Thanks to Gina Gory, a preschool teacher at Congregation Etz Chaim, for the information and photos:
Congregation Etz Chaim, along with the Atlanta Community at large is collecting food items between now and the end of October. These items will go the the Atlanta Community Food Bank and the Kosher items will be separated out and given to Jewish Family and Career.
It’s never too early to inspire our youth about the spirit of charity and giving back. The three year old Puppy class and their families donated several food items to help the cause. By participating in this event we are encouraging them to grow up with a healthy sense of compassion and a strong charitable spirit.
Upon depositing items in the collection bins we asked how this act of Tzedakah (charitable giving as a moral obligation) made them feel.
“My heart felt good. I felt happy. I felt better.”
Please consider donating your non-perishable food items to the Etz Chaim Lobby to benefit the Atlanta Community Food Bank.
Congregation Etz Chaim is located at 1190 Indian Hills Parkway.
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Due to rainy weather on Saturday the Mt. Zion UMC Party in the Patch event has been pushed back a day, to Sunday. Here’s what they’re sharing with the community about what’s taking place a day later:
Bad weather is never fun, and we want our Party in the Patch to be the most fun for everyone who attends!
We are moving Party in the Patch to Sunday evening, October 20! Same time, same place, same bouncy, same pumpkins, same fun!
Festivities begin at 4:30 with our double feature of films beginning at 7:15!! It’s Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown! followed by Spookely the Square Pumpkin! Be sure to bring a chair or a blanket!
All of the events are free to you, but all proceeds from pumpkins sales go directly towards benefiting our Youth Ministry!
Mt. Zion UMC is located at 1770 Johnson Ferry Road.
For other weekend events and our full calendar listings, click here.
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Lidl, which has opened two other locations in Cobb, is slated to open in East Cobb next summer, according to the report.
In 2017, Cobb commissioners turned down Lidl’s rezoning request to convert the Park 12 Cobb theater on Gordy Parkway into a grocery store after heated community opposition.
Nearby residents complained of traffic issues, but an attorney for Lidl noted during the zoning hearing that some “want to keep the movie theater as much as anything.”
The Fresh Market, a gourmet foods chain, has been at Woodlawn Square since 2003 and has been closing some of its stores around the country in the last couple of years.
Lidl, which operates 10,000 stores, mostly in Europe, made its foray in the U.S. in 2017 along the East Coast.
The Cobb stores are on Powder Springs Road, near the East-West Connector, and on Floyd Road in Mableton.
Another Lidl store was recently approved for Whitlock Avenue in Marietta, after the Marietta City Council rejected an initial rezoning request in 2017.
The only other Georgia store for now is in Snellville. ToNeTo has reported that Lidl is planning stores in Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Peachtree Corners, Roswell, Lawrenceville and Suwanee.
Lidl is a rival to Aldi, another German discount grocer, which has a store at the East Lake Shopping Center in East Cobb (2125 Roswell Road, Suite 30).
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Two weeks after closing due to a strep zoo outbreak, the Cobb animal shelter reopened on Friday.
The shelter was closed Oct. 2 after staff discovered the highly contagious bacterial disease had killed two dogs. The remaining animals were quarantined and given antibiotics and the facility at 1060 Al Bishop Drive was thoroughly cleaned.
The county said Friday there have been no reports of any newly adopted animals becoming ill so the shelter was reopened.
A fall adoption special is continuing, with fees reduced to $20 (typically they’re $115). The shelter is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday and from 2-5 p.m. Sunday.
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Jerry Hightower of the Chattahoochee NRA will speak to the Cobb Master Gardeners on Saturday at the Wright Enivironmental Education Center.
Now it’s really starting to feel like fall, with very cool temperatures coming in this week and a couple more weeks before Halloween. East Cobb weekend events are ideal for those and other activities of the season.
On Friday, high school football continues with key region games giving East Cobb teams a shot to jockey into playoff position.
At Wheeler, it’s homecoming, as the Wildcats take on East Coweta. Lassiter is also at home to face Roswell, Kell entertains Carrollton and Sprayberry will meet Dalton.
Walton stays on the road to play Etowah. All those games kick off at 7:30 p.m. At 8 p.m., Pope plays at North Atlanta.
The final weekend of CenterStage North’s season finale, “Point of Order, continues at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at The Art Place (3330 Sandy Plains Road). Tickets are $20 each.
More board-trotting, this on the high school stage, as Pope Theater completes its presentation of “Edward Foote,” a Southern Gothic mystery set in the Depression-era Appalachians, on Friday and Saturday, both at 7 p.m., as well as a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee. The shows take place in the school’s performing arts theater (3001 Hembree Road), and tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students, as the Pope troupe prepares for next weekend’s Georgia High School Association One Act Regional Competition.
Weekends are ideal for getting the stress out, and on Saturday, you can learn how to handle it at a special Breathing and Meditation Session from 11-12:30 at the Mountain View Regional Library (3320 Sandy Plains Road). Khyati Doshi of The Art of Living Foundation will discuss how you can find your “space” with the simple act of breathing. The session is free but you should dress comfortably to practice some new breathing techniques.
If the rain holds off on Saturday, it should be a great day to explore one of East Cobb’s underrated nature preserves. From 12:30-2:30 p.m., the Cobb Master Gardeners Open Garden features a “walk and talk” at the Wright Environmental Education Center (2663 Johnson Ferry Road), led by Jerry Hightower, Park Ranger at Chattahoochee National Recreation Area. The event is free and parking is available at the adjacent Chestnut Ridge Chistian Church.
If you love high school marching bands, Sprayberry High School is the place to be Saturday for the 36th annual Southern Invitational Music Festival. Bands from around Cobb, metro Atlanta and Georgia will be performing in a judged competition, and the Sprayberry Band of Gold will be giving an exhibition performance at 7:45 p.m. Tickets are $10 adults, $5 students with an ID, and free for kids 6 and under. Everything takes place at Jim Frazier Stadium (2525 Sandy Plains Road).
Halloween events are starting to kick into gear, and one of East Cobb’s longstanding pumpkin fests is the Party in the Patch at Mt. Zion United Methodist Church (1770 Johnson Ferry Road). It’s free family fun starting at 5 p.m., so bring the kids in their costumes and enjoy a pumpkin maze, face painting, jumpy houses, family fun and more. A movie screening begins at 7:30 p.m., and they’ll have pumpkins on sale until 7:30 p.m.
UPDATE: Party in the Patch has been delayed due to rainy weather to Sunday, starting at 4:30 p.m., with a double-feature film starting at 7:15 p.m.
Sunday should be gorgeous, sunny and in the mid 70s, and it’s the last Sunday Funday of the year from 4-6 at East Cobb Park (3322 Roswell Road), presented by WellStar. The McCleskey-East Cobb Family YMCA will have Yoga and Zumba classes, Soccer Clinics, and kids activities. Bring a picnic and enjoy the Loose Shoes Band.
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. 14-18 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing to view details of the inspection:
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Submitted information from U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, who’s holding a Passport Day from 10-2 Saturday at her district office (5775 Glenridge Dr., Building B, First Floor Conference Room, Sandy Springs :
Representatives from the Atlanta Passport Agency will also be there to answer your questions.
This event is a convenient way to apply for a child’s passport, apply for the first time, or renew passports. Some countries require up to 6 months of validity on your passport when you travel, so now’s the time to renew!
No appointment is necessary, but please bring proof of U.S. citizenship, a photocopy of the front and back of your citizenship evidence, valid photo identification, one recent passport photograph (2” x 2”), and a credit card, personal check or money order to pay fees.
You may contact my District Office at (470) 773-6330 anytime.
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Vedad Kovac, a varsity soccer player at Lassiter High School, was called into the team camp for the Bosnia-Herzogovina Under-19 national team in September.
Kovac, a senior midfielder, was named to the United Soccer Coaches’ All-Region team as a junior for the Trojans.
As a club player, he competes for the NTH-NASA Elite Clubs National Program in East Cobb. The ECNL program is a three-year-old nationwide development program for high-level youth players, both boys and girls.
The camp Kovac has been participating is in preparation for friendly matches and the Under-19 European Qualifiers in November. Here’s more from ECNL about Kovac:
“The last couple of months have meant a lot to me,” commented Kovac. “I have experienced something I would not trade for anything. This has made my family very happy, which has made me even more excited to participate.”
Born in the United States to a Bosnian mother and father, Kovac has been with NTH-NASA since the age of nine, and has been coached by the club’s Director of Player Development, Todd Gispert, for the last four years, but more recently flew onto the radar of the national team scouts of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
According to Gispert, the call up for Kovac is warranted based upon a host of strengths he brings to the table.
“His technical ability is superb. The way he utilizes his body in tight spaces is fantastic. He also scores goals and that means a lot at any level,” said Gispert.
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A total of 13 students from East Cobb schools got perfect scores of 36 on the American College Testing (ACT) exam as the Cobb County School District released 2019 SAT results on Wednesday.
Walton’s overall average on the ACT was 27.4, the best in the 16-high school district, followed by Lassiter with 26, Pope with 25.3 and Wheeler with 24.2.
Ten Walton students from the Class of 2019 got perfect scores on the ACT, as did four Wheeler students and one student each from Kell, Lassiter and Pope.
The ACT composite results are from curriculum-based tests in English, math, reading, and science. According to the CCSD, Cobb’s district-wide composite score of 23 is 1.6 higher than the statewide average and 2.3 points above the national average of 20.7.
CCSD said in a release that three schools had composite average gains of a point or more from 2018, and two were in East Cobb: Kell (1.7) and Lassiter (1.2).
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Wheeler Magnet is celebrating 20 years! Come join us on November 2nd to Party Like it’s 1999! Attendees can relive the achievements of the last 20 years and see where students will take us in the future through student showcases and tours!
The Center for Advanced Students at Wheeler High School, Wheeler Magnet, was created in 1999 to provide students with a strong background in Science, Math, and Technology. The magnet program is dynamic. Each year it grows and changes to best serve our students. We received Georgia STEM Certification in September 2012 and Georgia STEAM Certification in 2017. These prestigious certifications are awarded by the Georgia Department of Education to schools in Georgia who lead the way in STEM and STEAM education. Wheeler has become a model for schools across the state who are interested in starting and developing STEM and STEAM programs.
According to Chris Walstead, the magnet coordinator, “I look forward to celebrating the Wheeler Magnet 20th anniversary and am honored to be a part of the Wheeler Magnet legacy of excellence. Over the past twenty years the magnet program has changed with the times to meet the needs of our extraordinary students in order to prepare them for success after they have left our halls. I am very excited to see what the next twenty years brings.”
The 20th anniversary celebration will take place on November 2nd, from 2:00 to 5:00.
Attendees will enjoy a student led program along with food, music, tours of the facilities, and time to mingle. The celebration will be held in the Performing Arts Center at Wheeler High School (375 Holt Rd NE, Marietta, GA 30068). Click on the link below to RSVP to the event.
Join us in this memorable experience to get to better know your local community and speak with teachers and faculty! The committee leads for this event include Chris Walstead, Stacy Regitsky, Brian Kent, Cheryl Crooks, Tiffany Stark, Faye Lebish, Linda Yu, Tina Soucie, Paul Gillihan, Lisa Casey, and Kelly Feddersen.
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Bill Simon, left, a leader of the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes cityhood, talks with David Birdwell of Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb at an April town. (ECN file)
The East Cobb Business Association announced Tuesday it’s holding a forum in mid-November on the East Cobb cityhood issue.
The forum will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 12, during the ECBA’s monthly luncheon from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Olde Towne Athletic Club (4950 Olde Towne Parkway).
According to Rosann Hall, who heads the ECBA’s speakers and program committee, the forum will include representatives of the Committee for Cityhood in East Cobb, which supports incorporation, and the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes cityhood.
“Whether we become a city or whether we don’t, this is going to impact us a lot as business owners and as citizens,” ECBA president Jim Harris said at Tuesday’s luncheon.
The pro-cityhood group held two town hall meetings and spoke at another civic meeting in the spring, after State Rep. Matt Dollar (R-East Cobb) sponsored legislation (read HB 718 here) that, if passed next year, would call for a cityhood referendum, also in 2020.
The cityhood group wants to carve out a portion of unincorporated Cobb, mostly below Sandy Plains Road, and create a city of around 100,000, citing public safety and development reasons.
The proposal has been controversial from the beginning and has generated plenty of skepticism in the community.
The East Cobb Alliance was formed recently to launch organized opposition, questioning a financial feasibility study conducted for the pro-cityhood forces and what it calls a lack of transparency by those pushing for a city.
In September, an independent group of finance and legal experts reviewed the feasibility study and concluded it was fiscally sound, but recommended any City of East Cobb not start with police services.
David Birdwell, a leader of the cityhood committee, said the review confirmed that cityhood is financially viable, and that a new city can provide better services without raising property taxes.
The East Cobb Alliance hasn’t formally responded to the independent review report, but it has examined various portions of the feasibility study, including public safety, franchise fees and inter-governmental agreements.
Most recently, the group posted a graphic on its Facebook page of a hungry-looking raptor with the message that “while the Raptor is fictional….the ‘City of East Cobb’ is a government horror that will slowly eat you alive for years.”
The cityhood group has redirected its original website to one with the domain of communityofeastcobb.com that includes much of the same information it has been discussing in recent months:
East Cobb’s Precinct 4 police staffing of 53 patrol officers that is 24 fewer than has been allocated;
Claiming property tax rates wouldn’t be higher than they are now in unincorporated Cobb;
Promising more prompt road repairs;
And “passing zonings without interference of votes from outside the city.”
Rob Eble, another leader of the cityhood group, said it’s looking to have a town hall tentatively on Nov. 11, but a venue has not been confirmed.
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For the ninth year, East Cobb dentists Michael and Azita Mansouri will be holding their free dental day event on Nov. 9, and they’re looking for hygienists and dental assistants to help out.
Here’s more about the free dental day, which typically serves about 300 or so people in need:
Doors will open at 5:00 am, and patients will be seen on a first-come, first-serve basis. It is recommended that participants arrive early, as lines for this event have started at 10 pm the night before the event in previous years. Before joining the line, participants must reply to the confirmation email or phone call that is sent out. Participants must be at least 18 years old, and they will receive one procedure of their choice: a professional dental cleaning, a dental filling, or an extraction.
This event is made possible by the non-profit organization, Dentistry From the Heart. This organization partners with thousands of dental professionals throughout the year to provide no-cost dental care to those without the means to acquire care.
“This is our favorite day of the year!” boasts Dr. Michael Mansouri. “We have been able to leave our mark on this community by giving back. So many people cannot afford dental treatments and do not have dental insurance. It is our great privilege to offer no-cost dental treatments to those in need.”
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On October 17th, 2019 at the Olde Towne Athletic Club, the East Cobb Civitans, along with the Georgia District Civitan Foundation and Friends for the East Cobb Park will host our 28 the annual “East Cobb Wine & Vine Market.”
This wine tasing and silent auction features over 100 items to bid on, and over 2 dozen wines to sample. There will be a live raffle drawing and a wine pull.
Your involvement in supporting this event has resulted in over $390,000 being donated to LOCAL charities!
These have included:
The East Cobb Park – Over $180,000 in donations for the park’s creation and development
Must Ministries: Providing shelter, clothing, food and support for homeless families
Center for Family Resources: Intervention & training to prevent and support homeless families
The Center for Children and Young Adults: A shelter & home for abused & neglected youth
Project Mail Call: Sends boxes of supplies and surprises to our deployed soldiers
Opportunity Knocks for Youth: Mentoring for Middle School aged Foster kids
Fragile Kids Foundation: Providing resources for the medically fragile
The Georgia Ballet’s “Dance Abilities”: Dance classes for special needs students
Camp Big Heart – A week long summer camp for developmentally disabled campers
Right in the Community: Supporting group homes for the developmentally disabled
Great Prospects – A social organization for adults with special needs.
Tickets are $25 each and include heavy appetizers; must be 21 or older to attend.
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U.S. Census Bureau officials will share information on 2020 Census job opportunities and answer questions about applying during job opportunity sessions at Mountain View Regional Library:
10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, Oct. 18
10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday, Oct. 25
10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 31
Local positions include assistants, clerks, office operations supervisors and census takers. Pay ranges vary based on location and position. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age, a U.S. citizen, and have a valid Social Security number and email address. The library is located at 3320 Sandy Plains Road, Marietta. For more information on applying for 2020 Census jobs, including application requirements, visit www.2020census.gov/jobs. Potential applicants seeking information and assistance may also call 1-855-JOB-2020 (562-2020) or use the Federal Relay Service at 800-877-8339.
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Join us on Wednesday, October 16th for the Pope High School Marching Band’s Community Show where the band will perform both their marching band competition show, 9 3/4, as well as their rockin’ football halftime show featuring Sweet Child O’ Mine from Guns N’ Roses.
Join us for dinner beforehand with Food Trucks beginning at 5 pm. Boss Lady’s Grillers, Peace of Pita, Tom + Chee and Kona Ice will be there!
The show will start at 7 pm in Pope’s football stadium.
Join us for this wonderful evening to celebrate the band’s accomplishments, and send them off to their final competition in style!!
Please invite your friends, families and neighbors – they won’t want to miss this event!
Admission is $5.
That final competition is the Tarpon Springs Outdoor Marching Festival this weekend in Florida.
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A proposal by the owner of The Avenue East Cobb to extend opening hours for a fitness center and make monument sign changes won’t be heard by the Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.
That’s because the case has been withdrawn without prejudice by the Cobb zoning staff, meaning it could be refiled at any time.
No reason was given for the withdrawal noted in Tuesday’s meeting agenda (read it here), but there hasn’t been anything new placed in the filings since September, when the case was initially delayed.
Poag Shopping Centers, LLC, had filed an application for site plan changes that were opposed by the nearby East Hampton neighborhood and the East Cobb Civic Association.
The proposal asked that the barre3 fitness center, which opens at 6 a.m., be allowed to open at 5 a.m. Nearby neighbors were opposed to that and suggested that instead of a larger monument sign (12 feet high by 20 feet wide) at the shopping center entrance, two smaller signs be erected instead.
The ECCA also is opposing a request by Eric and Rita Klein to convert a single-family home on Providence Road, behind the Providence Square shopping center, to community retail commercial for professional offices (case file here).
The home is next to My East Cobb Dentist, owned by the Kleins. In their application, they say their plans are to renovate the home to make it look like their current office building, and add a second story for storage for a total of 6,000 square feet.
The ECCA is recommending a low-rise office category instead, since that’s the zoning for the Merchants Walk Office Park next door, and that CRC “allows for too many intense uses.”
According to Cobb Tax Assessor’s Office records, the home was built in 1949 and purchased by the Kleins in December 2018 from the estate of Franklin Lanier McClure. He was a retired barber who died in July 2018 at the age of 96.
The commissioners’ zoning hearing begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government office building, 100 Cherokee St., in downtown Marietta.
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A new census is being taken next year, and this week the Atlanta Regional Commission released figures that go out three decades down the road, projecting Cobb population growth of 40 percent that will push the county past the one-million mark by the the year 2050.
The county currently has a population of more than 766,000, and the ARC is projecting that will grow by 295,000 over the next 30 years
Those figures are part of a larger forecast by the ARC that has the 21-county metro Atlanta growing by 2.9 million people, to 8.6 million, by 2050.
In addition, the area will gain 1.2 million more jobs in that time.
You can read summaries of the ARC report here and here.
Only Fulton and Gwinnett counties, the only ones more populous than Cobb, will remain that way, according to ARC, which says both will push beyond 1.4 million people each by 2050. DeKalb County is projected to come close to 1 million.
The ARC report indicates that Cobb’s Hispanic population will grow 21 percent over the next 30 or so years, and so will Cobb’s elderly population. By 2050, people 75 and older will make up 13 percent of the county population, compared to four percent today.
Greater diversity is anticipated through the 21 counties. Cobb currently has a white population of 54 percent, with blacks making up 25 percent, Hispanics 14 percent and others seven percent.
By 2040, ARC projects Cobb’s population will be minority-majority, with blacks, Hispanics and other groups making up 58 percent of the population, and whites 41 percent.
More detailed aging numbers show that Cobb now has an elderly population rate (age 65 and older) of 11.75 percent, but that will grow to 22.5 percent by 2040.
Cobb’s population has stagnated in the most recent population update put out by the ARC in August, with an increase of only 8,100 people since 2018. (East Cobb’s roughly estimated population is around 200,000, taking in ZIP codes 30062, 30066, 30067, 30068 and the Cobb portion of 30075).
Forsyth County population is expected to double by 2050, to more than 440,000, and Henry County is expected to have a growth rate of 70 percent.
The ARC projects that the largest job gains will be in the health care and social assistance; professional, scientific and technical; and construction sectors. The largest job losses, per the ARC, are forecast to occur in the manufacturing and utilities sectors.
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This weekend’s events calendar in East Cobb contains more fall-like and holiday-themed events, as well as the last presentation of the year for a community theater troupe.
The first holiday craft fair of the fall is the St. Andrew UMC Craft Show, 11-6 Friday and 10-4 Saturday at the church (3455 Canton Road). There’s free admission, and you can shop for items from over 40 vendors. Lunch items and baked goods for sale. All proceeds go to St. Andrew’s women’s mission work projects;
The Cobb Library System’s Fall Book Sale (above) is all this weekend, 9-5 Friday and Saturday and 1-5 Sunday, at the Cobb Civic Center (548 S. Marietta Parkway). Debit, credit, cash and checks will be accepted. Your buying limit will be two boxes of items at a time on Friday until 1 p.m. Sunday is BYOB (Bring Your Own Box) Day. You can bring any size box you like and fill it to the top. Profits go to help the library system purchase items for branches around the county;
It’s the halfway point in the high school football season, and all six East Cobb teams are in action Friday, headlined by Walton at Lassiter. It’s been a while since both teams had losing records for this showdown, but the Raiders are 2-3 and the Trojans are 1-4. This is a region game, so more than local bragging rights are on the line. It’s homecoming for Pope against Johns Creek, while Sprayberry is at Osborne, Kell travels to Villa Rica and Wheeler visits Newnan. Kickoff at all venues is 7:30 p.m.;
The final production of the year for CenterStage North continues this weekend and next at The Art Place (3330 Sandy Plains Road): “Point of Order,” about how a small town in decline goes out of its way to honor a long-departed hometown celebrity to spark a revival. Shows are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., as well as next Thursday-Saturday, also at 8. Tickets are $20;
Starting Saturday, and continuing weekends only through Dec. 1 and longer hours afterward, is the Good Mews Holiday Decor Market. The location is the same, the Sandy Plains Exchange Shopping Center (1860 Sandy Plains Road, Suite 202), and for now Saturday hours are 10-5 and Sunday hours are 12-5. The East Cobb-based cat shelter is accepting donations of holiday decor and collectibles for all major holidays on site Saturdays 10-3 and Sundays 12-3 through Nov. 17. Ensure that all items are clean, new or gently used, and in good working order;
From 10-2 Saturday, it’s the Mt. Bethel Christian Preschool Fall Festival, taking place in the Fairfield parking lot at the church (4385 Lower Roswell Road). Events will include touch a truck, pony rides, a petting zoo, inflatables, games, balloon art, food and much, much more! Exciting silent auction items and baskets will be available. Admission is $1 per ticket or 11 tickets for $10.
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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A contentious rezoning application on Lower Roswell Road filed by a prominent Cobb homebuilder appears to be dead for now, as well as annexation into the city of Marietta.
Rusty Roth, the city’s development director, notified residents of the Sewell Manor neighborhood on Wednesday that Traton Homes had had not filed anything new after the Marietta City Council voted in July to give the developer a 90-day “stay.”
That 90-day period ended on Wednesday, and Roth said the request was not included on Thursday’s council agenda.
In his note, Roth wrote that without the applicant “giving written notice to reactivate the stayed motions . . . the actions shall be dismissed without prejudice.”
That means that Traton could refile the request at any time.
In a note to her neighbors, Sewell Manor resident Robin Moody, who led the fight against the rezoning and annexation, thanked community leaders, media outlets, Cobb commissioner Bob Ott and “the City of Marietta for being reasonable.”
The Marietta-based Traton had proposed building 39 townhomes and 13 detached homes on less than eight acres at Lower Roswell Road and the South Marietta Parkway, after asking Marietta to annex the land.
That property includes six parcels that once were part of the Sewell Manor in unincorporated Cobb. Three other parcels that front Lower Roswell Road were annexed into Marietta several years ago.
Residents there said the project would be too dense and would add to existing traffic problems in their community. In addition, Traton did not submit a traffic plan and included 15 variances in its request.
The density of the project allowed Cobb elected officials to lodge an official objection under a state home rule law, but the county development staff didn’t meet a January deadline for having county commissioners formalize that objection.
Sewell Manor resident Robin Moody
The Marietta Planning Commission voted to recommend denial of the rezoning in April, then the council delayed a vote the first time the matter appeared on its agenda.
In June, Ott met with Sewell Manor neighbors at a town hall meeting and scheduled mediation between the city and the county to resolve the dispute.
But the city called off the mediation, and another zoning notice went up in Sewell Manor for the July council meeting.
At that meeting, council member Michelle Cooper-Kelly, who represents that area of the city, stipulated in her motion for a 90-day delay a provision for a withdrawal without prejudice by Traton.
“We do all hope that should this matter be taken up again, that everyone will band together again,” Moody said in her note Thursday. “Please stay positive and let’s say unified!”
She said Sewell Manor residents will have what they call a “Unity of Community” meeting Nov. 1 at the Sewell Mill Library (2051 Lower Roswell Road).
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Byrne was indicted by a Cobb Superior Court grand jury on Oct. 3 on eight felony counts, including malice murder, felony murder, conspiracy to commit a felony and violation of rackeetering laws.
Another count alleges that in March of this year, Byrne asked an individual identified as “J.G.” to have Wheeler killed in exchange for money.
The indictment states that Byrne conspired with Wheeler to commit the murder of Moore, who was found stabbed to death multiple times with a knife in his home at 2808 Gracewood Drive on Jan. 25, 2014.
Byrne had been the owner of Best Dang Bakery Around in Woodstock, and Moore had been an investor, according to testimony presented at Wheeler’s trial.
Byrne lived at Moore’s Gracewood Drive home for seven years, according to the indictment, and each man had a 50 percent ownership stake in the bakery, of around $35,000 each.
By Jan. 2014, Moore wanted out of the business partnership, concerned about Byrne’s spending habits, according to the indictment, which stated that Byrne had moved of the East Cobb home by then.
The indictment alleges that Byrne and Wheeler, a former bakery employee who had served 10 years in prison in Ohio for armed robbery and other offenses, conspired to steal from Moore. The plot, according to the indictment, was to have Wheeler come to Moore’s home and commit assault, burglary and theft.
After Moore was found dead, the indictment states, the plot involved “tampering with evidence and false statements.”
Johnathan Wheeler
The indictment alleges that Byrne let Wheeler come to his home and shower after the killing, and that Byrne offered Wheeler a clean change of clothes.
According to the indictment, Wheeler confessed to the murder to his cousin, Cynthia Wheeler. She testified at Wheeler’s trial last year that they went back to Moore’s home to stage a crime scene and steal items.
The indictment said Byrne later stole Moore’s partnership interest, helped Cynthia and Johnathan Wheeler pay bills and paid for a trip Byrne and Wheeler took to the Florida Keys and for vehicles for Wheeler.
Byrne was interviewed by police two days after the murder and denied any role, according to the indictment. Wheeler was charged with homicide on Aug. 16, 2014.
In 2016, Cynthia Wheeler was sentenced for concealing a death, burglary and tampering with evidence, and agreed to testify against her cousin.
According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Johnathan Wheeler is incarcerated at the Smith State Prison in south Georgia.
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