The reading will start at 11 a.m. “in the shadow of the clocktower” in the small courtyard just outside the courthouse, reports lawyer Kim Frye, who is spearheading the event. In case of rain, the reading will take place in the building’s lobby,
Similar readings will be taking place in 22 other courthouses around Georgia as part of a national effort to have the Declaration read aloud and promote patriotism, she said.
Taking part are lawyers Adam Abbate, Bob Beer, Frank Bradford, Larry Burke, Gene Clark, Matt Freedman, Kim Keheley Frye, Blake Frye, Anthony Hallmark, Joyette Holmes, Scott Halperin, Judge Rob Leonard, Catherine Lerow, Doug Middleton, Justin O’Dell, John H. Skelton, Michael Syrop and Tim Williams.
LIKE STUMP SPEECHES? Then Wednesday’s July Fourth Cobb Republican Picnic is the place for you. Some 30 candidates for national, state and local offices are expected to address the crowd there at Jim Miller Park, reports Cobb GOP Chairman Joe Dendy, including U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) and U.S. Reps. Tom Price and Phil Gingrey. Tickets are $15 for adults 12 and up, $5 for children 6 to 11 and free for 5 and under. …
There’ll be plenty of politicos, too, when Cobb Democrats will gather at the IAM Local 709 Union Hall at 1032 Marietta Parkway from noon to 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Cost is $10 for adults and $5 for kids 12 and under.
ONE OF THIS SUMMER’S most hotly contested primaries is that for the GOP nomination for the state Senate District 6 seat representing Smyrna/Vinings/Sandy Springs. HD South will conduct a forum on Saturday for the Republicans in that race: Josh Belinfante, Drew Ellenburg and Hunter Hill. The event will take place in the lobby of the 200 Galleria Building and run from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
The MDJ’s Dick Yarbrough will serve as moderator, asking a few questions of his own and reading questions submitted by audience members.
Meanwhile, Cobb Sheriff Neil Warren has endorsed Belinfante in that race. …
The political tempo picks up again on Tuesday when the Cobb County Civic Coalition, the group headed by occasional MDJ guest columnist Ron Sifen, presents a forum for Cobb Commission Chairman candidates. The event will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Commissioners Meeting Room, 100 Cherokee St. ...
East Cobb Post 5 School Board candidate Lisa Hanson reports that she has been endorsed by the Cobb County Association of Educators.
THE COUNCIL FOR QUALITY GROWTH and The Urban Land Institute will conduct a pro-TSPLOST luncheon July 13 as part of the run-up to the July 31 TSPLOST referendum. The event will feature U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Atlanta Regional Commission Chairman Tad Leithead of east Cobb. Topic will be “Regional Transportation Referendum: Countdown to July 31.” The 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. event will take place at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Cost is $45, reports Michael Paris. ... Freeman Mathis & Gary LLP and The Bottoms Group LLC of Marietta will conduct a seminar on the new federal Healthcare Act from 8:30 to 10 a.m. July 19 in the FMG Conference Center (across from The Georgian Club), 100 Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. For more on the free event call (770) 818-0000 or go to fmglaw.com.
APPARENTLY, COBB school board member Lynnda Eagle is still out for blood about Harrison High School, despite the board finally approving renovations and the addition of a ninth-grade center to the two-decade-old school in west Cobb.
While the board was talking at Thursday’s meeting about $4 million in renovations that are desperately needed at Campbell Middle School, Eagle singled out board member Tim Stultz, asking him why he would support the renovations at Campbell, (which is in his post), and not the ones at Harrison.
“If you recall, we supported every single renovation at Harrison,” he retorted. “I voted when we separated the projects, to move forward with the renovations at Harrison High School.”
Eagle wasn’t placated by that response.
“But you didn’t support the project as it was presented, until (board member) Mrs. (Alison) Bartlett changed the superintendent’s motion and separated (the renovations and the ninth-grade center), that’s right?” she asked.
“I’m just real curious ... and I’m going to tell you, I’m going to vote for it, because you know what? Campbell needs it, the community deserves it, the students deserve it and the staff, but it does surprise me, I don’t see the big difference,” she concluded.
Stultz stumbled over his words a bit before telling Eagle that she could reference the minutes from that meeting, but he supported the renovations at Harrison all along, not construction of the ninth-grade center.
Then others chimed in.
“I don’t want this to turn into a tit for tat,” said Kathleen Angelucci, who also voted in favor of separating the construction at Harrison. “I think with the Harrison issue, it was separating the ninth grade center from the renovations, that’s the way I looked at it.”
Bartlett, who serves as the board’s Facilities and Technology Committee liaison and is quite familiar with the much-needed modifications at Campbell, seemed to go off on a tangent
“When you look at a school like Campbell and walk into rooms and it literally looks like a third-world classrooms in the back of that gym, when you look at gyms that are not air conditioned, when you look at the issues that we’re dealing with, you have to wonder, why does this group who have 20-year-old schools get newer schools and our 60-year-old schools we’re not maintaining?” Bartlett said.
“It costs more to maintain our older buildings and we aren’t spending our money to do it. For me, it’s an apple and an orange. I supported the renovations at Harrison, I did not support the ninth grade center and I will say it again, it has a falling enrollment.”
And then Bartlett’s voice began to rise.
“Lost Mountain has a falling enrollment and almost 90 percent of their students feed Harrison so we have now again built more classrooms than we need and I ask that we wait and do this ninth-grade center at the end making sure we can meet our maintenance needs, that we can meet schools like Campbell and Pebblebrook, that their facilities, as a Cobb County taxpayer, I take offense, because if Cobb County taxpayers went and saw some of these facilities, they would be horrified that we expect kids to be in them!”
THE U.S. ARMY on June 14 (Flag Day) conducted a ceremony in Germany to formally rename the Wiesbaden Army Airfield as “Clay Kaserne” after Marietta native the late Gen. Lucius D. Clay, who was the military governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone in Germany from 1947 through 1949 and who oversaw the famed Berlin Airlift.
“Even when Berlin was at its greatest peril in 1949, during the Berlin Airlift, through General Clay, America stood its ground shoulder-to- shoulder with our partners,” said U.S. Army Europe commander Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling. “Today, at the highest recommendation of the Lord Mayor of Wiesbaden, we will be renaming the Wiesbaden Army Airfield, where many of those missions were based, in General Clay’s name.”
Among those on hand were Clay’s granddaughter and grandson Cathleen Ketchum and Dr. Lucius D. Clay III, cousin and brother, respectively, of attorney Chuck Clay of Marietta.
THE MARIETTA CAMP MEETING is celebrating its 175th anniversary with a party from 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. July 14. There will be barbecue, hot dogs, inflatables and more, with music by the Mars Hill Porch Pickers Bluegrass Band and others.
The free festivities are at the campground at 2301 Roswell Road.
AND A HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to Marietta insurance exec A.D. Little who will celebrate his 80th birthday on Saturday.
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Google "NEA" and "donations" if you need help understanding why.
The NEA is an inhibitor to quality education and any endorsement of a candidate to the School Board by an organization that is aligned with that organization should be highly suspect. Now, some may argue that guilt by association is unfair, but there is no denying that a portion of the dues paid by CCAE members ends up in the coffers of the NEA and a large amount of NEA money has gone to support Obama, his failed education agenda and other liberal Democrats. Further proof of this NEA affiliation can be found on the CCAE website where forms can be obtained to become a delegate to the 2012 NEA convention.
The Superintendent and several members of the Board of Education have stated publicly that we need to explore new methods of educating and a new model for education. If we are to realize any innovations in our present model, there should be little doubt it will be totally opposed by the NEA and Obama’s Department of Education. We do not need a School Board member who will be beholding to the NEA through their surrogate the Cobb County Association of Educators.
Do you really expect anyone to believe that a Republican from east cobb is going to be a surrogate for the NEA.
Gheezzz get real.
Let's use a brief bit of history to underscore No the NEA's point:
Scott Sweeney was endorsed by the CCAE. He ran as a Republican and touted himself as a fiscal conservative. But Sweeney has consistently cast his votes with the more left leaning board members. Dr. Hinojosa's history of dumbing down education in Dallas was well known and easy to research on one's own. He promoted the idea of hiring illegal's to teach Spanish and brought Teach For America into the Dallas District. Sweeney voted to hire Hinojosa. Since that time, Sweeney has consistently backed every one of Hinojosa's initiatives, including bringing in the Teach For American and it's dumbing down agenda, applying for Race to the Top Funds (which Sweeney opposed during his campaign) and the $300k boondoggle to Orlando for only a handful of county school district employees while we're giving teachers furlough days and increasing class sizes.
I too, am very suspicious of any candidate endorsed by the CCAE or the NEA. I'd be equally leary of a candidate endorsed by the PTA.
The CCAE is not about education -they're about reducing teacher workloads. If reducing teacher workload results in watered down curriculum and dumbed-down kids, the CCAE will applaud.
Is this fellow, now trying to be a shadow board member? Makes you go hmmmmm in the middle of night. Good night pa, Good night John boy, good night all.
Also several years ago when McEachern was THE school to be in, attendance zones were shifted to the McEachern area to include the new larger homes being built. This attendance zone has created schools in the south part of the county with more homes in the lower price range. The Glover St. gang doesn't like to put it that plainly, but that is what happened.
It is high time that Osborne, Campbell, and South Cobb high schools received updated facilities. And by the way, I do not live in those attendance zones. I live in the North Cobb HS zone and we fought a long time to get updated facilities.
Read more: The Marietta Daily Journal - Around Town Cobb Bar doing its part today to promote patriotism
1. All the school posts are closer in equal population; that is why you redraw the political lines every 10 years.
2. It is not class warfare, it is an observation of fiscal and demographic realities. Harrison did need the repairs but with a decreasing population, the new building just will not be needed.
3. West Cobb has had 2 brand new high schools and other buildings constructed in the last few years.
Rather than make up information, I would suggest you really look at the facts.
Unlike you, many of us do not want to see our property taxes go up.
Finally, I am really beginning to think some people should have to take a simple test in order to be allowed to post or vote.
THANK YOU DR. WALRUS AND LYNDA.
We remember you out here and will show you at the ballot how little we appreciate your class warfare and disgust with our area of West Cobb.
Good Riddance to you Allison !
Cobb has a long history of neglecting certain areas in favor of others, and with diminishing funds, that has never been more evident than with the recent "re-vote" to build a new facility in a school with a declining feeder pattern enrollment.