An early feeling of fall is in the air this weekend, with more pleasant temperatures (and humidity levels) and sunny skies for the most part.
Around East Cobb, several seasonal activities are on tap, including the fall version of Drew’s Plant Sale, which takes place Saturday 8-3 at Jenkins Park in the Fox Hills subdivision (3778 Fox Hills Drive).
Teenager Drew Collins will be selling hundreds of Georgia native varietals grown in his own greenhouse (list here), and we appreciate him and his father, a horticulturalist at Fernbank Science Center, spreading the word as an East Cobb News sponsor.
Proceeds from the sale go to Drew’s college fund as he continues in his endeavors in building a business, and his father David says that payments are accepted via Venmo, Cash App, Paypal, cash or check.
As we noted last week, the new public plaza is open at Avenue East Cobb, and the stage area for live music is also the venue for live big-screen showings of college football games starting Saturday.
The games start at 12 p.m. and will include UGA’s clash with South Carolina at 3:30 p.m. in what the retail center is calling its “Home Team Hangout” feature.
You can watch the games for free and bring your own food or patronize local restaurants. Coolers and outside beverages are not permitted.
The fall series of live concerts at East Cobb Park gets underway Sunday. It’s “Music in the Park” presented by Wellstar, and from 4-6 p.m. the sounds of Soulshine will emanate from the concert pavilion. You’re free to bring food and drink, blankets, chairs, etc.
You can find all of our calendar listings in one handy place on our site. If you have events to share with the public, please e-mail: calendar@eastcobbnews.com and we will post them here.
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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!
After hearing from those in favor of and against his recent decisions over controversial issues involving school library books and gender identity topics, Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale responded in dramatic fashion Thursday night.
During a Cobb Board of Education meeting, Ragsdale read from lengthy, prepared remarks—running around 20 minutes—about a number of controversies over school library books and the firing of a teacher for reading a book to her class about gender identity.
He defiantly defended his decision to fire Katie Rinderle, who is appealing that decision to the Georgia Board of Education, and for pulling two books from middle- and high school libraries that contained sexually explicit materials.
He also denied that teachers, media specialists and other personnel have been threatened with their jobs, nor have district policies and processes for vetting books been ignored.
His critics have complained that the Cobb school district succumbed to conservative activists in removing the books, which contain language and graphics depicting sex acts.
They held a rally before the meeting wearing red “Replace Ragsdale” shirts and called for his ouster, and echoed those sentiments during a public comment period.
But at the end of his remarks (you can read them in full here), Ragsdale was emphatic that the district acted properly in removing “vulgar, sexually explicit, lewd, obscene, or pornographic” materials and that it would continue to be vigilant in doing so,
“This situation is about right and wrong, good and evil. This sexualization of children can never be defended nor allowed in any context, but especially in education,” he said to applause.
Gabriel Sanchez
“There is no middle ground in this situation. There is no room to flip-flop on where you stand–you are either in favor of providing inappropriate material to children or you are against it. I assure you–I am against it, and I will not be moved.”
He said the district has a responsibility to the 109,000 students enrolled in the district and their parents to keep them safe, including from sexually explicit materials.
At a school board work session Thursday afternoon, Ragsdale supporters turned out in force, stressing parental rights and protecting children from adult themes they may not understand.
But for the evening session, most of the speakers spoke in heated opposition to the book restrictions and Rinderle’s termination.
They accused Ragsdale and the district of censoring books and limiting the education of students, especially on LGBTQ+ matters and other issues over cultural identity.
Gabriel Sanchez, a Walton High School graduate, was one of them.
“There is indoctrination in the school district,” he said, “and it’s coming from extremist, right-wing ideology from politicians and the elites who want to ruin our education, privatize it, and make sure that only what right-wingers approve of is taught in our schools.”
He said when he was a Walton student, he was taught that the Civil War was prompted by states-rights instead of slavery, “that is objectively false, that is right-wing ideology.”
Sanchez also said that “trans kids and non-binary kids also exist, and they need affirmation,” which prompted cheers in the room.
Jeff Hubbard, president of the Cobb County Association of Educators, said his pleas with the district to clarify policies on book restrictions and vetting have been ignored.
Two of the co-leaders of the Cobb Helen Ruffin Reading Bowl, both district media specialists, resigned their volunteer positions after Rinderle’s termination, concerned that there might be books that would violate district policy and state law.
“Please do not scare the heck out of staff when taking books without notice and investigating media specialists,” he said. “This is about creating and following policies correctly.”
Ragsdale responded to that point by saying that the Reading Bowl has not been called off, nor has any staff member been threatened with being fired.
Those spreading such “inaccurate” information, he added, are “doing nothing more than engaging in fear-mongering. . . .
“We are not enforcing radical new policies and practices. We are not going rogue and refusing to follow our own policies. We are following well-established federal and state law and policies and practices of the District that have been with us for years, if not decades. We are not usurping the rights of parents to make key decisions regarding the upbringing and education of their children.”
He said the Cobb school district provides an ample diversity of perspectives in its curriculum and related materials, along cultural, historical and viewpoint lines.
But the “ ‘radical new idea’ is not that schools have an obligation to protect students, but the radical new idea is that all children should somehow be forced to encounter sexually explicit language and instruction while at school,” he said.
He specified what was objectionable about the two books—”Flamer” and “Me, Earl and the Dying Girl” and noted that the sexually explicit content wasn’t incidental but “central themes of the books,” with multiple instances of profane language and even illustrations of nude children.
Ragsdale added that parents have the right to expose their children to such material at home, but “anyone working in education who knowingly provided students with access to sexually explicit, obscene, or pornographic materials should not be in a position of educating other parents’ children.”
A Cobb school student, George Moore, who identified as gay and non-binary, said “Flamer” and books like it can help people like him feel safer to be in school.
Removals of such books, Moore said, “does not make me feel safer. It makes me feel as if I should not be there. If a book about that cannot be there, can I?”
East Cobb resident Micheal Garza, one of the organizers of the rally and frequent Ragsdale critic, said in a social media posting Friday that Ragsdale’s comments were a “tirade” and that neither he nor others like him advocates for pornographic materials.
“The district tried to divide us and intimidate us last night. And they failed,” Garza said. “We are more resolved than ever to continue to work. We will continue to organize and strategize with a common goal of the removal of Chris Ragsdale and having a Board of Education that reflects the quality of our educators in this district and the diverse community that is Cobb.”
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!
Before critics of Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale held a rally Thursday afternoon, several citizens turned out at a Cobb Board of Education work session to support him.
“We’re talking about teaching the wrong things to small children,” East Cobb resident Helen Allen said.
A public comment session was dominated by speakers who applauded his decision to fire a Due West Elementary School teacher for reading a book to her class about gender identity.
That’s triggered a wave of criticism, following last month’s vote by the school board to uphold the termination of Katie Rinderle, and a decision by the district to pull two books from 20 middle- and high school libraries for being sexually explicit.
Rinderle announced Thursday that she’s appealing her firing to the Georgia Board of Education, and some parents scheduled a “Replace Ragsdale” rally between board meetings.
They’ve complained it’s part of a larger trend in some parts of the country to impose book bans in schools at the behest of conservative activists.
Cobb fired Rinderle for what district officials said was a violation of a recent state law banning the teaching of “divisive concepts” which could include sexual and gender themes.
Rinderle said through the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is representing her, that the Cobb school board’s decision “to fire me undermines students’ freedom to learn. I am appealing this decision because I oppose censorship, discrimination and harm to students in any form. I’m committed to creating inclusive, diverse and empowering environments that center students in their learning journey.”
But Ragsdale’s defenders applauded him for refusing to allow the Cobb school district to distribute materials and allow instruction that they say is indoctrinating children.
“It’s not a Republican thing, it’s not a Democratic thing, it’s just about the kids,” said East Cobb resident Helen Allen, who has two children in Cobb schools.
“I don’t care if anyone’s gay, I don’t care if anyone’s straight, that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about teaching the wrong things to small children. . . . We just need common sense and you guys have it.”
John McLean said he was grateful for the Cobb school district for not allowing the teaching of “twisted ideology to my kids and grandkids.
“To those of you who consider this a book ban, led me remind you that you can read whatever you want to another adult. But today the traditional family is under attack and I for one am going to fight back.”
McLean added that he said that if he stayed for the rally, “it would probably make me sick.”
Judy Sardin of East Cobb said that “as the school district goes, so goes the community. Thank you for protecting children and following the law.”
Chris Spears said those critical of Ragsdale are in a small minority. “You have a lot of residents in Cobb County that are supporting your recent decision. They simply wanted to say thank you for standing firm.’
Marietta resident Leroy Emkin, a retired engineering professor at Georgia Tech who was in the education field for 45 years, told Ragsdale that “we want to see you here and nowhere else. . . . I think I know what I’m talking about when I’m making a judgment about your performance.”
There were no speakers during the work session who spoke in opposition to Ragsdale.
More public commenters were expected to speak on the subject at the board’s evening meeting.
A student group called the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition also was holding a press conference on Thursday, critical of what it says is active censorship in Cobb schools.
“We are the students being affected by content taught in schools. We are the ones most negatively affected by the censorship being discussed in this school board meeting,” the group said in a media advisory. “Georgia students like us deserve smaller classroom sizes and robust counseling services that can meet our needs, not unnecessary censorship and fear mongering. We will not be overlooked in our own education system, and we will continue to fight for a robust and well funded future for Georgia’s youth.”
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!
Walton High School graduate Chaitana Sri Yetukuri, who will attend Georgia Tech, sends along word that she’s been named a Stamps Scholar, which includes 272 students nationwide who “are passionate about using their talents to make a positive impact on their communities, locally and globally.”
Yetukuri, who graduated from Walton this year and was a National Merit Scholar, plans to study Business Administration with a concentration in Finance.
Here’s more of what she sent to us about the Stamps program, which was founded in 2006:
“Stamps Scholars are chosen for their academic excellence, leadership experience, dedication to service, and exceptional character. The approximate value of Stamps Scholarships for the new class over their time in school is worth up to $47.5 million.
“At most partner universities, the Stamps Scholarship covers up to the total estimated cost of attendance for four years of undergraduate study and also includes enrichment funds that Scholars can use for academic and professional development, such as study abroad, internships, and independent research. In recent years, Stamps Scholars have used their funds to simulate a space mission in Utah, explore their creative writing interests while living in an English castle, attend a medical Spanish program in Ecuador, and study international business in Spain. Stamps Scholarships are also awarded to select rising juniors at several colleges and universities, including the US Air Force Academy, the US Military Academy, the US Naval Academy, the University of Chicago, Dartmouth College, the University of Georgia, and the University of Michigan.
“Perhaps the most special benefit of the Stamps Scholarship is the opportunity for Scholars to network with an international community of peers and alumni – from regional conferences hosted by partner institutions to informal meet-ups to the biennial Stamps Scholars National Convention. In April 2023, nearly 700 Stamps Scholars gathered for the seventh Stamps Scholars National Convention at the Georgia Institute of Technology. During this event, Scholars had the opportunity to meet and connect with one another, gain awareness of important issues facing society, and engage with national leaders.
“Stamps Scholars are also among the recipients of prestigious awards including Fulbright, Gates Cambridge, Goldwater, Marshall, Rhodes, Truman, and Schwarzman Scholarships. Stamps alumni work with top companies and organizations such as Google, Goldman Sachs, and NASA and are pursuing graduate degrees at prestigious institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of Cambridge.”
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!
Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale at a teacher of the year event at Lassiter High School in August. ECN photo
A group of citizens who are regularly critical of Cobb County School District Chris Ragsdale have scheduled a rally Thursday to call for his ouster.
The “Replace Ragsdale” rally will start at 3:30 Thursday at the Cobb school district’s headquarters (514 Glover St., Marietta), as the Cobb Board of Education is holding its September meetings.
A work session starts at 2 p.m., followed by an executive session and a 7 p.m. voting meeting.
Ragsdale has come under fire by some critics for terminating a Due West Elementary School teacher after she read a book about gender identity to her students, and after the Cobb school district pulled two books from 20 middle- and high school shelves that were deemed sexually explicit and in violation of a new state “divisive concepts” in education law.”
It’s the latest in a long line of complaints that a group of parents and educators have been making about Ragsdale in recent years. Some of them have publicly expressed their concerns at public comment periods at school board meetings, but they have said they rarely get a response.
The Cobb school board has a 4-3 Republican majority, with those GOP members routinely backing Ragsdale. In late 2021, the Republicans voted to revise Ragsdale’s contract as the district was undergoing a special review by its accrediting agency.
The organizers of Thursday’s rally call themselves the Cobb Community Care Coalition and include Micheal Garza, an East Cobb resident who ran as a Democrat for the Georgia legislature in 2020 and Jennifer Susko, a former Mableton Elementary School counselor who resigned in protest when the Cobb school board banned the teaching of Critical Race Theory in 2021.
“Chris Ragsdale’s decision making is the reason for everything occurring in Cobb Schools that has been embarrassing us in the national news over the last several years,” said the rally organizers. “We are showing up as a community to resist and demonstrate that we will not remain silent while he and his leadership staff abuse their power.”
The group says that Ragsdale is responsible for “firing and disparaging teachers,” removing books against the district’s policy, “creating a hostile work environment where educators fear for their jobs,” “fostering school climates that are harmful to LGBTQ+ and Black and brown students, families and educators,” “banning programming that helps protect marginalized students and prevent identity based bullying” and “disrespecting a teacher who died of COVID.”
The Cobb Republican Party is urging its members to attend to thank and show support for Ragsdale.
Party chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs said that “we need to have 50-60 people on our side” for the 7 p.m. meeting, which “is the one the left will show up to.”
Susko, who was a temporary special assistant to Democratic Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid, responded that the Cobb MOB has seen our efforts and responded frantically and irrationally as usual. Thank him for WHAT exactly? . . . Salleigh, you CAN HAVE CHRIS RAGSDALE! He wants to work for the GOP anyway. Take him.”
The work session agenda includes a discussion of recent Georgia Milestones test scores in Cobb and metro Atlanta school districts, while the evening meeting will include a request to purchase 38 new school buses and recognition of state champion athletes, include track and field and tennis participants at Walton High School.
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Since a sliver of our coverage area includes easternmost portions of the City of Marietta, here’s a public notice about upcoming hearings on new city council and school board boundaries, with the first coming on Wednesday:
“The City of Marietta has proposed a new ward political boundary map that will determine which ward the citizens of Marietta will cast their vote in future elections. The proposed map is titled “Proposed Wards School and Parks Draft Option 2”. All concerned citizens are invited to attend the two public hearings on this redistricting map which will be held at Marietta City Hall, 205 Lawrence Street in the Council Chamber on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, at 7:00 P.M. and Wednesday, October 11, 2023, at 7:00 P.M. According to Federal law, the City of Marietta is required to redraw the ward boundaries to accommodate for the shifting change in population every ten years as determined by the U.S. Decennial Census.”
Those two hearings will take place during regularly scheduled city council meetings.
A couple of notes: We’ve been reporting on redistricting feuds over Cobb county commission and school board seats. The former involves a home rule claim over maps reapportioned by the county, and the latter is in federal court over voting-rights issues.
In Georgia, municipalities draw their own electoral maps after a new Census is released. A special committee of city council and school board members has been meeting to propose the map boundaries (see larger version of above map here).
As of July 2022 (Census overview here), Marietta has an estimated population of around 62,000, with each of the seven wards on the city council and school board including around 8,700 people.
The eastern part of the city includes all of wards 6 and 7 and a portion of ward 3.
Marietta’s next elections are scheduled for 2025. All of Cobb’s other six cities, including newly incorporated Mableton, will have non-partisan city council elections on Nov. 7.
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International quilt artist, fabric designer, author, and color expert, Anna Maria Horner will appear at the East Cobb Quilters’ Guild evening meeting on September 28th and their daytime monthly meeting on September 29th. During the day meeting, Anna Maria’s presentation on Blueprint Quilting will go in depth about her unique composition styles and her adventurous variations on those themes. She will illustrate her creative process as a fine artist, fabric designer, and quilter. Many of the quilts in her lecture will show off the inspiring stories, processes, and tools that she uses to create her quilts. The lecture is a wonderful opportunity to learn about the creative process and bring home some of the inspiration for your next project, whatever the medium might be.
During the evening meeting on September 28th, Anna Maria will host a Meet & Greet allowing attendees the opportunity to talk to her about herself and her inspirations in a small group setting. Additionally, at both meetings, there will be many quilts on display, and Anna Maria & co pop up store! featuring a curated selection of her current fabric bundles, quilt kits, patterns and templates.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Cobb Board of Commissioners on Tuesday approved spending $2.2 million to finish interior work on the new Cobb Police Precinct 6 in Northeast Cobb.
The facility located next to the Mountain View Aquatic Center on Gordy Parkway at Sandy Plains Road was budgeted for $5 million as part of the 2016 Cobb SPLOST (Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax).
Ground was broken in late 2021, but rising construction costs pushed the project well over budget, to $7.7 million, and commissioners approved an additional $400,000 last year.
But the Cobb Department of Public Safety said the building is only 60 percent complete, with interior build-out still to be finished, and the work needs to be done now to avoid funding issues.
Public safety director Mike Register, a former Cobb police chief, said $200,000 of the new funding from the county’s general fund reserve would be for contingency costs for Batson-Cook, the contractor.
Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of District thanked Register, who was recently reappointed to his former role and who took she and her colleagues on a tour of a project she has been pushing for for years.
The vote was 4-0, with Chairwoman Lisa Cupid absent.
“This is a long time coming,” she said, noting the funding is the last of her allotment from the 2016 SPLOST. “Thank you for bringing this home as soon as you got here. You hit the ground running with this. I appreciate you championing this.”
Construction is expected to be complete by next spring, with initial staffing to be for administrative staff.
Register said a typical schedule for the precinct would be from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. as the police department works to fill a high number of vacancies, especially for patrol officers.
Precinct 6 isn’t initially being staffed for patrol staff. Most of the East Cobb area is covered by patrol units from Precinct 4, based on Lower Roswell Road, and stretching from Canton Road to the Powers Ferry Road corridor.
“It’s going to immediately impact the citizens and give them value,” he said.
Register said citizens could typically get daytime services including copies of police incident reports and for other law enforcement services.
“As our vacancies begin to dissipate, we’ll begin to slowly staff the precinct with about half the beats, as we bring it up to a fully staffed precinct,” he said.
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The former Zaxby’s restaurant across from the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center has been transformed into special event space.
Last week Nazanin Moradimehr (with scissors), owner of Elegance Events (2080 Lower Roswell Road) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
A Wheeler High School graduate, she has more than two decades in the restaurant and catering industry, and opened Elegance Events in June with a grand opening.
Elegance Events, located in the Newmarket Shopping Center, caters mostly to weddings, but also is available for baby showers, birthdays, anniversaries, bar/bat mitzvahs and corporate events.
The facility ideally holds 120 guests but can expand to 200 and includes outdoor space. Inside, features include gold-draped tables, a large bar and a wall-to-wall projection screen.
Services include customized music, table settings and floral arrangements, balloon arches, sculptures, photography, disc jockeys, lighting and audio and event set-up.
Catering items featuring Mediterranean, Persian, Moroccan and other international cuisines in a fully-stocked kitchen.
Moradimehr was an exhibitor at the recent Georgia Bridal Show at the Cobb Galleria Centre and the Atlanta Wedding Extravaganza, and has organized special events at other locations.
For information and to schedule a tour call 813-817-4659 or e-mail info@eleganceeventsatl.com.
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Botanical Sciences, a physician-owned medical cannabis provider, held a grand opening event this week at its new Cobb location at 2468 Windy Hill Road.
The company grows, manufactures and dispenses medical cannabis and has plans to operate five dispensaries in metro Atlanta and Georgia.
The Cobb dispensary is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. for patients using medical cannabis for a variety of health issues, ranging from autism and cancer to Parkinson’s Disease and Tourette’s Syndrome.
It’s the second such medical cannabis dispensary in Cobb, opening not long after Trulieve’s Marietta Medical Dispensary on Cobb Parkway near Whitewater.
Botanical Services (website here), which was founded in 2020, sells a variety of tinctures, capsules and topicals for home use by patients approved to use medical cannabis.
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 East Cobb residential real estate sales were compiled from agency reports. They include the subdivision name and high school attendance zone in parenthesis:
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!
Wheeler High School cheerleaders marched with the band at the 25th EAST COBBER parade Saturday. ECN photos, video
While most major community activities have returned to normal in the wake of COVID-19, there has been one major event whose absence has been notable.
The year 2020 was to have been the 25th anniversary of the EAST COBBER parade and magazine, but was cancelled due to the pandemic. The event was delayed again in 2021, with public health guidance still uncertain.
The logistics of pulling off such a large, comprehensive community event are daunting enough. But last spring, when I spoke to founder and then-publisher Cynthia Rozzo, she was optimistic about a return.
However, she sold the magazine to Laren Brown, her advertising manager, not long after that, in the summer of 2022, and there just wasn’t time to take over the helm of the publication and pull together its signature event.
So the parade and festival would have to wait until 2023.
On Saturday morning under pleasant skies, Johnson Ferry Road was closed off for the silver anniversary of the parade, and a familiar vibe returned with it.
More than 50 community organizations and businesses made the mile march from Mt. Bethel Elementary School to Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, where a festival took place with a similar number of exhibitors.
Those numbers aren’t what they were before the pandemic, but the friendliness was hard to miss. Kids enjoyed bouncy houses and snow cones, spectators brought their dogs and small businesses and non-profits laid out their wares and information.
Brown came to our table with a swag bag and said her first shot at organizing the event was quite an undertaking. She had assisted Rozzo, who was on the scene Saturday to lend a hand for which her successor was grateful.
Recreating a small-town flavor of an old-fashioned community parade was what Rozzo wanted to provide to a Sunbelt suburb where people come from all over.
After four years of waiting, they got to enjoy that atmosphere again, and our community really feels like it’s got its groove back.
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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!
Cobb public safety officials will ask commissioners on Tuesday for $2.2 million in reserve funding to complete the construction of a new police precinct in Northeast Cobb that’s been delayed by funding issues.
According to an agenda item, (you can read it here), the additional funding is needed to build out offices and other internal facilities for the long-delayed building, which is located next to the Mountain View Aquatic Center on Gordy Parkway at Sandy Plains Road.
An estimated $5.5 million has been spent thus far on the precinct, which was approved by Cobb voters in the 2016 Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) with a budget of $5 million.
Last June, commissioners approved a “maximum guaranteed price” of $5.4 million with Batson-Cook the contractor, as construction costs have been soaring since supply chain issues were prompted by COVID-19 closures.
Tuesday’s agenda item said that the additional funding from last year also has been depleted. The remaining work includes completing office space for command and administrative staff, holding cells, evidence rooms, workout rooms and “additional staff restrooms,” the agenda item states.
“Completing the project now will decrease construction costs and maintain the health of the existing structure,” the agenda item states. “An implementation plan for staffing is being developed by the Police Department to be executed upon completion of the project.”
The total estimated cost for the precinct is now $7.736 million.
Initial plans were for Cobb Police to house several specialized units at Precinct 6 but not have a patrol zone. Most of the East Cobb area is covered by patrol units from Precinct 4, based on Lower Roswell Road, and stretching from Canton Road to the Powers Ferry Road corridor.
The commission meeting begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
It also will be live-streamed on the county’s website, cable TV channel (Channel 24 on Comcast) and Youtube page. Visit cobbcounty.org/CobbTV for other streaming options.
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Following up our story last week about the possibility that CenterStage North might halt its 2024 season at The Art Place-Mountain View due to Sunday staffing issues with Cobb PARKS:
Jonathan Liles, CSN’s managing director, told East Cobb News Friday that the community theater organization and the county have come to an agreement to continue Sunday staffing by employees of The Art Place.
He said he met with Cobb PARKS staff Friday and said that CenterStage North Sunday shows and Sunday musical recitals will continue into 2024.
“We discussed the potential of future partnerships and how it could benefit The Art Place,” Liles said without elaborating.
The county told CenterStage North last month that starting next year The Art Place would be closed to all Sunday activities due to staffing issues at the county-run facility on Sandy Plains Road, located in a complex with the Tim D. Lee Senior Center and the Mountain View Regional Library.
Liles said CenterStage North had been getting inquiries from patrons about the 2024 season. He previously told East Cobb News the all-volunteer non-profit couldn’t exist financially without ticket sales from Sunday matinee performances, and there was no other place to go.
“Without the Sunday revenue, I cannot afford to stay open,” he said.
The Art Place also offers art classes and holds special arts exhibits and receptions. Earlier this year, Sunday musical recitals there were discontinued due to the staffing issues.
East Cobb News has left a message with the county seeking more information.
CenterStage North will soon proceed with planning its 2024 season, which includes four to five performances a year, including a special Christmas event.
“We’d like to thank The Art Place Staff, Cobb Parks and Rec Assistant Director Mario Henson, and Marie Jernigan, the Cultural Affairs Director, for their support and partnership,” Liles said.
The 2024 season is as follows, with ticket sales starting in October:
The 39 Steps – Feb 2024
Drinking Habits – May 2024
Maytag Virgin – August 2024
Little Shop of Horrors (Musical, rights pending) – October 2024
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Cobb commissioner Jerica Richardson has launched a website and filed initial paperwork to run for the 6th District Congressional seat that includes some of East Cobb.
The first-term Democrat, whose tenure on the board is the subject of an ongoing legal dispute over redistricting, is holding a kickoff event for her Congressional bid next week.
On Thursday she announced on her campaign’s social media outlets to “join us for our big announcement in 6 DAYS!”
She’s accepting donations on Jerica for Congress website, as well as RSVPs for a kickoff event next Thursday at the Avalon mixed-use development in Alpharetta.
That’s currently within the boundaries of the new 6th Congressional District, which was redrawn by the Republican-dominated Georgia legislature after Democrat Lucy McBath won the seat in 2018.
Those boundaries included East Cobb, North Fulton, Sandy Springs and some of Buckhead.
Last year McBath, a black Democrat, won the 7th Congressional District seat based largely in Gwinnett.
But a federal lawsuit has been filed challenging the Georgia U.S. House maps, contending that they were drawn to dilute minority voting strength.
Richardson resides in the new 6th District, but reapportionment drew her out of her East Cobb home in District 2. Her term expires at the end of next year.
Her Congressional campaign website doesn’t include priorities or other specifics other than some basic biographical information.
“Jerica’s success lies in recognizing that what connects us is far greater than what separates us,” the website states. “Solving problems through collaboration and empowering others is a way of life for Jerica and she wants to put that to work for the citizens of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District.”
She and the board’s other two Democrats approved maps last fall that would have kept her in her commission seat. A lawsuit was filed by Republican commissioner Keli Gambrill to challenge Cobb’s decision to invoke home rule, arguing that only the legislature can conduct reapportionment.
Gambrill was denied standing in the suit in Cobb Superior Court but a hearing on its merits is scheduled for November.
Congressional maps showing metro Atlanta seats. Source: Georgia Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Office
The new 6th District includes some of East Cobb, North Fulton and Sandy Springs, and Republican strongholds in Forsyth in Dawson counties were added.
That seat was won last November by Republican Rich McCormick, who got 62 percent of the vote in the general election over Democrat Bob Christian, who has filed to run again in 2024.
A trial began this week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, following a ruling last week that struck down a Republican-majority Congressional maps in Alabama for similar reasons. The state has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Richardson was elected in 2020 in her first campaign for public office to succeed three-term Republican commissioner Bob Ott.
According to Federal Election Commission reports, Richardson filed her campaign paperwork on Aug. 16.
In addition to Christian and Richardson, another Democrat has filed to run. Shelly Abraham of Duluth, a mechanical consulting engineer, is a first-time candidate for public office.
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A few hundred spectators decked out in garden-party attire watched as a large green curtain was pulled down Thursday to reveal a new public plaza at Avenue East Cobb.
The centerpiece of the retail center’s redevelopment also features a live music stage, and a high-energy cover band rocked the venue for a couple of hours after that, as guests munched on appetizers from current and forthcoming restaurants, enjoyed cocktails and danced.
More than a year in the making, the new open-air plaza signals a new phase for Avenue, which has been rebranded as it has been re-energized.
An official from North American Properties, which signed on as a management partner last year, calls it “East Cobb’s hometown hangout,” with the purpose tied to getting the public to come, and stay.
Two new “jewel box” restaurants are still under construction, and some outdoor seating has been set up in front of Round Trip Brewing Co., which will be opening a German-style taproom next spring.
But the plaza is officially open to the public, and continuing events such as Friday night live music are on tap. That includes “Electric Avenue” concerts every Friday from 6-8 p.m. through October.
The plaza features a variety of comfortable chairs and sofas and two bar areas, along with a green turf in front of the stage suitable for spreading out blankets.
Rev. Dr. Ike Reighard, CEO of MUST Ministries, thanked the attendees.
The venue also includes optional valet parking, which some cocktail party guests took advantage of at Thursday’s event.
The cost was $75 a person, but all the proceeds went to MUST Ministries.
CEO Ike Reighard said the result was $10,000 for the Marietta non-profit, which typically served around 300 homeless clients per night before COVID-19.
That figure shot up to 1,500 a night during the height of the pandemic.
“The only thing that exceeded the level of need was the level of generosity, and that’s what you did,” he said.
Reighard, who’s also senior pastor at Piedmont Church, told the audience that “you won’t hear a minister saying ‘drink up,’ but thank you.”
Pimiento cheese grit fritters from Peach State Pizza.
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!
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 2023–24 Atlanta Opera season will be getting underway in a week, with most performances at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center.
The opener will take place Sept. 15-Oct. 1 at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, and it will be the East Coast premiere of “The Shining,” based on the Stephen King novel.
The Cobb Energy Center is the venue for the rest of the way, with another horror classic, “Frankenstein,” leading off on Oct. 28 in what’s being called an “imaginative presentation of vintage cinema.” The performance includes a new score for the full orchestra and singers performing live to the film.
Guiseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto will be performed on Nov. 4, 7, 10 and 12 to round out the 2023 calendar year.
Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème will be presented on Jan. 20, 23, 26 and 28, with star tenor Long Long making his Atlanta Opera debut.
Benjamin Britten’s adaptation of the Shakespeare comedy “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” runs on March 2, 5, 8 and 10 featuring countertenor Iestyn Davies and soprano Liv Redpath.
The season finale takes place on April 27 and 30 and May 3 and 5 and it’s Richard Wagner’s “Die Walklüre,” following last year’s Atlanta Opera presentation of Wagner’s “Das Rheingold.”
Tickets are available atwww.atlantaopera.org or by calling the ticket office at 404-881-8885 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
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!
