Congregation Etz Chaim of East Cobb this week marked the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by honoring Cobb County School District resource officers.
Their presentation on Wednesday to resource officers Jerry Quan, William Marshall Duling and Kevin Brunson, thanking them for their service, was conducted in partnership with the Jewish National Fund-USA.
Teens from the synagogue’s youth group presented plaques to the officers.
“I felt inspired seeing the people who keep me safe at the synagogue I grew up in,” said Etz Chaim teen Mia Kleinman.
Said Tamar Oren, a senior at Sprayberry High School: “The officers are like our dads at school. They talk to us in the hall and are people we go to for absolutely anything. I know they have risked their lives and for that I am forever grateful.”
Etz Chaim Rabbi Daniel Dorsch said that “we continue to be grateful for our community’s partnership with Jewish National Fund-USA that enabled us to honor our law enforcement personnel in such a special and meaningful way.”
According to a release by JNF, the plaque features the JNF’s 9/11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem, which is “the only commemorative site of its type outside of the U.S. that lists all the names of those who were killed on 9/11.
“It represents the firefighters, paramedics, and police officers who made the ultimate sacrifice and worked tirelessly to save countless lives on that infamous day, and honors first responders who risk it all to protect and serve. Established in 2009, the monument is a testament to the deep connection between the State of Israel and the U.S., and our countries’ shared values of peace, religious tolerance, democracy, and fighting terrorism.”
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The measure sets forth terms for what constitutes disruptive behavior and how the board may take action in response, including allowing the school board to meet in an alternate location should disruptions get out of hand and calling on law enforcement to intervene “in any potential violation of law.”
A new state law gives local school districts until Oct. 1 to develop rules that must be adopted annually.
Cobb Superintendent Chris Ragsdale told the board at a Thursday afternoon work session that rules he proposed are “not to be confused with the public comment policy.” The rules “need a vote and have to reviewed every year.”
Darryl York, the Cobb school district’s Director of Policy and Planning, told board members that “a lot of the language” in the proposed rules are already on the books.
The new law, SB 588, states that members of the public “shall not be removed from such public meetings except for actual disruption and in accordance with rules adopted and published by the local board of education.”
Some attendees who shouted at the board to delay the vote continued their disruptions after, and chairman David Chastain called for a recess. The protests continued, with some shouting “Shame on you!” as the meeting was adjourned.
The new rules give the board chairman the discretion to enforce them.
During the work session Thursday, board member Tre’ Hutchins of South Cobb said he was concerned about provisions he said would discourage free speech and wondered about how they would be implemented in the case of serious disruptions.
“I would hate to see on TV a citizen escorted out of this room for exercising their Constitutional rights,” he said. “I’d like to know what that discretion looks like.”
But Ragsdale responded that “you don’t have a Constitutional right to disrupt a meeting.”
Board member Jaha Howard of Smyrna questioned a provision that would allow the board to meet elsewhere—with live streaming available for the public—if disruptions were an issue.
Chastain, of Post 4 in Northeast Cobb, said he doesn’t remember a meeting in which the board wasn’t able to finish its business.
Chastain also Howard that “you weren’t here in July,” a reference to Howard attending that meeting virtually.
“The goal is we will complete the people’s business,” Chastain said.
Board member Jaha Howard told him that “you have a lot more confidence in the board chair than I have. You haven’t been on the receiving end of being shut up.”
At the Thursday night voting meeting, the board agreed to a request by Howard to amend the rules to combine prohibitions on “jeers, shouting, or other disruptive noises” and “any other means an attendee may use to disrupt the meeting” into the same bullet point.
Davis did not explain her vote against the rules.
Before the vote, former Cobb schools guidance counselor Jennifer Susko, a regular critic of the district and the board, said during a public comment session that she and others speak out the way they do because they’re being constantly stonewalled.
“To avoid getting flustered by us, consider responding to your constituents at all, in any way,” she said. “The jeers, shouting and other disruptive noises only occur because ya’ll refuse to respond to your constituents.
“Most of us would rather not be here all the time disrupting, but we have no choice, since it’s the only way to be heard. I’ll look forward to the adjustments in all of our behavior.”
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The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced its initial batch of semifinalists for the 2022-23 school year, and Walton and Wheeler high schools lead the way for the Cobb County School District.
Of the 60 students, 44 come from high schools in East Cobb, including 18 from Walton and 16 from Wheeler.
National Merit Scholarships are awarded to high school seniors across the country based on academic performance, test scores and other requirements. This year, a total of $28 million in scholarship funding will be awarded.
Finalists will be chosen in the spring and will be eligible for scholarship aid in a variety of sources. Participants submit detailed applications and they must be endorsed and recommended by a high school official.
Students also write essays and are assessed on factors such as leadership abilities and honors and awards received.
“Merit Scholar designees are selected based on their skills, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies, without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious preference,” the Corporation states.
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Cobb County Government has placed a legal ad announcing a proposed resolution that would amend the county code to enable the Board of Commissioners to redraw commission districts.
The ad published Friday in The Marietta Daily Journal states that the measure will be discussed at commission meetings on Oct. 11 and Oct. 25, with a vote scheduled on the latter date, to invoke home rule powers under the Georgia Constitution.
Home rule powers are used to amend local legislation, although redistricting duties typically have been the province of the Georgia General Assembly.
Earlier this year, Republican-dominated legislature approved Cobb commission district boundaries that redrew District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her seat, which includes some of East Cobb.
The first-term Democrat moved to a home off Johnson Ferry Road last year that starting on Jan. 1, 2023 will be in District 3, which covers most of East Cobb.
But under state law, by that date she would have to reside inside the new District 2 boundaries, which include the Cumberland-Smyrna area and much of the City of Marietta.
The county’s legal ad indicates that the proposed ordinance, which would take effect Jan. 1, would not affect upcoming general elections in November. District 3 commissioner JoAnn Birrell, a Republican, is seeking re-election to a fourth term.
Richardson vowed in March that “I will not step down” and hinted at a challenge to the new lines that she did not specify at the time.
In an interview with East Cobb News on Friday, Richardson admitted that the proposed resolution is out of the ordinary. But so was the act of the legislature, she said, adding that in trying to come up with a response, “we realized there is no playbook.”
She insisted that it’s not about her staying in office but addressing a precedent of the legislature, which ignored a vote by the Cobb delegation to adopt maps drafted by Democratic Rep. Erick Allen of Smyrna, the delegation chairman, that would have kept the current lines roughly the same.
Allen’s bill, HB 1256, got a vote of of the majority of the Cobb delegation but did not come up for a vote in the legislature. Instead, Republican House members John Carson of East Cobb and Ed Setzler of North Cobb sponsored HB 1154 that included the maps that were eventually adopted and signed into law.
Richardson said it’s the first time in state history a sitting elected official had been drawn out of a district during reapportionment.
“For me, it’s about the principle,” Richardson said. “Will there be a check and balance to state control?”
She said she “was very surprised” at the GOP end-around and added that “I did hope Cobb County wouldn’t succumb where a portion of the delegation would be breaking away” from what she called a “gentleman’s handshake.”
City governments have had such home rule powers for years; should Cobb’s resolution be adopted and withstand any legal challenges it could have implications for county governments around Georgia.
Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said a copy of the proposed resolution, which would include the Allen maps, isn’t immediately available and “won’t come before the board until the October meetings.”
He later distributed a statement from Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid backing the proposed resolution.
She said that “the drastic nature of the state’s action has undermined the cooperation that generally does occur and should occur with counties and their local delegation when redrawing district lines. It has also undermined the expectation voters should have in trusting that those they elect to serve will be able to do so.
“I could not sit idly by and watch the integrity of this board’s composition and our citizens’ vote be callously undermined.”
Birrell told East Cobb News Friday she is against changing the maps approved by the legislature.
“Not only does it cause confusion for the citizens of Cobb County which is entirely disrespectful, it isn’t even legal,” she said.
East Cobb News has left a message with Carson seeking comment.
Richardson said her understanding of the home rule law is that since Allen’s map was signed off by the legislative reapportionment office, that satisfies state constitution provisions for invoking home rule.
“I’m going off counsel that has been provided to the board,” she said. “I trust them on so many other matters, I trust them on this.”
She said she didn’t think about moving to the new District 2 “because I’ve been in this community.”
When she was a student at Georgia Tech, her family moved to a neighborhood near The Avenue East Cobb and her brothers attended Walton High School.
After living in an apartment in the Delk Road area, Richardson said she bought her home in the Johnson Ferry-Post Oak Tritt area because “I was looking for a home as a young adult, growing into your career and into a community where I am from.”
She said she didn’t consider running in the new District 3 because she would have had to resign her position and a special election would be called for District 2.
Richardson has organized a political advocacy committee, For Which It Stance Inc., that was incorporated by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office as a 501(c)4 domestic non-profit organization.
That was created in March, as she announced her plans to contest the redrawn lines; the executive director of For Which It Stance is Mindy Seger, who led the East Cobb Alliance, which fought against the now-defeated East Cobb cityhood referendum.
Seger told East Cobb News that For Which It Stance was “set up to engage the community on issues of encroachment of governing powers,” the first of which is Richardson’s bid to stay in office.
Seger sent out a For Which It Stance press release Friday saying that “a Georgia elected official has never been forcibly removed from office during their term by the state’s redistricting process. . . Many Cobb residents have been anticipating a county response to this overreach of state control. That day is here.”
The release goes on to say that county action to invoke home rule “sets the scene for a legal battle that could create a powerful check and balance between state and local control. . . . If Commissioner Richardson is forced to resign, nearly 200,000 residents and Cobb’s economic epicenter, including the Battery, will be left unrepresented until her seat can be filled.”
A website has been set up for that campaign, called DrawnOutGA, which said that Richardson was not gerrymandered but “Jerica-mandered.”
The website has online petition and donations button, and there will be a “Local Control Summit” on Oct. 8 that includes “community courses” and a dinner.
Seger said plans for that event are still in the works, including a location.
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A few readers have contacted us about the closing of Red Sky Tapas & Bar in East Cobb and we’ve contacted the restaurant to get more information.
After 14 years, the restaurant founded by Terry Kirby and Brian Kennington at the Market Plaza Shopping Center on Johnson Ferry Road has shut its doors for good.
A reader messaged us Wednesday night and said “went by this evening and definitely closed. No signs but deserted.”
UPDATED, Thursday, 7:30 p.m.: Red Sky announced the closure on its Facebook page after this story published:
“Thank you for 14 wonderful years of memories, fun, friends and family. Sadly, we are permanently closed.”
There was no further explanation. East Cobb News has left multiple messages with Red Sky Wednesday and Thursday seeking further comment. There was no answer at the restaurant via telephone and there was no voice mail option.
RETURN TO ORIGINAL STORY:
The restaurant and retail site ToNeTo reported late Wednesday that Kirby said he and his partner “were presented with ‘an offer they couldn’t refuse’ and made the difficult decision to sell the business.”
They continue to operate 1911 Biscuits & Burgers, a breakfast and lunch spot on South Cobb Drive in Smyrna, but the Red Sky space “will reportedly be reconcepted under new ownership,” according to the report.
Market Plaza, which includes the Los Bravos, Kouzina Christos, Mediterranean Grill, Bagelicious and Fuji Hana restaurants on eight acres, was sold in August by Market Plaza Joint Venture to Palatka Mall LLC for $9.8 million, according to Cobb property tax records.
In addition to its menu items, Red Sky was known for its live musical entertainment—including dueling pianos—and having a variety of benefit and charitable events.
Kirby and Pennington opened Red Sky in 2008, years after coming up with the concept for a night dining and entertainment concept in East Cobb.
Kirby previously was a manager of a sports bar in Sandy Springs and was shot in the back and paralyzed below the waist during a robbery in which his pregnant boss was killed.
He frequently visited Red Sky guests, moving around in his wheelchair to gauge their experience.
“It’s more than a dining experience,” Kirby said in a 2015 interview with the AJC. “It’s a shared experience. You enjoy the food and the people you’re with. Dining like that builds relationships.”
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Here’s the first look a major change proposed for Paper Mill Village: The building containing an existing Starbucks location would give way to a two-story, standalone coffee shop with a drivethru lane.
That’s according to filings with the Cobb Zoning Office in an application scheduled to be heard by the Cobb Planning Commission Oct. 4.
The filings include a revised site plan with new access points and procedures for conducting a traffic study to gauge how the expanded coffee shop would affect traffic in the busy Johnson Ferry Road-Paper Mill Road area.
S & B Investments has applied to rezone the 0.73-acre tract on the northwest corner of that intersection from future commercial and R-80 to NRC (Neighborhood Retail Commercial).
(Although Paper Mill Village is a mixed-used commercial development, it has a unique zoning history that we noted earlier this year when the property’s developer sought NRC designation for other buildings there.)
According to the application (you can read it here and view more renderings), the building would be around 5,000 square feet and the Starbucks would be open from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. seven days a week.
A stipulation letter from Garvis Sams, the S & B Investments attorney, includes a lengthy list of retail uses that would not be allowed on the property (you can read that letter here).
S & B Investments previously requested, then dropped, a request to add a drivethru lane for its existing 1,600-square-foot building, which includes space for two other retail businesses. One of them, where a nail salon was located, is vacant, and the other is a dry cleaning service.
Initial zoning staff analysis concluded that there wasn’t sufficient space to provide drivethru service for Starbucks with the building intact.
In his letter, Sams wrote that “while Starbucks has been a presence at this intersection for decades, because of the change in demographics and circumstances engrained in the nuanced evolution of our culture generally and more specifically the like-kind demographic within this sub-area of east Cobb County, the drive-thru component is no longer an option but is, instead, a necessary component.”
There is a standalone one-story Starbucks just up Johnson Ferry at Woodlawn Square. There’s a two-story Starbucks similar to the one proposed for Paper Mill Village in Sandy Springs.
Renderings provided in the Paper Mill Village filings show expansive customer space inside the new building, and traffic configurations.
The initial site plan called for a two-way access point from an existing alley off Johnson Ferry Road.
That has been changed to provide separate entrance and exit access from that alley, and a two-way access point from the existing alley off Paper Mill Road. A total of 23 parking spaces are included, including handicapped spots, and the drivethru area would be sealed off.
Cobb Zoning Staff has not completed its analysis or made a recommendation.
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Cobb Police have arrested a man after he allegedly threatened to kill another man with a knife at an East Cobb Wendy’s restaurant Monday night.
Anthony O’Bryant Brown, 30, whose booking report says he is homeless, has been charged with one felony count of aggravated assault after the incident at the Wendy’s at 2238 Roswell Road, according to his arrest warrant.
The warrant states that Brown and another man were arguing outside the restaurant between 7:35 and 9:10 p.m. Monday. Brown said in the warrant the other man called him a “crack head,” angering him, and Brown then went inside and got a knife from the kitchen.
The warrant said that Brown said he “bucked” at the victim with the knife in his hand. The victim told police that Brown wanted to kill him, and that three Wendy’s employees heard him making that threat, according to the warrant.
Police were called to the scene and Brown was arrested, according to the warrant, which lists his home address as Elizabeth Porter Park in Marietta.
According to jail records, Brown is being held on a $22,000 bond at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
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The Chopt sign has gone up at one end of Pine Straw Plaza (4250 Roswell Road) where the California Pizza Kitchen used to be.
But a timeline for the opening of the salad concept location in East Cobb has still to be announced.
A public relations representative for Chopt Creative Salad Co. told East Cobb News in response to that question only that the opening will be taking place “later this year.”
The fast casual chain specializes in offering several dozen salad varieties that customers can customize for themselves, along with wraps, sandwiches, salads and bowls.
Chopt announced it would be coming to East Cobb earlier this year. It will be the fifth location in metro Atlanta, along with Perimeter Center, Buckhead, Ansley Mall and Toco Hills.
Chopt, founded in 2001, is heavily concentrated on the East Coast, in the New York City and Washington D.C. areas, as well as Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Chopt also has 21 locations in Alabama and seven in Tennessee.
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The following Cobb food scores for the week of Sept. 12 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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The Cobb Board of Education will be asked on Thursday to adopt a policy to govern conduct by members of the public at school board meetings.
Proposals include the possibility of allowing the school board to meet in an alternate location should disruptions get out of hand and calling on law enforcement to intervene “in any potential violation of law.”
Those proposals are on the agenda for both a work session and possible action Thursday night by the school board.
The work session begins at 2 p.m. and the voting session starts at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover St., Marietta.
The full agendas for the public meetings can be found by clicking here. An executive session follows the work session.
The agenda item (which can be found on pages 28-29) comes as local school districts in Georgia are required under a new state law to develop rules of conduct policies by Oct. 1.
The provisions of SB 588 mandate that public school districts provide public comment sessions. Cobb has been doing so for several years, but the law also calls for boards to adopt policies for those commenters.
The law states that members of the public “shall not be removed from such public meetings except for actual disruption and in accordance with rules adopted and published by the local board of education.”
Some attendees who shouted at the board to delay the vote continued their disruptions after, and chairman David Chastain called for a recess. The protests continued, with some shouting “Shame on you!” as the meeting was adjourned.
In recent months, numerous speakers have addressed the board wearing shirts declaring an advocacy group or cause, and there has been some heckling. On some occasions, disrupting citizens have been removed from the board meeting room.
Public commenters at Cobb school board meetings are notified by the school board attorney when their allotted time has expired, and if they continue, their microphones are cut off.
The issues that have sparked their ire have included those that have been roiling in school districts around the country in recent months—school safety, especially in light of the Texas school shootings; the COVID-19 response; diversity, racial and equity issues—and Cobb school district spending.
Last November, the Georgia School Boards Association broke off from the National School Boards Associationafter the latter asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate parents who protest at school board meetings.
Entitled “Rules of Attendee Conduct for Public Meetings,” the Cobb agenda item states that “the requirement that all meetings of the Board ‘shall be open to the public’ does not prevent governing bodies from maintaining order at meetings.”
The item states that because “children have access to meetings and meeting broadcasts/recordings, the public is advised that the content of these meetings should be appropriate for all ages.”
The agenda item said that existing board policy doesn’t allow use or display of “abusive, obscene, profane, vulgar, defamatory, or slanderous” language or gestures. Citizens may not block others from entering or leaving the meeting room and are not allowed to make threats and disruptive noises.
“Any attendee(s) disrupting or attempting to disrupt the meeting in any manner will be addressed,” the agenda item states. “No attendee shall endanger others by acts of violence or abusive conduct. No attendee shall cause, provoke, or engage in any physical confrontation, fight, brawl, or riotous conduct so as to endanger the life, limb, health, or property of another. Any attendee(s) with signage that blocks or may block the view of others will be addressed.”
East Cobb News has left a message with Chastain seeking comment.
The seven-step Cobb policy proposal to address public conduct starts with a verbal reminder “of the expectations” and is followed by a verbal warning and removal from the room if someone’s behavior makes “the orderly conduct of the meeting unfeasible.”
The law enforcement intervention and relocation of the board meeting would be the measures of last resort, with the latter requiring that the continuing board meeting would be available via an audio and video stream made available to the public.
“As a general rule, the Board will attempt another method or methods to resolve the issue prior to employing this action,” the agenda item states.
However, the proposed policy would allow the board, depending on the circumstances of a situation, to take actions “in any order and is not bound to follow each step chronologically.”
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to table code amendment proposals pertaining to trash service.
But they disagreed on when, or even if, to bring proposals back for board consideration.
By a 4-1 vote, the commissioners approved tabling the amendments until January. Tuesday’s vote came before the first public hearing on code amendments, which will be voted on Sept. 27.
The dissenting vote was from Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of Northeast Cobb, who supported tabling the trash proposals but thinks doesn’t think they need to be brought back at all.
“I think the public has been loud and clear,” said Birrell, who’s up for re-election in November in a newly drawn District 3 that includes most of East Cobb.
“This should never have been brought to the board,” she said, without talking to the haulers and the public.”
She said she’s received 1,715 e-mails from citizens, with only two in support of a proposal that would have limited trash service to one hauler per commission district.
All five board members have publicly said that they don’t support the single-hauler provision, and held a work session Aug. 31 with private providers to hear their concerns.
There was another meeting last week with the haulers and county officials to continue hammering out solutions to trash service problems that Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said have been lingering for a decade.
“I don’t know that we need an ordinance to address this code at this time.”
Later, she said that the trash proposal “need to be removed completely. If it needs to come back, it can come back.”
Keli Gambrill of North Cobb agreed with Birrell, her fellow Republican.
“These are things that can be solved by the haulers without the county’s interference,” Gambrill said via telephone, attending the meeting remotely.
Citizens in unincorporated Cobb contract with private providers for trash service. But Cupid said the county has a role in resolving service issues some citizens have had with not getting service, or getting inconsistent service.
“This is a public health matter, when there are citizens not getting service,” Cupid said. Until now, “there has not been a prod to the private market to address these issues. There is a role for us to play in this matter.”
Commissioner Jerica Richardson of District 2 in East Cobb said that while tabling the amendments “doesn’t necessarily solve the problem” of inconsistent trash service, it’s “encouragement that the right kind of dialogue is happening to address this issue.”
After the vote, speakers at the public hearing also spoke out against the trash proposals, which included mandatory recycling.
“This amendment isn’t ready for game time,” East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher said, calling it an example of “government overreach.”
She said she found it ironic that county government is attempting to step in to dictate trash service when it “can’t mow the grass” in road medians. “That’s a problem. Limited government is always better.”
East Cobb resident Hill Wright, who started a website to galvanize opposition to the single-hauler proposal, acknowledged that while there are issues in some areas with trash service, “the county has proven that it is not the right entity to make it happen.”
Beyond the initial meetings with haulers, he said, “we need town halls,” and was critical of what he said was an initial attempt to “bypass the haulers and the public.”
One of those haulers, Brian Warren of Custom Disposal Service, thanked commissioners for tabling the code amendments. He said 75 percent of his company’s business is in Cobb, and he’s served on a task force in nearby municipality to help resolve trash issues.
He was responding to a question about how long such a process might take, and he said from previous experience that “within a six-month period we came up with a plan.”
He urged commissioners not to follow the lead of Gwinnett County, which went to a single-hauler format a decade ago, only to continue to have service problems.
“Cobb should be a county that others want to emulate,” he said. “We don’t need to emulate others with failed programs.”
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Traffic cases in Cobb State Court will be put on hold Wednesday and Thursday so court personnel can attend the funerals of two slain Cobb Sheriff’s deputies.
A message from Cobb government Monday said the traffic cases scheduled for those days will be rescheduled, and “notifications will be sent out to those affected.”
On Monday Cobb officials announced the funeral arrangements for deputies Jonathan Koleski and Marshall Ervin, who were shot and killed at a West Cobb home trying to serve a warrant to a man who had failed to appear on a theft by deception charge.
That man, Christopher Cook, 32, and the alleged shooter, Christopher Golden, 30, surrendered at the scene and are being held without bond.
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Funeral services will be held this week for the two Cobb Sheriff’s deputies who were killed Thursday in the line of duty.
Cobb government sent out a message Sunday night saying that the funeral service for Deputy Jonathan Koleski will take place Wednesday at North Star Church (3413 Blue Springs Road Kennesaw) at 12 p.m.
A visitation is from 9-11 a.m. at the church and burial will take place starting at 2:30 p.m. at the Georgia National Cemetery (1080 Veterans Cemetery Road
Canton).
Koleski, 42, had been with the Cobb Sheriff’s Office since 2007 and is a veteran of the U.S. Army.
The funeral for Deputy Marshall Ervin is scheduled for Thursday at 2 p.m. at West Ridge Church (3522 Hiram Acworth Highway, Dallas), with visitation from 12—2 p.m.
Erwin, 38, had been a deputy for the last seven years.
The Cobb Sheriff’s Office said it would be releasing information about the routes of the funeral processions for members of the public who wish to pay their respects.
On Thursday night, Koleski and Ervin were attempting to take into custody a man who was wanted for a failure to appear on a theft by deception charge.
Another man came out of the house and into the driveway with a weapon and ignored the deputies’ demands to drop it, according to Cobb Police, who said gunfire ensued.
The deputies were both shot and died, and the two suspects eventually surrendered. On Friday they were denied bond by a Cobb Magistrate judge.
Christopher Golden, 30, has been charged with two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
Christopher Cook, 32, the subject of the warrant, has been charged with eight counts of theft in charges stemming from this spring.
The Cobb Sheriff’s Foundation, a non-profit organization founded last year that serves Sheriff’s Office personnel and their families, has set up a donate button for its Fallen Officer Fund on its website for the families of Koleski and Ervin.
The Sheriff’s Office has set up a memorial to the slain deputies at its headquarters visitation center at 1877 County Services Parkway, Marietta.
Koleski and Ervin also were honored with a moment of silence Sunday afternoon at Mercedes Benz Stadium during the Atlanta Falcons game with the New Orleans Saints.
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Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell reiterated Friday that there will be a motion made following a public hearing on Tuesday regarding proposed code amendments to table measures related to solid waste.
In her weekly e-mail newsletter, Birrell said that after the public hearing Tuesday by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, “the Board plans to make a motion and vote to table the Solid Waste code section. It is a consensus of the BOC—none of us are in favor of the proposed one hauler per district.”
Jonathan Jenkins, Director of the Cobb Sustainability, Solid Waste and Beautification Department, had initially proposed limiting each of the four commission districts to a single hauler.
Birrell, a Republican from District 3 in Northeast Cobb who is up for re-election in November, objected, saying citizens should be free to select their own trash service.
She started her e-mail Friday by saying that “as I have stated on the record in meetings, I am in support of open market and residents being able to choose their trash provider.”
She also wanted a delay in the trash code amendments to January. Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid initially balked, saying that too many citizens have been waiting for improvements for inconsistent trash service.
But after last week’s meeting with the haulers, such a delay appears to be likely.
The code amendment proposals cover a wide range of ordinances, including major changes to the county’s short-term rental provisions, apartment inspections, smoking in public parks, and zoning.
Commissioners will also hold a second and final public hearing during their Sept. 27 business meeting at which they will vote on code amendments.
Tuesday’s public hearing comes near the beginning of the commissioners’ business meeting that starts at 9 a.m. in the 2nd floor board room of the Cobb government building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
A full agenda of Tuesday’s meetingcan be found here; other items include a recognition of Cobb County government marking 25 years of having a AAA credit bond rating by Moody’s, Fitch and Standard & Poor’s.
Commissioners also will be asked to finalize the appointment of a new county economic development director and to allocate more than $3.1 million in the county’s share of American Rescue Plan Act funding for workforce development, mental health training, and an infectious disease testing project.
The majority of the proposed funds, $2.1 million, would be used to purchase transport vehicles to assist those affected by COVID-19.
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The following Cobb food scores for the weeks of Aug. 29 and Sept. 5 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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The day after two of his deputies were shot and killed trying to serve a warrant, Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens said his department remains heartbroken by the tragedy.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, Owens identified the two slain deputies as Jonathan Koleski, 42, and Marshall Ervin Jr., 38, the latter of whom was the father of two children.
Their identities were revealed after two suspects arrested at a West Cobb home following a standoff with law enforcement had their first hearings in Cobb Magistrate Court.
Christopher Golden, 30, is being held without bond after being charged Friday with two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
Christopher Cook 32, has been charged with eight counts of theft. He also is being denied bond after his original bail was set at $1.230.
They were apprehended late Thursday night after the deputies attempted to serve Cook a warrant for failing to appear on a theft by deception charge.
Instead, Golden emerged from the home on Hampton Glen Court, in the Cheatham Hill area, and fired on the deputies, according to police.
“This has broken the hearts of my deputies,” Owens said at the press conference at the Cobb Sheriff’s Office, which was attended by various law enforcement officials and Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid.
“It hurts all of us.”
He said he’s spoken with the wives of both deputies, and pleaded with the media to give the families “the personal space they need” to grieve.
Cobb Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer, whose department is leading the investigation, provided limited details about the shootings, both because the evidence is still forthcoming, and out of fairness.
He said that at 7:45 p.m. Thursday, Koleski and Ervin were attempting to serve a warrant and take Cook into custody in the driveway.
VanHoozer said Golden came out of the house with a weapon and was given “clear” verbal commands to drop it, but did not. Gunfire was exchanged between Golden and the deputies, both of whom, VanHoozer said, “succumbed to their wounds.”
VanHoozer said there were no other people in the home during the incident. He did not provide a description of the weapon used to shoot the deputies.
Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady issued a statement saying that “We extend our sincere condolences and prayers to the families of the two sheriff’s deputies killed in the line of duty, the Cobb Sheriff’s Office, and the Cobb law enforcement community.”
But he refrained from further comment due to the pending investigation.
An individual named Stacy Cook is listed in Cobb tax records as the owner of the home, and Golden is listed in jail records as living at the same address.
According to court records, Cook was sentenced in 2015 to 10 years probation after pleading guilty to burglary and theft charges that were pressed in 2012.
VanHoozer declined to comment on previous incidents when asked by a reporter.
Law enforcement officers, VanHoozer added, “do this job knowing that they may have to give their lives for this job.”
They do it “to seek justice and to prevent incidents like this from happening.”
VanHoozer and Owens thanked not only other law enforcement agencies for their support, but also from citizens in the larger Cobb community and throughout the country.
“What we saw was not just a law enforcement community come together, but we saw the community come together,” VanHoozer said, noting such responses at the shooting scene and when he later went to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital.
“The sense of gratitude we saw from the community was amazing,” VanHoozer said.
Koleski joined the Cobb Sheriff’s Office in 2007, and Ervin in 2012.
According to the Officers Down Memorial Page, the Cobb Sheriff’s Office has had only one officer killed in the line of duty previously. That was Deputy Donald Terry Garrison, who died on Aug. 27, 1990 when his patrol car was struck by a speeding vehicle.
The Cobb Sheriff’s Foundation, a non-profit organization founded last year that serves Sheriff’s Office personnel and their families, has set up a donate button for its Fallen Officer Fund on its website.
“The funds that we will get will go to those families,” Foundation founder and executive director Robert Haley said at the press conference.
That includes setting up a scholarship fund for Ervin’s children, but also direct and immediate resources, including attorneys’ services.
“We are prepared to provide them with funding right now for their immediate needs,” Haley said. “We are ready to respond to this terrible, terrible tragedy.”
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Three young adults from Florida were arrested last week near the Sope Creek parking lot of the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area on loiter prowling charges after Cobb Police said they were committing car break-ins.
Arrest warrants for Manuel Orellana, Diego Rivera and Yanara Riveros, all of Kissimmee, Fla., indicate they have been charged with loiter prowling, a misdemeanor, and possession of tools for the commission of a crime, a felony.
They are all in their late 20s and were arrested on Aug. 29, the warrants state. They remain in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center on $10,000 bonds, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
The warrants stated that between 1-1:30 p.m. on Aug. 29, the three suspects were sitting in a vehicle in the Sope Creek parking lot of the Chattahoochee NRA (3726 Paper Mill Road).
The officer who took out the warrant was in a patrol car in the parking lot, and wrote that the accused were “in a place at a time or in a manner not usual for law-abiding individuals under circumstances that warranted a justifiable and reasonable alarm or immediate concern for the safety of persons and property in the vicinity.”
The vehicle the suspects were riding in began to back out of a parking space, and someone noticed the patrol car, according to the warrants.
The vehicle, identified in the warrants as a GMC Terrain with Florida plates, then pulled into a parking spot, and the individuals went for a walk, the warrants allege.
Upon returning from the walk, the Terrain left the park but was pulled over due to what police said was a failure to maintain a lane of traffic, according to the warrants.
The Sheriff’s Office booking reports indicate the arrests were made in the Paper Mill/Terrell Mill Road area.
The warrants further states that the officer searched the vehicle after detecting a marijuana odor, and found marijuana and THC vaping cartridges.
The officer also said in the warrants that screwdrivers were found in the Terrain, as was a cylinder from a vehicle door lock.
Also discovered during the search were four gift cards, “common proceeds from entering autos,” according to the warrants.
The warrants state that the suspects gave conflicting stories on where the gift cards came from and how the tools got there, but that all three said they were in the area visiting local parks and sports arenas for “tourism.”
The warrants said that one of the suspects told police they broke into a car at another park, and also had done so in Florida before coming to Georgia.
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The Cobb Sheriff’s Office said Friday afternoon that the two men arrested after the shooting deaths of two deputies Thursday night will have first hearings Friday afternoon.
Officer Jeremy Blake identified the suspects as Christopher Cook and Christopher Golden, and said their hearings will be at 4 p.m. Friday in Cobb Magistrate Court.
Golden, 30, has been charged with two counts of felony murder and two counts of aggravated assault and is being held without bond, according to the Cobb Sheriff’s Office.
Cook, 32, is being booked on at least eight charges of theft by deception and theft by receiving stolen property and is being held on a bond of $1,320.
Blake said Cobb Sheriff’s Office, Cobb Police and Georgia Bureau of Investigation officials will have a press conference after the hearing to provide more details.
The names of the two deputies have not been made public as of 2 p.m. Friday.
They were shot while serving a warrant at a home on Hampton Glen Court in West Cobb Thursday evening.
Deputies were trying to serve a warrant for failure to appear on a charge of theft by deception, but no one was home, according to the Cobb Sheriff’s Office.
A vehicle then pulled into the driveway and shots were fired, the Sheriff’s Office said. An hours-long standoff ended after midnight Friday as two men peacefully surrendered.
The deputies were only the second and third from Cobb to die in the line of duty.
Cobb tax assessor’s office records show that Cook is the owner of the Hampton Glen Court home. Golden’s home address is listed at the same location, according to jail records.
UPDATED FRIDAY 1:15 A.M.:
Cobb Sheriff Craig Owens said two suspects he said “ambushed” two of his deputies Thursday were taken into custody after an hours-long standoff at a West Cobb home.
The names of the deputies have not been released pending notification of family, and the identities of the suspects also have not been revealed.
Owens said the deputies were trying to serve a warrant for failure to appear on a charge of theft by deception at a residence on Hampton Glen Drive, but no one was home.
A vehicle pulled into the driveway and gunfire ensued, according to Owens, who said the deputies were able to call for help.
One of the suspects was arrested shortly after the shootings, he said, and the other was arrested after a standoff.
Owens held a press conference shortly after midnight Friday at the Cobb Sheriff’s Office headquarters with heads of other law enforcement agencies standing by.
Cobb Police is leading the investigation.
More to come later Friday.
ORIGINAL REPORT:
The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office announced Thursday night that two of its deputies have been killed in the line of duty.
In a social media posting at 9 p.m., the Sheriff’s Office said the deputies were at a residence serving a warrant when they died. The message said a saw suspect is being barricaded and that Cobb Police SWAT and Fugitive Apprehension Support Team personnel are on the scene.
The location is on Hampton Glen Drive, a residential street west of Marietta in the Cheatham Hill area.
It’s off Irwin Road near John Ward Road, and law enforcement from multiple agencies are responding.
“We will release additional information, including the names of the fallen deputies, as it becomes available,” the Sheriff’s Office message said.
According to the Officers Down Memorial Page, the Cobb Sheriff’s Office has had only one officer killed in the line of duty previously. That was Deputy Donald Terry Garrison, who died on Aug. 27, 1990 when his patrol car was struck by a speeding vehicle on Roswell Street in Marietta.
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Cobb Collaborative and the SAM Foundation will present Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), a two-day interactive workshop in suicide first aid, at East Cobb United Methodist Church next week.
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and the ASIST program “teaches participants to recognize when someone may have thoughts of suicide and work with them to create a plan that will support their immediate safety,” according to a release about the workshop.
The workshop is free, and is being made possible by Cobb Collaborative, a consortium of community non-profits, and the Alabama-based SAM Foundation (Suicide Awareness Means . . . ), which raises awareness of and provides training for the prevention of suicide.
It’s named after a young man who took his own life in 2002.
The workshop takes place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. next Thursday and Friday at East Cobb UMC (2325 Roswell Road).
Participants must be at least 16 years old and don’t need any previous formal health care training to attend.
The workshop will teach participants about how to prevent suicide by recognizing signs, providing a skilled intervention, and developing a safety plan to keep someone alive.
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