Hearing Held on Transportation Study

The county commissioners meet at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the government complex at 100 Cherokee Street.

Residents will get to weigh in Tuesday on plans for a mass transportation study that could improve traffic along the I-75 and U.S. 41 corridors. A public hearing will be held prior to Cobb County hiring a consultant to provide an environmental impact statement for the Northwest Atlanta Corridor Alternatives Analysis Study. The county commissioners will meet at 9 a.m. on the second floor of the government complex at 100 Cherokee Street in Marietta. Development of an environmental impact statement will provide a detailed description of the proposal, purpose and need, reasonable alternatives and the affected environment. The massive region-wide project, estimated to take 18 to 24 months to complete, will involve dozens of private companies …

• Photos (1)

Board of Ed Debates Use of Leftover SPLOST Money

Money is the main topic for the Cobb County School District during the Wednesday work session.

The large savings that once were common for Cobb County School District construction projects are no longer there, causing SPLOST Chief Administrative Officer Doug Shepard to modify the use of the plan for accelerated SPLOST construction projects. The Cobb County Board of Education will listen to the administration’s proposal during its monthly work session Wednesday in the Central Office boardroom at 514 Glover St. “We’re not seeing the savings in the current construction market that we’ve observed in the past,” Shepard told Patch. In October 2010, the board approved accelerating SPLOST III projects to take advantage of construction costs driven down by the recession. The plan was to be funded through 2013. Over the summer, the district …

•  3 Comments
• Photos (2)

Leo Smith

5:42 pm on Thursday, November 17, 2011

Well, the answer to my previous post, per Alison Bartlett, Chair of the Cobb County School Board is NO. SPLOST funds cannot be arbitrarily reassigned as Mr. Banks proposed! Thanks Chairwoman Bartlett!   more ›

Cobb Schools' SPLOST Reserve Runs Dry

The expansion and paving of the Sanders Road bus shop would leave only $100,000 for other overruns.

Improving infrastructure, cutting maintenance costs, increasing parking space and improving driver safety are some of the reasons the Cobb County School District’s transportation department wants to spend $1.1 million to pave its Sanders Road bus shop off Powder Springs Road in Marietta. The Board of Education discussed the paving project, set to be awarded to low bidder Baldwin Paving of Marietta, during its work session Wednesday. The project’s cost grew by $400,000 when its scope increased to add 50 bus parking spots, which would require clearing the tree-lined lot and moving dirt to flatten the proposed back lot, said Doug Shepard, the chief administrative officer for the district’s SPLOST projects. If the board decides to pave only …

• Photos (3)

Viewfinder: SPLOST Landscaping Open House

Northeast Cobb residents voiced their opinions about proposed landscaping plans and the Canton Road traffic light synchronization.

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 …

• Photos (11)

Lee: Transit Key to Competition

The Cobb Board of Commissioners chairman makes his TSPLOST pitch at a Rotary Club meeting.

Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee has hitched his caboose to light rail, calling it “a good idea” for Cobb County's future. At a meeting of the Smyrna Rotary Club on Tuesday, Lee outlined his support for the 12.8-mile, $857 million light-rail project that would connect the Cumberland-Galleria area to MARTA’s Arts Center Station in Midtown. The proposed light-rail line made it onto the Atlanta Regional Transportation Roundtable executive committee’s master list of transportation projects last month. The list will be finalized by an executive committee vote Oct. 15. Lee explained that connecting the Cumberland-Galleria area to Midtown opens transportation gateways for what he considers to be the future of Cobb County: the U.S. 41/Interstate …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)

Northeast Cobb High Five

TSPLOST Town Hall; Printz to SMU

Here's what you should know to start Sept. 6 in Northeast Cobb.

1. The good weather news is that the heat and the tornado threat are in the past; the bad news is that the rain is not going away as we return to school and work. Showers with a chance of thunderstorms will continue until 2 p.m., the National Weather Service says, and lighter rain could fall through the afternoon with a high temperature of 71. The temperature will fall to 59 overnight, and the chance of rain will drop to 30 percent. 2. The TSPLOST debate moves to Walton High School tonight for a town-hall meeting hosted by Republican state Sen. Judson Hill. Besides Hill, whose 32nd District extends into Northeast Cobb, politicians expected to attend the meeting on the proposed 10-year, 1-cent regional sales tax for transportation projects …

• Videos (1)

Trimmed Wheeler Project Set for Approval

The Cobb County Board of Education also will honor the district's teachers of the year but won't change the rules for employee disciplinary conferences.

The Cobb County Board of Education will vote on a scaled-back $17 million renovation project for East Cobb's Wheeler High School at the board's monthly meeting tonight at 7 in the Central Office boardroom. The low construction bid for the project from Hogan Construction Group came in $2.6 million over budget, but Doug Shepard, the chief administrative officer for the school district's SPLOST projects, told the board at its Aug. 10 work session that the project will remain at its budgeted $17 million. Shepard said the school system eliminated several aspects from the original scope of the project—such as improvements to the drama, culinary arts and horticulture programs and the undersized theater—to maintain the budget. “Rising construction…

• Photos (2)

Banks to Push Alternative Cobb Map

The county Board of Education is expected to approve Chairwoman Alison Bartlett's proposed reapportionment plan this morning.

The Cobb County Board of Education plans to vote this morning to accept the reapportionment map that was presented by board Chairwoman Alison Bartlett and approved 6-1 by the board July 28. Among other things, Bartlett said July 28 that her map aimed to more evenly distribute the Cobb County School District’s 16 high schools among board posts. Right now, posts range from one to four high schools each. But Bartlett and others also aimed to keep communities and schools within the boundaries of their current posts. The proposed reapportionment map and the current district map are attached to this article. Bartlett, whose Post 7 south of Marietta would expand westward under her plan, could not be reached for comment. Board member David Banks …

• Documents (2)

2011 'Year of the Tax' for Cobb

First, there was the renewal of SPLOST, and next down the pipes is a millage rate increase.

If we were on the Chinese calendar, 2011 might be called the “Year of the Tax.”  The year began with an opportunity to reduce our sales tax by nearly 17 percent, but instead we chose—by a 90-vote margin—to continue the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, ostensibly for “low taxes and no debt.”  The 1-percent SPLOST was touted as a vehicle that would make our community more livable and more attractive to businesses. We were told that if the SPLOST didn’t pass, senior centers would be closed, library hours would be shortened, services would be cut, property taxes would go up and blah, blah, blah.  Well, it passed, and despite its passage, senior centers have been closed, library hours have been shortened, services have been cut and, as I…

•  4 Comments
• Photos (1)