Cobb Police said a Smyrna man died Tuesday night after he was thrown from his motorcycle in a crash on Terrell Mill Road and the express lanes at Interstate 75.
Sgt. Wayne Delk said in a release that Harry A. Edwards, 42, was pronounced dead at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital.
Delk said the crash took place at 8:32 p.m. when Edwards, riding a dark gray 2003 Honda CBR motorcycle heading westbound on Terrell Mill Road, was approaching the north express lanes.
Police said a white 2020 Honda CR-V, driven by Robin J. Tawzer, 58, of Canton, was traveling east on Terrell Mill, in a left turn lane to get on the north express lanes.
As the Honda made the turn, police said the motorcycle crashed into the right side of the vehicle, and Edwards was ejected.
Police said he landed on the road, and was taken to the hospital.
Police said Tawzer was not injured and a passenger in the Honda, Randall R. Tawzer, 52, also of Canton, complained of injuries but refused treatment at the scene.
This crash remains under investigation police said anyone with information is asked to contact the Cobb County Police Department’s STEP unit at 770-499-3987.
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The Cobb Board of Education is scheduled to adopt a fiscal year 2023 budget of $1.4 billion at its monthly voting session Thursday night.
The budget proposal includes what Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said is a record salary increase for for full-time, non-temporary employees, ranging from between 8.5 percent and 13.1 percent.
A public hearing on the budget took place last month, and the board adopted a tentative budget.
Another public hearing is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, followed by the voting session at 7 p.m.
The board will hold a work session starting at 2 p.m., followed by an executive session.
Roughly half of the Cobb school district’s budget comes from local property taxes, and the state provides most of the rest through the Quality Basic Education Act.
The budget documents have been posted on the district’s website at this link. The 2022-23 budget takes effect on July 1.
The board also will be asked to approve the hiring of an architect to make renovations at Wheeler High School.
The work will include conversion of traditional classrooms for STEM instruction, and upgrades at the Wheeler STEM magnet building.
The district is recommending the Atlanta firm of Gardner Spencer Smith Tench & Jarbeau at a cost of $309,116, which is 5 percent of the construction contract.
That item will be presented at the work session and scheduled for a vote in the evening.
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A Walton student who’s interested in an architecture career got in touch with us to find out more, then passed along the above architectural plans that he found on the school website.
The complex will be the new home for Raiders’ baseball and tennis teams. Access will be on Providence Road for tennis (at the left of the rendering, and Pine Road for baseball (at the bottom), with about 80 parking spaces.
The Cobb school board spent $5.65 million to acquire property for the complex, which was planned after several sports teams were relocated due the construction of the new Walton classroom building that opened in 2017.
The Walton softball and tennis teams have been playing home competitions at Terrell Mill Park since 2014.
The softball team has since moved back to the former site of the baseball team, which is playing home games this season at the East Cobb Baseball complex near Kell High School.
Construction of the Walton sports complex is expected to be completed by December.
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The Pope Greyhounds won’t have to venture too far from home in their bid to claim the Georgia High School Association Class 6A baseball championship this week.
The GHSA announced that the Class 6A and Class 7A series will be played at Truist Park, home of the Atlanta Braves.
In a best-of-three series starting Thursday, Pope (31-7) will face fellow Cobb high school Allatoona starting at 5 p.m.
It’s a doubleheader, in fact, to be followed by the second game, which starts 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game.
If a decisive third game is needed, it would be played on Friday starting at 12 p.m.
Tickets are $15 and will be available for purchase online by clicking here. Parking is free in the Red Deck for four hours.
In Class 7A, it’s an all-Cherokee series featuring Etowah vs. Woodstock, with a doubleheader on Friday and a third game Saturday if needed.
Pope defeated Allatoona for the 2018 title and is aiming for its fifth state championship. The previous four were earned under now-retired coach Jeff Rowland.
His former assistant, Chris Turco, is in his first year as the head coach, and he led the Pope softball team to four state championships, the latest in 2018.
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East Cobb Cityhood leaders protested a Cobb Fire Department sign at Station 21 on Lower Roswell Road. It’s one of two fire stations in the proposed City of East Cobb.
With a week remaining before the East Cobb Cityhood referendum is decided, those against the vote are ramping up questions about a financial feasibility study they has been manipulated.
In response, Cityhood proponents are accusing their detractors of last-minute desperation and spinning conspiracy theories.
The anti-Cityhood group East Cobb Alliance last week released a copy of an October 2021 draft financial study and e-mails between the Cityhood leaders and Georgia State University researchers that showed the proposed city of 60,000 would be operating at a $3.5 million annual deficit.
That was with a “city light” set of proposed services of planning and zoning, code enforcement and parks and recreation.
When the final study was released in November, after public safety services were added—and by transferring a 2.86 Cobb Fire Fund millage rate that would provide the majority of revenues for the new city—the bottom line showed a surplus of more than $3 million.
Bob Lax of the East Cobb Alliance concluded that the final study is “completely contrived, underfunding public safety to use those dollars for the city’s general fund.” (He compiled an analysis of the feasibility study that you can read here. It contains links to some of those e-mail threads.)
The Committee for East Cobb Cityhood accused the Alliance of trying to “distract voters” by going to media outlets and “peddling this non-story.
“Public Safety was included in the 2018 and 2021 cityhood efforts because supporters overwhelmingly provided feedback to our committee and Rep. Dollar that Public Safety, specifically police coverage, was mandatory for the city to provide,” the Cityhood group said in response to a request for comment from East Cobb News, and repeating comments they’ve made during the referendum campaign.
East Cobb is one of four cityhood referendums in Cobb this year, but is the only proposed city that would offer police and fire.
When former State Rep. Matt Dollar re-introduced cityhood legislation in March 2021, the focus was on preserving East Cobb’s suburban character from the high-density development that’s taking place elsewhere in Cobb County.
Cityhood bills must include a financial feasibility study. Dollar said at the time that such a study was to assume no new property taxes beyond what citizens in the proposed city were paying for county services.
While new cities can levy up to one mill without seeking voter approval, starting up revenue-neutral has been a major selling point by the East Cobb cityhood group.
The proposed police, fire and E-911 services in East Cobb have been a major topic at town hall meetings held by Cobb County government officials in response to the cityhood referendums.
While the final feasibility study estimated fire expenses of $5.7 million a year, the county’s numbers conclude the costs to be $12.4 million.
Cityhood leaders have said those figures are misleading, and accused the county of campaigning against cityhood. They sent Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid two separate letters demanding they stop.
Most recently, the Cobb Fire and Emergency Services Department launched a website portal and promotional campaign to celebrate its 50th anniversary. Signs were posted in front of Station 21, which the cityhood group decried.
“The County’s flagrant disregard of Georgia law in its attempt to influence these elections is outrageous,” the cityhood letter sates, saying the county is violating state law with the fire department campaign “launched to coincide with the start of early voting on the Cityhood referendums.” The letter continued:
“The County’s audacious decision to put up a sign promoting Cobb County’s ‘World Class Fire Department’ sign in the same building as the Early Voting location in East Cobb, is in direct violation of O.C.G.A. §21-2-414. Because the Cityhood referendum is on the ballot in that very building, the sign is an illegal piece of campaign material that must be removed at once.”
That letter was dated May 4. The following day the county responded by saying similar signs were included in front of stations elsewhere, including Station 20, located just outside the proposed City of East Cobb on Sewell Mill Road.
The sign in front of Station 21 remained as the last week of early voting got underway Monday.
On Wednesday, the Alliance is holding a public meeting via Zoom to discuss public safety, with Cobb police, fire and E-911 officials as guests. It starts at 7 p.m. and can be accessed at this link.
The East Cobb Cityhood Committee noted Georgia law requiring new cities to provide at least three services. “We could have taken three low-cost services that would have been feasible with no tax increase,” the group told East Cobb News.
“The East Cobb Alliance cannot accept the simple truth that East Cobb pays more than two times their share in taxes for services we do not receive. It is the hard truth. Supporters of the City of East Cobb are tired of paying the most and comparatively receiving the least in services from Cobb County.”
The issue of crime—which drove an ultimately unsuccessful Buckhead cityhood effort in the Georgia legislature this year—also has been raised more recently by East Cobb cityhood leaders.
“The Buckhead crime problem is coming to East Cobb,” the cityhood group’s response continued. “There is an explosion of crime in Buckhead. Further, the Atlanta Regional Commission study shows crime was Georgia citizens’ number one concern and that amount of concern doubled from 16 percent to 32 percent in one year.”
Bob Lax of the anti-Cityhood group East Cobb Alliance at an April debate.
From draft to feasibility
In its response to East Cobb News, however, the Cityhood group did not explain what happened between its receipt of the draft financial study and the release of the final study.
Parks and recreation services were dropped in the end, and other significant spending categories were either eliminated or reduced.
The draft study showed revenues of $10.9 million and expenses of $13.9 million annually.
The final study came to a budget of $27 million with expenses of around $24 million.
A total of $14.3 million in annual revenues would come from the fire fund, which would be used to cover other services in the proposed city, including police, planning and zoning and code enforcement.
Lax said he had to fight to get Georgia State to provide the draft study after filing an open records request in late March.
He got the draft and e-mails between Georgia State and the cityhood committee last week, after threatening legal action.
On Oct. 4, the e-mails show, the lead GSU researcher notified the cityhood leaders that “due to the smaller number of services, some revenue available in the previous iteration of the study [the 2018 East Cobb financial feasibility study that included police and fire] will not be available in this iteration.”
That e-mail came from Peter Bluestone, a senior research associate, and he added that “I think it would be useful to discuss the implications of this prior to your review of the draft.”
Craig Chapin and Cindy Cooperman of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood
Cityhood president Craig Chapin replied on Oct. 8 that the group “wanted to walk through the addition of services we want to consider.”
A reply from Bluestone later that day noted that “revising the report to include police and fire and the property tax revenue [$14 million] would push the date out for the completion of the final report closer to the end of November.”
He said substituting library services, which had been suggested by the GSU research team, would keep the report timeline on schedule.
Oct. 8 also is the date the of the draft study, which states in red lettering on the cover: “Not for distribution or attribution.”
The bulk of the revenues in the draft study would come from franchise fees, insurance premiums, licenses and permits and a tax on alcoholic beverages. Only $785,000 annually would come from property taxes.
The estimated annual expenses in the draft study include $6.9 million for administration and $2.5 million for parks and recreation, which would include East Cobb Park, Fullers Park, Fullers Recreation Center, Mt. Bethel Park, Hyde Farm and the Wright Environmental Education Center.
In the final study, the parks and recreation costs were detailed in an appendix; another $588,981 in costs for planning and zoning per year was taken out.
Facility leasing expenses of $600,000 also were eliminated entirely, and nearly $1 million in administrative costs were cut.
In his analysis of the two studies, Lax said that “the feasibility study was manipulated to make the city feasible . . .Your public safety services WILL suffer, and your taxes WILL go up. One might even ask if this level of public manipulation could constitute fraud.”
The East Cobb Cityhood group, in its response to East Cobb News, maintained that the study is valid, and that the issue before voters is simple.
“To be clear and not confuse voters, the referendum question in front of voters is to incorporate the City of East Cobb supported by a credible and impartial feasibility study performed by Georgia State. This is the question on the ballot for voters on May 24.”
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A second East Cobb location of the First Watch breakfast/lunch restaurant concept will be opening in the fall.
That’s the latest word from the Bradenton, Fla., company, which has more than 400 restaurants in 28 states, including one at Sandy Plains MarketPlace.
The new eatery will be converted from a former Well Fargo Bank branch at 1080 Johnson Ferry Road, on an outparcel fronting the Shops at Woodlawn and that has been used as a COVID-19 testing location.
“Right now, they are working hard to get things finished in Marietta, Ga., with the projected opening date approaching in the fall,” said First Watch message sent to East Cobb News. “We always hope for the best and know our development team is knocking out that punch list to stay on schedule.”
First Watch, which also has a location on Cherokee Street in downtown Kennesaw, serves up a variety of breakfast and lunch items, specialty juices, coffees and teas.
The Johnson Ferry corridor is a competitive one for the breakfast/lunch concept, with Goldbergs Bagels in an adjacent building, as well as J. Christopher’s, Flying Biscuit and 101 Bagel Café.
A third metro Atlanta location of Sleep Galleria is set for a July opening at Merchant’s Walk, according to a company social media message.
Sleep Galleria, which opened in 2018, has existing stores in Acworth and Johns Creek.
The store will occupy a part of the former Stein Mart space, and a construction fence has been erected (see below).
The rest of the vacant space is listed as being the future home of Marshalls, but no formal announcement has been made.
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Artisan Custom Closets, located on Wylie Road in the East Cobb area, has been named the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s 2022 Small Business of the Year.
Artisan president Lisa Carlquist accepted the trophy with Cobb Chamber officials Monday as part of the organization’s Small Business of the Year awards luncheon.
Here’s what the Chamber said in a release about Artisan Custom Closets:
“The Artisan Custom Closets team is dedicated to finding the best possible solution for its customers by providing perfectly functional and aesthetically appealing storage systems to clients according to their storage requirements, budget, and style preferences. The team provides clients with a one-on-one consultation and 3D imaging designs before manufacturing in Marietta and installing custom pieces within the home, guiding clients through each step from start to finish.
“Artisan Custom Closets pride themselves on being the only company in Georgia to have its designers certified by the Association of Closet & Storage Professionals. Additionally, the company uses environmentally friendly products that are made from 100% recovered or recycled wood fibers. With 20,000 customers in the Atlanta area, the team’s strong work ethics, professionalism, and quality of workmanship has expanded the business to new heights.”
“Our mission is simple, to make people’s lives more organized and save them time,” Carlquist said in her business’ application. “It has been quite the journey over the last 25 years in this industry watching people start out viewing custom closets as a luxury; now, most people see them as a necessity.”
The Chamber explained that once the field was narrowed down to five finalists, a site visit by an independent panel of judges takes place. “The visit is meant to be a fresh, in-person opportunity to present the ideals, practices, values and day-to-day operations discussed in their initial application.”
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Margaret Richlin, the adult services librarian at the East Cobb Library, passed along a number of upcoming classes, clubs and activities for our calendar listings.
We’ll be doing that shortly, but we thought we post these notices in our news column for your perusal. There’s quite a bit going on over the summer. The number to call for more information on each of these is 770-509-2730:
East Cobb Craft Club
Thursday, June 6 and Thursday, July 7, 2-3:30 p.m.
The East Cobb Craft Club meets the 1st Thursday of the month from. Participants are encouraged to bring projects they are working on, or to try something new. The goal is to share and learn from each other. New members welcome.
East Cobb Creative Writers’ Workshop
Thursday, June 9 and Thursday, July 14, 2-3:30 p.m.
East Cobb’s Creative Writing Workshop meets the second Thursday of every month. Participants meet regularly to read, discuss, and critique each other’s work. Each class will offer free resources and information on various writing topics. No experience necessary. All writers welcome.
Keep Cobb Beautiful: How to Save Money Going Green and the 3R’s @ East Cobb
Monday, June 13, 2-3:30 p.m.
In this class, we will discuss eco-friendly methods that also save money. Learn about The Three Rs – How to reduce, reuse and recycle in your daily life, and save money while doing it!
Registration is required and can be done by clicking here.
East Cobb Cookbook Club: Fresh and Easy Summer Recipes
Tuesday, June 14, 4-5:30 p.m.
The East Cobb Cookbook Club meets the 2nd Tuesday of the month. We read & review a wide range of cookbooks to include: various cooking techniques, specific chefs, and ethnic cooking styles. Each month members choose a themed recipe and prepare a dish to share. Registration is required and can be done by clicking here.
East Cobb Documentary Film Club
Tuesday, June 26, 5-7:30 p.m.
The documentary film club meets every three months on the fourth Tuesday. We watch a variety of films featuring: social issues, education, nature, historical events, etc. Members watch a film together, then discuss it as a group. New members and visitors are always welcome. This month we will be watching the film: Ocean of Obstacles.
East Cobb Cookbook Club: Picnic Foods
Tuesday, July 12, 4-5:30 p.m.
The East Cobb Cookbook Club meets the 2nd Tuesday of the month. We read & review a wide range of cookbooks to include: various cooking techniques, specific chefs, and ethnic cooking styles. Each month members choose a themed recipe and prepare a dish to share.
Registration required and can be done by clicking here.
Adult Book Tasting: Fantastic Fantasea!
Tuesday, July 26, 5-7 p.m.
Book Tastings are a great way to experience new books, genres, and authors. They are offered several times a year at the East Cobb Library. Participants will get an opportunity to sample five books then discuss and rate their favorites. This class will feature some of the best books the fantasy genre has to offer! Registration required and can be done by clicking here.
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After the first two weeks of early voting in Cobb in the 2022 primary elections, more than 25,000 ballots have been cast.
Pending totals from Saturday—the last weekend day of early voting—there have been 25,223 in-person votes that have been counted at all locations.
Of those, there have been 15,119 Republican ballots, 9,796 Democratic ballots and 308 non-partisan ballots.
Another 2,455 absentee ballots have been accepted, out of 8,130 issued and 2,536 returned.
In-person turnout has been strong at the two early voting locations in East Cobb.
A total of 5,478 votes have been cast at the East Cobb Government Center, the highest of any location. Of those votes, 3,621 are Republican, 1,757 Democratic and 100 non-partisan.
At the Tim D. Lee Senior Center, there have been 2,076 Republican ballots, 774 Democratic and 14 non-partisan for 2,864 votes.
In addition to local, state and federal races and cityhood referendums in East Cobb, Lost Mountain and Vinings, voters are being asked non-binding questions on the Democratic and Republican ballots.
The May 24 primaries are being conducted with new boundaries for Congressional, legislative and county and city elected offices, due to redistricting following the 2020 Census.
Cobb Elections is sending out more than 500,000 cards to voters indicating which races they will be able to vote in.
Cobb government said if you don’t get your new card before voting, you can check those races by logging into your “My Voter” page at the Georgia Secretary of State’s website.
The last week of early voting is Monday-Friday, May 16-20 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. There will not be any early voting next Saturday, May 21.
The Cobb Elections office is estimating wait times at each early voting station with an interactive map that can be found here.
Registered voters can vote in advance at any designated location in the county.
Election Day voting in the primaries will take place May 24 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and voters will report to their regular precincts.
Friday was the deadline for requesting absentee ballots. They can be returned via standard mail but must be received at the Cobb Elections office by 7 p.m. May 24, when the polls close.
If you wish to drop off your ballot in person, there are drop boxes at the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) and the Tim D. Lee Center (3332 Sandy Plains Road) that will be available during early voting hours only.
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Cobb Police have arrested a man they say committed a home burglary in an affluent neighborhood in East Cobb last week, and as they and Marietta Police continue to investigate similar incidents.
Armando Casa-Rojas, of Argentina, has been charged with first-degree burglary following a burglary at a home off Old Canton Road near Roswell Road last Friday, according to an arrest warrant.
The warrant states that last Friday, May 6, around 9:30 p.m., Casa-Rojas broke into a home by breaking a window in the back, then locating and breaking open a safe.
The warrant also said that the suspect had four pry bars, a flashlight, a head lamp, a window punch and a pair of gloves inside a back pack.
Police were called to the scene and Casa-Rojas tried to get away, but he was apprehended by the police, according to the warrant.
He also has been charged with felony possession of tools for the commission of a crime and willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer.
According to Cobb Sheriff’s Office records, Casa-Rojas was booked in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center and remains there without bond.
Police have said they are investigating seven other similar burglaries, where homes are broken into at night and with no one home, targeting expensive homes and seeking items in safes, cash, jewelry and weapons.
They’ve said an organized, sophisticated burglary crew or crews have been operating in metro Atlanta in recent months. No other arrests have been made.
The arrest warrant for Casa-Rojas doesn’t state what items were taken from the home in East Cobb.
Cobb Police are encouraging homeowners to observe the following safety tips:
Lock your doors, including the one from the garage into the home.
Keep garage doors closed.
Use motion-sensor-activated exterior lighting.
Use surveillance cameras (they can be registered with the Cobb Police camera registry.
Turn on your audible alarm system if you have one.
Report suspicious persons and vehicles in your neighborhood.
Precinct 4 in East Cobb has a criminal investigations unit that investigates thefts and burglaries. For information call 770-499-4184.
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On their primary ballots, Democratic and Republican voters will be asked about a number of voter-related questions, including absentee drop boxes.
Voters in the Georgia primaries this month will be asked several questions on hot-button issues that have galvanized party politics in the Democratic and Republican parties, both in the state and across the country.
Those subjects include same-day voter registration, paid parental leave, expansion of Medicaid, eliminating student loan debt and legalizing marijuana on the Democratic ballot.
Republican voters will be asked about U.S. border security, education vouchers, transgender athletes in high school sports, free speech in political campaigns, eliminating absentee ballot drop boxes and Buckhead cityhood.
The questions were placed on the ballots by the respective state party organizations.
They’re the only entities allowed to place such questions on ballots, and they are non-binding.
The results are used by the parties to shape messaging and to collect information.
Some of the questions on the Republican Party ballot
Here are generic Cobb sample ballots, including the ballot questions: Democratic | Republican
(If you are choosing a non-partisan ballot, which is limited to judicial races, you will not get any ballot questions, unless you live within the proposed boundaries spelled out in the East Cobb, Lost Mountain and Vinings cityhood referendums.)
But this year, some of the party ballot questions touch on volatile cultural and spending topics.
The transgender athlete question comes after the Republican-dominated legislature couldn’t pass a bill requiring high school athletes to compete with the sex of their birth.
Another bill passed this year gave that authority to the Georgia High School Association, the governing body for high school athletics. On May 4, the GHSA’s executive committee, by a 62-0 vote, changed its bylaws to bar transgender athletes from competing along gender identity lines.
Similar bills have been passed or introduced in states with GOP control, after female-identified males have been allowed to compete recently in the Olympics and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Republican voters also will be asked if education funding should “follow a student that best fits their need: whether it is public, private, magnet, charter, virtual or homeschool?”
Democratic elected officials across the country have been advocating for forgiving student loan debt, and that question is on the Georgia primary ballot, with the language contending that it’s to “remove obstacles to economic development.”
Democratic voters also will be asked if marijuana should be legalized and regulated, similar to alcohol, for consumers aged 21 and over, with tax revenues to fund education, health care and infrastructure.
A sampling of the Democratic Party ballot questions
After contentious claims in the last two elections in Georgia about voter access, both the Democratic and Republican ballots again will have related questions.
In the 2020 elections, outdoor drop boxes were installed at various locations in Cobb and Georgia to collect absentee ballots.
Republicans claimed that encouraged “illegal ballot trafficking,” which is language included on the primary ballot in a question asking if they should be eliminated altogether.
The legislature passed a bill this year requiring drop boxes to be located inside an elections office or early voting location during opening hours only.
Democrats generally have had better absentee turnout, but Republicans tend to have stronger Election Day response.
The Democratic ballot asks if Georgia voters should be able to gather signatures to “directly place questions on the ballot” and if early voting should be expanded and same-day registration be established.
Democrats also will be asked if they are in favor of having “secure” drop boxes “accessible at all times, through Election Day.”
To get a sample ballot customized for you, click here.
Early voting continues Saturday and Monday-Friday next week.
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The following East Cobb food scores for the week of May 9 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!
The Marietta-based Georgia Symphony Orchestra will perform the works of Gustav Mahler, Peter Tchaikovsky and Giuseppe Verdi during its 2022-23 season opener in September.
The GSO released its season schedule this week, starting with the “Brass Splash” concert Sept. 10-11, to be led by GSO Music Director and Conductor Timothy Verville.
Other concert series performances will take place in February and May of 2023.
The season finale features “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff, as well as works by Johannes Brahms and Claude Debussy.
There will be a special choral performance for children, “Walk Together Children,” in October, and “Holiday Pops” concerts in early December.
The GSO is also adding sensory friendly shows in October and April that include an instrument “petting zoo” and a quiet room.
The orchestra’s jazz ensemble will be in action with two performances at the Earl Smith Strand Theatre in Marietta in February and April, the GSO’s Youth Symphony will perform in October, December, February, March and May.
Other performances will take place either at the Marietta High School Performing Arts Center or the Dr. Bobbie Bailey and Family Performance Center at Kennesaw State University.
For more details on all the GSO season concert series, including subscription packages that will go on sale June 13, please click here. Individual tickets will go on sale July 25 and can be purchased by clicking here.
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!
Cathy Donley, the mother of Wheeler High School student Egan Donley, sent in the following information about her son becoming an Eagle Scout.
He’s a member of Troop 772 at John Knox Presbyterian Church. For his service project, Egan designed and constructed a 20-foot pedestrian bridge at the Gold Branch Trail in the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area.
She said during his time as a scout, he has earned earned 35 merit badges, served as a Senior Patrol Leader, received the Order of the Arrow, and attained the scouting “triple crown” by completing treks at three high adventure camps: Sea Base (Florida Keys), The Summit (West Virginia), and Philmont (New Mexico).
Egan also has worked as an archery instructor at Bert Adams Scout Camp for the past three summers and will continue as field sports director this summer.
He also has been active in competitive school and community robotics teams at Wheeler, and has plans to study mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech.
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Another signature East Cobb event is back to its pre-COVID-19 format.
The Marietta Greek Festival returns for a full in-person celebration Friday-Sunday at Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church (3431 Trickum Road), with food, live music and dancing, sanctuary tours, kids’ activities and more.
Admission is $5 per person; children under 12 are free. The festival website has online ticket packages that include free admission and other coupons. Festival hours are 4-10 Friday, 11-10 Saturday and 11-4 Sunday.
Parking is available at Simpson Middle School (3440 Trickum Road) starting after 5 p.m. Friday; Mountain View Elementary School (3151 Sandy Plains Road) starting after 6 p.m. Friday and the Church of Latter-Day Saints (3195 Trickum Road) Friday-Saturday only. Shuttle service will be provided.
The first-ever We CARE Veterans Resource Fair is Friday and Saturday at the Cobb Civic Center, presented by the East Cobb-based United Military Care. More than 100 vendors will provide information, assistance and resources for health care, benefits, food assistance and access to other basic services.
Two Quilts of Valor presentations will take place on Friday at 11:30 in the Canteen, honoring a Post 9/11 Veteran Public Figure and Vietnam Veteran.
Admission is free to veterans and their families; the hours are 9-5 both days. (546 S. Marietta Parkway)
The Roswell Fine Arts Alliance is coming to East Cobb’s Hyde Farm Saturday for what it’s calling the “heART of the FARM Art Show,” emphasizing the 1830s-era working farm and its natural landscape.
There will be tours of the farm, a Plein Air painting demonstration, kids’ activities and a display of original artworks. The event is free to all and takes place from 10-3 (726 Hyde Road).
CenterStage North, one of Cobb County’s oldest community theatres, is starting its run of “I Hate Hamlet,” a Paul Rudnick play, starting Friday through next Saturday, May 21 at The Art Place-Mountain View.
It’s the story of a TV star who’s torn about preparing to play a Shakesperean actor, and whose muse, in the figure of John Barrymore, stays by his side until he takes the stage. The protagonist is forced to confront who he wants to be, or not to be.
Shows run nightly from 8-10 except for Sunday, when the curtains lift at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12-$25 (3330 Sandy Plains Road).
On Sunday, the Cobb Wind Symphony will be performing at the Lassiter Concert Hall (2601 Shallowford Road). The community orchestra’s rendition of “Carmen” features Christina Smith, Principal Flute of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Admission is free but donations are accepted.
We’re back to compiling 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.
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 Committee for East Cobb Cityhood is pushing back against allegations by cityhood opponents that the group’s founder, a commercial real estate executive, stands to benefit personally from incorporation.
Owen Brown, the founder of the Retail Planning Corp. that manages metro Atlanta shopping centers—including Paper Mill Village and Woodlawn Square in East Cobb—has been the subject of frequent speculation since the original cityhood effort in 2018 that he’s pushing cityhood for his own development interests.
In an e-mail message sent Wednesday morning, the committee accused the East Cobb Alliance, which opposes cityhood, of creating “a cancel culture attack [emphasis original] on long-term Cobb Native and East Cobb business owner Owen Brown. They have spun up a conspiracy theory that Mr. Brown is a ‘developer’ out for financial gain in East Cobb.”
The Alliance held public information sessions in March as the May 24 cityhood referendum campaign began, and suggested that citizens “follow the money” of development interests that it said were remaining in the background.
Brown was mentioned by name, and Cityhood foes have suggested at debates that a City of East Cobb, which would have a tax base that’s more than 90 percent residential, would have to turn to high-density redevelopment to boost revenues.
The East Cobb Cityhood message on Wednesday said that Brown “has spent over 40 years in Cobb County, raising his family and contributing to our county.”
Because of his retail management background, “he is uniquely positioned to understand the trends in development and the negative impact of high-density residential development on our schools, traffic, and community.”
The cityhood group recently posted three video clips of an interview with Brown and committee member Sarah Haas (you can view them by clicking here).
They’re some of Brown’s first public comments on the East Cobb cityhood effort that he and several others began in 2018.
He formerly was the treasurer of the group but is no longer listed in an official capacity. Some of the initial meetings were held at his Retail Planning offices at Paper Mill Village.
Among those taking part was Joe O’Connor, an East Cobb resident served on an ad hoc citizens panel examining the initial cityhood financial study. When he asked for clarity on who was pushing for East Cobb cityhood, O’Connor said he was told it was none of his business.
At the time, only Brown and Joe Gavalis, an Atlanta Country Club-area resident, were publicly identified. O’Connor resigned in December 2018, citing a lack of transparency.
In the new videos, Brown said what prompted his interest in cityhood was a conversation with former Cobb commissioner Bob Ott about a significant shortage of police officers in the area.
When he talked to the mayor of Milton—which became a city in 2006—Brown said he was told that community went from having 15 Fulton County officers to 60 in a new Milton police force and has had no tax increases.
“That exploded in my head,” Brown said. “That’s got what me thinking about the city of East Cobb.”
But the initial cityhood effort fizzled in East Cobb toward the end of 2019, after community and political opposition emerged.
A renewed cityhood push in early 2021 focused on planning and zoning, pointing to high-density zoning decisions elsewhere in the county that have sparked cityhood movements in Lost Mountain and Vinings (where also will have May 24 referendums).
Brown referenced the new MarketPlace Terrell Mill development on Powers Ferry Road, anchored by a Kroger superstore but also featuring a large apartment building.
“I don’t want that in East Cobb,” he said, denying that he has any interest in development projects in a potential city.
“I’m 75 next month; I’m doing this for my kids and grandkids,” Brown told Haas.
Police, fire and 911 services were added to the proposed services provided by a City of East Cobb late last year, but that subject also wasn’t raised in the cityhood group’s videos with Brown.
In late April, the East Cobb Alliance sent out an e-mail saying the East Cobb financial feasibility study has “faulty math” that could prompt additional taxes and fees to pay for city services.
“There’s a lemon law for buying a car in Georgia, but no lemon law for forming a city. You’re stuck. There is no reversal back to being unincorporated,” the Alliance e-mail read.
The Alliance also repeated claims in a recent social media posting that the East Cobb feasibility studies, both conducted by Georgia State University researchers, “were paid for out of secretly-sourced funds” through 501(c) organizations “that do not have to disclose who donated what amount.”
In one of the cityhood video clips, Brown said that he and several others paid for the initial $36,000 financial feasibility study. He didn’t identify the others; Cityhood committee representatives asked for public support to fund the 2021 study but haven’t released financials.
“We didn’t want to solicit people if it didn’t work,” Brown said of the 2018 study. “We would just drop it and walk away.”
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 National Merit Scholarship Corporation has awarded $2,500 scholarships to students nationwide, including four from high schools in East Cobb.
According to a press release, the recipients are “finalists in each state judged to have the strongest combination of accomplishments, skills, and potential for success in rigorous college studies. The number of winners named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the nation’s graduating high school seniors.”
It’s the second of four rounds of scholarship announcements for the Class of 2022, and the funding comes from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s own funds.
Future recipients will be announced in June.
The $2,500 scholarship recipients from East Cobb schools are as follows:
Chinmay P. Joshi, Walton High School—Probable career field: Medicine
Aadi Katta, Walton High School—Probable career field: Computer Science
Satya S. Tetali, Wheeler High School—Probable career field: Biochemistry
Oluwaseminire A. Oloyede, Pope High School—Probable career field: Medicine
For more information on the National Merit Scholarship program, click here.
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!
All six high schools in the East Cobb area have been ranked among the top 40 percent nationally by U.S. News and World Report, which released its annual Best High Schools marks last week.
The Cobb County School District said in a release that 13 of its high schools are in the top 40 percent of more than 18,000 schools nationwide.
Walton High School is ranked No. 2 in metro Atlanta, No. 4 in Georgia and No. 174 in the country.
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