Cobb PARKS said Wednesday that heavy rains Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning had flooded some county parks, prompting their closures.
Noonday Park remains closed, and East Cobb Park reopened at 1 p.m. Wednesday, according to the department’s social media postings.
Also closed is Fullers Park off Robinson Road.
The sun came out on Wednesday afternoon, as the rainy weather that greeted the new year began to taper off.
A flood warning had been in effect until noon Wednesday, as several inches of rain fell in the Cobb area and metro Atlanta.
Some roads were closed in parts of North Fulton, but there were no specific reported closures in Cobb.
Cobb government said in a social media message Wednesday morning that “Cobb DOT is not reporting any significant travel issues at this hour.”
A flood warning was issued in Cobb along the Chattahoochee River at Georgia Highway 280.
Motorists should turn around and drive away from flooded roads instead of trying to pass through them.
The weather system included thunderstorms and flash flooding, and a tornado reported south of Atlanta.
Today’s highs are expected to reach around 70, with lows in the low 50s, and the temperatures will be getting cooler.
Highs will drop to the high 50s and around 60 over the next few days, with lows falling into the 40s and 30s over the next several nights, according to the National Weather Service.
But we will have sunny skies through Saturday, with a 40 percent chance of rain on Sunday.
Rain also is in the forecast for early next week.
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Harry Kone, who survived wounds at the Battle of Guadalcanal and was a public school teacher before moving to East Cobb to be close to family, died on Dec. 30 at the age of 102, according to a notice posted on social media by his church.
Unity North Atlanta Church announced on its Facebook page that Kone passed away Friday at 2:30 p.m. “mid way through his 102nd year of blessing this world and this church.”
His full obituary can be found by clicking here. A Celebration of Life service is scheduled for Unity North on Feb. 4 at 3 p.m.
Kone had been featured in local media outlets in recent years and was interviewed elsewhere about his military service during World War II.
Shortly before his 100th birthday in August 2020 Kone told East Cobb News that “I never worry about tomorrow” because of his experiences as a Marine.
“From then on, I never worried about much. I had plans, but I didn’t worry about what I’m going to do tomorrow,” he said.
“This is what worries a lot of people,” Kone said, but “if I’m dead tomorrow, I don’t have to worry.”
Kone and his late wife Marjorie raised two daughters and a son in the Chicago area, where he was a teacher for 40 years.
Harry Kone marking his 99th birthday at a Marine League event in Woodstock.
They moved to East Cobb in 1995 to be near their children, including daughter Sue Lind, who later became her father’s caregiver.
He got active in local veterans organizations, including the Squire “Skip” Wells Marine Corps League, and was a member at Unity North Church on Sandy Plains Road.
In 2021, the Cobb Board of Commissioners recognized him for his 101st birthday and declared Harry Kone Day in the county. He was a supporter of ongoing efforts to establish a Cobb Veterans Memorial.
His centenary birthday came during the COVID-19 pandemic, but he was able to meet with family members in a socially-distanced fashion.
Kone was born Aug. 16, 1920 in Baltimore, Md., the only child of a railway clerk and a homemaker, Kone was an avid reader, the habit instilled by his mother.
In 1939, he moved to Milwaukee to work as a welder, and attended a branch of the University of Wisconsin on a scholarship to help develop children’s programming in the very early days of television.
He was living in a boarding house there when he met his future wife.
After the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, Kone enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a machine-gunner. He was wounded after being strafed by Japanese fighter planes.
Kone was honorably discharged in 1945 and also was awarded a Purple Heart.
A bout with tuberculosis kept him in a Veterans Administration hospital for two years.
In 2019 he was profiled by the American Veterans Center, and the year before, he spoke with the Atlanta History Center (see video below).
He and Marjorie Kone were married 65 years until her death in 2011.
In addition to his daughter Sue Lind, Kone is survived by a son, Stuart Kone of Douglasville, four grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.
He also was preceded in death his other daughter, Barbara Bechely, who also lived in Marietta.
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Several dozen young children and their parents turned out at the Mountain View Regional Library Saturday morning for a kid-themed “Noon Year’s Eve” party, one of several put on by the Cobb County Public Library System.
Kids made crafts, danced to music, played games, and at 12 noon sharp, enjoyed a balloon drop, followed by the inevitable popping of the balloons—some accidental, some not.
The event also provided information to parents about youth activities at the Cobb library system.
Cobb library branches are closed Sunday and Monday and will reopen at their regular hours on Tuesday.
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But there were some other stories of note that transpired during the year—some of them to continue into 2023—that we’d like to include in this final wrap on a very busy year in the East Cobb community:
At East Cobb News, we would like to thank all of our readers and wish all in the community a Happy New Year!
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The East Cobb Cityhood referendum was one of three that went down to defeat, along with Lost Mountain and Vinings. In November, voters in Mableton barely approved a cityhood referendum, making it the first new city in Cobb County in more than a century.
But the East Cobb campaign was different from the rest, especially the increasingly contentious tone of the debate.
It started in late 2021, when the East Cobb cityhood group sprung a surprise on the public, adding expensive police and fire services that the other cityhood movements did not include.
Instead of a city of more than 100,000 floated in 2019, the 2022 proposed map showed a population of around 60,000 for a city of East Cobb, roughly along the Johnson Ferry Road corridor.
During the 2022 Georgia legislative session, former Rep. Matt Dollar made several changes to legislation calling for the East Cobb referendum, including moving it up from November.
After committee hearings, more changes were made to how the East Cobb city council members and mayor would be selected. Cobb government officials expressed concern that they wouldn’t have time to assess the possible financial impact to the county if cityhood referendums passed.
But the East Cobb bill eased through the legislature, and Dollar promptly resigned his seat to take state government job.
For the next two months, public events got even more heated.
Supporters of cityhood said a new city would curb an incursion of high-density development in East Cobb that was trending elsewhere in the county.
Opponents said a new layer of government wasn’t needed, and that taxes and other local government costs would go up.
In addition to the anti-cityhood East Cobb Alliance, cityhood proponents had to go up against Cobb government officials who said they were providing objective information at town hall meetings.
As the referendum date neared, lawsuits were filed to stop the East Cobb, Lost Mountain and Vinings votes, citing unconstitutional provisions.
But a Cobb judge ordered the referendums to go ahead as scheduled.
The East Cobb Alliance turned up the heat further, alleging that the cityhood group added police and fire because it needed the Cobb fire fund millage to avoid imposing additional property tax rates for a new city.
The cityhood group denied that charge and another by the Alliance for not filing a campaign finance report, saying it wasn’t required.
The cityhood group scrubbed much of its online presence and said little after the vote, telling East Cobb News in a prepared statement that “make no mistake; the facts have not changed. East Cobb will be under increasing growth and tax pressure from Cobb County to urbanize our community. Our polling told a different story from the results last night. Cobb’s policy direction explains why the county worked so hard to stop the cityhood effort(s).”
Mindy Seger of the East Cobb Alliance said after the referendum that there’s an interest in trying to “raise the bar for Georgia’s Cityhood process. The community has the mic, we hope those in authority are listening.”
In October, the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood was fined $5,000 by the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Commission and submitted a campaign financial disclosure report showing that it had raised $112,525 and spent $64,338.
The East Cobb Alliance reported total contributions nearing $30,000 and disbanded its operations.
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Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell said Friday she won’t be holding a scheduled swearing-in ceremony in public next week because of a court hearing about county redistricting.
Birrell said in a statement in her weekly e-mail newsletter that “due to a conflict in scheduling with the hearing regarding home rule I will be sworn in at a private ceremony. Thanks for understanding.”
She was to have taken the oath on Wednesday afternoon at the Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting room for her fourth term in office, representing District 3 in East Cobb, followed by a reception.
The Republican-dominated General Assembly approved a map this year (see bottom) to draw Richardson, a first-term Democrat, out of her home in East Cobb, which would mostly be in District 3.
Savage’s claims echo those of Birrell and other state and local Republican officials.
But Richardson, local Democratic leaders and her other supporters have said that while the county’s action may be unprecedented, so is the legislature’s action in drawing a sitting incumbent official out of her seat.
Larry Savage
Cobb officials filed a contested map—proposed by Democratic Cobb legislative delegation chairman Rep. Erick Allen but which were never voted on by the legislature—with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, anticipating a legal challenge.
Under state law, Richardson would have to change her legal residence to the new District 2 by Saturday in order to run for re-election in 2024, but she said she’s not moving.
Should the county’s legal challenge fail, Richardson would likely be removed from office and a special election would be called to fill the remainder of her term.
Birrell has said publicly that what happened to Richardson is unfair but that the home rule challenge is “politically motivated.”
During the legislative session, Cobb commissioners attended delegation meetings as the maps were being drafted.
Birrell opposed Allen’s map, which included much of the city of Marietta, concerned it wasn’t majority-Republican. She won with only 51 percent of the vote in 2018, but got 59 percent in winning re-election in a mostly-East Cobb district in November.
In recent months, both commissioners representing the East Cobb area have attended a number of public events in what would be the new District 3, including a town hall Richardson held regarding the delayed Lower Roswell Road traffic project.
Birrell also has included news and information about developments in what would be her new district that are currently in District 2.
The court hearing on Wednesday will be heard by Judge Ann Harris.
A Cobb commission district map at left was submitted by the county to challenge the legislative-approved map at the right. District 2 is in pink, District 3 in yellow.
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After a bone-chilling, sub-freezing Christmas, East Cobbers will be ringing in the new year with warmer, albeit wetter, weather.
There was plenty of late-afternoon activity at East Cobb Park Wednesday as temperatures rose into the 60s and sunshine bathed the skies.
There’s an 80 percent chance of rain Friday night and 70 percent during the day Saturday, with highs staying in the low- to mid-60s.
The rain will taper off for New Year’s Eve, down to 20 percent, as revelers attend fireworks celebrations and other festivities.
New Year’s Day on Sunday will be partly sunny with highs in the mid 60s. Monday and Tuesday highs are forecast in the high 60s. Rain returns on Monday night and there’s a 90 percent chance of showers Tuesday night.
Rain will taper off in the middle of the week, with highs Wednesday cooling off to the mid 50s.
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The bitter controversy embroiling one of East Cobb’s biggest faith communities came to a quiet end in 2022, after more than a year of charged rhetoric and legal action.
Mt. Bethel Church was renamed in the summer after what had been Mt. Bethel UMC officially broke from the United Methodist Church.
The denomination’s North Georgia Conference sued Mt. Bethel in 2021 following months of public feuding over the reassignment of senior pastor Rev. Dr. Jody Ray that evolved into a dispute over church property and assets.
Mt. Bethel countersued, and in June, the two parties agreed to a settlement that would enable Mt. Bethel to go independent in exchange for a $13.1 million payment and other property restrictions.
Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson told them that while the costs of litigation were increasing, settling the case “was a missional decision above all else to free them to be about the overall mission of the Church.”
As she was being reassigned as the UMC’s Bishop of Virginia, Mt. Bethel made several major changes. The court settlement precludes the church from selling some land and property on its main campus on Lower Roswell Road for several years.
But Mt. Bethel announced it would be selling some nearby land not affected by the settlement, including a day care center and a now-vacant community center on Lower Roswell near Woodlawn Drive.
“As part of responsible stewardship, our committees, our leadership council and our pastors will continue to evaluate how Mt. Bethel’s assets can best support the ministry of the church,” Mt. Bethel lay leader Ferrell Coppedge said.
Some former Mt. Bethel members have begun a new church, called Grace Resurrection Methodist Church, located at the former Lutheran Church of the Incarnation.
The clergy includes Rev. Randy Mickler, who was Mt. Bethel’s senior pastor for nearly 30 years before he retired in 2016 and was succeeded by Ray.
An unidentified Grace Resurrection church member said in a release that “rather than scatter or dropout altogether, we wanted to continue worshiping together and expand our welcome to new members. Now an excellent centralized location is available to us.”
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Cobb Fire and Emergency Rescue Services officials said Thursday that one of two boys who fell into a partially frozen lake in Kennesaw on Wednesday has died.
Cobb Fire Public Information Officer Nicolas Danz did not identify the victim, except to say that he was 16 years old and was pronounced dead at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital.
One of the rescue workers responding to the incident also was hospitalized for hypothermia treatment, Danz said.
Danz said the victim and another 16-year-old boy had fallen into a lake off Ellison Lakes Drive on Wednesday afternoon. Cobb Police and Fire were called to the scene at 5:15 p.m, after Kennesaw Police and Cobb Police had rescued the surviving teen from the icy waters, Danz said.
He said recorded surface water temperatures on the lake were as low as 28 degrees.
Three Cobb Fire response vehicles searched for the second boy, and Cobb Police provided drone search support, according to Danz.
He said the boy was found at 6:50 p.m. Wednesday and was pulled to an embankment and rescue workers began resuscitation efforts.
The boy was taken to the hospital by Metro Atlanta Ambulance Service and two Cobb Fire personnel, according to Cobb Fire.
Danz said four rescue personnel were treated for extensive cold exposure after being in the water for up to an hour and 20 minutes.
The hospitalized rescue worker was later released, and another was treated for abrasions suffered during the rescue, according to Danz.
Danz said no further information would be provided about the identities of the boys or medical conditions “of any of the parties involved.”
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Mark Elgart of Cognia speaks to the Cobb school board in March 2022.
Another eventful year for the Cobb County School District got rolling in March when the district’s accrediting agency abruptly reversed findings of a special review it had issued in late 2021.
Dr. Mark Elgart of Cognia went before the Cobb Board of Education in a special-called meeting to say that most of his agency’s special review findings were being overturned because they were “inconsistent with evidence” the Cobb school district brought to Cognia’s attention.
The review was conducted after the board’s three Democrats and others in the Cobb school community issued complaints in a number of areas, including school board governance and fiscal and procurement issues.
Before the reversal, the Cobb school board had been told it had until late 2022 to show improvements in areas designated by the review team.
Elgart did say that Cognia special review findings of board relations and governance remain valid.
“The evidence remains that this is a divided school board,” Elgar told the board members.
A bill was introduced in the Georgia legislature later in the 2022 session by former State Sen. Lindsey Tippins, a former Cobb school board member, to remove political concerns from academic reviews, but it did not pass.
In May, the school board approved a $1.4 billion fiscal year 2023 budget that included raises between 8.5 and 13.10 percent, in what Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said were “historic” pay increases.
The $36.7 million rebuild of Eastvalley Elementary School is taking place on the former campus of East Cobb Middle School, across the street from Wheeler High School on Holt Road.
Construction is expected to be completed for the start of the 2023-24 school year in August.
A $6.738 million athletic complex is being built for Walton High School on land the school board purchased last year along Pine Road and Providence Road.
The facility will house Walton’s varsity tennis and baseball teams, beginning with the 2023-24 school year.
School board elections in November left the party makeup unchanged, with Republicans holding a 4-3 lead.
GOP chairman David Chastain of Post 4 in Northeast Cobb was re-elected to a third term in what became a bitter campaign with Democratic newcomer Catherine Pozniak.
Democrats were elected to posts in South Cobb to succeed outgoing first-term Democrats Charisse Davis and Jaha Howard. They were at the center of a number of partisan battles on the school board but did not seek second terms.
Howard lost in the Democratic primary for Georgia School Superintendent. Davis, whose Post 6 included the Walton and Wheeler clusters, never publicly explained her decision not to run again.
Her successor will be former teacher Nichelle Davis (no relation), and Becky Sayler is succeeding Howard in Post 2.
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The following food scores for the week of Dec. 26 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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Most incumbents on ballots for Cobb County voters were re-elected in 2022 at all levels, including veteran East Cobb elected officials.
But behind the scenes, problems with issuing absentee ballots and disagreements over how to draw local political boundaries created controversy and intrigue.
Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell and Cobb school board chairman David Chastain were re-elected in November, as were East Cobb-area state lawmakers Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick and Reps. Sharon Cooper, John Carson and Don Parsons.
They will be joined by Sen. John Albers, also a Republican, and Democratic newcomers Jason Esteves (Senate) and Solomon Adesanya (House) in representing East Cobb when the 2023 session convenes in January.
East Cobb will also have two Republican members of Congress, incumbent Rep. Barry Loudermilk of the 11th District and newcomer Rich McCormick of the 6th District.
In both the general election and the U.S. Senate runoff, Cobb Elections was sued by voting-rights advocacy groups over issues with timely mailing of absentee ballots.
Both times, the county entered into a consent decree to give affected voters extra time to return their mail-in ballots.
Right before the general election, the three Democrats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted to contest commission redistricting maps under the state’s home rule provisions.
It’s a novel challenge, since legislatures are empowered to conduct reapportionment. But Commissioner Jerica Richardson of District 2 in East Cobb said that she’s the first sitting elected official to be redrawn out a seat.
Elected in 2020, Richardson said in March “I will not step down.” Under Georgia law she has until Dec. 31 to move into the new District 2, which includes much of the city of Marietta as well as the Cumberland and Kennesaw areas.
The new District 3 includes the area around Post Oak Tritt Road and Johnson Ferry Road where Richardson bought a home in 2021. But she said she’s not moving.
The resolution passed in October was opposed by Republican commissioners Keli Gambrill and Birrell, who said the county’s challenge of redistricting is outside the rule of law and was politically motivated.
The county has submitted maps keeping Richardson in similar District 2 lines to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, and it’s expected to be challenged by the state Attorney General’s office.
The first Cobb Board of Commissioners meeting of 2023 is Jan. 10.
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Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell will be sworn in for a fourth term next week.
Her swearing-in ceremony takes place Wednesday, Jan. 4 in the second floor Board of Commissioners Meeting Room, 100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta, starting at 3 p.m.
A reception follows in the learning center.
Birrell was re-elected in November from District 3, which includes most of East Cobb. She is one of two Republicans on the five-member board.
The other, Keli Gambrill of District 1 in North Cobb, was sworn in for a second term before Christmas.
They were the only commissioners up for election in 2022.
District 3 has included Northeast Cobb and most of the city of Marietta.
It’s unclear where the lines for the new District 3 will fall in January, however.
The Georgia legislature approved reapportioned maps to include most of East Cobb in District 3.
But Cobb County is officially challenging those lines following a vote by the board’s Democratic majority under home rule provisions.
The Democrats want to keep essentially the same lines that apply today after District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson was redrawn out of her East Cobb home.
Those maps have been filed with the legislative reapportionment office. Cobb is expecting the state to file a legal challenge.
Birrell has said previously that while she doesn’t think what happened to Richardson was fair, she doesn’t think the county’s legal challenge will succeed.
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John Swierenga of East Cobb, head of the Trash Taxi service
A proposal to regulate private trash haulers in Cobb County prompted a heated response from citizens and garbage services alike, and was put on hold until 2023.
Cobb commissioners tabled plans to designate a single hauler for each of the four commission districts and enact related measures in September, when they updated code amendments.
The proposal came after years of complaints of lagging service in all parts of the county.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb was adamant that the county had no role to play in regulating private trash service, and thinks commissioners shouldn’t be wading again when code amendment updates will be presented in January.
But commission chairwoman Lisa Cupid, who organized a roundtable of county trash haulers, said it’s a public health matter when trash isn’t reliably collected.
The haulers, including East Cobb resident John Swierenga of Trash Taxi, said they were blindsided by the proposal and haven’t heard from the county in years.
“We would like to hear of complaints that we can respond to in 24-48 hours. We can fix this without disrupting what we have.”
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The Mt. Bethel Church choir sings “Joy to the World” at a Christmas Eve service Saturday.
Christians around East Cobb attended Christmas Eve services Saturday, hearing messages about hope, peace, love and eternal light as they celebrated the birth of Jesus.
Pastors at several churches cited current events, as they urged their congregations to live out the meaning of Christ’s arrival.
“We ought to look out for one another,” said Rev. Dr. Ike Reighard of Piedmont Church. “That’s what being part of family of God is all about. It’s about love.
Rev. Dr. Ike Reighard
“God reached down to the world and did something that’s an absolute mystery,” he continued. “Love is from God,” and is manifested in humans through the life of Jesus.
Reighard, who is also the CEO of Marietta-based MUST Ministries, spoke of tragedy in his own life. His first wife died in childbirth with their first child.
“A troubled faith is better than no faith at all,” he said.
Mt. Bethel Church observed its first Christmas since breaking from the United Methodist Church following a court settlement earlier this year.
Rev. Dr. Jody Ray spoke of the first Christmas—the time of Jesus’ birth—as a “dark time . . . under the iron fist of Rome.”
Rev. Dr. Jody Ray
The darkness of contemporary times—death, divorce, addiction and other maladies—continues, Ray said, but the Bible says “there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Reading from the book of Isaiah, he said that “the light of Christmas shines in the midst of the darkness” and
“gives us the hope that we can keep going forward.”
Ray said that “the darkness never overtakes the light . . . . never ever ever . . . Light always always always always overtakes the darkness.”
At Mt. Paran Church of God North, the subject of senior pastor Dr. Kirk Walters’ sermon was about how to find peace.
“We are divided over everything—politics, religion, race, gender—everything,” he said.
Dr. Kirk Walters
But we don’t “understand what Biblical peace is.” It’s not an absence of problems, said Walters, whose wife died in August after battling cancer.
“Peace is available to those with whom God is pleased, those who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and savior.
“Jesus has to be Lord of your life to have that kind of peace.”
Several East Cobb churches will be having Christmas Day services on Sunday. For more information, click here.
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Christmas Day high temperature forecasts across Georgia.
While temperatures could get above freezing on Christmas Day, continuing wind gusts will make it feel much colder.
The National Weather Service has extended a wind chill advisory for much of north Georgia, including Cobb County, until 1 p.m. Sunday.
A wind chill warning issued Thursday expired Saturday afternoon, after two days of sub-zero wind chill temperatures, including -12 at Dobbins Air Reserve.
Lows reached into the single digits in the Atlanta for the first time in several years.
By mid-afternoon Saturday, temperatures reached the mid-20s, with winds around 15 mph, and the wind chill making it feel like 10 above zero.
Highs for Christmas Day are forecast to be in the low- to mid-30s, with winds ranging between 10-20 mph.
The deep freeze will gradually give way to warmer temperatures by New Year’s.
Monday’s high is expected to be near 40, with lows in the mid-20s.
By Tuesday, highs will reach the high 40s, followed by the low 50s on Wednesday.
Rain enters the metro Atlanta area by Friday, with highs through New Year’s Day reaching into the low- and mid-60s.
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Cobb DOT and fire crews were responding to reports of fallen trees across the county Friday as high winds continued to yield sub-zero wind chill conditions.
According to a Cobb government video (see below), fallen trees due to the high winds included Holly Springs Road, and icy patches were causing problems on Johnson Ferry near Roswell Road.
Although there was rain overnight Friday, Cobb spokesman Ross Cavitt said in the video that the icy patches were largely stemming from existing moisture on the roads.
Thursday’s deep freeze sent temperatures plummeting rapidly in a short span, from roughly 50 degrees around midnight to 15 by daybreak Friday.
Friday’s high is around 18, and the lows will get colder—possibly into the single digits—Friday night.
Cobb remains under a wind chill warning through noon Saturday, as wind gusts in the area continue. As of 3 p.m., the winds were around 20 mph in the Cobb area, and wind gusts topping 40 mph were recorded at McCollum Airport.
According to the National Weather Service in Atlanta, several areas had winds in excess of 50 mph, including Gainesville and Athens.
The winds caused some power outages in Cobb County. Cobb EMC was reporting a handful of outages in East Cobb. There were no East Cobb power outages reported by Georgia Power as of 4 p.m. Friday.
Like Friday, Saturday will be sunny, and a bit warmer, with highs in mid-20s. But wind chill values could be as low as -10 in the Marietta area, due to winds ranging from 15-30 mph.
The lows on Christmas Eve will dip into the mid teens, with winds slowing.
The Christmas Day forecast is for highs near 32, and 10-20 mph winds. Sunday’s lows are expected to be in the high teens.
The weather will get gradually warmer as the last week of 2022 continues, from highs in the high 30s on Monday to rain and temperatures in the low 60s by New Year’s Eve.
For more on local weather conditions and forecasts, click here.
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