecuted—there can be objections but not lying nor slandering.”
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 Government is holding what it’s calling community listening sessions in each of the four commission districts to gauge citizen input into its Comprehensive 5-Year Strategic Plan.
It’s a chance for the public to provide feedback on various county priorities and services and what county officials are saying is “the primary strategy to lead the ongoing vision and priorities of Cobb County.”
A public session for District 2 starts at 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 10 at the Boy Scouts of America Atlanta Area Council (1800 Circle 75 Parkway). That’s followed at 6:30 p.m. by Commissioner Jerica Richardson’s quarterly town hall meeting.
Another strategic plan session will take place at 6 p.m. on Nov. 15 at the Mountain View Community Center (3400 Sandy Plains Road).
An online survey for the strategic plan also is available and can be downloaded and filled out by clicking here. The survey will be open through Dec. 23, and paper copies will be available at library branches and senior centers.
Cobb commissioners recently voted to spend $1.45 million to hire Accenture LLP, an outside consulting firm, to conduct a comprehensive long-range strategic plan that includes a shorter-term element for the years 2023-2027.
A county release said Accenture helped formulate the survey, which takes about 10 minutes to complete.
“A significant component is getting input from those who live or work in Cobb about what they see as the county’s priorities,” the release said. “Residents can provide feedback to formulate initiatives based on community needs and help the county develop and deliver better services.”
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!
Steven Blesi sent out a photo of his son on social media after a Saturday stampede in South Korea. Steven Blesi Jr. was among 154 people killed in the incident in Seoul.
Among the more than 150 victims of a Halloween incident in Seoul, South Korea that turned into a deadly stampede was a college student from Northeast Cobb.
Kennesaw State University announced on Sunday that Steve Blesi, 20, a sophomore majoring in international business, was among those killed on Saturday.
The Lassiter High School graduate was studying in a semester abroad program in South Korea. KSU said it has 11 students in that program this semester and the other students are safe.
“On behalf of the entire Kennesaw State community, our thoughts and prayers go out to Steven’s family and friends as they mourn this incomprehensible loss,” Kennesaw State University President Kathy Schwaig said in the social media message.
Earlier Sunday, Blesi’s father Steven Blesi sent out a desperate message on Twitter saying he’d heard about the stampede but had not been able to get in contact with his son.
Later he Tweeted that “We just got confirmation our son died” and asked for time to grieve. Later on Monday, he interacted with the media and public on social media.
“He was a great young man with a big heart. Never said anything bad about anyone, was so full of love and loved by many.”
He responded to another user on Twitter saying that “We have to be strong for our other son who I will pick up at college today. Somehow we have to press on, but our lives have forever changed.”
“I just never thought something like this would happen,” he said. “I can’t understand how they didn’t have crowd control. I don’t even know how the hell it happened.”
He described his son as having “an adventurous spirit” and who “could have done anything he wanted in this world.”
According to a social media post by the Lassiter PTSA, the younger Steve Blesi graduated in 2020 and his brother Joseph graduated in 2019.
State Rep. John Carson of Northeast Cobb sent out a statement of condolence Monday afternoon to Steve Blesi Jr. and his wife Maria, saying the younger Blesi “was a devoted member of the Eagle Scout, Northeast Cobb County and Kennesaw State University communities, and in his short time on this earth, he was truly a bright light to all of those around him. He will be dearly missed, always remembered and forever loved.”
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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 Elections is offering two additional days and extra locations for voters to return absentee ballots before the Nov. 8 general election.
In addition to being able to drop off absentee ballots at previously designated locations—including the East Cobb Government Service Center—during early voting hours through Friday, there will be drop off availability on Saturday and next Monday.
It’s called “Last Call,” and it’s being done because of the proximity to the general election and to give absentee voters the assurance their ballots will be collected on time.
Absentee ballots can be dropped off at the early voting designated location drop boxes by 7 p.m. Friday or received by mail at the Cobb Elections office by 7 p.m. next Tuesday, Nov. 8.
In addition, the “Last Call” locations—all of them at public library branches around the county—will be available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday.
They include the East Cobb Library (4880 Lower Roswell Road) and the Mountain View Regional Library (3320 Sandy Plains Road), along with the North Cobb Regional Library, the Powder Springs Library, the South Cobb Regional Library, the Switzer Library and the Vinings Library.
Jennifer Mosbacher, an East Cobb resident and a member of the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration, said voters using the “Last Call” service will hand-deliver their ballots to an official registrar at the library branch of their choice.
That registrar will then prepare the ballot on-site for electronic tabulation that will commence with the closing of the polls on election day.
Mosbacher said the voter will be notified that their ballot has been received and that it will be counted after 7 p.m. on Nov. 8.
On Election Day, Nov. 8, absentee ballots may be returned only to one location, the Cobb Elections main office (995 Roswell Street), between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
4850 Rushing Rock Way, 30066 (Tanglewood Park, Lassiter): Barbara and Howard Goldt to Afu Mohammad Abdul; $975,000
1851 Ebenezer Farm Circle, 30066 (Ebenezer Farm, Sprayberry): Mark Campbell to Rama Konda and Purvi-Busa Konda; $868,000
3193 Bluff Road, 30062 (Hickory Bluff, Pope): Shannon Blackstone and Todd Lyman to Ferocity Assets LLC; $323,190
2310 Windmere Court, 30062 (East Lake Ridge, Wheeler): Carlos Torres Fletcher to Hagins House LLC; $155,000
640 Creekwood Trail, 30068 (Willow Ridge, Wheeler): Wallace Charles Cannon Jr. to Kristin Willis; $425,000
3730 Clubland Drive, 30068 (Indian Hills, Walton): Parho Properties Inc. to Debora Paralta-Garcia and Albert Vidiella-Oromi; $2 million
1922 Clearwater Drive, 30068 (Hamby Acres, Wheeler): Sandra Gay Farley to Courtney Alicia Newton; $200,000
1928 Clearwater Drive, 30068 (Hamby Acres, Wheeler): Courtney Alicia Newton to Sandra Gay Farley; $200,000
Oct. 12
4501 Outlook Drive, 30066 (Highland Ridge, Lassiter): Bradley Wedge to Samit Lal and Reema Mathur; $731,000
515 Dover Street, 30066 (Dover Downs, Kell): Esse Celender to Richard and Stanley Sharp. $345,000
4500 Club House Drive, 30066 (Highland Pointe, Lassiter): Clint and Meredith Sammons to Bradley Barrett and Celina Killilea; $675,000
4420 Old Mabry Road, 30062 (Old Mabry, Lassiter): Pamela Wiggins to Samuel Wilson; $450,000
503 Old Canton Road, 30068 (Country Place East, Wheeler): Built Holdings LLC to Adam Bates; $570,000
1944 Hamilton Place, 30062 (Meadow Brook, Wheeler): Bobbi Jo Pentecost, executor to Silvio Gomes; $251,000
1474 Wood Thursh Way, 30062 (Chestnut Springs, Walton): Bhavin Sanghavi to Colby Christian and Anna Skinner; $515,000
905 Sunny Meadows Lane, 30062 (Walton Creek Estates, Walton): Deluxeton Walton Creek Alpha LLC to Padmanaban Venkatesan and Subhashini Sriramalu; $1.253 million
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 rain stayed away for a Halloween carnival for all ages Saturday afternoon at The Avenue East Cobb.
The “Boo Bash” was certainly aimed at kids—with plenty of trick-or-treat goodies and a “Mega Awesome Costume Party” courtesy of East Cobb Church—but plenty of grown-ups and even a few pets came decked out for the festivities.
They included a bouncy house, balloon art and goods from local shops and vendors.
The costume contest included music, prizes for costume categories, an illusionist and a hopeful message for the holiday season to come.
Parents and kids also lined up to take a trip around the retail center in The Avenue Express, which also proved to be very popular.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
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!
We were wondering this back in 2020, when the Cobb government GIS (Geographic Information Service) launched a real-time wait-time map to assist voters during an extraordinary set of circumstances for elections:
To get the latest wait-time estimates, click here.
Our traffic figures reflected a high level of interest in that feature (including our most-clicked individual post link on Oct. 12, 2020, more than 75K times).
Cobb government said earlier Saturday that after two weeks of early voting in the 2022 general election, the wait-time map has been clicked more than one million times.
That’s also roughly the number of people in Georgia who have cast ballots during early voting, with one more week remaining.
In Cobb, the number of early voting is at 107,503, according to Cobb Elections, about 20 percent of registered voters in the county.
Through the first two weeks of early voting, 14,957 people have voted in-person at the East Cobb Government Services Center, the most of any location.
The Tim D. Lee Center is third, behind East Cobb and the Smyrna Community Center, with 14,620 votes cast.
That’s through Friday, with Saturday being the last Saturday for early voting. Sunday voting will take place for the first time in Cobb tomorrow, Oct. 30, from 12-4 at the Cobb Elections main office, 995 Roswell Street.
The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot passed on Friday. Those receiving them can mail them back in to Cobb Elections or drop them off at designated drop boxes during early voting hours only.
A drop box is located inside the East Cobb Government Services Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road).
All absentee ballots must be received at the Cobb Elections office or delivered to a drop box by the time the final election day polls close (7 p.m., Nov. 8)
This year voters will be choosing candidates in some new boundaries following redistricting, and there was an error in assigning some voters to the wrong post in a highly-watched Cobb school board race.
That’s in Post 4 in Northeast Cobb, where 111 voters have cast ballots although they’re actually in Post 5. Cobb Elections director Janine Eveler said 1,112 voters registered in the Sandy Plains 1 precinct were coded as Post 4 voters although they live in Post 5.
She said the votes that already have been cast cannot be changed, but the error has been corrected.
That race features Republican incumbent David Chastain and Democrat Catherine Pozniak.
It’s unclear what might happen if the margin of difference in that election is less than 111 votes, but the results could be challenged and a new election could be called.
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!
Venya Gunjal, a junior at Wheeler High School, was recently elected State President of Georgia 4-H at the State 4-H Council in Eatonton.
She will lead more than 200,000 students in Georgia 4-H, which is a youth development program that conducts projects in health, agriculture, science, civic engagement and public speaking with the aim of helping students acquire life skills.
As a representative of Georgia 4-H, Gunjal will be speaking at State 4-H Congress, State 4-H Council, 4-H Day at the Capitol, and Fall Forum. She has attended the State Officer Training to prepare for this role, where she met the Dean and President of the University of Georgia.
“Serving as a State 4-H Officer will help me touch the lives of so many more of my peers in a positive way. I’ve seen the work that past State Boards have done, and they’ve all left feeling completely inspired,” she said in a release issued by the Cobb County School District.
“It’s been a dream of mine to serve on the State Board for years. A position on the State Board of Directors will help increase my impact in communities all over the state of Georgia.”
Gunjal, who is enrolled in Wheeler’s magnet program, The Center for Advanced Studies in Science, Math and Technology, has been involved in 4-H since the 5th grade. She is a three-time master 4-Her, Dean’s award in STEM winner, and first place winner at the State Congress level for her presentation in the Environmental Sciences category.
She was honored in 202 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as the “Taking the Pulse of the Planet” award recipient and won first place in the public speaking competition at the State 4-H Congress;
Gunjal also was awarded the highest honor given by Georgia 4-H Master 4-Her, and earned the Water Wise Scholarship for water conservation and education within the community.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The long-delayed start to the Lower Roswell Road traffic project could be pushed back further after Cobb DOT officials said Thursday they’ll be proposing a redesign for part of the project.
During a community meeting at the East Cobb Library organized by Commissioner Jerica Richardson, Cobb DOT director Drew Raessler said budget issues and public feedback have prompted a number of possible changes.
The $9 million project, first proposed more than a decade ago, would add turn lanes and enhance traffic flow along Lower Roswell between Woodlawn Drive and Davidson Road, and in particular at the intersection with Johnson Ferry Road.
The objective has been to improve safety in an area with a high number of crashes.
But Raessler said at a meeting attended by a few dozen citizens that all of the construction bidders came in over budget—the lowest bidder was $1.9 million over.
Lingering issues over access along a portion of the project also are being considered.
“We’re going to go back and do a small redesign to bring the scope to budget,” said Raessler, adding that he is planning to ask commissioners for funding for a redesign in November.
Drew Raessler, Cobb DOT director
The main redesign changes would include removing a planned bike path and expanding a multi-use trail to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists.
The multi-use trail would be eight feet wide, but Raessler said the expansion could be “as wide as we can get it.”
Those changes have come about only in the last couple of weeks and are not yet reflected on the project’s fact sheet.
But Raessler and Karyn Matthews, a DOT transportation engineer who covers the East Cobb area, said the redesign work is expected to take 6-8 months. He estimated that the work could start in the first quarter of 2024 and be completed by early 2026.
Until recent months, little public opposition had been expressed. Most of the concerns came from business owners worried about traffic access that would be limited with a raised median on Lower Roswell between Davidson and Johnson Ferry.
Cobb DOT has proposed one left-turn lane in either direction, but that didn’t quell some of the citizens in attendance.
Some worried that traffic that now comes out of Parkaire Landing to turn left on Lower Roswell westbound would cause backlogs on Davidson Road with a median installed.
A proposed raised median would prevent left-turn traffic coming out of Parkaire Landing to Lower Roswell Road in a high-accident area.
One citizen wondered if a roundabout could be built there, saying that “you’re trying to retrofit something and a lot of it is unsolvable.”
When he suggested that that portion of the project be put on hold, Raessler said safety concerns have to be addressed.
Between 2016-2018, Cobb DOT said 61 crashes were recorded along the project route, 49 of them between Johnson Ferry and Davidson, primarily due to more than a dozen curb cuts.
That doesn’t include crashes in the Johnson Ferry-Lower Roswell intersection.
“There is a safety problem there,” he said.
Raessler said the median would be landscaped to add to a “sense of place,” providing some greenery and reducing the amount of impervious surface.
Some have asked the county to ditch the project altogether, wondering about trail access for a project deemed necessary for safety reasons.
“We’re not a pedestrian culture, we’re not a biking culture,” a resident said. “This is laden with so many hangups.”
Another component of the project is a passive green space area at the southeast corner of Lower Roswell and Woodlawn, where the Frasier house once stood.
Matthews said Cobb Parks and Recreation will soon be requesting funding to begin design work.
Larry Savage, a former Cobb Commission Chairman candidate has been a critic of the project’s trails component, said after the meeting that doing a redesign is a good step.
“But there are still a lot of conflicting goals,” he said. “They want to make it safer but then they’re going to reduce the speed limit for pedestrians and cyclists and that’s going to affect traffic flow.”
For a larger version of the project route, click here.
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 attorney for the property owner of the Starbucks at Paper Mill Village is asking for more time to prepare a rezoning request to build a two-story coffee shop at the same location.
Garvis Sams sent a letter to Cobb Zoning Office Oct. 21 outlining architectural and parking issues for the continuance.
A request by S&B Investments Inc. to rezone 0.73 acres at the northeast intersection of Johnson Ferry Road and Paper Mill Road for a 5,000-square-foot building and 25 parking spaces was to have been heard Tuesday by the Cobb Planning Commission but has been tentatively rescheduled for Dec. 6.
The zoning office has recommended approval of the request with some conditions, including no variances—a minimum of 50 parking spaces is required for the Neighborhood Retail Commercial designation the applicant is seeking.
“Building size will have to be reduced,” the staff analysis stated.
Starbucks occupies part of a smaller building that has been on that site for more than 25 years.
In a recent interview with East Cobb News, Suresh Parmar, who has run the Starbucks for that period of time, said the reason for the expanded building is to accommodate customers who want to “linger” by doing work or meeting with friends.
He said it’s part of a larger trend among younger people and those newer to the community.
Paper Mill Village also has stipulations for Williamsburg-style architecture. The proposed standalone Starbucks would have a more modern look, according to renderings.
In his letter Sams said “that a strict application or the utilization of a ‘Williamsburg style’ architecture may be preferable to some, but to others on the cutting edge of industry commercial prototypes, are of the opinion that such a style (at least for Starbucks) is simply ‘tired and forlorn architecture’ and not consistent with the more updated and ‘fresh’ architecture which is representative of area demographics.”
He said that the Johnson Ferry Design Guidelines—which apply to new and renovated properties in the corridor—”can also be incorporated into the design in order to comply with that document.”
Also being delayed again is a request to rezone 13.38 acres at 4701 Post Oak Tritt Road, near McPherson Road, from R-30 to R-15 for 20 single-family homes.
Scheduled to be heard Tuesday is a request ADP—Terrell Mill LLC for community retail commercial (CRC) from low residential at 1140 and 1150 Terrell Mill Road for a self-storage facility. A companion special land-use permit also is required.
The Cobb Planning Commission is a five-member body appointed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners to make recommendations in zoning cases.
Final decisions are made by county commissioners, who meet on the third Tuesday of the month.
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!
After easily winning election to the Cobb Board of Education in 2014 and 2018, incumbent Post 4 member David Chastain is facing opposition that has prompted a different campaign approach than in the past.
Typically circumspect and mild-mannered in public, the Republican chairman of the seven-member board has issued newsletters, press releases and other statements that are anything but reserved.
The intensity of his campaign against political newcomer Catherine Pozniak (our profile of her is here), a Democrat, has ramped up as the Nov. 8 general election date approaches.
Pozniak denied the charge, saying Chastain “has stooped to mining my father’s obituary and weaponizing the details of his death and his estate to launch personal attacks.”
She previously accused him of campaign finance violations he has rebuked, although he has hired a former Congressional candidate and state ethics chairman to defend him in Pozniak’s complaint that will be decided after the election.
In a Post 4 area (Kell, Sprayberry, Lassiter clusters) that was redrawn by the GOP-dominated Georgia legislature to preserve a Republican seat, Chastain acknowledges there’s a different dynamic this year.
Since his last election, Democrats have become the majority party on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb legislative delegation.
Until recently, she held a sizable campaign finance advantage over Chastain, who recently held a fundraiser at Atlanta Country Club. As of the end of September, both campaigns reported raising around $45,000 each, which is much higher than other recent school board elections in Cobb.
“Voters here have to show up and participate,” Chastain said in a recent interview with East Cobb News, referring to his conservative base. “I’m being attacked for things that have nothing to do with policy. You’re seeing this at the federal and state levels too.
“It’s not like me,” he said when asked about the charged rhetoric from his campaign, including his taking a shot at Harvard, where Pozniak earned a doctorate degree.
A proposal analyst at Lockheed Martin, Chastain is campaigning on the Cobb school district’s test scores and defending its academic accreditation, and is hailing a high employee retention rate and designation by Forbes magazine of being one of the top employers in Georgia.
Chastain also is a stalwart supporter of retaining the senior exemption in Cobb County for school taxes.
But he’s also frequently referencing what he thinks Democrats have in mind to in their attempts oust him, saying much of Pozniak’s support comes from “outsiders.”
“My opponent isn’t so much about our kids but to fulfill some sort of an agenda, more oriented toward more liberal social reforms and away from academics,” he said.
“It boils down to a power struggle and they want the power.”
Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the board. Chastain is the only GOP member up for election this year; Post 6 will stay in Democratic hands and Post 2 in the Smyrna area is Democratic-leaning.
Those new representatives will replace outgoing members Charisse Davis and Jaha Howard, respectively, Democrats who were at the center of several mostly partisan disputes on the Cobb school board the last four years.
Chastain has twice been chairman in his second term, including in 2019, when he proposed a policy to ban board member comments.
He said it was necessary because some members had become “too political” in some comments that weren’t related to schools. Howard and Davis complained they were being censored, but Chastain defends the policy.
He also defended Superintendent Chris Ragsdale for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic response.
“He’s done a good job,” Chastain said. “We are getting back now close to where we were before and are planning for the future.”
He rattled off some areas of emphasis, including expansion of digital learning, improving Individual Education Program options and increasing school safety.
Pozniak has been critical of the Cobb school district for flagging reading scores at the third-grade level as well as others, and said Chastain is mistaken in asserting that “things are good enough.”
Chastain said it’s at the third-grade level “when you first see who is going to need some help. I think we’re doing as much as we can. COVID was a mess but the resources have come together” for a recovery.
He also took issue with criticisms that he and the Republican majority on the board haven’t been responsive to some parents and students.
“Who are we talking about?” Parents and their children’s educations? Our policies and curriculum are aligned with state standards,” he said, adding that the Cobb school district is “building on success.
“We’re doing well for a school district that’s so diverse,” Chastain said, adding that “there’s this desire on the part of the Democrats to take power.”
A Wheeler High School graduate, Chastain doesn’t think his alma mater needs a name change, as some in that school community and beyond have been advocating due to Joseph Wheeler’s role as a Confederate general in the Civil War.
The board hasn’t taken up the issue since a board majority is required to add meeting agenda items other than those submitted by the chairman and superintendent.
That’s another controversial matter that’s come up in Chastain’s second term, as was a vote last year to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory. A board discussion wasn’t allowed, and the Democratic members abstained, but Chastain said the topic is “still relatively new.
“It’s difficult to define,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure that there’s no curriculum that limits a child’s perspective about their color and ethnicity.”
The Cobb school district has come under fire for some finance and spending issues, including some that were part of a special review by Cognia, the district’s accrediting agency, pertaining to COVID-19 safety measures.
“That became a dumpster fire,” he said of the Cognia review.
While Pozniak has said the district’s finances and contractual procedures are “opaque” and lack transparency, Chastain said he’s confident that the district’s procurement processes are solid and claims that the district “is a great steward of taxpayer money.”
Chastain said maintaining Cobb’s academic progress is his ultimate priority, and cited recent managerial issues and changes in the Gwinnett school district, the largest in Georgia, as a cautionary tale.
Once a solid conservative area, Gwinnett now has a Democratic majority on its school board that terminated the contract of 25-year superintendent Alvin Wilbanks in 2021, a year before his planned retirement.
“What has happened in Gwinnett—I don’t want that to happen here,” he said.
“Cobb is still the best place to teach, lead and learn in metro Atlanta. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”
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!
