Rozzo said that “after some weeks of getting the legalities worked out, the purchase was made official this week.”
In a message posted to the EAST COBBER website, Brown said that “I want to bring (the magazine) to the next level. I want to enhance what is already here. The EAST COBBER will continue to promote the exceptional people and events that make East Cobb such a great place to live and uphold the value the magazine has built over the years.”
Brown, 46, is a native of Oklahoma who has lived in East Cobb for 22 years.
She said in the message that she plans to revive the EAST COBBER parade and festival, which has not been held since 2019.
Cynthia Rozzo
Brown said she was drawn to taking over as publisher and owner because of “the brand itself and also the magazine is wanted and needed here . . . There’s nothing else like it in this area.”
Rozzo founded the EAST COBBER in 1993, publishing 11 times a year and peaking with a print circulation of more than 40,000.
The parade and festival began in 1995 but was halted in 2019 due to the COVID pandemic.
Since last year, publication of the EAST COBBER has been reduced to six times a year.
Rozzo, whose retirement is effective next Thursday, said Friday that there will be three more issues this year, and in 2023 the magazine will return to its 11-issue publishing schedule.
“I am thrilled EAST COBBER will continue to embody the vibrant, thriving East Cobb community under Laren’s very capable care,” she said.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday he has filled two open seats on the Cobb Superior Court.
They are former Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds, the director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and Georgia Deputy Attorney General Julie Adams Jacobs.
Reynolds, whom Kemp appointed to head the GBI in 2019, will succeed Judge Tain Kell, who resigned in April to return to private law practice.
Jacobs, who has been in the Georgia Attorney General’s office since 2003, replaces Judge Mary Staley Clark, who retired effective May 1.
Reynolds and Jacobs will fill the remainder of the terms of Kell and Staley-Clark, through the end of 2024.
Reynolds was twice elected as Cobb District Attorney and also is a former Cobb Chief Magistrate judge, a lawyer in private practice and a former police officer.
Julie Adams Jacobs
He earned his law degree from the Georgia State University College of Law and received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Georgia Southern University.
As deputy attorney general, Jacobs has been head of the commercial transactions and litigation division. She also has been a hearing officer in hospital acquisitions.
Jacobs is a graduate of Emory University Law School and earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Georgia State University.
Cobb Superior Court has 11 judges who are elected on a non-partisan basis and eight appointed senior judges, who are retired but hear special and occasional cases.
The Court hears major felony and criminal cases and complex civil litigation, as well as divorces and land property disputes and conducts jury trials.
In a release, Kemp’s office said the governor will appoint a successor to Reynolds at the GBI at a later date.
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!
Justin Ross Harris, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2016 after his toddler son died in a hot SUV while he worked in a Cobb office, has had his conviction overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court.
In a ruling released Wednesday, the court decided in a 6-3 vote that evidence presented by prosecutors at Harris’ trial about his extramarital activities and sexually lewd activities and communications with girls and women was prejudicial and should have been separated from the murder indictment.
Harris was arrested in June 2014 after his 22-month-old son, Cooper Harris, died after being left alone in his father’s Hyundai Tucson in a parking lot at Home Depot headquarters in Vinings for several hours.
Harris, then 33, was a web developer at Home Depot. The boy was left in the vehicle with the windows rolled up, and as temperatures reached nearly 100 degrees inside.
Harris said he accidentally left the boy in the Tucson, but prosecutors alleged at the trial that his motive was to kill his son to get out of his marriage.
In a case that gained national attention, Harris was convicted of murder by a Glynn County jury—the trial was moved to the Georgia coast but prosecuted by the Cobb District Attorney’s Office—and sentenced to life without parole.
Harris also received a 12-year sentence for exchanging sexually explicit messages with minor girls.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court majority, led by Chief Justice David Nahmias, concluded that the sexual offenses should have been tried separately from the murder charge.
While referring to what it called Harris’ “repugnant character,” the court majority concluded in overturning the murder conviction that “because the properly admitted evidence that Appellant maliciously and intentionally left Cooper to die was far from overwhelming, we cannot say that it is highly probable that the erroneously admitted sexual evidence did not contribute to the jury’s guilty verdicts.”
You can read the full ruling by clicking here; there are many instances of sexually graphic behavior, language and online communications, so reader discretion is advised.
Harris could receive a new murder trial, but the Cobb District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday afternoon that it will file a motion for reconsideration of the Supreme Court ruling.
Harris has been incarcerated at the Macon State Prison, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.
On the morning of June 18, 2014, he was to have dropped Cooper off at Home Depot’s day care center before going to his office. Father and son had eaten breakfast at Chick-fil-A, but the boy was left in the Tucson after his father was running late for work.
According to trial evidence, while his son remained inside a hot vehicle, at his office Harris continued to send lewd messages to women.
The evidence showed that Harris returned to his car after 4 p.m., and found Cooper in a car seat in the back of the SUV with the windows rolled up and unconscious.
According to trial records, Harris removed the boy from the SUV and placed him on the pavement, and, according to witnesses, yelled “What have I done?”
The Cobb Medical Examiner’s Office ruled that hypothermia was the cause of death.
The Supreme Court ruling noted that Harris’ attorneys objected during his trial to the admission of the sexually-related evidence, but the objections were overruled by Cobb Superior Court Judge Mary Staley.
She also did not give the jury “limiting” instructions related to that evidence before it began deliberations. Staley, who retired in May, denied a motion by Harris’ attorney for a new murder trial last year.
“Merely piling on more evidence to show the supposedly limitless extent of Appellant’s sexual ‘depravity’ did nothing to strengthen the link between his sexual obsession and the key question at trial—did this obsession motivate Appellant to kill Cooper?” the Supreme Court ruling concluded.
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Charles Bethel wrote that he saw “no abuse of the court trial’s discretion” in deciding that severing the cases was unnecessary, and that introducing evidence about Harris’ sexual desires was not improper.
“Evidence that some of that conduct . . . was criminal fit neatly with the State’s overall theory of its case against Harris and was, in fact, part of the State’s narrative regarding Harris’s motive to murder his son,” Bethel wrote.
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The following East Cobb food scores for the week of June 20 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!
Gwinnett emergency physician Rich McCormick easily defeated East Cobb attorney Jake Evans Tuesday in the Republican Party runoff for the 6th Congressional District.
McCormick, an emergency physician at the Gwinnett Medical Center and a former Marine pilot and Navy veteran, will face Democrat Bob Christian, an Army veteran and restaurant manager from Dawsonville, in the November general election.
“The voters of Georgia’s 6th Congressional District have spoken, and I am honored to be their Republican nominee,” McCormick said in a social media message. “We must unite the Party to secure victory in November for Georgia Republicans up and down the ballot. Together, we will Revive Freedom and Save America!”
The newly redrawn 6th District includes parts of East Cobb, as well as parts of Cherokee, North Fulton, Forsyth and Gwinnett counties and all of Dawson County.
McCormick got 43 percent of the Republican vote in May and enjoyed a huge fundraising lead in a large GOP primary field.
During redistricting last fall, Republican majority in the Georgia legislature redrew the 6th District to one heavily favoring the GOP after the seat fell into Democratic hands in 2018.
Second-term U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Marietta switched to the 7th Congressional District, which covers most of Gwinnett County, and defeated another Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux, in the Democratic primary last month.
McCormick, who lives in Suwanee, narrowly lost to Bourdeaux in the 2020 general election in the 7th District.
Another part of East Cobb was redrawn into the 11th Congressional District, currently represented by Republican Barry Loudermilk of Cassville.
He was unopposed in the GOP primary in May, and in November will face Antonio Daza-Fernandez, a Democrat who owns a dance studio in Buckhead, and independent candidate Angela Davis.
In another runoff election Tuesday, Sonja Brown defeated James Luttrell to win a non-partisan seat on Cobb Superior Court. Brown, who got more than 63 percent of the vote, will succeed retiring Judge Robert Flournoy in January.
There were several other Congressional runoffs on Tuesday and a few statewide party nominees decided.
They included a Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, won by Charlie Bailey, who had 63 percent of the vote against former Atlanta City Council president Kwanzaa Hall.
In the Democratic runoff for Secretary of State, Atlanta State Rep. Bee Nguyen received 77 percent of the vote. In November she will challenge Republican incumbent Brad Raffensperger.
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The Cobb government fiscal year 2023 budget proposal will be presented to members of the Cobb Board of Commissioners next week.
Cobb government said in a notice Tuesday that county finance officials will make the presentation at a work session on Tuesday, June 28 at 1:30 p.m., following adoption of the 2022 Cobb tax digest by the Cobb Board of Tax Assessors.
Three public hearings on the budget and millage rate have been scheduled for July, with adoption scheduled for July 26:
Tuesday, July 12 at 9 a.m.
Tuesday, July 19 at 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday, July 26 at 7 p.m.
The current fiscal year 2022 general fund budget of $496.6 billion was adopted a year ago by holding the property tax rate at 8.46 mills and included a pay raise and progress on implementing a step-and-grade salary plan for public safety personnel.
The overall budget from all funding sources topped $1 billion, the first time it’s crossed that threshold in Cobb.
It would be the first double-digit increase in Cobb in more than a decade, with a projected record of $48.4 billion. Property tax assessments were sent out earlier this month, with some rising more than 20 percent from last year.
Cobb tax assessor Stephen White said that home values increased by an average of $66,000 from last year.
But Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid has not indicated whether she will be proposing a reduction in the millage rate.
In recent months county officials said they are seriously struggling to fill numerous staff positions. Last week commissioners approved a request to spend federal COVID-related American Rescue Plan Act funds for outsourced salaries and staff retention bonuses in “critical” positions in transportation, water, and parks and recreation.
Those requests—which come to a budget of $1.2 billion, an increase of nearly $180 million from last year—are unlikely to all be filled.
Only five new full-time positions were filled in the current budget, and commissioners said it was a no-frills package. Employees got a 3-percent pay raise and some capital management funding was replenished.
Cupid said at the time that the county cannot continue “to fall behind on the basic things.”
But staff vacancies have continued to grow, and service provision has fallen off. Among the tasks to be performed by outsourced Cobb DOT staffing, for example, include mowing right-of-ways and conducting other basic road maintenance work.
Cobb government has been producing content in recent weeks about those issues, claiming a reported 1,000 vacancies across all government agencies.
Cupid is holding town halls in each of the four commission districts starting next week through mid-July.
The budget presentation work session on Tuesday will take place in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
The work session and budget and millage rate hearings 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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Samyukta Iyer, a recent graduate of Wheeler High School, has received a grand prize scholarship of $2,000 from a non-profit component of an East Cobb realty company for her ideas about preserving the environment.
The scholarship was announced by JO GIVES, INC., part of the Janice Overbeck Real Estate Team.
Iyer will be attending Georgia Tech starting this fall and is intending on majoring in biomedical engineering.
According to a release from JO GIVES, Iyer has been “exploring the removal of methane emissions in the atmosphere and replacing them with methanotrophs—bacteria that metabolize methane as their source of carbon and chemical energy. These microbial biocatalysts are advantageous over chemical processes as they require mild operating conditions and do not release any toxic by-products. Providing affordable and efficient renewable energy can make a substantial impact in the fight against climate change.”
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Optional valet parking at The Avenue East Cobb will be available between the “jewel box” restaurant and retail buildings and near a concierge and public plaza.
The overhaul of The Avenue East Cobb was approved by the Cobb Board of Commissioners Tuesday with only a slight change added.
During a zoning hearing, the site plan change request by North American Properties was passed on the commission’s consent agenda, meaning there was no opposition.
The back portion of the retail center on Roswell Road, just east of Johnson Ferry Road, will be redeveloped to include two “jewel box” buildings with restaurant and retail space, a live music and special event stage, a concierge building, a public plaza and optional valet parking.
The only change from the formal request came from District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson, who was adding language about traffic queuing in that area to accommodate what she called “multimodal” forms of transportation.
There was no other discussion of the request. Last week, a spokeswoman for NAP told East Cobb News that new tenants for the jewel box buildings could be revealed soon.
The area for redevelopment is what’s being called The Avenue’s “Central Avenue” area, where live music and other events have been taking place since last fall.
Last summer, NAP—which developed the Avalon complex in Alpharetta and overhauled Colony Square and Atlantic Station in Midtown—entered into a joint partnership with present owners PGIM to manage the 23,000-square foot The Avenue, which opened in 1999.
The objective is to create a more dynamic lifestyle destination space, prompting a dramatic conceptual revision.
In an interview with East Cobb News in April, NAP officials said that construction could get underway in August with possible completion in the first quarter of 2023.
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Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson, North Georgia Conference
More than 100 present and former members of Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church met this week with the Bishop of the North Georgia Conference, who responded to claims that the denominational body “caved” in its legal dispute with the East Cobb congregation.
Earlier this month, the Conference entered into a settlement agreement with Mt. Bethel to allow it to leave the UMC with its property and assets in exchange for a $13.1 million payment and other terms.
Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson said at a meeting of the Friends of Mt. Bethel this week that legal costs and voluminous deposition requests were mounting.
The Conference and Mt. Bethel have been in litigation since last September, but agreed to a consent decree that has been signed and is expected to be finalized by later this summer.
Mt. Bethel has 120 days to make the payment, and would then become an independent church. According to the AJC, Mt. Bethel is more than halfway toward reaching that goal.
“Our legal counsel was that if we wanted to settle the matter, which we thought was in the best interest of everyone, it would be better to do so before the deposition process began,” Haupert-Johnson said at the Friends meeting, which was held at Mt. Zion UMC in East Cobb.
“That would be a contentious phase. . . So much of our time was spent in the process of litigation and the constant discovery. It wasn’t caving. It was a missional decision above all else to free them to be about the overall mission of the Church.”
The Friends of Mt. Bethel was formed last fall by church members who opposed the congregation leadership’s decision to fight Haupert-Johnson’s reassignment of senior pastor Rev. Dr. Jody Ray.
Mt. Bethel also declined to accept her appointment of Rev. Dr. Steven Usry to succeed him, saying the church was not properly consulted.
After Ray refused his new post and turned in his UMC ministerial credentials, the Conference eventually moved to claim Mt. Bethel property and assets, followed by a failed mediation effort and litigation.
The Friends group numbers several hundred individuals on its mailing list, and has been meeting informally with Usry in recent months. They recently had a picnic and have had other fellowship events in the Sibley Forest neighborhood in East Cobb.
For Easter, Usry preached a sermon for them at another UMC in Atlanta, and the group is planning worship events at Roswell UMC the last Sunday of each month, with him presiding and with a choir.
“These events will give us a chance slow down, pause and deal with our anger and confusion together,” said Suzanne Tucker, Mt. Bethel’s former director of traditional music and creative arts.
She said she was terminated in April because she didn’t go along with Mt. Bethel leadership in the dispute with the North Georgia Conference.
“I am deeply saddened by what is going on,” she told East Cobb News in a message in May. “I am appalled at the power grab being attempted under the banner of Christ by Jody and his supporters.”
Those sentiments were echoed Tuesday at the meeting with Haupert-Johnson, who was joined by Usry.
Someone asked why “didn’t we just go ahead and evict Jody? He was trespassing. He was told he couldn’t be the minister of this Methodist Church and then he sat and squatted.”
Haupert-Johnson responded that “Have you ever tried to evict a tenant from a dwelling that you owned?”
The Friends of Mt. Bethel have been holding worship and fellowship events in recent months, including a May picnic.
Others asked her why Mt. Bethel won’t have a disaffiliation vote, as is called for in the UMC’s Book of Discipline governing documents.
Haupert-Johnson said that was the intention, and while “we knew Mt. Bethel might not go ‘woo-hoo a new pastor’ . . . we didn’t expect all that went on.”
She said the plan was to have Usry represent Mt. Bethel through such a proceeding. “But the leadership of the church took a different direction,” she said.
“When they refused the appointment, when they created their executive committee, when there was so much of that, we realized there was nobody in Mt. Bethel that represented the Methodist Church.”
Haupert-Johnson told the Friends of Mt. Bethel group that she pushed for Mt. Bethel to have a church conference for members to elect leadership this fall and then have a disaffiliation vote next spring.
“They soundly rejected that, every step of the way. So I would have loved for you to have a vote, she said. “I advocated for that to happen. But that wasn’t going to happen.”
Robert Ingram, the lead attorney for Mt. Bethel, previously told East Cobb News that his clients sought a vote because it would have cost “millions and million of dollars less” than what’s been settled.
“We wanted the court to allow a vote just on disaffiliation,” he said, explaining that only the North Georgia Conference superintendent could call for a such a vote.
“Despite our pleas, they never did that,” Ingram said.
Another attendee at the Friends meeting said “that I feel abandoned and unwanted and unnecessary in my own church of 38 years. My question is how do we go ahead? I’m missing spiritual guidance. I don’t have a church right now that I feel like I can go to and worship in.”
Usry said he will be providing pastoral care and shepherding to those Mt. Bethel members who aren’t inclined to go back, and “to provide environments that will help you discern a way forward.”
Tucker said there will be prayer events in July and August at Mt. Zion. She’s also organizing choir rehearsals that take place at East Cobb UMC.
In a video message this week, Ray said “we have a new task of rebuilding toward a new horizon.” He mentioned the fundraising campaign is off “to an amazing start” in asking for donations.
“God has moved in a mighty way on behalf of Mt. Bethel Church,” he said. “He has brought us through a time and place when had to turn our eyes to him and place our total reliance upon him.
“I believe that if we will continue in that same surrender and obedience, Mt. Bethel’s greatest days are out in front of us.”
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Cobb Police said Saturday morning that a portion of Paper Mill Road will be closed “for several hours” due to downed power lines.
Police said in a social media posting around 10 a.m. that the closure is along Paper Mill between Thunderbird Drive and River Ridge Chase, near Sope Creek.
Police said a vehicle crashed into a utility pole, and crews are on the scene to make repairs.
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The Sterling Estates senior residential facility on Lower Roswell Road is a mix of the main assisted living building and separate cottage buildings at the front of the property.
On Tuesday Sterling Estates will go before the Cobb Board of Commissioners to request a site plan change to construct two new cottage buildings.
The agenda item (you can read it and see the site plan here) states that the two proposed buildings, with three independent living units each, would be built in the back of the property.
“The applicant’s facility has a waiting list and the applicant would like to build two more single family cottages in the rear that would each have three units per cottage,” said the agenda item.
A stipulation letter from Sterling Estates attorney Garvis Sams said his client “been a good neighbor to the Kings Cove neighborhood and have complied with all the buffering and lake protection requirements.”
There are currently six rental cottage buildings at Sterling Estates, which opened with two in 2010. Four more cottage buildings were approved in 2014
The zoning hearing starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the second floor board room of the Cobb government building (100 Cherokee St., downtown Marietta).
The hearing 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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Ten students from East Cobb high schools have received appointments to military service academies for the 2022-2023 academic year.
U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath announced the appointments of the Class of 2026 from the 6th District, which includes East Cobb, North Fulton and some of DeKalb and Gwinnett counties.
Students interested in attending the academies are nominated by their member of Congress.
“These talented and driven young people are the future of the United States of America,” McBath said in a release issued by her office.
“I want each family of these service academy appointees to know that I am exceedingly proud of how their children will represent our community as they prepare to serve our nation.”
Many of the East Cobb students heading to service academies played varsity sports in high school.
They include Wheeler’s Zyan Hall, who won a state wrestling championship as a senior, and Bridgette O’Shaughnessy of Lassiter, who competed in swimming and softball.
Pope’s Brianna Dempsey played volleyball and was the president of the Service Club and Honor Society, and Hannah Ograbisz of Walton was a swimmer and graduated from the International Spanish Academy.
U.S. Air Force Academy
Brianna Dempsey, Pope
Greta Hans, Walton
Joseph Stellmach, Pope
Luke Sudul, Pope
Zyan Hall, Wheeler
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy
Caden Pierce, Lassiter
U.S. Naval Academy Preparatory School
Zyan Hall Wheeler
U.S. Naval Academy
Hannah Ograbisz, Walton
Danilo Viciana, Lassiter
U.S. Military Academy
William Greenway, Johnson Ferry Christian Academy
Bridgette O’Shaughnessy Lassiter
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For the first time, Cobb County government is observing Juneteenth, and all offices, including courts and library branches, will be closed on Monday.
June 19 is the designated day for Juneteenth, marking the in 1865 when Union troops freed the last American slaves held in Confederate states.
Cobb commissioners voted last year to begin the holiday starting in 2022. The day off for Cobb employees will cost around $300,000; Cobb currently has 12 official paid holidays every year.
Celebratory events take place all weekend (see the flyer for more information), highlighted by the Cobb NAACP’s cultural festival that takes place all day Saturday at Glover Park on the Marietta Square.
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Scott Halperin, a longtime Legal Aid attorney and public defender in metro Atlanta jurisdictions, has been named the new Circuit Defender for Cobb Superior Court.
Cobb government announced in a release Thursday that Halperin was chosen unanimously by Cobb Superior judges, in consultation with the chief judges in Cobb Magistrate, State, and Juvenile courts, to serve as the lead defender.
Halperin has been the Circuit Defender’s lead advocate in Cobb Juvenile Court since 2020 and will succeed Randall Harris, who is retiring after 15 years in the position.
The Circuit Defender contracts with private attorneys to represent qualifying defendants in the Cobb court system.
A Georgia State University law graduate, Halperin has served as a public defender for Roswell, Sandy Springs and Doraville. In private practice, he represented defendants in criminal and juvenile courts.
“I want to express sincerest gratitude to Randy Harris for his steadfast dedication this office and its mission,” Cobb Chief Judge Rob Leonard said in a statement. “I’m proud to say that Cobb offers the best indigent defense services in the state. That is due in large part to Randy’s leadership and can only improve with Scott Halperin at the helm.”
Of Halperin, Leonard said that “he has a heart for serving the indigent. He also has the respect of the bar and the bench, and he understands the importance of maintaining the independence of the office.”
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The following East Cobb food scores for the week of June 13 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid has scheduled town hall meetings in June and July in each of the four commission districts entitled “All-In-Cobb: Cobb forward together.”
The title has been how she’s referenced state of the county addresses she’s given, and in her weekly newsletter Cupid said she’s planning “o share some highlights of what is going on in our county and to hear from citizens about how we can move forward together.”
The timing of the town halls comes after three Cityhood referendums, including one in East Cobb, failed in May, and before Cupid presents her fiscal year 2023 budget.
The two town hall meetings in East Cobb will be June 30 at the Tim D. Lee Senior Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road) in District 3 and July 20 at the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center (2051 Lower Roswell Road) in District 2.
In remarks this week to the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, she reiterated themes of her initial speech, including diversity issues, a proposed 30-year transit tax that’s been pushed back for consideration in 2024 and proposed pay raises for county employees.
Cupid referenced the Cityhood votes in a recent newsletter by saying that “this should be the start of new dialogue. The town halls, forums, and conversations gave us a great opportunity to hear from residents. Now is the time to consider how we can strengthen county services, create communities with a better ‘sense of place,’ and capture the heightened level of engagement these votes encouraged.
“Residents made it clear they want a role in land use, zoning, and parks programs. Hopefully, this sparks increased community engagement with commissioners and staff when it comes to amendments to our Comprehensive Plan and participation in zoning meetings. In the weeks and months ahead you can also get involved in the county’s transition to a Unified Development Code among other matters like waste collection.”
All the town hall meetings will be from 6:30-8 p.m. and are free and open to the public.
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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The Delta Community Credit Union has announced an investment of $17,500 in three metro-Atlanta non-profit organizations that focus on educational and empowerment objectives for youths.
It’s part of the financial institution’s 2022 Philanthropic Fund program
The organizations include Cool Girls, Inc., which received a $7,500 grant to education, advocacy and material resources for economically disadvantaged girls.
Other recipients are 21st Leaders, which helps low-income students with leadership and entrepreneurship lessons and STEM learning programs; and the East Lake Foundation, which helps students attending the Drew Charter School in Atlanta.
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Mt. Bethel Christian Academy is inviting the public to a groundbreaking ceremony for its new athletic complex at the school’s north campus.
The event takes place on Wednesday, June 29 at 7 p.m at the Upper School campus (2509 Post Oak Tritt Road).
That’s where the academy’s high school is located, and the facility will include turf football, soccer and lacrosse activities and a fieldhouse, spectator seating, campus improvements and parking expansion (previous ECN coverage here).
A release sent by Academy said the new facility “is the start of what we trust will be a period of tremendous growth and energy that will dramatically impact every division of the school.”
Enrollment last year at the school was nearly 700 students total.
Mt. Bethel Christian Academy began in 1998 with K-5 classes on Lower Roswell Road, adjacent to Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church.
The school expanded to high school grades in 2014 after Mt. Bethel purchased land from the Marcus Jewish Community Center on Post Oak Tritt Road near Holly Springs Road.
Mt. Bethel Christian began a football program in the 2021-2022 school year for fifth and sixth grade students, and will have two teams in the 2022-2023 school year for fourth-through-eighth grade students.
The new field and the growth of the football program “go hand-in-hand, as the school plans for Junior Varsity and Varsity football teams in the near future,” the Mt. Bethel Christian release states.
MBCA is a member of the Georgia High School Association and has teams in other sports competing in the Class A private schools division.
An attempt to build an athletic complex at the Upper School campus was withdrawn in 2019 after community opposition surfaced, and nearby residents expressed concerns about a renewed application last year.
But the site plan was changed in several areas, buffers were added and stipulations include limiting the scope of lighting and the hours for a public address and sound system to operate.
Cobb commissioners unanimously approved the request in March.
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