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!
Recycling and trash businesses and a local green non-profit will hold a Recycling Roundtable on Friday, April 21, at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road).
The event takes place from 10:30-11:30 a.m. and you can register by clicking here.
April 22 is Earth Day, and a panel of experts will be on hand from the Cobb County Sustainability Department, WestRock, Waste Management, Trash Taxi and B Green to discuss recycling matters.
Among the questions they will address:
Are you confused about what can and cannot be recycled?
Are you concerned about where your recycling goes after it is picked up from your curb?
Do you question the benefits of recycling?
The sponsors of the event are Cheers to Recycling, an East Cobb-based curbside glass recycling service, and My Green Earth, Inc., a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit devoted to improving environmental sustainability in Cobb County.
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!
On Wednesday, April 12th from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM, The Janice Overbeck Real Estate Team held an appreciation barbecue lunch to honor local police, firemen, EMT’s and military. Churchill Mortgage served bbq with a variety of sides and drinks sponsored by Arrow Exterminators. Attendees were welcome to use the patio to enjoy their meal, or they could take it on the road. Additional sponsors for the event included: First American Home Warranty, and Chick-fil-A East Lake. Local Cobb County and surrounding area first responders, police, fire, detective units, and military were all invited. For more information on community events at the Janice Overbeck Team office, visit: www.JaniceOverbeck.com.
Send Us Your News!
Let East Cobb News know what your organization is doing, or share news about what people are doing in the community—accomplishments, recognitions, milestones, etc.
Pass along your details to: editor@eastcobbnews.com, and please observe the following guidelines to ensure we get everything properly and can post it promptly.
Send the body of your announcement, calendar item or news release IN TEXT FORM ONLY in the text field of your e-mail template. Reformatting text from PDF, JPG and doc files takes us longer to prepare your message for publication.
We accept PDFs as an accompaniment to your item. Images are fine too, but we prefer those to be JPG files (more than jpeg and png). PLEASE DO NOT send photos inside a PDF or text or any other kind of file. Of course, send us links that are relevant to your message so we can direct people to your website.
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 g
A rendering of single-family homes shows a tight distance between residences, in some instances as little as seven feet.
As we noted last week, plans for the residential portion of land at the Johnson Ferry-Shallowford intersection that was part of the East Cobb Church rezoning approval are still in the works.
Among the stipulations the developer, Ashwood Atlanta, agreed to was to limit impervious surfaces to 40 percent.
The Atlanta-based builder is proposing 77 detached homes, after dropping the 44 townhomes and 51 detached homes that were in the approved site plan.
The owner of the 19 acres of land that is zoned RA-5, Johnson Ferry Road LLC, recently filed a request to increase the impervious surface maximum to 45 percent, with the additional runoff “designed into the retention area,” according to an agenda item for a Tuesday zoning hearing of the Cobb Board of Commissioners.
The proposed change, the agenda item states, is “would help to accommodate development consistent with the area,” but there was no further elaboration.
But Kevin Moore, the developer’s attorney, asked the Cobb Zoning Office this week for a continuance to May to finalize the plans.
The homes will be built on land west of Johnson Ferry Road, north and south of Waterfront Drive and east of Waterfront Circle.
The Cobb stormwater office said it has no objection to the request, but “storm water quality design for the development will need to include the additional impervious area.”
Citizens serving on a plan review committee said they wanted the final plan to get as close to the 40 percent stipulation as possible.
The latest site plan includes 77 single-family detached homes on 19 acres. For a larger view click here.
While that case won’t be heard Tuesday, commissioners will consider long-delayed plans for a King’s Hawaiian restaurant in Northeast Cobb.
They voted last month for a continuance after some residents expressed traffic and safety concerns.
The restaurant would be located on the northwest intersection of Shallowford Road and Gordy Parkway, next to a self-storage facility where a movie cinema once stood.
Cobb DOT is recommending right-in and right-out access on Gordy Parkway (agenda item here).
A couple other East Cobb cases we’ve written about here before and that are continuing to be delayed are for a residential development on Post Oak Tritt Road and an expanded Starbucks at Paper Mill Village (see links below). Those also have been continued to May.
The zoning hearing hearing begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta), you can view the full agenda and individual case files by clicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Education on Thursday approved the hiring of a separate law firm for a federal lawsuit that challenges the reapportionment of Cobb Board of Education seats last year.
Cobb Board of Education maps that went into effect on Jan. 1 took Post 6 out of East Cobb. For a larger view click here.
After an executive session, the board voted to hire Galleria-based Freeman Mathis and Gary LLP, which filed a motion in late March seeking judgment, and earlier this month subpoenaed plaintiffs seeking documentation and records.
A June 22 hearing has been scheduled in the courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross in Atlanta over the district’s motion for judgment.
The district and board have been represented on most legal matters since 2022 by the Atlanta firm of Parker Poe Adams.
The board didn’t discuss the matter during Thursday’s meeting, including the cost for the legal services by Freeman Mathis and Gary. East Cobb News has left a message with the Cobb school district seeking more information.
The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration was sued last summer by several Cobb parents, who are being represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU Foundation of Georgia and other advocacy groups.
They claim that the Georgia legislature adopted Cobb school board maps that violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act and used race as a guiding factor in redrawing the seven posts.
Those actions included Post 2 and 3 in South Cobb and Post 6, which had covered most of the Walton and Wheeler high school attendance zones, and which was moved out of East Cobb, and mostly into the Cumberland-Smyrna-Vinings area.
Until last November’s elections, those three posts were represented by black school board members; the board’s current African-American members represent Post 3 and Post 6.
The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint last August (you can read it here) that alleges that the four-member Republican school board majority undertook a secretive process to have a map drawn that was then introduced by State Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, a West Cobb Republican.
The managing director of Freeman Mathis Decisions, the government relations arm of the law firm representing the Cobb school district, is her husband and predecessor, former State Rep. Earl Ehrhart.
He previously held a similar position at Taylor English Decisions, a lobbying component of Taylor English Duma LLP, a law firm that drew the Cobb school board maps recommended by the board Republicans.
The Ehrhart-sponsored maps were adopted by the legislature last year.
The Democratic-majority Cobb legislative delegation backed another map that would have made few changes to those lines, but it was never voted on in the legislature.
That latter event—ignoring local courtesies—is also at the heart of a separate redistricting lawsuit filed against the Cobb Board of Commissioners, whose Democratic majority voted last October to invoke home rule over reapportionament that drew District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her seat.
“Ultimately, the Board and General Assembly enacted a redistricting plan that whitewashed the northern, eastern, and western districts by packing Black and Latinx voters into the Challenged Districts, as a last-ditch effort to limit the power of their emerging political coalition,” the Cobb school plaintiffs’ amended lawsuit states.
The Cobb school district responded in March, accusing the plaintiffs of making “scurrilous accusations” about board members in what was a “purely political dispute” based on partisan differences.
They included school board actions over the district’s COVID-19 response as well as racial and equity issues—mentioning the banning of teaching critical race theory and the board majority’s refusal to consider renaming Wheeler High School, named after a Confederate Civil War general.
The plaintiffs represent organizations “that in reality promote partisan Democratic causes, and individuals they recruited who are also partisan Democrats, are upset that the effect of the redistricting process did not align with their preferred partisan outcome: a Democratic takeover of the Board of Education,” the Cobb school district motion states.
The school district motion said that the Cobb school board, which isn’t named as a defendant in the lawsuit, can’t be held liable for a redistricting map approved by the state legislature.
The complaint against the new maps, the school district motion said, involves “run of the mill political disputes over which Republicans and Democrats clash every day.”
The plaintiffs’ attorneys were given until April 28 to produce documents and prepare for the June hearing for the Cobb school district’s motion.
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!
Mountain View Elementary School teacher of the year Kristin Shildneck, principal Renee Garris and classified employee of the year Barbara Glynn at a 2018 luncheon.
Renee Garris, who has been the principal at Mountain View Elementary School at East Cobb since 2010 and has been an educator for more than three decades, will retire at the end of the 2022-23 school year.
The Cobb County School District announced her retirement, effective June 30, at a Cobb Board of Education meeting Thursday night following an executive session.
Garris also was an administrator for six years and a classroom teacher for 14 years in the Cobb County School District.
She helped prepare the school community for the relocation of the campus from its longtime venue on Sandy Plains Road near Shallowford Road in 2017 to a new site on Sandy Plains, at the intersection of Davis Road.
Garris is a graduate of Cobb County schools and has been on the board of directors for the Northeast Cobb Business Association, which has a formal partnership with public schools in the area.
Also on Thursday, new principals were announced to fill vacancies for the 2023-24 year.
Ashley Beasley, who has been the director of the Cobb school district’s Elementary Virtual Program, was appointed principal at Davis Elementary School.
She has 18 years of education experience, including nine years as an assistant principal. She attended Cobb schools, graduating from McEachern High School, and earned bachelor’s, master’s, educational leadership and educational doctorate degrees from Kennesaw State University.
Beasley is succeeding Kristin Erbskorn, who is retiring.
The new principal at Shallowford Falls Elementary School is Lindsey McGovern, who has been the assistant principal there since 2019.
She has 20 years of experience in the Cobb school district and has taught and was an assistant principal at Brumby Elementary School.
McGovern, who succeeds retiring principal Donna Long, earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia and obtained graduate degrees from Kennesaw State.
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!
Land disturbance permits are expected to be issued soon, with the first phase of construction commencing by the summer on a 132-unit apartment building for seniors aged 55 and older.
Atlantic Residential’s redevelopment plans also have been evolving over the last year for a project it is calling East Cobb Walk.
When the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved rezoning in 2021, the plans called for more than 30,000 square feet of retail. The Lidl grocery store chain backed out beforehand, due to traffic access problems.
A more recent but incomplete site plan showed that retail has been cut down to 14,500 square feet: a 13,000-square-foot building in front of the Mayes Cemetery, and 1,5000 square feet of space on the ground floor of the senior apartment building.
Atlantic Residential said it intends to finalize a site plan with the nearly 30,000 square feet included in a rezoning stipulation letter.
Tim Carini, one of the leaders of the group that opposed any apartments on the site, even for seniors, thought the name change ironic.
“There is nowhere to walk within this development,” he said.
But when he saw the lesser space for retail, he said that “the County needs to hold this developer to that number” that is included in a stipulation letter that was part of the rezoning approval.
“Without this retail for the community, all we are getting is apartments and townhomes that are squeezed as tight as possible into this property,” said Carini, organizer of a Facebook group called Residents Against Apartments At Sprayberry Crossing.
Shane Spink, who led citizen support of the redevelopment and has been part of a post-rezoning site plan review, told East Cobb News he and other supporters also were taken aback by what appeared to be less than half of the proposed retail space.
He said he was later told by Richard Aaronson, the CEO of Atlantic Residential, that the developer intends to “maximize the commercial buildout for commercial use as provided in the zoning.”
He said the site plan reflecting only 14,500 square feet of retail space was an engineering rendering produced without the developer’s input that was meant to be a “placeholder” for a final plan.
“We apologize for any confusion and will circulate an updated site plan that identifies maximum commercial density provided by the zoning,” Aaronson told Spink. “We do intend to start marketing the commercial parcel once site work is initiated in the coming weeks.”
East Cobb News has contacted Aaronson and Atlantic Residential for more information.
The senior apartment building will be the first phase of construction for East Cobb Walk, tentatively slated to get underway in August with completion by September 2024. Those units are one and two bedrooms and there will be amenities in the builidng.
The 102 townhomes will be the second phase, scheduled to start in January 2024. That developer was to have been Pulte Homes, but that phase will be built instead by Toll Brothers. They will be around 2,000 square feet each (renderings below).
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb County School District presented on Thursday a pr0posed fiscal year 2024 budget of $1.448 billion that includes a pay raise for employees and a property tax cut for citizens.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said at a Cobb Board of Education work session Thursday afternoon he is proposing a reduction in the property tax rate from 18.9 mills to 18.7 mills, which amounts to a cut of $7.6 million in recurring revenue each year.
If approved by the school board, the millage rate reduction would be the first change in the general fund property tax rate for the Cobb school district in nearly 15 years.
Ragsdale’s pay raise would be a minimum of 7.5 percent for full-time employees, with a range of up to 12.1 percent.
He also is proposing to hire 11 more officers for the Cobb school district’s police department, which currently has 70 officers.
The board voting Thursday night for tentative adoption of the budget.
That allows the district to advertise the proposal for another hearing on May 18, during which formal adoption is scheduled. The fiscal year 2024 budget goes into effect July 1.
Details of the budget proposal, which weren’t released in advance of the board presentation, have been posted at this link.
The school millage rate produces the largest portion of a Cobb homeowners’ property tax bill, and those age 62 and over (except in the city of Marietta) can apply for a senior exemption from paying school taxes.
Chief financial officer Brad Johnson, in his presentation to the school board at the work session, said there is an estimated 13 percent growth in the Cobb tax digest.
He said the budget also would be funded with $87 million in budget reserves, an amount he said is “more than usual . . . but we think is sustainable.” The district has an unassigned fund balance of $198 million, which Johnson said amounts to 40 days of operating expense.
Ragsdale said in response to a question from board member Tre’ Hutchins about the fund balance that because of the estimated expansion of the digest, “we are comfortable” cutting the millage rate and using that much of reserve funding.
He said the additional police officers were requested in response to the deadly shootings of six people at a Christian school in Nashville earlier this month.
“Armed officers onsite help” to prevent deadly shooters, he said, adding that “it’s an absolute preventative measure.”
He has come under some criticism for his plan last year to hire armed but not certified armed guards on school campuses. Some citizens protested the vote last summer when the school board approved the plan.
Ragsdale said Thursday the new officers to be hired will be uniformed officers certified by the Georgia Peace Officers Training Council.
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!
Despite pleas from the developer and nearby community members Wednesday night, Marietta Mayor Steve “Thunder” Tumlin vetoed a proposed apartment complex at Powers Ferry Road and Delk Road.
The Marietta City Council voted 5-2 to approve the 322-unit on the site of a Kroger store that will be moving later this year.
There was no opposition from the public, and the Marietta Planning Commission had voted 7-0 to recommend approval in March.
But Tumlin, who has been vocal recently about too many apartments being proposed in the city, as well as their density, immediately vetoed the approval.
City council member Joseph Goldstein, whose Ward 7 includes the site, then made a motion to override the veto, which needed five votes.
But his colleague Grif Chalfant, who voted for the rezoning, then joined council members Johnny Walker and Andy Walker, who had voted against the application, in voting against overriding the veto.
Developer WC Acquisitions LLC of Atlanta had proposed the five-story luxury apartment building, a six-story parking deck and 6,000 square feet of retail space on 4.7 acres.
Kroger is vacating a 42-year-old building later this year to occupy a new superstore up the street at the MarketPlace Terrell Mill.
William Casaday, the applicant, told council members Wednesday that the site has no future for commercial and retail use. He sought a change from a commercial zoning category to mixed use, and noted a glut of supermarkets and low demand for retail.
He said the mixed-use development would generate a third of the traffic of the Kroger, and that it would luxury units with numerous amenities, with rents starting at $1,800 a month.
Patti Rice, of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance, urged approval, saying the development “has the potential to set a very high bar and to positively influence the quality of future development” in the area.
She said she feared that if the development wasn’t approved, the site “could be a blight and detrimental to the surrounding community.”
Don Barth of the nearby Cloverdale Heights neighborhood in the city of Marietta, said he shops often in the Powers Ferry corridor and the apartment building would be an asset.
“A lot of professionals are living in apartments for a reason,” he said. “It’s not something bad. What would be bad would be to let this property go to blight.
“We want to attract professionals to this area. This is the gateway going into East Cobb.”
But the council didn’t discuss the case before the vote.
Later in the meeting, the council approved a six-month moratorium on apartment building, with only Goldstein opposed.
The freeze does not apply to the Powers Ferry application and others that have been filed.
That includes a proposed mixed-use development including apartments at the former site of Harry’s Farmers Market at Roswell Road and Powers Ferry Road.
Apartments also have been proposed near the Marietta Square on land that doesn’t need rezoning and that is opposed by Tumlin, but must be approved by a city historic review board.
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!
Ever since he was a teenager, John Cristadoro has tried his hand at any number of activities and jobs.
He’s been a veterinarian technician, clerked in a law firm, took acting classes (appearing briefly on the soap opera “General Hospital”), worked as a personal trainer and began his current career in media sales, initially booking advertising sponsorships on Los Angeles Dodgers’ radio games when he lived in California.
He moved to Atlanta more than a decade ago for a radio sales position, then started his own media agency, Alliance Activation, with present clients including Heineken and Baccardi.
Another client, prominent Cobb business leader John Loud, urged Cristadoro to think about doing something entirely different: running for political office.
John Loud
Specifically, he was being asked to consider a campaign for the Cobb Board of Education.
The 45-year-old Cristadoro moved to East Cobb a dozen years ago, where he and his wife are raising their two children, a son at Dodgen Middle School and a daughter at Walton High School.
Between entrepreneurial life (he’s also involved with two other small businesses) and being a coach for Walton youth sports teams, Cristadoro admits he has a rather full plate.
The son of an Army veteran who graduated from Gilmer County High School in north Georgia, Cristadoro earned a political science degree from the University of New Orleans.
He also served in the U.S. Air Force before settling into a business career.
In a recent interview with East Cobb News, the 45-year-old Louisiana native was also bothered by what he was seeing on the Cobb school board in recent years.
Partisan bickering on racial and equity issues and the Cobb County School District’s response to COVID-19 prompted a special accreditation review that was later withdrawn last spring.
Republicans hold a 4-3 majority on the board, and three of the GOP members, including Post 5 incumbent David Banks, are up for re-election in 2024.
Banks, who’s been a controversial figure, told East Cobb News last week that he’s undecided about seeking a fifth term. Laura Judge, a Democratic activist, has filed a declaration of intent form for the Post 5 seat, and said she will announce he decision in several weeks.
Cristadoro said that in recent months, “people came to me and said, ‘John, you need to run.’ ”
One of them was Loud, owner of Loud Security Systems, and a former chairman of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
“He said this school board [elections] are very big,” Cristadoro said, referending Loud, whom he said is a big fan of Superintendent Chris Ragsdale. “They’ve been on the firing line the last couple years.”
After listening to a number of community and school leaders, including meeting with Republican school board members David Chastain and Randy Scamihorn, Cristadoro announced his candidacy earlier this month in the GOP for the seat in Post 5, which includes the Walton, Wheeler and Pope high school clusters.
“I committed mentally and spoke with people and asked for a lot of support,” Cristadoro said. “I’m not a halfway kind of guy. You’ve got to be passionate to do this.
“What made me move to Cobb County? It wasn’t my company [which is based in the city of Atlanta]. It was the schools. I want to work to protect that.”
He said he’s attempted to talk to Banks, but hasn’t made contact.
“I’m not running against him,” Cristadoro said. “I’m running for the school board.”
Cristadoro said that after giving a campaign “a lot of thought,” what’s prompting him now is a desire to “make sure our classrooms remain excellent.”
Here’s his campaign website. He also has formed a steering committee led by Loud, former Cobb school board member Scott Sweeney, the current chairman of the state education board and various East Cobb civic and community leaders.
The new Post 5 territory (in purple) includes the Walton, Wheeler and Pope clusters.
‘Not fire and brimstone’
That a political novice has garnered such support for a seat with a longtime incumbent still in office is a reflection of the heightened interest in the control of the school board.
Democrats hold majorities on the Cobb Board of Commissioners and the Cobb legislative delegation.
Cristadoro describes himself as a solid Republican, but “not a fire and brimstone Republican.”
He was upset by the special review by Cognia, the Cobb school district’s accrediting agency, and said it was “totally unnecessary . . . Accreditation should not be a political football.”
He said complaints that led to the review—especially racial and equity claims—haven’t panned out.
“If you look at the quality of outcomes of the schools,” Cristadoro said, “it’s not true.”
Cristadoro also said he supports Ragsdale, saying the superintendent has “done a great job” handling the COVID-19 response.
He said his priorities would be to ensure the physical and mental safety of students, including more resources for those experiencing mental health issues.
Cristadoro has coached youth football and wrestling in the Walton feeder programs.
He also said he would “promote the laser focus of our schools’ leadership and teachers’ instruction of all our children.”
When asked about the teaching of critical race theory—which the Cobb school board voted to ban and which is not included in the Georgia education department’s curriculum standards—Cristadoro said the general state-approved measures “have been very successful. The results have been phenomenal. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Cristadoro also supports the continuing Cobb Education SPLOST sales tax referendum for school construction and maintenance.
He also pledged uphold the Cobb senior tax exemption for homeowners aged 62 and over. Although that can be changed only by the Georgia legislature, “I will not support passing a resolution that would alter that exemption.”
Another priority would be to stress entrepreneurial education for students, especially since not every student is college-bound.
“In East Cobb there’s a big push to go to college, and that’s great,” he said. But he added that “here are negative connotations about not going to college” that he doesn’t think are fair.
But he said regardless of their career paths, students need to be “be introduced into fundamental business concepts which will allow them to compete in the world’s economy.”
‘A father who cares’
Given the high stakes involved in the Post 5 race, Cristadoro acknowledged the need for an early start—the 2024 primaries are next May—to gather political and financial support.
His campaign manager, Audrey Neu, is the Cobb Republican Party’s school liaison, and he said a formal campaign committee is being finalized.
He cited a ballpark fundraising figure of around $85,000—Catherine Pozniak, Chastain’s Democratic opponent in Post 4 in 2022, raised around $60,000.
“I know a lot of people and I don’t believe it’s going to be hard to raise money,” Cristadoro said. “I feel very confident I’m going to get a good response.”
He said he keeps hearing in the community that “it’s time for a change” and acknowledged that if he faced Banks in the Republican primary, “it would be tough but I think we would prevail.”
When asked if some might perceive him to be a “Chamber” candidate or one of the local political establishment, Cristadoro responded by saying “I’m my own person. Do I listen to smart people? Absolutely. But no one’s going to tell me what to do.
“I’m interested in listening to people who don’t look, talk or sound like me.”
Cristadoro said he’s going to run “as if I’m running for president.”
He said he wants to stress the “why” behind his candidacy, saying simply that “I’m a father who cares.”
He said a youth football player he coached sent him a hand-written note thanking him for “always having my back.
“I have their backs,” Cristadoro said, stretching the reference to all students in the Cobb district. “That’s the reason we have to do this.
“This is extremely important. Our kids’ futures depend on it.”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb County School District’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget will be presented on Thursday to the Cobb Board of Education, which also will be asked to approve several facilities contracts.
A public budget forum will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the board room of the CCSD central office (514 Glover St., Marietta), followed by a formal budget presentation at the board’s voting meeting at 7 p.m.
The board will be asked to tentatively adopt the budget, the first step toward formal adoption in May or June.
Budget information is expected to be made available at this link; the current fiscal year 2023 budget of $1.4 billion includes what Superintendent Chris Ragsdale called “historic” raises (between 8.5 and 13.10 percent for non-temporary employees).
He has not publicly offered any budget priorities for the FY 2024 budget, which takes effect July 1.
Last year the board approved the budget unanimously using additional revenues from the Cobb tax digest, which increased by 10 percent in 2022, and by using nearly $30 million in reserve funding.
Last week the Cobb Tax Assessor predicted the county tax digest would go up by 13 percent. The digest is formalized in July.
The largest portion of a Cobb homeowners’ property tax bill (outside the city of Marietta) is for the Cobb school district, which has held at a millage rate of 18.90 mills for more than 15 years.
The school board will meet at 2 p.m. in a work session at which contracts for architectural and engineering design for a number of new construction projects will be presented.
An executive session follows the work session. Agendas for the public meetings can be found by clicking here.
The new construction projects include a $50 million special events facility approved last month. That will be the new location for graduation ceremonies, as well as a number of academic and extracurricular activities.
The board also will ask to approve design contracts for renovations at Blackwell Elementary School ($5.4 million) and Shallowford Falls Elementary School ($4.1 million) and for the district to hire a construction manager for the replacement classroom building project at Sprayberry High School.
A construction contract for a pedestrian bridge linking the Walton High School campus to the school’s new athletic complex also is on the agenda.
The cost for the bridge is $1 million. The tennis courts have been completed at the new facility, while a baseball field will be under construction soon. The complex, with a cost of $6.7 million, is expected to be completed in December.
At the Thursday evening board meeting, the recognitions include state champion wrestlers from Lassiter, Pope and Sprayberry high schools and state champion basketball team from Kell and Wheeler.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The following food scores for the week of April 17 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
A motorcyclist suffered non-life-threatening injuries Monday when the motorcycle he was riding on Roswell Road in East Cobb crashed with a car, according to Cobb Police.
Police said Felix Witt, 23, was taken to Wellstar Kennestone Hospital after the crash, which occurred at 6:10 p.m. Monday at Roswell Road and Willeo Rill Road.
Police said that Witt was traveling westbound on Roswell Road on a a black 2022 KTR 390 when it crashed into the rear of a white 2017 Mazda CX5, which was heading eastbound on Roswell.
According to police, the Mazda, driven by Sandra Craine, 76, was attempting a U-turn at the intersection when the crash took place.
Craine was not injured, according to police, who are continuing to investigate the crash. Anyone with information is asked to call the Cobb County Police STEP unit at 770-499-3987.
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!
This week, Cobb Library staff and volunteers are getting ready for out huge Spring Book Sale this coming up weekend on April 14 to 16 at Cobb Civic Center located at 548 South Marietta Pkwy SE, Marietta, GA 30060.
Hours for the sale are Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Don’t forget to bring comfy shoes, something to carry materials out because you know you are not just buying one book, & some cash (just in case)!
We accept cash, checks, and credit accepted. All profits from this book sale go directly to buying more items for Cobb County Public Library’s 15 branches and bookmobile. Find a price list here.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
District 2 Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson will hold a town hall meeting next week to reveal her 2023 priorities.
The town hall takes place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 20 at the Boy Scouts of America (1800 Circle 75 Pkwy, Atlanta), followed by a networking event at 7:30 p.m.
The networking features members of Richardson’s community cabinet, citizens who are chosen to advise on various topics, including infrastructure, housing and zoning, transportation, courts, education, public safety, seniors and more.
Richardson held a “priorities tour” earlier this year to gather public feedback on topics to emphasize in the current year.
It’s her first town hall since the county became embroiled in legal action over its home rule challenge to commission redistricting that has directly affected her.
The Georgia legislature approved maps last year that would draw her out of her home in District 2 in the middle of her term and moving most of East Cobb into District 3.
She and the two other Democrats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted in October to submit maps to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office that would make few changes to the previous District 2 lines, which included some of East Cobb and the Smyrna-Cumberland-Vinings area.
The board’s two Republicans have publicly objected at every meeting this year. One of them, District 1 commissioner Keli Gambrill, has filed two lawsuits against the county, saying that the home rule challenge is unconstitutional and that only the legislature can conduct reapportionment.
East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher filed an ethics complaint against Richardson in February, alleging she was engaging in a conflict of interest after setting up a non-profit to advocate against the legislature’s redistricting maps. But the Cobb Board of Ethics dismissed the complaint.
Since she took office in 2021, Richardson has sought public input on priorities in the first quarter (2021, 2022).
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Music Studio Atlanta, which opened an East Cobb location last fall, has been named a finalist for 2023 small business of the year by the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
The Music Studio Atlanta, based in Vinings, offers a wide range of musical instruction to children and adults.
The East Cobb studio is located at the Pavilions of East Lake shopping center on Roswell Road.
Another finalist for small business of the year is Manay CPA, with offices located on Shallowford Road near Lassiter High School, with a clientele of small businesses, startups and businesses and growth companies.
The Chamber names 25 businesses around the county each year as its top small businesses, and will announce the overall winner in May.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The addresses include ZIP Codes; subdivision names and high school attendance zones are in parenthesis:
March 20
1732 Jody Drive, 30066 (Shallowford Oaks, Kell): Gina Mallica to Alan and Karen Peck; $420,000
3471 Winfair Place, 30062 (Woodbine, Lassiter): The Lisa Diane DeBeouf Living Revocable Trust to Gloria Ammerman; $360,000
918 Blackwell Court, 30066 (Blackwell Road, Sprayberry): Michael Flowers to Helen Adeyinka Adeosun; $393,900
3609 Sawmill Terrace, 30062 (Hickory Bluff, Pope): Opendoor Property Trust to Levy Walker; $360,000
152 Kendrick Farm Lane, 30066 (The Village at Kendrick Farm, Sprayberry): Estate of Fredia Faye Rollins to Amy Bennett; $417,500
2385 Chelsea Landing Way, 30062 (Chelsea Landing, Pope): John Ward to Andrew and Blair Bekker; $1.25 million
1253 Noble Lane, 30062 (Navkar Estates, Walton): Navkar Builders LLC to Shahid and Ambreen Valiani; $1.4 million
780 Fox Hollow Parkway, 30068 (Fox Hollow, Walton): Richard Lewenthal to Blake and Pamela Herness; $720,000
March 21
865 Cauthen Court, 30066 (Windcrest, Kell): VM Master Issuer LLC to Valdir Rocha; $350,000
3409 Woodrun Trail, 30062 (Country Woods, Lassiter): Mark Edward Scott to Jenna and Alisia Lyles; $435,000
2660 Nicholas Court, 30062 (Crystal Downs, Sprayberry): Samuel May to Samuel May and Shannon Markley; $420,000
2845 Clearbrook Drive, 30068 (Country Place East, Wheeler): Albright Enterprises Associates to Madison Lachance; $330,000
4980 Post Oak Drive, 30062 (Christophers Corner, Sprayberry): Restoration Homes Fund LLC to Smart House Development LLC; $270,000
March 22
3343 River Birch Way, 30075 (Chimney Lakes, Lassiter): Jonathan Rice to Jonathan Neff and Haley Kendrick; $650,000
3326 Chastain Ridge Drive, 30066 (Chastain Ridge, Sprayberry): Debika Ray to Ashim Ray; $400,000
563 Kurtz Road, 30066 (Sprayberry): LK Realty & Development LLC to Narvel Anselmo and Magaly Delgado; $385,000
March 23
4824 Wigley Road, 30066 (Edgewood East, Lassiter): Toll Southeast LP Company to Radhakrishna Daita and Srividya Sistla; $981,620
4529 Reva Court, 30066 (Stockton Place, Lassiter): Sherri Vo and Matthew Alban to Opendoor Property Trust; $402,300
2471 Brewer Way, 30066 (Coventry, Lassiter): Sarah and David Haskin to Vivek and Ranu Sai; $870,000
4040 Indian Town Road, 30066 (Lassiter): Mary Shields to Sarah and David Haskin; $1.2 million
2293 Carousel Court, 30066 (Vandiver, Sprayberry): Opendoor Property Trust to Benjamin Krause and Victoria Rice; $374,000
1491 Wood Thrush Way, 30062 (Chestnut Springs, Walton): Joshua Zickefoose to Kristin and Christopher Sauchak; $688,000
March 24
2858 Treeside Terrace, 30066 (Edgewood East, LassiteR): Toll Southeast LP Company to Sherri Vo and Matthew Alban; $1.124 million
4842 Willow Creek Drive, 30066 (Willow Creek, Kell): Maplewood Property Group LLC to Michael Haines; $485,000
2643 Forest Way, 30066 (Forest Chase, Lassiter): Eric McCracken to Opendoor Property Trust; $313,2000
4575 South Landing Drive, 30066 (North Landing, Kell): Opendoor Property Trust to Terrence and Mary Jo Bastuba; $346,500
1738 Christie Drive, 30066 (Shallowford Oaks, Kell): Luis Garcia-Pimentel to Lizyane Lopes and Dimas De Barros; $470,000
2231 Goodrum Lane, 30066 (Sprayberry): Kevin Villanueva to Jorge Alvarado; $410,000
716 Alberta Drive, 30066 (West Oak, Sprayberry): Irrevocable Trust for Angela Lynn Phillips Pannell and Craig Arnold Phillips to Jerioth and Hannah Robi; $375,000
2525 Monterey Drive, 30068 (Bannock Estates, Wheeler): Tracy Yates to Amber Godfrey and Andrew Hayes; $550,000
1638 Wildwood Road, 30068 (Briarwood Hills, Wheeler): The Estate of Eileen Udelman to Udelman Revocable Family Living Trust; $70,000
2893 Gant Quarters Circle, 30068 (Gant Quarters, Wheeler): Janice Taylor to Thomas and Rachel Carroll; $496,000
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!
Saturday was to have been the 14th annual Northeast Cobb Community Egg Drop, but rain has forced a postponement.
The event has been. moved back a week, to next Saturday, April 15, at the same venue—Sprayberry High School football field (2525 Sandy Plains Road—and the same time, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The preliminary forecast for that day is much better—sunny and highs around 80.
Let East Cobb News know what your organization is doing, or share news about what people are doing in the community—accomplishments, recognitions, milestones, etc.
Pass along your details to: editor@eastcobbnews.com, and please observe the following guidelines to ensure we get everything properly and can post it promptly.
Send the body of your announcement, calendar item or news release IN TEXT FORM ONLY in the text field of your e-mail template. Reformatting text from PDF, JPG and doc files takes us longer to prepare your message for publication.
We accept PDFs as an accompaniment to your item. Images are fine too, but we prefer those to be JPG files (more than jpeg and png). PLEASE DO NOT send photos inside a PDF or text or any other kind of file. Of course, send us links that are relevant to your message so we can direct people to your website.
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 political activist who lives in the Walton High School area has filed declaration of intent paperwork to run for a seat on the Cobb Board of Education in 2024.
Laura Tucker Judge filed the declaration with the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration on March 28 as a Democrat seeking the Post 5 seat.
East Cobb businessman and youth sports coach John Cristadoro announced his candidacy last week at the Cobb Republican Party breakfast, and he’s lined up a number of prominent civic and business leaders to support him.
Judge is a leader of Watching the Funds-Cobb, a citizen-based group that has been critical of Cobb County School District financial and spending priorities, and is the education chair for Cobb Commissioner Jerica Richardson’s District 2 citizens cabinet.
Judge also is the co-elections lead in Georgia for Moms Demand Action, which lobbies to prevent and reduce gun violence, and has spoken frequently at Cobb school board public comment periods, in particular about school safety.
She and her husband run a digital content marketing company and have two children.
In response to a message for comment from East Cobb News, Judge said she will be formally announcing her decision “in the next few weeks.”
“I have been clear previously as an engaged parent and community member that our school board should answer to us as the stakeholders,” Judge said. “Parents, students, and teachers deserve to be engaged with our school board and their voices should be heard.
“While our East Cobb schools are some of the best in not only the county, but the state and nation, community members still have questions regarding financial decisions, literacy concerns, school safety, and discipline issues. Our current board member has not answered those concerns of the community to my knowledge.”
A declaration of intent to run does not obligate a candidate to launch a formal campaign but is an initial step to set up campaign committees for fundraising and other exploratory purposes.
Cristadoro told East Cobb News earlier this week his campaign organization is finalizing paperwork for the same purpose, but as of Friday that had not been filed.
The 2024 primaries will be held next May.
Banks said he expects several other candidates to get in the race but didn’t elaborate on who they might be.
Post 5 was redrawn by the Georgia legislature last year to include the Walton, Wheeler and most of the Pope attendance zones, after previously comprising the Pope and Lassiter areas.
The Walton and Wheeler zones had been in Post 6, which was shifted to include the Smryrna-Vinings-Cumberland area, and which has been in Democratic hands since 2019.
Banks is part of 4-3 Republican majority on the school board. Three of those GOP seats will be on the ballot in 2024.
Banks has been a controversial figure, primarily about immigration, racial issues and COVID-19. Most recently, he sparked outrage about comments he made about Roman Catholicism.
In 2020, he had primary opposition and won without a runoff but won the general election by only 2,639 votes, his closest margin of victory.
Watching the Funds-Cobb posted the East Cobb News story about Banks on its Facebook page on Thursday, noting derogatory comments he made about Democratic board members:
“Whatever our children need and our educators deserve, it’s not a board member who continues to show us he’s got no intention of working with the Democratic board members… or representing all taxpayers and students.
“We hope the next candidates, on either side, agree with us…this attitude is out of date and out of touch with who we are and what Cobb stands for.”
Judge left a comment saying “I can’t wait to see what candidates announce over the next few months.”
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!
Cafe Rivkah owner Vicky Savrin, left, and her Lebanese-born chef, Nina Tarabay.
As she built up a loyal clientele selling homemade artisanal baked goods at the Marietta Farmers Market, Vicky Savrin said some of her customers wanted to know where they could come and dine on her food.
“The response was really amazing,” she said, “but I said I have no other location.”
A former software developer who began baking as a hobby and turned it into a catering business, Savrin found her space in an East Cobb retail center that finally opened in March.
It’s called Cafe Rivkah, in the Pavilions at East Lake (2100 Roswell Road, Suite 2014). It occupies the former El Rincon space, and serves breakfast and lunch six days a week (7 a.m. to 3 p.m.).
The name comes from the Hebrew verb rabak, which means to mix or stir.
Savrin, a native of the Philippines who converted to Judaism for her husband, Philip Savrin, features a menu emphasizing Mediterranean and European dishes, as well as coffees and teas.
While there’s sit-down service at tables and booths, customers can also order online or by phone (678-402-5809) for takeaway.
The aim of her first restaurant business is to evoke a truly local feel in an East Cobb area that’s flush with breakfast and lunch spots, most of them regional and national chains.
“We don’t want to be big, big, big,” Savrin said. “We want to be a neighborhood place, a part of the community.”
She and her family live in Vinings, but attend Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb.
On the menu are breakfast and lunch bagel options, a chicken schnitzel sandwich, and an Israeli breakfast favorite, shakshuka, a dish of poached eggs on top of tomatoes, peppers, garlic and onion.
Cafe Rivkah also offers salads, small plates, oats and avocado and egg toast (check the menus on the cafe’s Facebook page).
Savrin, who moved to the United States 26 years ago, learned the fundamentals of cooking from her grandmother, and her expanding tastes were influenced while serving as a missionary in India, Brazil and other countries.
Baking her own bread—including challah for French toast, croissants, doughnuts and puff pastries—is at the heart of everything she does.
“I’m mostly a baker,” she says.
But the idea of opening a cafe came from the observation that “I have a better chance of selling if I have more things to offer.”
The doughnut line is novel, and expansive. Flavors include pistachio, caramel popcorn, strawberry cheesecake and more.
Chef Nina Tarabay, who hails from Lebanon, runs the kitchen, and Savrin’s husband helps her on the business end.
“It’s a hard business,” she said. “But I have a very supportive husband.”
The catering business is growing as Savrin builds up the cafe.
Cafe Rivkah caters two meals a day for 120 children at a child development center in Druid Hills, empasizing the homemade freshness of the bread, and healthy meals that include fruits.
She’s also catering a Sunday Easter reception at nearby St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church.
Cafe Rivkah also has signed up to be a vendor at the Taste of East Cobb food festival in May.
“What I really want is for us to find the right flavor, the right combination for this community,” she said.
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!
