Cobb approves $2M for veterans memorial

Several months after rejecting a request to spend $1 million to help finance a veterans memorial, Cobb commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved allocating $2 million to help get the long-awaited project started.

After some discussion, commissioners agreed to revise the 2022 Cobb sales tax (SPLOST) revenues to allocate an additional $2 million to help close a funding gap for the memorial, to be built near the Cobb Civic Center.

That project, begun by the private Cobb Veterans Memorial Foundation, is expected to cost a little more than $6 million, and design revisions will be necessary.

In August, commissioners rejected a proposal by Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb to use $1 million from her contingency account, citing issues with a memorandum of understanding and concerns over rising costs stated by the private group.

However, on Tuesday, commissioners said the situation was different, and that the $2 million isn’t diverting funding from other needed projects, or those on the SPLOST project list.

Commissioner Erick Allen, whose District 2 includes the area where the memorial will be built, said there were no other viable funding solutions to start the project, which has been more than a decade in the making.

There are unresolved administrative issues, and Cobb PARKS director Michael Brantley said that a project designer needs to be hired to develop a new conceptual plan.

Cobb commissioners previously approved spending $3 million in what’s been billed as a private-public-partnership. Cobb has more than 60,000 veterans

The original cost was priced at $8 million, but private fundraising struggles have delayed the project. Commissioner Keli Gambrill asked Brantley if doubling the spending request from last August would be enough to complete the project.

He said it would not, “but it would be extremely close” based on the latest estimates “on what it would take to build out.”

Brantley added that there is not a designer hired yet to provide more specific renderings and details, and that there are several options available.

He said “having the funding in place” would ideally be needed to “move forward to start looking at those options.”

Gambrill also said she was disappointed other community projects weren’t included in the vote. Deputy county manager Bill Volckmann told her another list would be forthcoming, but this one was submitted to reflect “the priorities of the board.”

Birrell, who has been vocal about supporting the veterans memorial, said the memorial was always slated to be a county park. She said a new MOU will be produced and said that “there is still work to be done, but what we’re trying to do today is to get to the $5 million and solidify this once and for all.

Donna Rowe, head of the Cobb Veterans Memorial Foundation, a former Army nurse in Vietnam, told commissioners before the vote that “I cannot deeply express the gratitude of every veteran in Cobb County and Georgia, or those that I served with in battle, but I do want you to do know that the hours spent, the months spent by you do not fall on deaf ears.”

“I cannot thank you enough.”

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