Viewfinder: SPLOST Landscaping Open House

Cobb County District 3 Commissioner JoAnn Birrell was on hand at Thursday night’s SPLOST open house at the St. Andrew United Methodist Church. Birrell and residents discussed beautification plans for the now completed Canton Road construction project.

“Once the landscaping project has been completed, we are hoping that local businesses and landscaping companies will “adopt” a section of Canton Road near their locations to help maintain the new landscaping without the use any additional SPLOST funding,” said Birrell.

Fran Ciulik, a Northeast Cobb resident for 36 years, approved of the landscaping plans presented at the open house. Ciulik is excited about what she terms as the “revitalization” of Canton Road and the surrounding area.

“With the new road construction and landscaping, it feels like the area is coming back to life after having gone downhill for a while," said Ciulik. "I’m also happy about the new Walmart Neighborhood Market that will be coming here. Blackwell Shopping Center really is in need of a makeover.”

Other residents attending the meeting were more concerned with inconveniences due to the new road design and the lack of synchronized traffic lights.

Northeast Cobb resident Tim McRoberts says he has complained about the traffic light synchronization problem several times to the Cobb County Department of Transportation, but hits a brick wall every time.

“I know that stop lights can be synced in time to allow better traffic flow,” McRoberts said. “The lights on Canton Road are so off that it takes me a minimum of 12 minutes just to go one mile. Some of the medians are also placed in areas that make it impossible to go in the opposite direction without having to drive two miles down the road just to turn around.”

Richard Kissel, another Northeast Cobb resident, agreed with McRoberts. “It makes no since to have the lights operating like they do on the main thoroughfare when hardly any traffic comes off the side streets. It’s definitely a problem. The Department of Transportation keeps saying they’ll fix it when the project is complete. It looks pretty complete to me.”

The SPLOST landscaping plans were well received by residents who were given comment sheets to leave for the DOT planning committee on any concerns or new ideas they may have for the project.

For those who were unable to attend, you may send your comments and suggestions to Scott.Jordan@cobbcounty.org, or mail them to Scott Jordan, P.E., Cobb County DOT, 1890 County Services Pkwy, Marietta, GA 30008-4014.