Just in time for fall cleaning, Keep Cobb Beautiful staff is hosting a free community recycling event for Cobb County residents. It will be held 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 2, at Jim Miller Park. 2245 Callaway Road SW, Marietta. Early arrival is recommended. Items accepted include:
Paper shredding 10 banker boxes limit
Electronics Computers, cell phones, printers, hard drives, VCRs, keyboards, CRT TVs and CRT monitors (there is a $10 free for each CRT TV or monitor. cash only)
Household appliances Stoves, microwaves, ovens, washers and dryers, water heaters, refrigerators
Household textiles Gently-used clothing and gently-used shoes
Styrofoam (polystyrene) Packing peanuts
Metals Steel, aluminum, cast iron
Hefty Energy Bag Plastics Program Plastic shopping bags, plastic straws and stir sticks, clean foam egg cartons
Lawn and other equipment Ceiling fans, lawn mowers, weed eaters, chainsaws. Fuel must be removed from tanks
Items that will not be accepted include paint, batteries, medications, hazardous waste, flip flops, mattresses or carpet. For more information and a complete list of accepted items, visit keepcobbbeautiful.org or call 770-528-1135.
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Pope players, coaches and school administrators celebrate at dusk on the Greyhounds’ home field. (East Cobb News photos and slideshow by Wendy Parker)
A little more than 48 hours after taking a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the state championship game, the Pope softball team picked up where it left off Monday afternoon, except in a different place.
After their Georgia High School Association Class 6A finale against Lee County was postponed Saturday due to pouring rain in Columbus, the Greyhounds learned they would get to play at home when the game resumed.
That’s because Pope (30-4), which had lost early in the season to Lee County, was the higher seed.
“At first, they were kind of bummed out, that they wouldn’t have a chance to win it in Columbus,” Pope coach Chris Turco said. “But when they realized they’d get to play in front of their home fans, they got really excited. Having those fans behind us really helped.”
Before a standing-room-only home crowd, Pope tacked on three more runs in the fifth inning for a 6-0 victory.
Pitcher Hallie Adams allowed only one hit, and it was a freshman who gave the Greyhounds some extra breathing room with her bat.
Jaydn Laneaux banged out three hits, including two triples, the latter leading Pope’s big inning.
Even with all of those advantages, Turco wasn’t ready to breathe a sigh of relief.
“I didn’t feel comfortable until the seventh inning,” said Turco, who also led Pope to its other state title in 2014 with pitcher Kelly Barnhill, later a collegiate All-American at the University of Florida.
Hallie Adams got the last Lee County batter to hit a pop foul, clinching Pope’s state title.
A year ago, Pope also reached the state finals, but fell to Harrison. Turco said he felt good about Pope’s chances of winning it all with his returning players.
In the fifth inning, Jaydn Laneaux, the younger sister of Pope senior star shortstop Zoe Laneaux, burned around the bases after drilling her second triple into left center field.
Adams brought her home with a bunt that the Lee County pitcher threw home, but too late to get Laneaux. Carolyn Deady, one of Pope’s seniors, singled to center, and Bailey Chapin drove home Emily Ricci with a single to left.
The Greyhounds finished off the scoring—and the Trojans—when Katie Ward hit a grounder to shortstop that resulted in an error, with Zoe Laneaux crossing the plate.
Jaydn Laneaux said her key was that she was prepared for the riseball. “I was confident the whole time, and so was our team,” she said. “We all knew do to whatever it took” to win the game.
“I knew all the fans would come out. We had a huge cheering section and that helped.”
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Walton will play host to Roswell Tuesday in the GHSA Class 7A volleyball semifinals.
On Tuesday three East Cobb schools will continue play in the Georgia High School Association volleyball tournament, with a chance for an all-East Cobb final in Class 7A.
That’s because defending state champion Walton and Lassiter are in opposite brackets in the semifinal round.
The Lady Raiders, who are 30-8 and have been ranked No. 1 all season, will be at home Tuesday against Roswell. Match time is at 7 p.m. and admission is $8.
Walton easily downed Lambert three games to none to earn the right to stay at home for the semifinals, which has been dubbed a “jersey out” event in which Walton fans are asked to their favorite jerseys in support
Lassiter went on the road Saturday to defeat Norcross, also in three games, to get to the semifinals. It was the third straight match in which the Lady Trojans have won on their opponents’ home floor, and they’ll have to do it again Tuesday when they visit Etowah.
That match also is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Lassiter is 31-7 and Etowah is 35-13. Both are in the same Region 4 as Walton and Roswell (24-9).
In Class 6A, Pope is still in the hunt for a second consecutive state championship after sweeping River Ridge in the quarterfinals on Saturday. On Tuesday, the Lady Greyhounds (37-12) will play at Sequoyah in the semifinals. The other semifinal match features Allatoona vs. Alpharetta.
The GHSA finals in Class 6A and Class 7A will played on Saturday at Marietta High School.
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Submitted information from the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road):
We’re starting Peter Jackson’s epic Lord of the Rings trilogy at 10AM and watching all three films back to back.
Cool Beans Coffee and Good Food will provide beverages and snacks during the marathon and the movies will be streaming into the cafe, so you can get your snack on and not miss a minute!
Crafts for the kids
Prizes for anyone who up in costume
Cool beans Coffee serving second breakfast, elevensies and luncheon (10AM-5PM)
Good Food serving afternoon tea, dinner, and supper (5PM-8PM)
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On Monday, October 28, 2019 from 4pm till 7pm, the Marietta Museum of History will host a VIP Reception to commemorate the closing of its special exhibit, Spalding: An American Sports Empire which ends, Saturday, November 2, 2019. This exhibit showcases A. G. Spalding, his company and early American sports’ history. Not only was A.G. Spalding the master of a sporting goods empire, he was also a professional athlete, sportsman and marketing genius. Spalding memorabilia on exhibit includes vintage baseball, football, golf, fishing, cycling, basketball history, uniforms and equipment. A highlight is “Babe” Ruth’s 1935 Boston Braves cap! Other items feature Cobb County’s own, Atlanta Braves’ history including a 1970 Braves uniform top, 1958 World Series bunting and Boston Red Stockings items. In attendance Monday night will be Jeff Mann, the owner of this impressive private collection.
Also, on Monday night, the Museum will be celebrating the opening of the newest exhibit, The Man with the Camera: Photographs by Raymond T. Burford. This unique exhibit highlights African American photographer Raymond T. Burford, known locally as “The Man with the Camera,” and the local black communities that he documented. For over twenty years, from the 1940s through the early 1960s, Burford seemingly attended and documented every important social event, family party, school function and community activity in the Marietta areas of Baptist Town, Liberia and Louisville among others. Photographs include scenes at Marietta’s segregated school, Lemon Street School, and intimate looks inside the homes and lives of African Americans around town.
When: Monday, October 28, 2019, 4pm till 7pm
Where: Marietta Museum of History, One Depot Street, Marietta, GA 30060
Cost: FREE for Museum Members, $10 for Non-Members
The Marietta Museum of History uses ordinary objects to tell the extraordinary stories of Marietta and Cobb County’s rich history and culture. Galleries and exhibits cover topics such as military history, home life throughout the centuries, technology and local businesses from our past.
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Students at Mountain View Elementary School scored 100 in three categories of the 2019 CCRPI tests. (ECN file)
East Cobb schools at all grade levels topped Cobb County School District results for the 2019 CCRPI tests—the College and Career Ready Performance Index that the state of Georgia uses as its main educational accountability measure.
Timber Ridge, Mountain View, Murdock, Mt. Bethel, Garrison Mill, Shallowford Falls, Sope Creek, East Side, Kincaid and Tritt all had overall CCRPI scores of 90 or above (out of a possible 100) at the elementary school level.
Among middle schools, Hightower Trail, Simpson, Dodgen, Dickerson and Mabry also scored 90 or higher.
Walton, Lassiter and Pope scored likewise among high schools.
Some of the biggest year-to-year gains also occurred at other East Cobb schools.
Kincaid Elementary in northeast Cobb had an overall score of 92.2, up from 70.8 from 2018. Eastvalley’s score jumped from 73.9 to 81.8. Students at Powers Ferry raised their overall scores from 65 to 75.3.
Daniell Middle School enjoyed a significant boost, with a CCRPI score of 86.3, up from 66 in 2018. At East Cobb Middle School, students tested at 82.7, a rise from 67.1 last year.
Across the district, Cobb schools tested at an average of 6.5 points higher than 2018, at 86.1 points out of a possible 100. That’s higher than the state average of 75.9.
“Although we believe there are significant opportunities to better reflect what students know, CCRPI scores show students across the District and across all grade levels are finding success,” Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said in a statement.
In the CCRPI tests, students are assessed in several ways, including content mastery (30 percent), progress (30 percent), closing performance gaps (15 percent), readiness (15-20 percent), and at the high school level, graduation rates (10 percent).
After the Georgia Department of Education changed the formula last year—much to the chagrin of Cobb school officials—schools saw their overall numbers, as well as figures in separate categories, adjust, especially at the elementary school level.
At Mountain View Elementary, for example, students scored 100s in content mastery, progress and closing performance gaps. What that means is all students tested in those categories achieved those benchmarks.
One of the most important indicators is closing the gap, which is a figure to calculate year-to-year improvement by subgroups of students.
As a big part of its improved score, East Cobb Middle School got a 100 score in closing the gap (as did Hightower Trail and Simpson).
What follows are overall CCRPI scores for schools in East Cobb, compared to 2018 results in parenthesis. A more detailed chart will be published early next week. For full Cobb school district details, click here.
Elementary Schools
Addison, 88.7 (83.2)
Bells Ferry, 86.3 (80.9)
Blackwell, 77.0 (76.7)
Brumby, 68.9 (63.0)
Davis, 83.9 (86.7)
East Side, 93.1 (89.5)
Eastvalley, 81.8 (73.9)
Garrison Mill, 95.3 (91.9)
Keheley, 73.2 (78.1)
Kincaid, 92.2 (70.8)
Mt. Bethel, 95.6 (95.6)
Mountain View, 98.6 (91.9)
Murdock, 96.4 (92.0)
Nicholson, 71.5 (73.9)
Powers Ferry, 75.3 (65.0)
Rocky Mount, 84.6 (82.7)
Sedalia Park, 76.5 (71.0)
Shallowford Falls, 94.7 (93.7)
Sope Creek, 94.5 (92.2)
Timber Ridge, 99.3 (93.3)
Tritt, 90.2 (84.7)
Middle Schools
Daniell, 86.3 (66.0)
Dickerson, 94.3 (90.0)
Dodgen, 95.3 (91.8)
East Cobb, 82.7 (67.1)
Hightower Trail, 96.4 (91.8)
Mabry, 94.7 (84.7)
McCleskey, 88.1 (83.0)
Simpson, 95.9 (94.7)
High Schools
Kell, 79.8 (80.4)
Lassiter, 96.2 (95.8)
Pope, 91.6 (91.5)
Sprayberry, 83.0 (83.9)
Walton, 96.3 (96.3)
Wheeler, 88.8 (87.8)
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Some spooky (and rainy) weather is in store for the weekend, but Halloween and related events in East Cobb haven’t been dampened—for the most part. From our calendar listings:
One event that has been called off was the Keheley PTA ES Blues Fest, which has been postponed from Friday to next spring.
From 6-8 p.m. Friday, it’s the McCleskey-East Cobb Family YMCA Spooktacular, geared for kids and featuring carnival games, crafts, and a costume parade. The cost is $5 per child. (1055 E. Piedmont Road).
High school football games continue with playoff contention at stake, and all six East Cobb teams are on the road: Kell vs. Cass; Lassiter vs. Woodstock; Walton vs. Roswell; Sprayberry vs. Sequoyah; Pope vs. Cambridge; Wheeler vs. Campbell. All kickoffs are at 6 p.m.
Take a jaunt down Johnson Ferry Road Saturday morning: It’s the Northeast Cobb YMCA Haunted Hustle 5K, from 8-11 a.m., and it’s a qualifier for the Peachtree Road Race. Same-day registration is available on site. (3010 Johnson Ferry Road).
From 10-5 Saturday, the newly opened Frenchie’s Modern Nail Care is holding a Jewelry Show and Donation Collection. Shop for jewelry presented by Rebecca Deutsch at Park Lane Jewelry. A portion of jewelry sales will be donated to the Center for Children and Young Adults in Marietta for the purchase of healthy snacks and feminine hygiene products. (3154 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 102).
The weather forecast doesn’t look promising for The Avenue East Cobb Fall Festival from Saturday 3-5 but it will go on rain or shine, moving indoors to vacant space if necessary. Arts and crafts, entertainers and movie characters will be on the scene. (4475 Roswell Road).
Another big East Cobb Halloween event is the Sprayberry HS Trunk or Treat, from 4:30-7:30 Saturday. Candy, food trucks, raffles, games and more, kids can come in costumes; admission $3 per child or 2 for $5. (2525 Sandy Plains Road).
This won’t rained out: Two more showings of the Pope Haunted Theater: Things That Go Bump in the Night. Thursday’s session was sold out; the Saturday and Sunday events are from 6-10 in the school’s performing arts center. Tickets are $5. 3001 Hembree Road).
Likewise for the indoors: Two sessions on Saturday for the Wizarding Academy at The Art Place, from 1-3:30 p.m. and from 5-7:30 p.m. For ages 5-12, this event includes games, crafts, magic, snacks and more; Harry Potter dress-ups are welcome. Cost is $25 per person. (3330 Sandy Plains Road).
On Sunday, another indoor event, this a fundraiser for suicide prevention efforts. It’s the 2nd annual Passionate Artists With a Cause, with a portion of local artists’ sales going to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention; see ECN post. (LM Frame + Gallery, 1062 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite 150).
You’ll find more details about those events and can check out more of our calendar listings for this weekend and beyond.
Send your events to us and we’ll post ’em here: calendar@eastcobbnews.com.
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The following East Cobb food scores from Oct. 21-25 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing to view details of the inspection:
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!
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!
Just dashing off a quick note to readers that I’m in Nashville Thursday-Saturday at the LION Publishers conference, and will be traveling the rest of today.
It’s an annual meeting of those who, like East Cobb News, publish local, independent online news sites (hence the name LION).
I will still be publishing to the site, although it may be not be as frequent for the next few days. If you’re a newsletter subscriber, don’t worry, you’ll get your East Cobb News Digest on Sunday as usual.
If you have breaking news to share, don’t hesitate to get in touch: editor@eastcobbnews.com or phone/text 404-219-4278.
As for other items readers and others send, I may not be able to respond and post as promptly as when I’m home. I’ll be taking my laptop with me so I will be doing East Cobb News work when I’ve got a break.
LION was formed in 2012 in response to the need to revitalize local news, as newspapers and other legacy media outlets were cutting staff, space and resources.
Many of us LIONS are like myself, former reporters and editors, mainly from the newspaper diaspora, who are learning how to build and grow sustainable businesses.
We’re now about 200 members strong nationwide, and we’re generating the interest of representatives from Facebook, Google, web publishing entities and other technology companies, as well as journalism foundations that understand the importance not just of preserving local news, but strengthening it.
The decline of the newspaper industry is as deep as it is real, and more and more communities are losing that local news source altogether.
What many of us in LION are aiming to do is not just to fill in the gaps, but to reimagine community news the way it once was done, that really connects with citizens, businesses and organizations in a meaningful way.
At this conference, I’m eager to gain more insights and ideas for furthering the twin missions of East Cobb News—to meet the news and information needs of this community, and to assist local businesses with getting out their messages.
If you’ve got thoughts, ideas or questions along those lines, please feel free to get in touch.
In the meantime, I’m looking forward to stepping back a bit, getting out on the open road, soaking up knowledge and enjoying the Music City!
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From Tuesday’s opening day and ribbon-cutting of Jim ‘Nick’s Bar-B-Q in East Cobb, the first business to open in the new Sandy Plains Marketplace:
Today we celebrated our East Cobb Grand Opening and we are so excited to be a part of this wonderful community! At our official ribbon cutting and grand opening ceremony with Cobb Chamber of Commerce we proudly presented a donation to the Lance Corporal Skip Wells Foundation.
The Lance Corporal Skip Wells Foundation was started after a terrorist shooting on July 16, 2015 in Chattanooga took the life of Skip Wells, as well as 3 other Marines and a Navy Sailor.
Skip graduated Sprayberry High School in Marietta where he was active in both the band and NJROTC. The Lance Corporal Skip Wells Foundation offers scholarships to help students go to college or tech school to further their education.
Jim ‘N Nick’s started in Birmingham and now has more than 30 locations in seven states, mostly in the the South.
The East Cobb location is the 10th in Georgia and is located at 3420 Sandy Plains Road, Suite 100. Hours are Sunday-Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and Friday-Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
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A City of East Cobb fire department “will not have the resources to operate” at a top certified level of protection, according to a group opposing cityhood. (ECN file)
A group opposed to East Cobb cityhood is criticizing an independent financial review that concluded that a proposed city would be fiscally viable.
The five-member Independent Financial Group, consisting of East Cobb residents who are finance and legal experts, volunteered to examine a Georgia State University feasibility study and issued its report in September.
The East Cobb Alliance, which formed over the summer to oppose cityhood, said in a posting on its Facebook page over the weekend that “in the beginning, there were 5 people on the IFG, but the 5th guy resigned when he couldn’t stomach the baloney the other 4 were proposing…and, ‘baloney’ is putting it nicely.”
(Shailesh Bettadapur, a member of the IFG group, resigned two days before the report was released, according to Bill Green, another member of the review group.)
The ECA post further stated that “several members of ECA who have choked their way through reading this document consider it nothing but a bunch of mumbo-jumbo malarkey.”
The East Cobb Alliance took issue with the report above all over fire services. The Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb had state legislation introduced in March that would create a city of East Cobb with police, fire and community development services.
The ECA noted in its posting that in the IFG report, members of the review group and the cityhood group “are concerned the [GSU feasibility] Study may not have included all necessary fire protection expenditures.”
The ECA post continued:
“This is a group of 4 people, NONE of whom have ANY experience in the fire protection services world. No one on the GSU research team had ANY experience in fire protection services. No one on the Pro-Cityhood Committee has ANY clue as to what it takes to operate an effective fire department.
“Our County Fire Department, and our personal lives and property, should NOT be subjected to the whims of fools who have NO IDEA of what it takes to assemble, hire, train, OR operate a world-class Fire Department like we have right now.
“Tell your friends and neighbors about this IDIOCY being pushed upon us.”
The GSU feasibility study estimated an annual fire budget of $5.9 million. According to the IFG report (read it here), a city finance director in a nearby municipality said a City of East Cobb may have relatively lower costs for fire because it “has a low proportion of multi-unit residential housing and fewer tall buildings.”
The IFG, in its report, added $4 million for fire expenses estimates “as a placeholder” pending further budgeting information becoming available.
The East Cobb cityhood bill includes a proposed municipality of around 96,000 people, and five fire stations currently part of the Cobb County Fire and Emergency Services Department.
The ECA in recent days has examined other aspects of the cityhood proposal, including the possible purchase and use of the East Cobb Government Services Center on Lower Roswell Road, and the proposed cost of buying those five fire stations for the new city from the county.
The ECA also claims that a new City of East Cobb fire department “will not have the resources” to provide the top certified level of protection, also known as ISO-1. Cobb is one of around 240 fire departments nationwide to have that status, which is given by the Insurance Services Office, a non-profit that provides insurance information, including for fire and building codes.
“Should we kill a great Fire Department to build a new police department? Seems like kind of a weird trade-off,” the ECA asks.
Another topic covers police and jail services that have been proposed by the cityhood group. The GSU feasibility study suggested a 140-officer East Cobb police force, nearly double the number of officers on patrol in Cobb Police Precinct 4, which covers an area well beyond the proposed city lines. Currently Precinct 4 has a staffing of around 50 response officers, a shortage of less than 20 for what it’s been allocated.
“That just seems very bizarre to us when the land area will be half of their current coverage,” concluded the ECA. “Why should we vote to form a new city to correct a deficiency of 16 people . . . when the coverage territory of a new city will be 50% of the original precinct territory? For all we know, 71 people may be the ideal force for a PCEC.”
The East Cobb Alliance and the East Cobb cityhood group have been invited to a Nov. 12 forum hosted by the East Cobb Business Association.
The cityhood group’s public events, which follow town halls in the spring, also tentatively will include more meetings after the first of the year, when the Georgia legislature would take up the East Cobb cityhood bill.
That bill would have to pass the entire General Assembly for a cityhood referendum to take place in 2020.
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 Cobb Police recruiting graphic drawn up after commissioners approved pay increases for public safety employees for FY 2020.
After hearing a first draft of a proposed step and grade salary and promotion system for Cobb County public safety employees, commissioner Bob Ott Monday said the plan isn’t any better than what’s in place now.
The proposal calls for a salary increase for police officers, sheriff’s deputies, firefighters and other workers, and in increments with a three-percent raise as they move up in grade.
“I don’t see any difference,” said Ott, who represents District 2, which includes part of East Cobb, at a Monday commissioners’ work session. “There’s just a difference in the numbers.”
Cobb public safety officials worked up the new plan as the next step in a series of salary, retention and promotional incentives after commissioners approved the fiscal year 2020 budget with a seven-percent pay raise for many public safety employees.
They previously received a one-time bonus of $1,450 as a good faith gesture from commissioners during the budget process.
The additional funding came after months of public lobbying from public safety employees and citizens to pay public safety employees better, provide more recruiting incentives, and increase morale. Cobb public safety has significant staffing shortages, especially with police and the Sheriff’s Office.
Cobb Police, which has a shortage of around 80 officers, has been actively sending out recruiting messages on social media, posting signs around the county (including at the entrance to East Cobb Park) and conducting job fairs in north Georgia.
Step and grade is similar to what Cobb County School District employees receive—annual, incremental raises based on a combination of factors, including years of service, promotions and performance reviews.
The Cobb public safety step and grade draft would boost the starting salary for an entry-level police officer from around $41,000 a year to $45,776 annually.
Cobb interim public safety director Randy Crider said under the proposal, an officer making $54,000 at Grade 16 and Step 6 could earn $54,976 instead under a “blue” plan that would take effect in March 2020.
Under an alternate “yellow” plan, that same officer would make $56,818 a year, with the new pay scale starting with the fiscal 2021 budget next fall.
Crider said his numbers were figured with current budgeting numbers in mind, and he told Ott that “this is to give you a structure to approve.”
The problem, as Ott saw it, was that under the draft proposal, raises would come to commissioners each year for approval. “That’s not step and grade,” he said.
Most step and grade plans, including that for Cobb schools, have automatic increases factored into budgets.
Cobb commission chairman Mike Boyce said the current “pay and class” system was meant to be a one-time solution. With step and grade, “the anticipation is that we’ll do this annually.”
He said it was important for the county to “continue to provide incentives” to attract police officers and firefighters for years to come. “This won’t be a one and done.
“We don’t fix this overnight. We fix it over time.”
Ott countered by saying that in a “true step and grade, you get a raise every year. And you get another raise and you get promoted.”
The proposal brought before commissioners, he insisted, means that “each year, it requires the board to make the same decisions we’re making today.”
Public safety officials had scheduled individual meetings with commissioners after Monday’s work session.
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!
Submitted information from Cobb County government:
We’re taking applications for the 3rd class of “Cobb101.” It is a deep-dive into the workings of your county government. Past participants have come away with a better appreciation of what the various departments in Cobb County do for our residents. • 30 people in the upcoming class • Applications accepted through December 2 • Cobb101 Class of 2020 dates: February 27, 2020, through May 7, 2020 • Classes on Thursday nights from 6 pm – 9 pm (nothing Spring Break week) • 9 classroom sessions and a graduation ceremony
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 South Georgia man indicted for killing an East Cobb couple in 2015 has had the dismissal of his murder indictment upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court.
By a 7-2 vote, the state’s high court agreed with a lower-court ruling that a Telfair County grand jury that indicted Ronnie Adrian Towns was unlawfully constituted because “some of the grand jurors were not selected randomly.”
Towns was charged with the Jan. 2015 murders of Elrey “Bud” Runion, 69, and his wife June, 66, of East Cobb, who had traveled to McRae, Ga., to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang Towns had posted for sale on Craigslist.
After their daughters reported them missing, the bodies of the Runions were found in their car in a pond in Telfair County a few days later. Authorities in that southeast Georgia county said the Runions had both been shot in the head.
Prosecutors alleged that Towns tried to lure the victims with the prospect of buying the car, but intended to rob them.
Towns, who was 28 at the time of the Runions’ deaths, turned himself in, and he was indicted for murder by a grand jury.
According to the Supreme Court ruling, 50 prospective grand jurors were summoned to appear on March 16, 2015, but fewer than 16 showed up on time. The presiding judge ordered some of those who hadn’t appeared to be located by the Telfair sheriff, and asked the court clerk to identify four possible candidates for the grand jury from a list of prospective petit jurors who could show up quickly.
Two of those four reported, and others summoned for the grand jury later also reported, and a grand jury was empaneled on March 16.
That grand jury, with the two originally on the petit juror list, returned a murder indictment against Towns the same day.
Towns filed a motion to dismiss the indictment, alleging the two on the petit juror list were not chosen at random. Towns’ attorney said the clerk telephoned those four individuals, whom she knew personally. In a 2017 ruling, the trial court concurred and dismissed the murder indictment.
Prosecutors appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court. The high court majority concluded that while the petit jurors were selected at random from a master jury list, in selecting the two individuals who eventually served on the grand jury, the clerk:
” . . . relied on her personal knowledge of the prospective petit jurors, her own assessment of the extent to which she had the information necessary to contact them, and her estimate of the likelihood that they would be available to report immediately. Those selections were not ‘random’ in any sense of the word.”
The Oconee Circuit District Attorney, which prosecutes cases in Telfair and six other South Georgia counties, is seeking the death penalty against Towns.
The Runions, who lived in the Wendwood subdivision off Holly Springs Road, were married for 38 years. According to their obituary, in 1991 the Runions founded Forever Greatful Ministries, which helps families in need in the Marietta area. He was retired from AT & T and she was a preschool teacher at Johnson Ferry Christian Academy.
They were longtime members of Mt. Paran Church of God North on Allgood Road.
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Atlanta Regional Commission staff is hosting a open house 5-8 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 24, at the Strand Theatre to share information about the Atlanta Region’s Plan — the region’s plan through the year 2050. Residents will be able to provide their input on a major update to this plan, which is the region’s long range blueprint that details investments needed to ensure metro Atlanta’s future success. The Strand Theatre is located at 117 N. Park Square, Marietta.
At the open house, attendees will have the opportunity to:
Explore the Atlanta region’s future through hands-on activities, including an online scenario planning game and a “living infographic” station where residents can give feedback on their biggest desires and concerns for the region.
Learn about key regional issues, such as advances in transportation technology and innovative efforts to address the region’s housing affordability challenges.
Search an online database to learn about transportation projects that are planned throughout the region over the next 30 years.
The Atlanta Region’s Plan incorporates a range of planning and programmatic elements, including transportation, community development, natural resources, workforce development and aging and independence services. The plan aims to improve mobility, create vibrant, walkable communities, ensure a clean, abundant water supply and meet the needs of the region’s population of older adults and disabled individuals.
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!
Group spokesman Rob Eble told East Cobb News the event begins at 6:30 p.m. in the B.B. Williams Auditorium at Wheeler (375 Holt Road).
It’s the second town hall the pro-cityhood organization has conducted, following a similar event at Walton High School (above) in May.
Cityhood leaders also spoke at Cobb commissioner Bob Ott’s town hall meeting in March, and at a Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance meeting in May.
The day after the Wheeler town hall, the East Cobb Business Association is having a forumwith representatives of groups supporting and opposing cityhood.
The Wheeler town hall comes a couple of months after an independent financial review of the East Cobb cityhood feasibility study concluded such a city is financially viable without raising property taxes above current levels.
A group that opposes cityhood, the East Cobb Alliance, says a new city would add an extra layer of government and disputes the financial analysis of the feasibility study.
State Rep. Matt Dollar of East Cobb has sponsored a cityhood bill that, if passed next year, would call for a cityhood referendum later in 2020.
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!
Roger Tutterow of Kennesaw State University said while housing starts are “quite strong,” he’s concerned about an overbuilt stock of new multi-family units. (ECN file)
The U.S. economy has experienced 121 consecutive months of economic expansion, nearly a full decade since the 2008-09 recession began to fade.
That streak, noted Kennesaw State University economist Roger Tutterow, “is the longest of the post-World War II era.”
According to some forecasts, Tutterow said in remarks before the East Cobb Business Association last week, “that means we must be due for a recession.
“I don’t think that’s necessarily true.”
The year 2020 is a presidential election year in the United States, which typically brings with it economic concerns. Some economists are rating the chance of a recession at 50-50 or higher.
Tutterow, an economic forecaster, said that in election years, the risk of a recession is “elevated,” but thinks there could be a one-in-three chance of an American economic backslide.
“Most likely,” Tutterow said, there will be “a continued trajectory of growth” in the U.S. economy.
What bolsters his view is that “consumers are keeping the economy humming on all cylinders.
“It’s confidence in the consumer sector that’s keeping us out of a recession,” Tutterow said.
Roger Tutterow
There are some trouble signs, though, including the manufacturing sector, which Tutterow said “is under a lot of stress.”
The impact of Trump Administration-imposed tariffs on the economy also figures to create some uncertainty, especially as the president will be running for re-election.
Tutterow, who describes himself as a free trader, said Trump “believes he needs to level the playing field that he believes is unfair for American producers.
“That raises the prices for goods you buy from overseas.”
A stronger American dollar also has affected trade; Tutterow said its value has grown by a third since 2011.
“A strong dollar doesn’t help those things that we export,” he said.
As for the housing market, Tutterow said that it’s “quite strong.” A total of 1.4 million new starts since the recession is “not bad, but we’re nowhere near we were from 2005 to 2007.”
He said the Cobb housing market is maturing, and that the rate of growth for the moment isn’t as much as it has been in the past.
“I am worried that multi-family housing is being overbuilt,” Tutterow said.
Overall in the Atlanta area that’s not true, he said, but locally there’s “too much vertical high-priced housing” that is coming online.
As for the 2020 elections, primaries get underway in February, with the Democratic presidential nominee likely to be determined by the spring.
The presidential campaign, “Tutterow said, “will be a debate about the fundamental direction of the country.”
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For the fourth year in a row, the Pope softball team has advanced to the Georgia High School Association finals in Columbus.
The Greyhounds are the only Cobb County representative in the Class 6A bracket, which starts play on Thursday.
Pope, which sports a school record 19-game winning streak, is slated to face Apalachee at 2 p.m. in the eight-team, double-elimination tournament, which ends on Saturday.
Last year, Pope was state runner-up, losing to Cobb rival Harrison in the finals. This fall, the Greyhounds easily won Region 5 in Class 6A. In the state tournament thus far, they have swept Douglas County and Houston County, scoring 49 runs and giving up only one run in those four games.
Pope coach Chris Turco also earned his 300th career victory at the school during the early playoff round. Pope has won the state title once, in 2014.
In the Class 7A tournament, Lassiter was eliminated by Grayson in the second round. The Trojans won their first game in a best-of-three series, then fell by scores of 11-0 and 5-0.
The Kell softball team defeated Arabia Mountain in the first round of the Class 5A tournament, then was swept by Starr’s Mill 3-1 and 16-0 in the second round.
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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!
Thanks to Mary Wyman for asking us to share information about an art show in East Cobb she’s involved in next weekend that will aid suicide prevention efforts.
The show, called “Passionate Artists With a Cause,” will take place next Sunday, Oct. 27, from 3-6 p.m. at LM Frame + Gallery (formerly Thompson’s Frame Shop).
She’s among the artists, many of them from the Indian Hills area, who will have their artwork on display. A percentage of the sales will be going for suicide prevention work.
Wyman said this is the second year for the art show, which benefitted ALS research in its first year after the death of a golfer in the community.
The art show is free to attend and is open to the public.
LM Frame + Gallery is located at the Shops at Woodlawn, 1062 Johnson Ferry Road, next to Big Peach Running Co.
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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!
Just in time for fall cleaning, Keep Cobb Beautiful staff is hosting a free community recycling event for Cobb County residents. It will be held 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 2, at Jim Miller Park. 2245 Callaway Road SW, Marietta. Early arrival is recommended. Items accepted include:
