A home and garage were destroyed Sunday afternoon in a fire in the Northeast Cobb area that Cobb Fire officials said took 15 units to get under control.
Cobb Fire said the home was in the Jamerson Road area, and crews were called around 12:45 p.m. with reports of heavy smoke and fire.
No one was home at the time, according to Cobb Fire, which made contact with the homeowner and said there were no injuries.
“Crews were able to respond quickly to extinguish the fire spreading in the woods, preventing any further damages to other residences in the area,” Cobb Fire said in a social media message.
Another fire broke out in East Cobb on Sunday, seven miles from the other blaze, according to the Cobb Professional Firefighters Local 2563, requiring seven units.
No details were provided, and East Cobb News has contacted Cobb Fire for information about that fire.
Cobb Fire & Emergency ServicesCobb Professional Fire Fighters Local 2563
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Shaw Park pickleball enthusiasts pose with Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell (in red skirt).
A packed community center at Piedmont Church Thursday included legions of girls softball teams and a bevy of feisty pickleball enthusiasts.
Including one dressed in a pickle costume.
For nearly two hours, they and other citizens of Northeast Cobb told Cobb PARKS officials what they wanted to see in the proposed redevelopment of Shaw Park.
At a community input meeting organized by Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, quite a few people got emotional in response to concerns about what might come next.
Initially described by county officials as a “repurposing” of the park, the project was earmarked $4 million in SPLOST (Special Local-Option Sales Tax) revenues.
That figure is likely to be closer to $2 million, after Cobb commissioners last week voted to redirect $1.2 million to relocate the Northeast Cobb Community Center in Shaw Park and have it become part of new Gritters Library branch.
More than 50 years after its opening, the multi-purpose park located next to the Gritters Library is wearing down. The second park to be built in the Cobb park system in the late 1960s, Shaw Park is heavily utilized, but needs an overhaul, county officials said emphatically to the citizens in attendance.
There are five softball fields, nine pickleball courts, two tennis courts, playgrounds, picnic pavilions and the community center.
Underground infrastructure that hasn’t been replaced in all those years is decaying, according to Cobb PARKS director Michael Brantley, and ball fields, courts and bathroom facilities need to be replaced.
“We’ve had a lot of suggestions for what people want from the community,” Brantley said.
“We don’t have a lot of money left but we want to year your ideas.”
What he, Birrell and other county parks officials heard were pleas to provide new facilities for existing activities, and a few more.
Softball parents have been fearful that removal of the softball fields at Shaw Park were a possibility.
The Sandy Plains Softball organization uses fields at Shaw Park, and they turned out in droves to plead that they not be reduced or taken away.
Shaw Park softball players urge the county to preserve their fields.
“Our constituents cannot speak for themselves,” said softball parent Darren Ross, referring to the 450 girls who signed up for Sandy Plains Softball this spring.
“We are here to protect those girls who cannot speak for themselves. Words like ‘repurpose’ scare us.”
Brantley and Birrell said several times at the meeting that removing softball fields at Shaw Park “was never on the table.”
A number of softball players did speak, echoing Woods’ comments.
They cited aging restrooms that smell bad and that “don’t work.
“It’s just horrible,” said a Sandy Plains softball player. “It’s really bad when you’re ready to play a game and you have to go to QT to go to the bathroom.”
Bret Benson, a pickleball player who grew up playing baseball at Shaw Park and later at Sprayberry High School, said he was at the park when that happened.
He said female players in his league are discouraged from walking by themselves in the evenings.
“The lighting is bad at night,” he said. “We don’t let our ladies walk to that [northern] parking lot. No one wants to show up if they don’t feel safe.”
Benson suggested that new restrooms at Shaw Park be built with safety in mind, and closer to the playing venues. Shaw Park has become one of the more popular venues in metro Atlanta for pickleball, which combines elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong and is a fast-growing adult recreational sport.
Among his ideas for pickleball courts is to have some of them covered in the event of inclement weather.
“We’re not looking for anybody else’s space,” Benson said, in reference to the concerns of softball parents.
Pickleball player Bret Benson said safety has become a major issue at Shaw Park.
Longtime community leader Frank Wigington was a softball umpire when Shaw Park opened. The park initially had baseball fields, later converted for softball, and said repurposing is a part of the history of the park,
He’s advocating now for a special needs playground at Shaw Park.
“I hope you still have a love for this park when you reach my age,” Wigington said.
Birrell said the county will “go back to the drawing board” with the suggestions made Thursday, and future public meetings are likely when a proposal is developed.
Commissioners would have to approve a master plan before construction would begin.
“It’s just a matter of where everything is going to go and the funding we’re going to have,” she said.
Brantley said discussions have begun to explore having an all-volunteer group to work with Cobb PARKS–similar to groups at Mabry Park and East Cobb Park—and help run events.
“This is not going to be a quick process,” Brantley said of the redevelopment project, regardless of what the future plans will come to.
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The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved a resolution for the county to submit an application for the Hyde Farm property in East Cobb to be included on the National Register of Historic Places.
What’s officially called the Power-Hyde Historic District contains 136 acres and is what’s left of an 1840s working farm on Hyde Road, located off Lower Roswell Road near the Chattahoochee River.
The national register, which is part of the U.S. National Park Service, was created in 1996 to identify, evaluate and protect historic places “worthy of preservation.”
Nominations for inclusion start with state historic preservation authorities and must include several criteria for consideration.
In addition to the publicity for earning the designation, properties on the register may be eligible for preservation grants and tax credits.
The Hyde Farm property is jointly owned and run by the county (42 acres) and the U.S. government, the latter being the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
More than 40 acres were sold to the Trust for Public Land in the late 1980s, and 95 more acres were told to the same entity in 2004. Cobb purchased 40 acres and the rest went to the National Park Service.
JC Hyde, the last member of the Power-Hyde families to run the farmstead, died in 2008.
Cobb Parks restored the farmstead in 2013 and conducts monthly walking tours.
Cobb Parks also holds a summer fishing rodeo for kids at Hyde Farm, and the property is used for educational purposes, summer camps and classes.
Tuesday’s action means that the county will submit the application to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Historic Preservation Division for nomination to the national register.
There are more than 40 properties in Cobb that are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Sope Creek Ruins off Paper Mill Road.
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A spokesman for First Watch contacted us today that the restaurant “is anticipated to open April 3.”
ORIGINAL STORY:
The opening of a new First Watch restaurant on Johnson Ferry Road still doesn’t have a specific date, but the company told us earlier this week it’s “approaching quickly for this Spring.”
The standalone building at 1080 Johnson Ferry Road in the Woodlawn Point Shopping Center is nearing completion, and as we went by earlier today there were only a few construction vehicles in the parking lot.
First Watch has set up a website for the East Cobb location and “VIP Access” in which you can sign up for e-mail updates, including a special pre-opening event, opening updates and other “perks.”
We signed up and there wasn’t anything specific about the opening. The message we got from First Watch earlier this week said only that “We always hope for the best and know our development team is knocking out that punch list to stay on schedule.”
It’s the same wording they used when we inquired in January; we’ve sent another message trying to get more details.
When it opens, what the company is calling its East Cobb location will be the second in the community (the other is at Sandy Plains Marketplace) and 10th in metro Atlanta.
A Facebook page for the Johnson Ferry Road location has been created, and like the other restaurants in the chain, hours will from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. seven days a week.
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The day after a youth transgender bill advanced out of the Georgia House Public Health committee she chairs, State Rep. Sharon Cooper of East Cobb was excused from casting a floor vote on Thursday.
Along party lines, the Republican-led House voted 96-75 to pass SB 140, which would bar most medical procedures for transgender-identified minors and would strip the medical licenses of doctors who perform them.
Cooper, a Republican from District 45, was one of seven House members listed as having been excused from voting.
The bill that passed the Senate earlier in the session prohibits medical professionals from prescribing hormone-replacement therapy or performing surgery to alter sexual characteristics on minors under the age of 18.
The bill does allow for some gender-related treatment pertaining to intersex youths and those with other sexual developmental disorders, and permits transgender minors to take puberty blockers.
Minors undergoing hormone treatment by July 1 would be allowed to continue doing so under the bill.
The House committee amended the bill to allow doctors to be held criminally and civilly liable as well for violating provisions of the bill. The amended measure must be voted on by the Senate before the legislative session ends March 29.
East Cobb Republican House members John Carson (District 46) and Don Parsons (District 44) voted in favor of the bill, while Democrats Mary Frances Williams (District 34) and Solomon Adesanya (District 43) were opposed.
Those votes followed the partisan lines of the bill in the Senate, where East Cobb-area senators Kay Kirkpatrick (District 32) and John Albers (District 56) were co-sponsors and voted in favor.
State Sen. Jason Esteves, a Democrat from District 6, which includes some of East Cobb, voted against the bill.
East Cobb News has left a message with Cooper seeking comment.
According to House rules, all members “shall vote unless the member is immediately and particularly interested therein or unless the member is excused by the House.”
A member who wishes to be excused from voting must do so before the question is called to vote.
In 2019, Cooper, a retired nurse, voted against final passage of a law criminalizing abortion after six weeks, saying she opposed provisions to punish medical professionals. (Kirkpatrick, a retired orthopedic surgeon, also opposed that bill and was excused from voting to attend a funeral out of state.)
Testimony at a Wednesday House committee about the youth transgender bill got highly emotional on both sides. Teens and opponents were begging lawmakers to let children and their families make their own medical decisions and to follow the recommendations of care from professional medical associations.
Supporters of the bill said children need to be protected from the effects of irreversible medical procedures, especially if they change their minds about their gender identities as adults.
The substitute bill was favorably passed out of committee in a 12-10 vote, and Cooper admitted that there would be a lot of “soul searching” from committee members.
“I only wish there was an accompanying bill, if this one should pass, that says that we will always also stand behind transgender people and transgender children and not let you be discriminated against going forward,” she said before the vote.
After the vote, according to the Georgia Recorder, Cooper was seen embracing the tearful mother of a transgender child.
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The Cobb Police Department is inviting the public to a public safety forum on March 25 that includes representatives from other public safety agencies in the county.
The forum is from 10-3 at the Cobb Public Safety Training Center (2436 East-West Connector, Austell) and is free with lunch provided by Blue Thanksgiving.
Agencies include Cobb Police, Fire, 911, Emergency Management, the Cobb Sheriff’s Office and the police departments of all six cities in Cobb: Marietta, Kennesaw, Acworth, Smyrna, Powder Springs, and Austell.
Topics to be addressed at the forum include active shooter events, the future of policing, gun safety and current laws, public safety interaction with citizens, building trust with law enforcement in the community and more.
Tickets are limited to 250 people and are required for entry. To register, click here or use the QR code 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!
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 March 13 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!
Marietta Police said Wednesday they’ve arrested a motorist they say hit two construction workers on Roswell Road at the Interstate 75 bridge on Sunday morning.
Malik Branch, 31, of Dallas, Ga., is charged with two felony counts each of hit and run and injury by vehicle, as well as misdemeanor charges of DUI, failure to maintain lane, driving on a suspended license, driving on a suspended car registration, driving without insurance, not wearing a seatbelt and driving an unsafe vehicle.
According to Cobb Sheriff’s Office booking reports, Branch is being held without bond at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center.
Police said “old school detective work” led to the arrest.
According to an arrest warrant, Branch was seen at the nearby Marietta Sage Lounge (962 Roswell Street) earlier Sunday evening, and “was stumbling and almost falling in the parking lot with a beer bottle in his hand.”
Branch then got into his car, a gray 2019 Volkswagen Jetta, and headed eastbound on Roswell Road, the warrant states, causing the accident.
The workers were preparing for a lane closure at 1:40 a.m. Sunday when they were injured, according to the warrant, which said the Jetta left its lane of traffic and struck construction cones and a traffic message board before hitting the two men.
The warrant said that construction worker Jimmy Varraza suffered a broken right arm, a broken right leg and a broken hip and remains unconscious and in critical condition.
The other worker, Oscar Aguilar, suffered a broken right arm and swelling to his head, according to the warrant. Police said Wednesday he has been released from a hospital.
The warrant also said that the Jetta had two bald front tires, two rear tires with low inflation levels, one of them not the proper size for the vehicle.
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The prospects for the rebuilding of the Gritters Library have looked bleak in recent months, as the project faced a $2.5 million shortfall due to rising construction costs.
Cobb officials have been working to bring down the cost of the project, which had been priced at $10.5 million and included the renovation of the adjacent Northeast Cobb Commnity Center.
On Tuesday, the Cobb Board of Commissioners unanimously signed off on a $9.8 million maximum price tag, including $1 million in funding from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act.
The contract was awarded to Batson-Cook Company after county officials cobbled together a variety of funding sources to close the gap.
Last month, commissioners closed out spending the last $98 million of the county’s $147 million ARPA allotment, including $21.5 million in economic development projects.
In that funding base is $3.7 million earmarked for CobbWorks, the county’s workforce development agency, which had been planning to build a Workforce Cobb operation at the new Gritters branch.
In addition, the $1.2 million cost for work on the community center will be coming out of the 2022 SPLOST Shaw Park Repurpose project. That building will be demolished and the new community center will be included in the Gritters Library building.
More than $719,000 in savings comes from 2011 SPLOST library projects and fiscal year 2023 library system capital projects.
And District 3 Commissioner JoAnn Birrell, who couldn’t convince her colleagues last September to shore up the gap with general fund revenues, directed the remaining $112,976 of ARPA funding of her $1 million for district projects to the library/community center project.
“This has been a long time coming,” Birrell said in making a motion to approve the contract. “This is one of my 2016 SPLOST projects that is hopefully coming to fruition.”
She also thanked library advocates, including library trustees and the non-profit Cobb Library Foundation, for their persistence in urging a resolution to the funding issue.
“Team Cobb County,” chairwoman Lisa Cupid said. “There are a number of players in this room working to make this happen.”
“It was truly a team effort,” said a relieved Travis Stalcup, director of the Cobb property management office. “Everybody kicked in. Proud of everybody.”
The Gritters project was included in the 2016 Cobb SPLOST, with $6.8 million originally budgeted for the library and $1.2 million for the community center.
There was a groundbreaking event in late 2021 after Cobb received a $1.9 million capital outlay grant from the Georgia Public Library Services.
In January, the board’s three Democrats voted to seek another $1 million in state funding. It was at that meeting Birrell and Keli Gambrill, the board’s Republicans, were dismissed from the dais for not voting due to their objections over Cobb’s home rule redistricting challenge.
But on Tuesday, after the 5-0 vote was recorded, the other four commissioners applauded Birrell for her advocacy.
Gritters opened near Shaw Park in 1973. Originally plans called to renovate the library, but county officials later said a complete rebuild was necessary.
The new facility will include 15,000 square feet and in addition to providing traditional library services it will include a hub for workforce development, job skills and lifelong learning.
In addition to CobbWorks, Gritters has partnerships with the Northeast Cobb Business Association, SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) and nearby higher educational institutions.
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The Cobb Board of Ethics has dismissed a complaint filed by an East Cobb resident against Commissioner Jerica Richardson.
In a special meeting Monday, the board voted 6-0, with one member absent, to dismiss the complaint, saying it did not find “specific, substantiated evidence to support a reasonable belief” of an ethics violation.
It’s the first step under the Cobb County code to consider ethics complaints and is an “investigatory review.” If the board had voted the other way, it could have set a hearing date to formally consider whether an ethics violation occurred.
(You can watch a replay of the fill meeting below.)
Debbie Fisher, an East Cobb political activist, filed the complaint in late January, saying that Richardson was engaged in a conflict of interest due to a political action committee she formed to fight her redistricting by the Georgia legislature.
Richardson, who is part of the Cobb Board of Commissioners’ Democratic majority, voted in October in favor of the county invoking home rule powers to conduct reapportionment.
They are challenging Georgia legislative maps passed last year that would draw her out of her East Cobb home in District 2 in the middle of her term.
Richardson also created a 501(c)(4) non-profit, For Which It Stance, for the purpose of “protecting local control, empowering local voices,” and seeks financial donations, sells merchandise and offers memberships ranging from $25 to $100 a month.
Fisher, a local Republican activist who said she was representing herself, alleges that’s a conflict and at Monday’s hearing, recounted her complaints. (In addition to seeking a reprimand and/or censure of Richardson, Fisher wants to void Richardson’s votes on the maps, which would result in a 2-2 deadlock.)
“This organization creates a conflict of interest, a direct and indirect financial benefit,” Fisher told the Ethics Board members, referring to For Which It Stance.
“Its existence creates the appearance of impropriety and it is evident that Commissioner Richardson is using her position as an elected official for private gain by selling favors and merchandise and giving preferential treatment by selling access and favor to the organization’s members.”
But Justin O’Dell, a Marietta attorney representing Richardson at the hearing, noted her status as the first woman and African-American to represent District 2, and her election in 2020 was “an historic one” in that it ensured a black female Democratic majority.
“Ever since that time, there has been and continues to be an effort to undermine the results of that election, through legislative and other means,” O’Dell said.
He included various cityhood movements in Cobb (three of which failed, including East Cobb), as examples of efforts undertaken so that “individuals who don’t feel like they ought to be represented by Commissioner Richardson can have their wish despite the results of the election.”
O’Dell said elected officials have a “fundamental” right to engage in political advocacy and speech in the course of doing their jobs.
He said “what’s being attempted here is an end run” around the legal proceedings involving Cobb’s home rule challenge to the legislative maps, “and should be dismissed as such.
“They are asking you essentially to declare her actions void as a means to bypass what they have been unable to do through the courts,” O’Dell said, “by having you void these actions and undo the map.”
Most of the ethics board members said they were unpersuaded by the complaint, and that they were looking for evidence of the claims of financial benefit for Richardson going into the hearing.
“We don’t have any evidence that Ms. Richardson has profit,” ethics board member Cynthia Ann Smith said. “But we don’t have any evidence that she didn’t either.”
Board chairman Carlos Rodriguez spelled out the differences in the ethics code between compatible and incompatible employment, as they related to an elected officials’ discharging of their official duties.
The code, he said, precludes commissioners from using their office to benefit in for-profit entities, not non-profits.
“In my mind, it doesn’t really even matter whether she received some sort of compensation as a member of For Which It Stance or not,” he said, “as long as it’s not incompatible with her public duty and responsibility.”
Board member Janet Savage said “we have not seen any hardcore evidence that there was private gain” for Richardson.
The ethics board is a seven-member body appointed by the Cobb Board of Commissioners, the Cobb Tax Commissioner, the Cobb Sheriff, the Cobb Solicitor General, the chief judges of the Cobb probate and magistrate courts and the clerk of the Cobb State Court.
Fisher has 30 days to appeal the decision in Cobb Superior Court.
A suspect in two dozen business burglaries—including the now-closed Tokyo Valentino adult store on Johnson Ferry Road—has been indicted by a Cobb grand jury.
Aron Major, 49, of Atlanta, was indicted on 24 counts of second-degree burglary and one count of racketeering, according to the indictment, which was handed down Thursday.
He was arrested on June 1, 2021, following the execution of a search warrant, and has been detained at the Cobb County Adult Detention Center ever since, according to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records.
His son, Aron Major, Jr., was indicted on a single count of tampering with evidence the day after his father’s arrest.
Cobb Police said in their arrest warrants that for several months, Major crawled his way into numerous Cobb County businesses while they were closed by breaking or removing windows and taking cash and merchandise.
They included the Tokyo Valentino store in October of 2020. An arrest warrant alleges Major took more than $21,000 in money and merchandise, including lingerie, sex enhancement pills, CBD products, sex toys and gift cards.
Police allege that Major started his burglary spree on Sept. 22, 2020, when he hit three East Cobb businesses—The Wing Cafe and Tap House and Marietta Martial Arts at East Lake Shopping Center and the Fuji Hana restaurant on Johnson Ferry Road.
On March 4, 2021, the indictment alleges Major burglarized the Ming’s Asian Kitchen and Red Curry Thai restaurants on Lower Roswell Road and a Havoline Express oil change shop and a Peace, Love and Pizza restaurant at East Piedmont Road and Roswell Road.
He is alleged to have burglarized Mink’s Package Store on Delk Road on March 6, 2021, the Mellow Mushroom on Powers Ferry Road on March 18, 2021 and Laredo’s Mexican Restaurant on Sandy Plains Road on May 31, 2021.
That last incident was the day before he was arrested. Major’s arrest warrant on June 1, 2020 states that the Tokyo Valentino store manager reported to police that 61 lingerie sets were missing, as were 400 male sex enhancement pills, five pairs of high heels, two fetish straps, two doorway sex swings, 25 sex toys, 500 $25 gift cards, 17 bottles of CBD oil and tincture, six tins of Kratom powder and nearly $1,000 in cash.
The warrant further states that when police got a search warrant for Major’s residence they found 447 packets of male sex enhancement pills and a door sex swing, items that the Tokyo Valentino manager verified were from the East Cobb store.
Police also discovered business checks from Fuji Hana in Major’s possession during the search, according to the arrest warrant.
The indictment includes burglary counts for other businesses, many of them restaurants, across Cobb County, including Kennesaw and Acworth, Cobb Parkway, Akers Mill Road, Six Flags Parkway and the Church Street Extension.
Major was sentenced four times for previous burglaries and other crimes elsewhere in metro Atlanta dating back to 1992, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
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Bundle up tonight and the next few nights as temperatures dip at or below freezing.
The National Weather Service in Peachtree City has issued a freeze warning for Cobb and metro Atlanta from 11 p.m. Monday to 11 a.m. Tuesday, and a freeze watch from 11 p.m. Tuesday to 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Forecast lows in the Cobb area could drop to the high 20s Monday and Tuesday, and although it’ll be sunny during the day, highs will be only in the low to mid-50s.
A cold front is sweeping across the Deep South at the start of the week.
Temperatures are expected to be around freezing Wednesday night after highs in the high 60s.
MUST Ministries is opening its winter weather shelter (1297 Bells Ferry Road) Monday-Wednesday for men, women and children, with the doors closing by 8 p.m.
They will be fed dinner and a hot breakfast.
Warmer weather is in store for later in the week, although rain is forecast on Thursday, with highs near 70.
The weekend also will be colder, with lows near freezing and highs in the 50s Saturday and Sunday.
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Over the weekend we saw the finishing touches being put on a new standalone Starbucks at the East Lake Shopping Center (2135 Roswell Road).
A reader sent us word on Sunday that it’s now open. The hours are 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday.
This is the ninth Starbucks in the East Cobb area, and it’s right across the street from a smaller Starbucks inside the Kroger at the Pavilions at East Lake, and a mile or so from another Starbucks at Roswell and East Piedmont.
The new East Lake location was built on the site of a former bank, and is near the Los Bravos Mexican restaurant.
There’s a drive-through and indoor seating, as well as mobile app ordering and Wi-Fi.
Another standalone Starbucks is in the works at Paper Mill Village, with a delayed rezoning case requesting demolition of the existing small coffee shop for a 5,000-square-foot, two-story building.
That first hearing is tentatively scheduled for April 3 before the Cobb Planning Commission.
Back in service
What was supposed to be a short closure in February to expand drive-through service turned into be a longer hiatus for the Chick-Fil-A Lassiter (3046 Shallowford Road).
Store management announced on Friday that it’s reopened at its usual hours, after “a few unforeseen delays.”
The store had scheduled a Daddy Daughter Date Night but due to the closure that’s been rescheduled for March 25.
New Businesses
The following businesses in East Cobb were granted licenses by the Cobb Community Development Agency the last few weeks:
ASE Ventures, 2501 East Piedmont Road, Suite 204 (antique sales)
Blossom Locs, 2790 Sandy Plains Road, Suite 100-A (hair braiding)
Family Dental Care of Marietta, 2525 Shallowford Road, Suite 100 (dentist)
Ferrara Medical Aesthetics, 1000 Johnson Ferry Road, Suite E-25 (physician)
Settle for Glam, 2790 Sandy Plains Road, Suite 100-A (beauty shop)
Top Massage, 2200 Roswell Road, Suite 150 (health club/spa)
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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Marietta Police said that two construction workers sustained life-threatening injuries when they were struck by a vehicle at the Interstate 75 overpass at Roswell Road early Sunday.
In a release, Marietta Police said they’re still looking for the driver of a gray 2019 Volkswagen Jetta that struck Jimmy Varraza, 38, and Oscar Aguilar, 28, both of metro Atlanta, as they were preparing for a lane closure at 1:40 a.m. Sunday.
Police said that the Volkswagen was traveling eastbound on Roswell Road, and that the two workers had gotten out of their vehicle to set up a traffic directional sign.
Police said the driver of the Volkswagen stopped at the scene, then fled on foot before first responders arrived.
The investigation is continuing and anyone with information is asked to contact Marietta Police Officer K. Bedford at (770) 794-5364.
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Wheeler star Isaiah Collier is overcome by emotion embracing coach Larry Thompson after the Wildcats won the state basketball championship Saturday. (Georgia Public Broadcasting)
Ranked No. 1 in Georgia for most of the season, the Wheeler Wildcats didn’t disappoint Saturday with a state championship on the line.
The Wildcats blew open a close game against Cherokee in the third quarter and roared to their third Georgia High School Association title in four years by a 78-58 score.
Wheeler was heavily favored to win the Class 7A crown, boasting Naismith national high school player of the year Isaiah Collier.
In his high school finale, Collier, a 6-foot-3 point guard who will play at the University of Southern California next season, scored 22 points, and was given the honor of running out the last seconds of the game dribbling the ball.
When the horn sounded at the Macon Coliseum, he fell to the floor, overcome with emotion. After his teammates piled on in jubilation, Collier was still in tears, embraced by coaches.
As he hugged head coach Larry Thompson, they were locked together for a good while.
Thompson said later in an interview on Georgia Public Broadcasting that memories of Khalil Hardison–a former Wheeler player who was the coach’s son and Collier’s cousin—were on their minds.
Hardison drowned last August in the Chattahoochee River at the age of 21, and Wheeler dedicated the season in his memory. He was best friends with Collier, who said his death motivated him in his final season.
“It’s been the hardest season of my life,” Collier told GPB. “Winning this championship, it feels so good.”
He was asked what he would say to Hardison if he could have had a conversation with him.
“I’d tell him I love him,” Collier said, fighting back tears.
“It’s unreal the amount of emotion and the toll that it’s taken, not just for Isaiah and me but for the whole team,” Thompson said.
“You know how many people are in your corner. The love from so many people has been amazing. I want people to know we greatly appreciate it. . . I know [Hardison] is smiling down on us today.”
Wheeler went 26-6 in winning a ninth state championship in school history. The Wildcats had to defeat Cherokee, their region rivals, four times along the way, and routed the Warriors 94-41 in the region title game.
Wheeler was ranked No. 22 in an ESPN poll of high school basketball teams nationally, the only one in Georgia, and its only losses were to out-of-state teams.
Collier, the latest star to come from Wheeler, is the school’s first national high school player of the year and is third in ESPN‘s individual rankings. His Wheeler teammate, forward Arrinten Page, will be going to USC with him.
On Thursday, Kell High School accomplished a rare feat when both the boys and girls teams won the Class 5A championships, also in Macon.
Senior Crystal Henderson scored 29 points in her last high school game as the Lady Longhorns rolled over Warner Robins 57-36.
Kell reached the finals in her freshman season, but Buford pulled out a late victory.
After that game, the boys team defeated Eagles Landing 61-53.
They were the first basketball state titles for Kell, which was reassigned to Class 5A this season after being in Class 6A for the last year years.
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A bouncy house occupied part of the front quad Saturday at East Cobb Park on a warm, sunny day, the last of Eastern Standard Time.
While daylight will be lasting later starting Sunday on the first day of Daylight Saving Time, the weather won’t be hospitable for park or outdoor activities.
There’s a nearly 100 percent chance of rain for most of the day, starting overnight, and lasting through the evening.
Temperatures will be colder too for Sunday and the first part of the week, and highs are forecast for the 50s through Wednesday, along with sunny skies.
Lows will be at or below freezing through Thursday morning, but warmer and wetter returns next weekend.
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A year ago, The Avenue East Cobb was set to unveil a new St. Patrick’s Day-themed event, but wet weather called it off.
The retail center is planning a belated debut a day before St. Patrick’s Day. “Shamrock” takes place from 6-8 p.m. in the front parking lot (4475 Roswell Road), as redevelopment construction work continues.
Entertainment comes from The Retreat, an Atlanta band that features an “organic” take on party music; a performance by the Drake School of Irish Dance; a bounce house; live llamas; face painting; a photo booth and balloon art.
There also will be a bar run by Drift Fish House and Oyster Bar.
Admission is free, but keep in mind there could be a cancellation due to weather. The forecast for Thursday doesn’t include any chance of rain for now; The Avenue will be posting weather updates on its website and social media channels.
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The Marietta History Center will feature a traveling exhibit from Kennesaw State University’s Museum of History and Holocaust Education starting later this month.
Entitled “World War II: The War that Changed the World,” the exhibit is the final installment of a series of traveling exhibits from KSU that have been displayed at the Marietta History Center (1 Depot Street, near the Square).
The exhibition, which runs from March 21-April 22, explores the war and its broad global impact. Visitors will encounter individuals who experienced the effects of the war and the Holocaust, from rationing to new opportunities to work and to fight and the struggle for survival in Europe increasingly under Nazi control.
The exhibit was made possible with a 2018 grant from the Breman Foundation, which operates a Jewish heritage museum in Atlanta.
The KSU exhibit is included with regular admission to the Marietta History Center. The cost is $7 for adults, $5 for seniors and students and free for children under 5 and those with a military ID.
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!
