New President for Mabry Park Group

The Friends of Mabry Park sent out this notice today from Steven Kushnick, its new president. He succeeds founding member Lee Berg, who recently stepped down. Kushnick will be at the Friends table at Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell's town hall meeting next Thursday, Aug. 22, from 7-8:30 p.m. at the Mountain View Community Center:

My name is Steven Kushnick, and I am the new president of Friends of Mabry Park. I am taking over from Lee Berg, who has served on the board since he, his wife, Mary Berg, and Mark Jernigan started Friends of Mabry Park in 2009. Lee inherited the role of pres in Jan, 2012, after Mark and Janice's departure. Many thanks to Lee for his many contributions.  

The Friends of Mabry Park organization has people and resources already in place, which is comforting and expedient to my task at hand as the new president.

The immediate goal is to put in place an access road from Wesley Chapel Road to land-locked Mabry Park so that we can all start using and enjoying our Cobb County land. Without the road, we essentially have no park. The board is working with unceasing vigor and will be addressing outside grants, corporations, and other avenues for acquiring the funds to make the 'Imagine' part of Mabry Park into a natural, green, outdoor reality.

I was the president of my Homeowners' Association in 2005, 2006, and 2007 during which time we made a major renovation to our pool and tennis courts and undertook much construction in those first two years. As president again in 2010, and then vice president in 2011 and 2012, I have worked with Cobb County and the Northeast Cobb Homeowner's Group regarding a zoning variance request, and with Cobb County again regarding the street paving roster. Cobb County has some wonderful, friendly people on their staff, and I look forward to working with them once again.

I am a licensed professional engineer (PE), but don't get too excited: I am not a Civil Engineer. (Just ask my wife. She'll tell you there's nothing civil about me.) I have operated my own mechanical engineering consulting business for the last 17 years, I worked at a small engineering consulting firm for 7 years prior to that, and began my career at Pratt & Whitney, where I worked for 9 years designing jet engines.

Park roads, jet engines... both are expensive. Lots of jet engines exist today, and with some work, our Mabry Park road will exist as well. I look forward to serving ultimately you, and bringing good news to you in the not-too-distant future.

Kind regards, 

Steven Kushnick