Home listed recently in Chadds Lake with 55 showings the first weekend.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a sponsored post from Sheri Hardy of Harry Norman Realtors, who explains the local real estate market, including current trends and conditions for those interested in selling their homes. The content below reflects her views and not necessarily those of East Cobb News.
By Sheri Hardy
East Cobb has always been one of the most sought out areas to buy a home in metro Atlanta because of the area’s top schools and low taxes. Traditionally, spring is the time of year when a large number of homes are listed for sale, giving buyers more options as they search for their next home.
That is not the case this year in East Cobb as home inventory is extremely low across all price points which creates a surplus of buyers, including a large population of people relocating to Atlanta through their employers. The imbalance of supply and demand puts additional pressure on the already limited inventory and results in multiple offers with aggressive terms such as temporary occupancy for sellers after closing, agreements not to ask for repairs and waiver of appraisal contingencies.
This translates to a fantastic time for sellers but also a stressful one as they wrestle with decisions related to their next move.
That’s where Sheri Hardy, local East Cobb resident and experienced Realtor®️ with Harry Norman, REALTORS®️ can help. As a specialist in the East Cobb real estate market, she knows exactly what it takes to get your home sold quickly and for the best possible price.
Leveraging her corporate marketing background, she will work with you to develop a customized marketing plan for you that highlights your home’s unique features and attracts qualified buyers, often before the home hits the market.
Whether you are considering selling your home, want to the know your home’s value, or would like input on home updates that will translate to a higher sales price in the future, give Sheri a call.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
We mentioned in a previous post that the Friends for the East Cobb Park volunteer group that presents special events at the park was working on a new entertainment feature, showing family-friendly movies a few times a year.
What’s being called “Movies in the Park” debuts next Friday, April 14, with the showing of Tom Hanks’ rendering of Fred Rogers in “It’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.”
The film starts at 8 p.m. and like the Music in the Park concerts is free to the public. You can bring food, chairs and blankets.
The presenting sponsor is the Rotary Club of East Cobb, which is adding to an expansive list of community activities.
The Rotary Club holds a Dog Day Run in August that raises more than $100,000 for local charities, and is involved in the Wheeler High School AVID program.
More recently, the Rotary Club agreed to become a charter sponsor of a Boy Scout troop at Mt. Bethel Church, which dropped that status due to insurance issues.
The Rotary Club also sponsors a first responders lunch and organized a forum in 2022 for the East Cobb Cityhood referendum.
Another Movies in the Park event is tentatively slated for the fall.
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!
Drew’s Plant Sale will take place April 15 at The Gardens at Kennesaw Mountain and April 22 and Jenkins Park in the Fox Hills subdivision of East Cobb.
A month full of plant sales in the East Cobb area is starting off with a schedule change for this weekend.
Last fall we profiled East Cobb teen Drew Collins, who holds a plant sale twice a year with nearly 200 varieties of plants he grows in his own nursery, and as a budding small business.
What he calls “Drew’s Plant Sale” (also an East Cobb News sponsor) was to have had its first spring sales event of the season this Friday and Saturday at The Gardens at Kennesaw M0untain outdoor event facility.
But a wet forecast is in store for this Easter Weekend, and his father David Collins sent out a notice Wednesday that the sale has been postponed by a week.
The sale will take place at The Gardens at Kennesaw Mountain (1127 White Circle NW, Marietta) next Saturday, April 15, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The following Saturday, April 22, the sale will take place in his Fox Hills neighborhood, at Jenkins Park (3778 Fox Hills Drive), also from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
David Collins said there will still be around 250 varietals for sale at both locations (full list here).
The Master Gardener Volunteers of Cobb County are preparing for their 23rd annual spring plant sale and expo April 21-22 at Jim Miller Park (2245 Callaway Road SW, Marietta).
This one will be held rain or shine, and will take place under the equestrian arena roof at the park. More than 80 vendors will be featured (full list here), and there will be garden art and supplies, crafts, jewelry and food items.
The Master Gardeners also will be focusing their spring home garden tour on May 20 with five venues in East Cobb (info here), and which we will be featuring in more detail soon.
At the end of April, the North Fulton Master Gardeners Inc. will have their own spring plant sale. It’s the 22nd annual Garden Faire on April 29 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at The Grove at Wills Park in Alpharetta (175 Roswell St.).
In addition to hundreds of plants for sale, the event will include a vendor’s market, children’s corner, and a “vintage fleatique” of home treasures.
The North Fulton Master Gardeners also are conducting a spring gardening lecture series.
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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!
Days after a first-time candidate announced for the Cobb Board of Education seat he has held for nearly 15 years, Post 5 incumbent David Banks said Wednesday he’s undecided about seeking a fifth term next year.
Banks, a Republican first elected to the East Cobb-based seat in 2008, told East Cobb News in an interview that “I haven’t made up my mind.”
He said age and health are among the factors, but that “it will probably be a while before I decide.”
A retired technology executive, Banks, 82, said that “if I had my preference I would go for the 20 years. But I’m at an age where I’ve got to consider what’s best for me and the county.”
John Cristadoro, a 45-year-old media entrepreneur and father and youth sports coach in the Walton High School attendance zone, announced his candidacy last week for the GOP primary, which will be held in May 2024.
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.
Cristadoro said in an interview with East Cobb News that he has tried to contact Banks, but to no avail. The latter was in attendance at a Cobb Republican Party breakfast Saturday where Cristadoro made his official announcement, but they did not speak.
“I’m not running against him,” Cristadoro said. “I’m running for the school board.”
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.
The current board vice chairman, Banks fended off two primary opponents in 2020 without a runoff whom he said “were a flash in the pan.”
But Banks won the general election over a first-time Democratic candidate with his slimmest margin, by only 2,639 votes.
He said he doesn’t know much about Cristadoro, who has lined up a list of prominent names to serve on his steering committee, including former school board member Scott Sweeney of East Cobb, now the chairman of the state board of education.
Banks said from what he’s heard about Cristadoro, “he doesn’t seem to be focused on students” but has more of a management focus.
And he said that as for some those supporters behind Cristadoro, “the general public doesn’t know who they are. My name recognition—I don’t think that’s a problem.”
In an interview with East Cobb News Wednesday, Cristadoro said his primary issues are student safety and security and ensuring classroom success for students (a separate post from that interview will be published soon).
Banks said he thinks the Cobb County School District “has a great focus on student success. But if [Cristadoro] can get rid of the three Democrats [on the school board] there won’t be a problem.”
Republicans hold a 4-3 edge on the school board, and three GOP-held seats will be up next year. Partisan squabbles have occurred frequently over the last four years on hot-button racial issues, as well as the Cobb school district’s COVID-19 response and support for Superintendent Chris Ragsdale.
Banks clashed with Jaha Howard and Charisse Davis, Democrats who did not seek re-election last year after serving a single term, and said “they had an agenda. It was racism.”
They were succeeded by Democrats Becky Sayler and Nichelle Davis in Smyrna and South Cobb-area posts in January, and Banks said “it’s more civil now” on the school board.
Banks said the Cobb school district is in stronger shape after making “an extra special effort” to raise teacher salaries.
He also cited ongoing facility improvements in hist post, including a new sports complex at Walton and a replacement campus for Eastvalley Elementary School, as well as recent approval of a new special events facility for the district that will be used for graduation in particular.
Banks said he’ll likely decide whether to run again in a few months, and expects several other candidates to join the race.
“I don’t feel as young as I used to be,” he said. “But as long as my mind doesn’t go away, I think I’ll be okay.”
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Some construction equipment has been brought to the future site of East Cobb Church along Johnson Ferry Road, near its intersection with Shallowford Road.
More than year and a half after getting rezoning from the Cobb Board of Commissioners, the latest North Point Ministries congregation received a land disturbance permit from the county.
Rev. Jamey Dickens, the senior pastor of East Cobb Church, said in a recent interview with East Cobb News that the plans for the church haven’t changed.
What’s to get underway in the coming months is a 125,000-square-foot building and parking lot for the church—which has been meeting at Eastside Baptist Church.
He was hopeful a year ago that the work could have begun by the end of 2022, but there were delays in getting the building permit and other issues, and he’s continuing to preach patience.
“It’s going to be a long process,” Dickens said, estimating that the initial phase could take up to six months before ground is broken on the church facility.
What’s happening now is a dam reconstruction—part of the land North Point sold to a residential developer has been deemed to be in a flood plain that was formerly a lake—and relocation of a portion of Waterfront Drive, which will be the main access point for the homes.
The rezoning approval allowed for 44 townhomes and 51 detached homes on 20 acres, to be built by Ashwood Atlanta.
But the flood plain declaration by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Administration reduced the number of residential units by 22 to meet agreed-upon density levels.
That was the point of contention during the rezoning process from nearby residents.
Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson appointed a citizens’ committee to work with the county during site plan review after approval.
One of those members, Rachel Bruce, who was opposed to the density of the homes, said communications are continuing over such things as landscaping along the church’s greenspace area and reducing the percentage of impervious surfaces for the residential area.
She provided East Cobb News with a copy of proposed concept for a cul-de-sac to address the latter (above).
Ashwood Atlanta has revised the plans dramatically, knocking out all the townhouses and drawing up a new site plan (below) for 77 single-family detached homes.
The developer is seeking a variance to increase the percentage of impervious surfaces above the 40 percent threshold requested by the citizens’ committee.
A request to allow for 45 percent impervious surfaces will be considered by Cobb commissioners at their zoning hearing on April 18.
“While it may not be possible to get to the 40% . . . we would like to see an effort to get closer,” committee member Ruth Michels wrote in late March to Kevin Moore, a zoning attorney who will be presenting a change to the impervious surface stipulation at that meeting.
“The creek does feed into a dam on this property which feeds into a floodway under Johnson Ferry Road, so we hope to continue working with them to find a solution that keeps the impervious surfaces to a minimum while maintaining the detached single family home structure of the proposed community,” Bruce said in response to a message from East Cobb News.
Ashwood Atlanta submitted a new site plan for 77 single-family detached homes in March. For a larger view click here.
Although North Point is not involved in the residential construction, Dickens admitted that “there were a lot of parties involved and there was a lot of super complex stuff” to consider, both before and after the rezoning.
He said once church construction begins later this year, he’s hopeful it will be completed in 18 months, and no more than two years for East Cobb Church to begin occupancy.
Dickens said the congregation, which has around 600 “active families,” feels blessed to have “such a great relationship” with Eastside Baptist.
Afternoon services will continue to take place there, and East Cobb Church will continue to follow its motto of “loving where we live” with involvement in various community activities.
“For a lot of people, it’s not ideal,” he said of the current worshipping situation, but taking more serious steps to begin construction is “wind in our sails.
“The thing we love to do the best, we can do that from anywhere,” Dickens said. “It’s not stopping us from doing our core ministries.”
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The 14 acres owned by Kenneth B. Clary at Post Oak Tritt and McPherson roads (inside the blue lines) is located just east of Tritt Elementary School.
The Cobb Planning Commission is holding a zoning application for a subdivision on Post Oak Tritt Road in East Cobb after its initial hearing Tuesday.
The vote was 3-0, with two members absent, to wait until May to consider a proposal by representatives of Kenneth B. Clary to convert 13.38 acres near McPherson Road from low-density residential (R-30) to medium-density residential (R-15) after opponents took issue with stormwater and other issues.
Joel Larkin, an attorney representing Clary—a longtime landowner in the area whose other properties have been developed into residential communities, including adjacent Clary Lakes—said his client was amenable to a Cobb zoning staff recommendation to delete the proposed zoning category from R-15 to R-20.
That would reduce the number of proposed homes from 20 to 15, but Larkin said a new site plan has not been submitted (agenda file here).
That prompted opposition from the East Cobb Civic Association, whose president, Richard Grome, also cited the issue of a historical 19th century cabin and a family cemetery on the property.
Larkin said the Power-Jackson Cabin, which dates to the 1840s, is not “habitable” and suggested that historic preservation advocates could relocate it.
He said he is not aware of a cemetery on the land, but said his client would abide by staff recommendations to protect it from development.
Opponents also are concerned about flooding and the state of two dams protecting Clary Lakes, two lakes that border the norther part of the tract.
Citizens from the Clary Lakes, Hadley Walk and East Spring Lake subdivisions expressed concerns about those issues, and like Grome, said they weren’t being updated by the applicant about the changing plans.
The application was first filed last August, but has been continued ever since then.
Planning Commission member David Anderson of East Cobb made the motion to delay the request, citing a lack of information, including outdated zoning sign notices fronting the property that are more than two months old.
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Several months after a two-story standalone Starbucks at Paper Mill Village was proposed, the attorney for the developer has submitted dramatically different plans.
Garvis Sams submitted a new site plan, renderings and stipulations on March 23, then asked last week for yet another continuance for the case to be heard in May.
The request by S & B Investments to rezone 0.73 acres for neighborhood retail commercial (NRC) initially called for a two-story, 5,000-square foot building to replace the structure at 31 Johnson Ferry Road, where a smaller Starbucks is located.
In the new plans, Sams is proposing just one story with 2,500 square feet and 25 parking spaces, the latter meeting county ordinance requirements.
That wasn’t the case with the original application, first submitted last August, when Cobb zoning staff determined proposed parking was insufficient.
The revised site plan calls for in-and-out access to the Starbucks from behind the building on Village Parkway, and a single-lane drivethru.
Sams submitted a notice for another continuance on Wednesday, the deadline for it to be delayed automatically.
The item was to have been on the agenda for Tuesday’s Cobb Planning Commission meeting.
“My client and I have been in the process of ongoing negotiations, which are proving to be fruitful and productive, but we need a little more time to finalize our agreements,” Sams wrote in his letter for a continuance.
The new stipulations call for the building to be traditional brick on all four sides, with the Starbucks to be open from 5:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. seven days a week.
The Planning Commission will hear a long-delayed request for a subdivision off Post Oak Tritt Road on 13.38 acres.
Undeveloped land owned by Kenneth B. Clary near McPherson Road includes an historic 1840s cabin that would likely be demolished, although the Cobb Landmarks non-profit has been working to preserve it.
The Cobb Zoning Office is recommending that the proposed R-15 category for 20 homes be deleted to R-20 for 15 homes (you can read the agenda file here). The land is currently zoned R-30, which allows a maximum of 10 homes.
The Cobb Planning Commission 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 byclicking here.
You also can watch on the county’s website and YouTube channels and on Cobb TV 23 on Comcast Cable.
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Sales for new homes in the Walton Creek subdivision in East Cobb start at $1 million.
Cobb Tax Assessor Stephen White said the county’s tax digest is expected to grow in 2023 by more than it did in 2022 in a record year as real estate prices continue to skyrocket.
In Cobb TV interview Friday with county communications director Ross Cavitt (you can watch it below), White said the combined residential and commercial tax digest is expected to grow by 13 percent.
The tax digest is the overall value of property—real and personal property, motor vehicles and public utilities—adjusted after exemptions and other items.
In 2022, the Cobb digest grew by 12 percent, to nearly $50 billion, mostly due to rising real estate prices that have nearly doubled in the last five years.
In 2021, the Cobb tax digest was $36.1 billion.
In the interview, White showed a graphic (below) illustrating the rise in the average home sale price in Cobb from $289K in 2018 to $453K in 2022.
In that time, the average home sale price in Cobb has gone up by around 50K a year, according to White’s estimates.
He said toward the end of last year, there were some signs that the growth was slowing, but that home prices will continue to go up.
“As we continue to have this desirability . . . especially in Cobb . . . people want to live here . . . many things that bring people to Cobb continue to work in our favor and continue to make sure that our real estate prices move north.”
Local jurisdictions are required by law to regularly assess properties to maintain fair market values.
Each year Cobb assessors carve out a fraction of all properties for fresh assessments (see map).
Of the 245K residential properties in the county, White said, 175K last year experienced a change in value. For commercial properties, 10K of the estimated 13K total also had increased values.
“If there’s a separation between the sales price and our values, then it’s time to bring up our values to the sales price,” White said.
Those rising values prompted some Cobb citizens to object last summer to the fiscal year 2023 county budget. The general fund millage rate stayed the same, while the fire fund budget went up.
The growth in the tax digest resulted in an additional $60 million for the budget, but some complained that inflation was eating away at household budgets that would grow worse with rising assessments.
White said that appeals for tax assessments are low, about 1-2 percent overall.
Full tax assessments will go out in May; the final tax digest is issued in July, as Cobb commissioners consider the fiscal year 2024 budget and just after the Cobb school board finalizes its fiscal year 2024 budget, which goes into effect on July 1.
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Credit Union of Georgia is hosting an online raffle to raise money for local charities in the community of Northwest Georgia. There are four amazing Easter Baskets for four lucky winners to choose from! The last day to purchase raffle ticket is Thursday, April 6, 2023. The Easter Baskets can be viewed on the Credit Union of Georgia Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/CUofGA.
“We love supporting our local charities. We are a community-based Credit Union – and if we aren’t doing something to help better our communities, then we’re not doing enough.” said Brian Albrecht, President/CEO of Credit Union of Georgia. “Help us help our community by purchasing a raffle ticket to win one of our four amazing Easter Baskets we have up for grabs!”
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!
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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!
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 Sewell Mill Library historical exhibit will include a rendering of the original Wheeler High School campus from 1964.
The Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year (our story from opening day in late 2017) with a special exhibit of historical photos of the community.
Starting Thursday, April 6 and running through May 13, the center’s art gallery will exhibit scans of historic photos of the Marietta and and East Cobb communities, featured in three large wall collages.
The Cobb County Public Library System said that “drawn from local archives and private collections—including the library!—the images invite you to step back in time and get a sense of the deep roots in Sewell Mill’s neighborhoods.”
Bruce Thompson, the branch manager for the Sewell Mill Library who had a similar position with the former East Marietta Library, provided the photos and had this to say about the exhibit:
“These images will introduce the historic neighborhoods around Sewell Mill Library & Cultural Center to newcomers—and to each other. I’ve solicited and scanned photos and newspaper clippings from Kennesaw State University Archives, Marietta History Center, various local places of worship, and Cobb Library’s own wealth of historic images. The exhibit will include familiar scenes and maybe some that are less so, even for long-time residents.”
The exhibit will be open during regular library hours: Monday-Wednesday 10-8, Thursday-Friday 10-6, Saturday 10-5.
All Cobb library branches will be closed on Good Friday, April 7, and Easter Sunday, April 9. They will be open Saturday, April 8.
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An update to our story from Monday about Republican John Cristadoro, who’s seeking the Post 5 Cobb Board of Education seat currently held by David Banks and whose term expires in 2024:
Among those on the steering committee are Scott Sweeney, who represented the East Cobb area for two terms on the school board from Post 6 (Walton and Wheeler attendance zones) and Cindy Cooperman, a leader of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood group.
The committee chairman is John Loud, owner of Loud Security Systems and a former president of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
Other committee members include Mitch Rhoden of East Cobb, head of the Futren Corp., which manages the Indian Hills Country Club; Rob Stearns, a longtime media executive and former director of the East Marietta Basketball League; Jonathan Page, a former candidate for the Cobb Board of Commissioners; David Walens, an exhibit and event industry CEO and a trustee of Kennesaw State University; and former Lassiter High School quarterback Eddie Printz.
Cristadoro confirmed to East Cobb News Thursday he will be making a formal announcement of his campaign Saturday at the Cobb Republican Party breakfast.
On his website, Cristadoro said in a video that his campaign theme would be “passion, precision and purpose,” delivered with sports theme.
Involved in the Walton youth football and wrestling programs, he’s seen holding a football and acknowledging his love of sports.
“As your Cobb County school board member, I will be bringing these three elements to the table each and every day,” he said.
“The quality of classroom instruction must always be our number one goal.”
He references that subject as among his top priorities, along with school safety, maintain the Cobb schools senior tax exemption and continuing the Cobb Education SPLOST (Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax) and fostering entrepreneurship in educational programs.
Cristadoro is an Army veteran who is president of Alliance Tax Solutions, which helps businesses resolve tax issues. He and his wife Gosia have two children in the Walton attendance zone.
Post 5 was redrawn last year to include the Walton and Wheeler zones, along with the Pope zone. Banks, a Republican who is in his fourth term and is the current school board vice chairman, hasn’t announced whether he’ll seek re-election.
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Mountain View UMC of East Cobb said it was denied a disaffiliation vote by the North Georgia Conference in January.
A total of 186 Georgia congregations of the United Methodist Church—including one in East Cobb–have filed a lawsuit seeking the restoration of a disaffiliation process that was halted at the end of 2022.
Mountain View United Methodist Church, located on Jamerson Road, is listed as a plaintiff in the suit, which was filed Thursday in Cobb Superior Court.
Several other Cobb County UMC churches also are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, whose attorneys also have filed a motion for an emergency hearing before Judge Kellie Hill.
The suit alleges that the UMC’s North Georgia Conference, which oversees nearly 900 churches, improperly closed down the disaffiliation process on Dec. 28, 2022, “leaving tens of thousands of Christians begging for the process to get back on track,” according to a release issued with the lawsuit (you can read it here).
Former North Georgia Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson—a central figure in the conference’s dispute with Mt. Bethel Church in East Cobb in 2021 and 2022—is named as a defendant, along with her successor, Robin Dease, the conference board of trustees and several conference district superintendents.
The conference said in December that the disaffiliation process needed to be paused because “many local churches have been misled about the disaffiliation process and have been presented with information about the process, and about The United Methodist Church and its leadership, that is factually incorrect and defamatory.”
Without giving specifics, the conference said that “this information presented to members of local churches about disaffiliation has been outside the bounds of normal and acceptable civil discourse. It has not only been false and misleading but has been antithetical to the concept of a gracious exit or a commitment to honoring the mission and ministry of all Christians.”
In the lawsuit, the suing churches said that the conference is violating the UMC’s Book of Discipline governing documents by stopping the process, and that the current disaffiliation process will be sunsetting at the end of 2023.
The UMC enacted a disaffiliation process in 2019 for conservative churches to leave the denomination under Paragraph 2553 of the Book of Discipline.
That provision allowed departing churches to keep much of their property and assets.
The UMC has been split for years on a number of theological issues, especially over human sexuality. The nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination does not currently allow for lesbian and gay clergy or same-sex marriages in the current Book of Discipline, but that is expected to change.
A formal protocol was to have been voted on at the UMC General Conference in 2020, but that was cancelled due to COVID-19. The conference has been further delayed to 2024.
“The United Methodist Church website specifically states that when General Conference 2024 meets Paragraph 2553 will not exist and therefore, it is not possible to ‘extend’ a provision that does not exist,” the lawsuit states.
“Further, there is no legislation presently before the General Conference to create a new or similar Paragraph 2553.”
In the release, Pastor John Kenney of The Quest Church, in Grovetown, Ga., one of the plaintiff congregations, said that “churches in North Georgia that want to disaffiliate using the previously approved process are stuck.”
The release also claims that only the North Georgia Conference is preventing formal disaffiliation procedures.
In response to a message from East Cobb News, the North Georgia Conference repeated some of its December explanation for pausing the disaffiliation process, saying that conference leaders “have significant concerns about this misinformation and are well aware that it has the potential to do irreparable harm.”
Dease said that “conference leaders remain committed to handling this matter in a fair, transparent, uniform, and good-faith manner that affirms the one universal church in service to Christ and honors the mission and ministry of all Christians” and that they “are prayerfully exploring the best methods for moving forward and next steps available as set forth in the Book of Discipline.”
Among the churches in limbo is Mountain View UMC of East Cobb, which began a discernment process last fall it calls “The Path Forward.”
Meetings were held to offer members viewpoints for and against disaffiliation. A straw poll in January revealed that nearly 80 percent of voting Mountain View members wanted to leave the UMC.
At the same time, that timelines states that conservative Wesleyan Covenant Association—of which Mt. Bethel is a leading member—was denied a meeting with Dease, who in January succeeded Haupert-Johnson, now a bishop in Virginia.
The WCA and its new Global Methodist Church denomination began working with the National Center for Life and Liberty, a conservative, Florida-based religious liberty organization, to “to assist North Georgia legal strategies,” according to the Mountain View timeline.
In February, Mountain View agreed to become part of the lawsuit, which includes some 70 churches that were allowed to formally disaffiliate in 2022.
Mt. Bethel attorneys said they wanted to have a disaffiliation vote, but the conference rejected that option.
Mt. Bethel is prevented from selling properties on its main campus on Lower Roswell Road for seven and a half years without giving the UMC and the North Georgia Conference the right of first refusal to purchase them.
Mt. Bethel also cannot house a denominational office on its grounds on the main campus for that period of time.
Mt. Bethel formally left the UMC in July 2022 without a vote, and some former disaffected members began a new church, Grace Resurrection Methodist Church.
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We got a lot of interest from our story last week about the start of the spring Music in the Park concert series at East Cobb Park.
Sunday was to have been the kickoff event for the four-concert series with the local duo The Woodys, but the Friends for the East Cobb Park said Thursday that’s been called off due to an illness in the group.
“Their performance will be rescheduled to a later date this spring,” the Friends group said in a social media message. “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or dashed hopes—we were looking forward to it too!”
The other scheduled concerts are April 16, April 30 and May 21.
The Friends group also will begin a new feature next month called Movies in the Park, in which a family-friendly film is shown on a large screen near the pavilion.
Group president Kurt von Borries tells us they’re still working on finalizing a date for that event, but the film is “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” starring Tom Hanks.
That film series is sponsored by the Rotary Club of East Cobb.
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Rabbi Albert Slomowitz, Jewish Christian Discovery Center
Local Jewish and Christian leaders will hold an interfaith service at the Catholic Church of St. Ann Monday as their religions mark high and holy observances.
Rabbi Albert Slomowitz of the Jewish Christian Discovery Center will lead the service, along with Father Ray Cadran of St. Ann and Pastor Michael Tutterow of Heritage Baptist Church in Cartersville.
Christian Holy Week begins on Monday, and Passover in the Jewish faith begins Wednesday.
“In a time of increasing antisemitism and intolerance, the three interfaith clergy believe it is vital to show religious unity and peace,” according to a release from the Atlanta-based JCDC.
Each worshipper will be given a piece of matzah, which Jews eat during Passover to commemorate their exodus from Egypt.
The matzah will be broken into smaller pieces as participants pledge a commitment “to reject hate and embrace love of one’s neighbor regardless of religious belief.”
Congregants will burn the smaller pieces in an outdoor firepit, symbolizing the eradication of religious intolerance, and will have group discussions on the subject.
Slomovitz, who met with Christian leaders at St. Ann and Mt. Bethel Church over the Christmas holidays, said that “we are living in unprecedented and sad times with age-old stereotypes and hatred against Jews reemerging. It is vital that we come together as Jews and Christians and embrace God’s commandment that we love one another.”
This special service, he added, “will bring strangers together from many faiths and give them an opportunity to share in the symbolic act of rejecting hatred through the breaking of a large piece of matzah and then commit themselves and their families to ‘love they neighbor.’ ”
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Cafe Rivkah, newly opened at the Pavilions at East Lake, will be at the Taste of East Cobb.
We’re about six weeks away from the Taste of East Cobb, and the 2023 festival restaurant lineup includes a few newcomers.
A total of 22 restaurants and food service providers have been announced thus far, including some familiar places: Alumni Cookie Dough, Drift/Seed, Camps, Chick-Fil-A Woodlawn, McCray’s Tavern, Mediterranean Grill, Righteous Que and Smallcakes.
Among the new participants are the Green Coyote, run by Camps ownership that replaced Moxie Taco, the New York Butcher Shoppe at The Avenue East Cobb, and Cafe Rivkah.
The latter opened earlier this month at the Pavilions at East Lake, serving breakfast and lunch with Mediterranean and European cafe fare.
You can see the full list of Taste of East Cobb restaurants by clicking here.
The Walton Band Parents Association, which is organizing the festival, is accepting applications for sponsors and vendors through April 7, next Friday. You can find out more about that by clicking here.
East Cobb News will be a sponsor of the Taste of East Cobb for the first time, and we’re looking forward to it!
Other sponsors include Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Custom Disposal, Atlanta United Football Club, the EAST COBBER and Harry Norman Realtors.
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Wheeler’s 11 Georgia Scholars students were the most for any high school in the state.
Sixteen students from three high schools in East Cobb were named Georgia Scholars for 2023 this week by Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods.
Georgia Scholars are identified by the state Department of Education as “seniors who have achieved excellence in school and community life” and they receive a seal with that designation for their diploma.
“Georgia Scholars carried exemplary course loads during their four years of high school, performed excellently in all courses, successfully participated in interscholastic events at their schools and communities, and assumed leadership roles in extracurricular activities sponsored by their schools.”
The class of 2023 has 154 Georgia Scholars, and Wheeler High School in East Cobb has the most for any single school, with 11 in all.
Walton High School has five Georgia Scholars this year, and Lassiter High School has one. The only other school in the Cobb County School District with Georgia Scholars is Hillgrove High School, which has three (full list here).
“I wish them continued success as they embark on their futures, including plans for after high school and beyond,” Woods said in a release. “I know they’ll continue to make us all proud.”
Lassiter High School
Arsh Ali
Walton High School
Brian Michaels
Sri Dhanya Muppalla
Elise Park
Kanishka Sindhwani
Tianyue Xu
Wheeler High School
Natalie Ajemian
Yusra Azeem
Samantha Carlsen
Misha Gupta
Pooja Kanyadan
William Kramer
Mohnish Mara
Rhett Morgan
Dhanya Naik
Srinandan Polavarapu
Katie Swanson
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The following food scores for the week of March 27 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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Rabbi Larry Sernovitz at Temple Kol Emeth’s 2021 Yom Kippur service.
After three years, Rabbi Larry Sernovitz of the Temple Kol Emeth synagogue is leaving.
In a video presentation and an e-mail to the congregation on Tuesday, Kol Emeth President Jodi Roberts said Sernovitz will step down effective June 30 to become the chief executive officer of Hillels of Georgia, which works with undergraduate students at 24 colleges and universities in the state.
Speaking with congregation members and retired Kol Emeth Rabbi Steven Lebow behind her in the synagogue sanctuary, Roberts said that Sernovitz is taking a “dream job” and that “and we support him in making the best decision for his family. We are excited that he and his family will continue to be members of the Temple Kol Emeth family as they have become an integral part of our community—community they have come to love.”
Sernovitz was not in attendance but spoke in a recorded message from an unspecified remote location.
“It has been an incredible three years,” Sernovitz said. “We have gotten through COVID, we have raised enough money to pay off the mortgage, we have doubled the size of our religious school, stabilized our finances. We are in amazing shape.”
He said that the opportunity with Hillel “is not something I looked for, but it’s chance of a lifetime to make an impact on the frontlines of the Jewish community.”
Sernovitz was tapped to succeed Lebow, the Reform Jewish congregation’s first full-time rabbi, in 2020. Sernovitz came to Kol Emeth from Cherry Hill, N.J., where he was a police chaplain and was a rabbi for non-affiliated Jews.
Several months into his tenure, Sernovitz presided over a community response to several anti-Semitic incidents, including swastika graffiti posted in an East Cobb neighborhood in 2020 and swastikas spray-painted at Pope and Lassiter high schools in 2021.
He spoke to Pope students and invited then-Cobb school board chairman Randy Scamihorn to Kol Emeth’s Yom Kippur service, where he held the Torah.
Sernovitz continued the long-standing Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service begun by Lebow. At the 2022 service, Sernovitz delivered a reflection that sharing fellowship across many faiths isn’t enough.
“This isn’t a show. This is a call to action.”
In recalling the tale of Abraham smashing idols, he said that “we live in a world that still worships idols . . . and doesn’t value people like we need to.
“Our faith has to stand for something. If our faith doesn’t stand for humanity, it’s not faith, it’s politics.”
Roberts said that Kol Emeth will appoint an interim rabbi while it searches for Sernovitz’ successor, a process that could take a year.
“We have a strong leadership team that will guide us into this exciting new phase at Temple Kol Emeth,” she said.
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Larry Savage of East Cobb and Cobb Commissioner Keli Gambrill
The Cobb County Attorney’s Office has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit over Cobb Board of Commissioners redistricting filed by a commissioner and an East Cobb resident.
In a brief submitted March 16 in Cobb Superior Court, Cobb Senior Associate County Attorney Elizabeth Monyak said that the lawsuit was improperly filed against the county government and the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration.
Monyak argued in her brief that’s a violation of the waiver of sovereign immunity in the Georgia Constitution, and cited a Georgia Supreme Court decision earlier this month.
The waiver bars lawsuits against the state and its employees in their official capacities unless a statute or the constitution waives that immunity. Specifically, it bans suits against multiple government agencies.
Gambrill and Larry Savage of East Cobb, who ran for Cobb Commission Chairman from 2012-2020, are challenging the commission’s vote in October invoking home rule over commission redistricting.
They are seeking a writ of mandamus for the courts to recognize redistricting maps approved last year by the Georgia General Assembly.
Those maps drew current District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her East Cobb home in the middle of her term.
Richardson and the board’s two other Democrats favor maps drawn last year by former Cobb State Rep. Erick Allen, but that were never voted on in the legislature.
Opponents of Cobb’s home rule challenge say it’s unconstitutional because only the legislature can conduct reapportionment.
But Monyak cited a state Supreme Court ruling this year that upheld the principle of sovereign immunity in a lawsuit filed against the Gwinnett County District Attorney and the State of Georgia that was dismissed.
“Plaintiffs have brought an independent claim against a party not identified in the waiver provision: the mandamus claim against Cobb BOE in Count 1,” the county’s brief states, referring to the elections board.
The county is asking that a May 3 hearing before Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris be cancelled and the full lawsuit be thrown out.
“Dismissal is the only course of action available when a plaintiff brings a lawsuit that violates the exclusivity clause of the waiver of sovereign immunity” of the Georgia Constitution, Monyak wrote.
Savage, who lived in the former Cobb Commission District 2 before his residence was drawn into District 3 for the 2022 election, initially filed his lawsuit against the Cobb elections board.
He withdrew it, then refiled it, adding the county as a defendant, and was joined as a plaintiff by Gambrill, a Republican just re-elected in District 1 in North Cobb.
The resolution passed by the commission Democrats, the lawsuit alleges, “was an overt misuse and abuse of the home rule authority” and described their amended map as “illegal, unconstitutional and not binding.”
Gambrill and her fellow Republican commissioner, JoAnn Birrell of District 3, have read statements of protests before every meeting since January, stating their objections to the adoption of Allen’s maps.
They were removed from the dais by Chairwoman Lisa Cupid at the first meeting for trying to abstain from voting.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has issued an opinion saying the Allen maps are not legally binding.
But Cobb County Attorney William Rowling has claimed the county has the right to invoke home rule over redistricting, and said the county will continue to use the Allen maps unless or until they are invalidated by the courts.
An attempt by State Sen. Ed Setzler of West Cobb to restore the legislative-approved maps fell through in the current session when his bill wasn’t voted on in the upper chamber on crossover day.
East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher filed an ethics complaint against Richardson, saying she should recuse herself from voting due to a conflict of interest over a political action committee she founded to fight the legislative maps.
The Cobb Ethics Board found no evidence to fully investigate that charge and dismissed the complaint unanimously.
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