Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center

Mabry Park construction contract on Cobb commissioners agenda

by

Mabry Park

The long-delayed development of a passive park in Northeast Cobb could formally come to fruition Tuesday night. On the Cobb Board of Commissioners regular meeting agenda is an item that would provide funding for a Mabry Park construction contract.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the 2nd floor boardroom of the Cobb BOC building, 100 Cherokee, St., in downtown Marietta.

A low-bid proposal of $2.85 million was submitted by Integrated Construction and Nobility, Inc., of Whitesburg, Ga., to develop the 26.5-acre tract of land at 4470 Wesley Chapel Road designated for Mabry Park.

The company has a previous history of working with Cobb Parks and Recreation, including recent renovations to Sewell Park.

The county purchased the Mabry Park land with funding from the 2006 Cobb Parks Bond Program, but has nothing further due to the recession.

In August, bids for the construction project went out, and the Friends of Mabry Park citizens group was ecstatic. The group has tempered its enthusiasm somewhat because of longer-term funding issues.

A message on the Friends of Mabry Park Facebook page urged supporters to turn out for Tuesday’s meeting because “we need to let the Board know how important Mabry Park is to our area!!” Here’s more:

“We’re not home free yet… While the park was voted on and approved by the residents of Cobb, funded in the SPLOST and is required to be built, there are rumors that it could be delayed while funding for future maintenance is resolved.

“It’s been 11 years since the County purchased the land. We’ve waited long enough…”

The Mabry Park construction contract item comes on the heels of the commission’s delayed vote earlier this month to fund additional staffing for the new Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.

Commissioners adopted a fiscal year 2018 budget in September that includes contingency funding to close a $21 million shortfall. This came not long after they declined to increase the property tax millage rate.

While Cobb voters have approved new facilities in the SPLOST, annual funding of operations comes from the county budget, and commissioners have hotly debated how to resolve the issue.

In a related item on Tuesday’s agenda, the board will vote on choosing a contractor for sidewalk improvements that include servicing Mabry Park once it’s developed. A low bid of $783,000 for the 0.4-mile project was submitted by Excellere Construction of East Cobb.

The sidewalk will be built on the east side of Wesley Chapel Road from Garrison Mill Elementary School to Sandy Plains Road, connecting pedestrians to nearby subdivisions as well as Mabry Park.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Relishing a lifetime of memories at the East Marietta Library

by
East Marietta Library
The East Marietta Library will reopen as the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center in December. (East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)

“It is now 5:30. The library will be closing in 30 minutes.”

When I heard the announcement over the intercom, I winced and fought back some emotion.

Because this closing wasn’t just for this one day. It was forever.

I had a half-hour to look around the East Marietta Library on Saturday, the last day the little block two-story building was open to the public after 50 years of dutiful service to a growing, and thriving, community.

East Marietta Library

The East Marietta Library, located at 2051 Lower Roswell Road, is within walking distance of the house where I grew up, in the Pioneer Woods neighborhood (directly behind Faith Lutheran Church). When I wasn’t at Sewell Park, playing softball or tennis or swimming, I was at the library.

These twin community gems were like a second home, a convenient place to slip away from younger siblings and after-school chores. I didn’t need a parent to ferry me to a place where I could let my imagination roam, whether it was in left field at Sewell Park or the rather roomy shelves of the children’s section of the library downstairs.

East Marietta Library

I can’t remember how many books I checked out, but I remember taking home more than once a book about “new” journalism featuring Tom Wolfe, and the Baseball Encyclopedia. These were the days when reference books could be checked out, and those volumes became de facto parts of my own library at home, at least for two or three weeks at a time.

East Marietta Library

The building had been obsolete for years, and it was the subject of a long lobbying campaign to be replaced. Finally, that came about, when Cobb voters included a new facility in the last SPLOST. While I was thrilled, I also knew I would have bittersweet pangs about the East Marietta branch closing.East Marietta Library

On Saturday, with time in my childhood time machine dwindling, I rummaged around the shelves of books, which were being labeled by category for their removal to the new $10.6 million Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which opens up next door in early December.

Earlier this week, Cobb commissioners finally voted to fund additional staff needed for the new place, in what had become a testy and frankly disappointing turn of events. In their budget battles, we’ve seen both East Cobb commissioners fighting over library funding, pitting one branch against another, ignoring citizens’ pleas to do right by what many here think are underfunded, but popular community treasures.

East Marietta Library

It reminded me of the ugly budget incident a few years ago, when then-commission chairman Tim Lee threatened to shut down East Marietta and all but a few of the Cobb libraries in a stunt to get his colleagues to the bargaining table during the recession. While that ploy worked, it created a lot of community bad will, and not just from library diehards like me.

A few years later, the same commissioners approved a creative way to finance a nearly $400 million dollar bond issue for the Atlanta Braves’ new stadium, then declared it wasn’t going to raise property taxes. Libraries, on the other hand, continue to be nickel-and-dimed, considered a “non-essential” service by the commissioner who wanted to close the East Cobb Library (and who even once held a town hall at the East Marietta branch meeting room).

East Marietta Library

There seems to be no political will to open libraries before, say, 11 a.m. on a Saturday (or 1 p.m., as was the case with the East Marietta Library). No Sunday hours at all, unless it’s the main branch in downtown Marietta, but only during the school year.

Tiny little East Marietta has been a real workhorse during these past 50 years, built with money from the very first Cobb library bond, and opened when the area was becoming rapidly suburbanized. As it closes, it was serving a community in transition that was taking advantage of the modernized information and resource needs of the public.

East Marietta Library

Like my old Wheeler High School, though, I appreciate what’s contained in the walls of old buildings, even if they’re eventually torn down.

East Marietta’s grand opening on March 7, 1967, coincided with the opening of the Kennesaw, Acworth, South Cobb, Sibley, Powder Springs and Lewis A. Ray branches. They were all built from the bond issue; it was the dawn of a new era in Cobb County, in which quality-of-life concerns were beginning to be met.

I know the Sewell Mill Library is going to be fabulous, and I can’t wait to take a look inside. But as the last 30 minutes began to trickle down to the last 15 on Saturday, and as the librarians continued their packing, I got a little choked up.

East Marietta Library

For a moment, I thought about checking out one last book with the East Marietta branch stamped in the bank, a volume that’s survived since the days of physical card checkout. At least for three weeks, I could have a relic in my possession, and savor what those memories continue to provide.

East Marietta Library

But I decided it was time to move on, to let these memories assume their rightful place. They’ll always be there, but better days are ahead for this library, and I’m confident the new place will continue to serve and elevate its citizens well.

East Marietta Library

East Marietta Library

East Marietta Library

East Marietta Library

Sewell Mill Library funding approved; East Marietta branch to begin closure

by
Sewell Mill Library
East Cobb News file photos

After a brief but sometimes testy conversation Tuesday morning, the Cobb Board of Commissioners approved the completion of funding for the new Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center on Lower Roswell Road.

The board voted 3-2 to spend $284,227 to fund five full- and part-time positions for fiscal year 2018 in order to proceed with the opening of the new facility on Dec. 4.

East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, chairman Boyce and commissioner Bob Weatherford voted yes; commissioners JoAnn Birrell and Lisa Cupid voted no.

Operations at the East Marietta Library, located adjacent to the new Sewell Mill branch, are expected to wind down this week.

The funding includes the transfer of $94,491 from the budget for the East Cobb Government Service Center, which will move some of its business office functions to the tag office in the same building (previous East Cobb News post here).

Ott said he worked with staff from the Cobb library, parks and public services staff to pare down the price tag for the Sewell Mill Library funding from around $700,000 to less than $300,000. The funding source is from “one-time monies” that has become a touchy topic on the commission as it voted this summer not to raise the property tax millage rate and as it adopted the FY 2018 budget with nearly $20 million in contingency funding.

That approved budget didn’t include Sewell Mill Library funding. Ott and Boyce said the county was obligated to move ahead with the transition now due to contractual obligations in demolishing the East Marietta Library building, creating a parking lot for the new library and rebuilding the road that leads into the adjacent Sewell Park.

“The reality is we have a $10 million investment the board has known about for years, and it’s been dropped in my lap,” Boyce said, then veering into a philosophical statement.

“Libraries reflect the culture of our society,” he said. “It is important to open up this facility that residents have been expecting for a long time.”

East Marietta Library
The East Marietta Library opened in 1967.

Birrell and Cupid objected to funding the Sewell Mill Library now, saying they wanted take up the matter at a commissioners retreat later this month. Birrell suggested a delay in opening the new branch until January.

“I understand that we can’t build things like this and then leave them empty,” she said. “My concern is the timing.”

Cupid concurred: “Why this can’t wait another 20 days is beyond me.”

She cited other unmet funding requests—including Cobb non-profits, the purchase of police body cameras and wish lists from other government agencies—as equally valid, and questioned the wisdom of using contingency funding for sustained expenses.

“There’s no way of knowing if we’re going to have this money year after year after year,” Cupid said.

Ott, who had suggested closing another library in his district, the Lewis A. Ray branch in Smyrna, to solve the contingency problem, became visibly upset.

“Don’t sit here and make inaccuracies,” Ott snapped, demanding that Cupid not interrupt him. “You did not reach out to address your concerns.”

Cupid said the finalized agenda item for Tuesday’s meeting came to her late.

Boyce said the vote over Sewell Mill Library funding is “the first of many battles we’re going to have” because the board voted against his proposal in July to raise the millage rate 0.13 mills (previous East Cobb News post here).

Weatherford said that amounts to just $4 million, or one percent, of the overall county budget, so “blaming everything on that vote is erroneous.”

Birrell, who had suggested closing the East Cobb Library during the budget process, reiterated her concerns of getting into a habit of dipping into contingency.

“We’re going to be digging a deeper deficit that we’re never going to overcome with one-time money,” she said.

Changes proposed for East Cobb Government Service Center

by

East Cobb Government Service Center

At a town hall meeting in August (East Cobb News post here), East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott said he was reviewing operations at the East Cobb Government Service Center to find cost savings.

That was in response to a proposal by East Cobb’s other commissioner, JoAnn Birrell, to close the East Cobb Library (which didn’t happen when the commission adopted the FY 2018 budget a couple weeks ago), and due to a $21 million budget gap.

The review has been complete, and Ott said on Friday that he is proposing a restructuring of the East Cobb Government Service Center (4400 Lower Roswell Road) that he will present formally at a commission meeting Tuesday.

In his weekly e-mail newsletter, Ott said he is recommending to close the business office only at the government center (where you pay property taxes and water bills and apply for business licenses).

Everything else will remain open—the Cobb police and fire precincts, the community rooms and the tag office. In his proposed changes, Ott wants to transfer the services provided at the business office (except for the water bills) across the hall to the tag office. Here’s what he’s sharing with the public for now:

“As a result of discussions between staff and Carla Jackson, Cobb County Tax Commissioner, those services will be available in the tag office. So, if you pay your property taxes or renew your business license at the government center you will still be able to just in a different location.  Some have expressed concerns about potential lines and wait times. This year when I renewed my vehicle registration there were only three people in the line so I don’t anticipate long lines after the restructuring.
 
“The only service which will not be available at the tag office is paying your water bill. Currently, there are approximately 150 people using that service which makes it hard to justify $200,000 in expenses. Additionally, everyone can pay their water bill online if they don’t want to mail in their payment.

“As you can see, for most in East Cobb the restructuring will mean little change.”

There is a proposal at Tuesday’s commission meeting to divert nearly $95,000 from the government service center operations to fund increased operating expenses of the soon-to-open Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center.

The agenda item (pp. 238-240) includes the addition of one full-time and five part-time staff for the new facility, which is replacing the East Marietta Library and is slated to open in December. There also are four new staff positions listed under the Cobb Parks and Recreation  budget for cultural center operations.

The commissioners did not include funding for the new library when they adopted the budget, saying they would return to resolve the issue this month. The transfer of $94,491 from the government service center budget would make the proposed new library funding total $284,227 for FY 2018.

Cobb fiscal year 2018 budget approved in close vote

by

Cobb fiscal year 2018 budget

After a lengthy public hearing and discussion and the possibility of not approving a budget today, the Cobb fiscal year 2018 budget was adopted by the Board of Commissioners.

The $403.4 million budget is based on the millage rate of 6.76 set by commission in July, and using $19.7 million in contingency funding—”one-time monies” in budget parlance—to balance the budget. More than $1 million for Cobb community charities was not included in the budget, and representatives of many of those organizations were vocal about keeping their funding.

The new budget includes funding for the East Cobb Library, which commissioner JoAnn Birrell had proposed closing, but does not include funding for the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center, which will replace the East Marietta Library and is slated to open this winter.

Like the funding for the charities, funding for the new library is expected to be taken up by the commissioners in the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

What follows is a live-blog format of the public comment period, both from the public and the commissioners, that was updated as the budget proceedings took place.

We’ll have other matters from today’s commission meeting, including the approval of the Cobb 2040 Comprehensive Plan, posted separately.

We’ll also link to the final budget document once it’s made available online. Here’s the original.

1:41 PM: The budget passes 3-2, with Boyce, Birrell and Bob Weatherford voting yes, Ott and Cupid voting no.

1:28 PM: Chairman Mike Boyce is the last member of the board to speak, saying “budgets are never easy.” Regarding the non-profits, he said many provide services that government should be doing, but they do it better. “This isn’t black and white. The bottom line is we can’t give you what we don’t have . . . money because of the millage rate.”

Carving out a budget based on a 6.76 millage rate includes figuring out how “to provide services this county has come to expect.” He said “we’re a five-star county” and that he hopes conversations over the next few months will result in some kind of consensus from the board in the future.

Boyce makes motion to approve budget, with Birrell seconding.

1:15 PM: South Cobb commissioner Lisa Cupid said the budget situation today is “the direct result of the millage rate vote [from earlier this summer] that I did not support.” She also said that the situation is “not only mind-boggling but somewhat shameful,” and cited cuts in assistance to community non-profits, the continued limited hours for libraries and more.

“This is a not a good situation that we’re in today, to not pass a budget” that will “put us in a worse situation. There are real people with real needs that are attached to” what is tied into the budget.

She also referenced how the needs of the Braves are being accommodated, but not those who benefit from community charities. “I’m just troubled by this whole ordeal.” Cupid said she cannot support the budget proposal.

1:08 PM: The public hearing is closed, and the commissioners are making some opening comments during their discussion period. Northeast Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell said: “Is this a perfect budget? No. But is pretty much a flat budget” and she supports it.

East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott said he would like to see some details on how to deal with the one-time money, but “I don’t see it there.”

1:01 PM: Michael Paris of East Cobb, head of the Council for Quality Growth, spoke in support of the proposed budget. “Go forward and make sure we continue to make this county great,” he said.

12:29 PM: Ray Thomas, a South Cobb resident, expressed concern that the budget proposal includes contingency funding despite an improving economy and rising Cobb tax digest. “What happens when things really get tough? . . . This is very disconcerting.” He said the county has two choices: cut back services or find more revenue, and he cited a rise in the millage rate.

12:23 PM: Dan Daniel, a longtime East Cobb resident and volunteer at the East Cobb Library, pleaded with the commissioners to keep that branch open. If it closes, he said, nearby residents would have to go a great distance to patronize the library system.

12:01 PM: The public hearing on the budget is continuing, but we’re taking a break. This very well may be an all-day meeting, given what else is on the agenda, and what looks to be a commission impasse on the budget. Some very impassioned speakers already, and there are more to come.

11:22 AM: The directors of a number of community service organizations, including MUST Ministries, Family Promise of Cobb County and the Cobb Schools Foundation, are speaking on behalf of continuing the county funding they receive. The proposed budget does not include charities funding.

A retired citizen, John Morgan, asks the commissioners to consider “what will your legacy be?” especially as it pertains to Cobb’s homeless, and cites several Bible passages. The crowd applauded as he concluded.

11:05 AM: The first speaker is East Cobb resident Abby Shiffman, the chairwoman of the Cobb library board of trustees, and she’s urging the commission not pass a budget today, especially as it pertains to the library budget. “How can you pass a budget without specifics?” she asked, noting that the library system has suffered “cut after cut after cut” with no increase in funding, including expansion of library hours, since the recession. The notion of closing a library branch (Birrell has proposed closing the East Cobb Library) “without a true hearing is something I cannot understand.”

BTW: Tonight is the Cobb Library Foundation’s gala dinner, “Booked for the Evening,” featuring East Cobb author Jonathan W. Jordan, that’s one of the year’s biggest fundraising events for outside money to support the library system.

Read more

Lower Roswell Road repaving to begin between Terrell Mill and Holt Road

by
Lower Roswell Road at Terrell Mill Road
Lower Roswell Road repaving between Terrell Mill Road and the 120 Loop is expected to take a month. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)

Starting Sunday, a Lower Roswell Road repaving project will begin that will take up to a month to complete.

This is separate from the East Cobb Pipeline Project that is almost complete. Some work crews are still testing pipes and doing other cleanup work on Lower Roswell around the Sope Creek Bridge, and repaving will get underway after that and continue into the fall.

The repaving that gets underway this weekend will take place at night, and it will be done in two stages.

The first stage, on Lower Roswell between Terrell Mill Road and Holt Road, will take place nightly between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. According to Cobb DOT, it’s expected to be done by Oct. 15.

After that, and for another two-week stretch, the Lower Roswell Road repaving will continue west from Holt to the 120 Loop.

That segment of the project, expected to be finished next spring, includes widening Lower Roswell, signal modifications, adding left and right turn lanes and a constructing a five-foot sidewalk on the west side.

While that work continues, the new Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center will be completed next to (and replacing) the East Marietta Library on Lower Roswell.

During the hours of the repaving, traffic on Lower Roswell Road will be reduced to one lane.

Here’s the Cobb DOT fact sheet for the project.

Despite protests, Birrell defends proposal to close East Cobb Library

by
JoAnn Birrell, Cobb Commissioners
JoAnn Birrell—speaking here to a business group last week—says closing the East Cobb Library would reduce duplication of services. (East Cobb News photo by Wendy Parker)

After several East Cobb residents objected to the possibility of closing the East Cobb Library on Tuesday, the Cobb commissioner making the proposal strongly defended her position, and laid out a detailed set of numbers in making her case.

JoAnn Birrell, who represents Northeast Cobb, said at the end of a long Board of Commissioners meeting that “this has never been a personal agenda” but instead addresses what she terms as an issue of duplication of services.

She said she’s proposing the East Cobb Library closure because of the new Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center that will open before the end of the year, replacing the adjacent East Marietta Library.

The two libraries are located five miles apart on Lower Roswell Road, and carry some expensive operating costs, Birrell said. (That’s also about the same distance between the two East Cobb-area libraries in her district, the Mountain View Regional Library on Sandy Plains Road, and the Gritters branch off Canton Road.)

The East Cobb Library opened in the Parkaire Landing Shopping Center in 2010, after being previously known as the Merchants Walk Library and relocated when that shopping center was redeveloped.

“This is about being a responsible steward of the taxpayers’ money,” Birrell said, reading from a written statement, adding that budget decisions will be made by the board, not one commissioner.

The East Cobb Library closure plans were first made public last Thursday, at a town hall meeting held by East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who said Birrell “has been relentless” in proposing the move (East Cobb News coverage here).

Birrell said her proposal “was just one” cost-saving suggestion as the commission was presented last week with a proposed FY 2018 budget of $890 million, including $21.5 million in one-time reserve funding to avoid a property tax increase.

After hearing protests to the closure plan earlier Tuesday at the first formal public hearing on the budget, Birrell said the consolidation of Cobb libraries has been “years in the making,” and referenced the 2011 budget crunch. In the wake of the recession and a steep decline in the Cobb tax digest, then-commission Chairman Tim Lee proposed permanently closing 13 of the 17 county library branches, including East Cobb and East Marietta.

But he backed down after vocal public opposition. While no branches were closed, library hours and staffing levels were reduced.

Most of the funding for the new 8,600-square-foot Sewell Mill library complex, which will include an amphitheater and other cultural arts space, comes from the 2016 Cobb government SPLOST (special local option sales tax) approved by county voters.

Birrell said the new library will have annual staffing and operating costs of roughly $732,000. The East Marietta Library currently costs around $524,000 a year to run, according to her figures.

The East Cobb Library, she said, not only has annual staffing and operating costs estimated at $771,000 a year, but another $263,000 a year, ($21,961 a month) is paid out in lease costs at Parkaire Landing.

For that kind of money, Birrell said, the county “could hire three police officers” as part of a larger recommendation in a recent police chiefs’ report that Cobb add 60 more officers to meet current public safety needs.

Read more

EAST COBB TOWN HALL MEETING: Commissioner Bob Ott talks budget, libraries, pipeline and more

by

Cobb commissioner Bob Ott

Just a few days after seeing the proposed fiscal year 2018 Cobb County budget for the first time, commissioner Bob Ott briefed East Cobb constituents on the numbers Thursday night and offered some suggestions that could punctuate budget discussions over the next few weeks.

At a packed town hall meeting in the community room of the East Cobb Library, Ott outlined the $890 million spending plan proposed by commission chairman Mike Boyce, including using $21.5 million in one-time reserve funding.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners will hold the first of two public hearings on the budget on Tuesday before approval on Sept. 12. That’s not much time to absorb a proposed spending package that’s 3.79 percent higher than the FY 2017 budget, and only weeks after a heated battle over the property tax millage rate.

Cobb County Government proposed FY 2018 budget
Click the graphic to view and download the budget proposal. 

The budget document also was released this week [there’s a downloadable PDF here] as Cobb homeowners were mailed their property tax bills for 2017. As Ott reminded them, “the tax bill you just got is to pay for [the last fiscal] year.”

The proposed budget is based on the current millage rate established by commissioners last month. Ott and fellow East Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell prevailed in their refusal to raise the millage rate by 0.13, as Boyce had wanted.

The inclusion of the proposed reserve funding to help balance the budget is a dramatic one. A total of $10.4 million would come from the reserve for a county employees pay and classification implementation study; $5.7 million would come from the Title Ad Valorem Tax Reserve; and the $5.3 million would come from the county economic development contingency.

“The board has to decide what are the critical needs,” Ott said. “The bottom line is, it’s your money.”

Specifically regarding the reserve money, Ott, an ardent opponent of tax increases, repeated himself: “It is my belief that it’s your money,” and that there’s “no reason” for it to remain unspent and raise taxes instead.

Read more

East Marietta Library slated to close in mid-Oct., reopen in mid-Nov. as Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center

by

Sewell Mill Library

The Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center under construction on Lower Roswell has an updated projection for its opening: mid-November, according to District 2 commissioner Bob Ott.

The adjacent East Marietta Library that’s been open since 1966 will close in mid-October, as the transition of moving materials into the new facility begins. Here’s more from what Ott’s office issued via email on Friday:

Construction of the Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center is moving forward steadily, with only limited interruptions due to rainy days, said Cobb County Library Director Helen Poyer. Progress on the project includes ongoing interior painting, landscaping nearing completion and paving is scheduled for late summer. . . .

The construction project is now ahead of schedule, Poyer said, with officials expecting to re-open library service in new facility around mid-November.
 
“Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center will serve not only the immediate community, but the entire Cobb community,” Poyer said. “The special library and PARKS services will draw citizens from across Cobb County. It will be a destination for people who want to be engaged in traditional library service as well as in technology and the arts.”

Reminder: Ott is having a town hall meeting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the East Cobb Library (Parkaire Landing Shopping Center, 4880 Lower Roswell Road).

East Marietta Library
(East Cobb News photos by Wendy Parker)