The Windy Hill Road/Macland Road Connector project will create a new four-lane highway 100 yards from Milford Elementary School on Austell Road. The two-mile highway is intended to provide west Cobb motorists a more direct route to Interstate 75.
The school board gave its approval to the project on Sept. 24. In exchange for the school board's approval, the commissioners offered to make $1.2 million in improvements to the school, including a larger playground, a safer parking lot and sharing the cost of school guards.
Although the project has been a point of controversy in the community, no one spoke in opposition at Tuesday's meeting. The commissioners approved it unanimously on the consent agenda.
The board also unanimously approved the pension plan changes, which affect employees with fewer than 7 years of service and anyone hired after Dec. 31, 2009.
Virgil Moon, director of the Cobb County Support Services Agency and chairman of the Board of Trustees for the pension fund, told commissioners that the plan lost $69 million, or 21 percent, in 2008 amid the economic downturn.
"In the long term, our plan is not sustainable without major changes," Moon said. "Our goal was to come up with a plan that kept both the county and employee contributions affordable, and to reduce benefits as minimally as possible."
Current employees, though, now have until Jan. 31, 2010, to decide whether to switch to a new hybrid Defined Benefit/Defined Contribution Plan.
Chairman Sam Olens said the current plan is not stable in any economy, much less this year's suffering economy.
"The last time we changed the pension plan was 1998. None of us were on the board then, but basically the actuary we used missed the mark. We dropped from 95 percent to 69 percent in funding, which was a huge mistake. This is not a discussion of anything but having a sustainable pension plan. Barring anything draconian, this should be our final change to the pension plan," Olens said.
Commissioners also authorized Tax Commissioner Gail Downing to extend the due date
Another item on the consent agenda was an add-on item that authorized the Cobb County Tax Commissioner to waive, in whole or in part, the penalty and interest on ad valorem taxes for property owners who sustained flood damage last month.
County officials say Georgia law allows for such a waiver "if a reasonable cause exists."
Commissioner Helen Goreham said the events of the flood disaster were extraordinary, and therefore justified the waive of the tax penalty and interest for this particular event.
"After such a devastating event to some families who did not have flood insurance or are hurting financially as a result of the flooding, this will help these families by giving them a grace period on their taxes," Goreham said.
The deadline to apply for the waiver is Dec. 31, 2009. The property owner will be required to pay $50 toward current unpaid taxes at the time of filing for the waiver of penalty and interest.
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