ONCE BITTEN, TWICE SHY, as the saying goes. Well-placed courthouse sources say the county board of commissioners want to ask voters to continue the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax collections, which are to end on Dec. 31, 2011.

But the question is when. And having nearly seen one road/jail/court SPLOST bite the dust because of voter disgust with the doings of the Cobb school board, well-placed commission officials tell Around Town that they are determined that their upcoming vote to reimplement the SPLOST not coincide with the school board elections in November.

The November ballot had seemed like the right time to put SPLOST to voters. There are no countywide elections scheduled in 2011, and voters tend to look harshly at spending $500,000 to schedule a special election for referendums and SPLOST elections.

But three Cobb School Board seats will be decided this Nov. 2, and with that group continually mired in toxic controversy, county folks want to stay as far away as possible. The board and Superintendent Fred Sanderson have managed in recent years to hack off parents, taxpayers, school bus drivers, grand jury members and many others with a series of controversies that have included an unpopular new-style report card that many say dumbs down the system; approving a new school calendar that begins Aug. 2; a secret pay raise for Sanderson; slashing the number of school bus stops on the eve of the start of the current school year; and more than 50 votes in secret by the board in violation of the state's sunshine laws.

"This board's book bag is completely empty of credibility," said one school board watcher on Friday.

Voter disgust with the school board nearly sank the current road SPLOST when it was put before voters in September 2005. It passed, but by a scant 114-vote majority out of 40,000 votes cast.

That vote came less than two months after Cobb Superior Court Judge Lark Ingram halted the Cobb School Board's $100.8 million plan to put take-home laptops in the hands of every middle and high-school student. The school board, under the direction of then-Superintendent Joe Redden, had wanted to use the school district's own SPLOST II revenues to pay for the laptops. But there was just one problem: That's not how the SPLOST question had been put to voters.

To quote Ingram's order on that subject: "Funds from SPLOST II's technology initiatives cannot be used for the one-to-one laptop initiative like Power to Learn Laptop because fair notice of such use was not given to the public when the referendum was held."

Plenty of citizens around the county were so infuriated with the school board's shenanigans that the debacle threatened to derail the county's referendum, even though the county's SPLOST is entirely separate from the school SPLOST and the county commission has no control over the school budget.

If the county officially decides to put a new SPLOST referendum to voters in 2011, a special election will be required. That would cost about $500,000, making it less than ideal for SPLOST supporters.

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IS DEANE BONNER about to turn over the gavel after a dozen years as president of the Cobb NAACP? “No comment,” she slyly said when asked by AT this week. But Ms. Bonner will be the honoree at the county’s first Diversity Dinner Feb. 12 at Chattahoochee Technical College in Marietta. States the invitation, “You are invited to roast, toast and honor Deane Thompson Bonner, a woman among women.” Among those expected to take part in the “roasting” at the event are Chairman Sam Olens, Commissioner Tim Lee, County Manager David Hankerson, state Rep. Alisha Thomas-Morgan, former Marietta school board member Pam Flournoy, Edward Dubose and Jesse Bonner Jr. For more info, contact Ellen Spiceland at (770) 618-5125.

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THE FIELD OF CANDIDATES seeking to succeed Tim Lee as the District 3 northeast Cobb representative on the Cobb Board of Commissioners has shrunk by one. Attorney Steven Ellis announced this week via a posting on Facebook that he is no longer a candidate and urged that his supporters should instead back candidate Earl Stine, an IT consultant. Also still in the race are Waste Management Corp. community relations director JoAnn Birrell and architect Stephen Moon.

Lee plans to resign to seek the commission chairmanship after incumbent Olens resigns this spring to run for state attorney general.

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MEANWHILE, THE FIELD OF CANDIDATES hoping to succeed Cobb State Court Judge Beverly Collins, who is stepping down, continues to grow.

The latest to announce his candidacy is Reuben Green, a former assistant district attorney appointed by Cobb District Attorney Pat Head to Cobb Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs’ courtroom and now a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Atlanta. His wife, Heidi Green, is a deputy commissioner for global commerce with the Georgia Department of Economic Development. The couple lives off Whitlock Avenue in Marietta and has two children.

Also running for Collins’ seat are Rebecca Keaton and Jason Fincher.

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JUST LIKE THE SWALLOWS returning to Capistrano, or “General Lee” checking his shadow on Groundhog Day, former State Rep. and current Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Kenneth O. Nix made his annual pilgrimage to the Georgia Legislature Tuesday. He served in the state House from 1973-82. And every year for 28 years, since he left the legislature to run for judge, he has returned to visit.

Nix was a Republican “before it was cool to be a Republican,” and was the first Republican legislator to serve more than one term in the legislature, and was the first Republican ever to be chair person of the Cobb Legislative Delegation. Only about a dozen (out of 180) legislators from Nix’s era are still there.

Nix administered the oath of office to the first Republican Majority in the House of Representative in 2005. In addition to him serving in the 70’s and 80’s, the judge enjoys working with and visiting other legislators he has come to know since then, including members of the Cobb delegation, Speaker David Ralston and Rep. Jerry Keen of Saint Simons. During the 1970s, Keen and Nix coached eighth grade football against each other in Cobb County. Last Tuesday, as they were swapping football stories, Keen admitted that Nix “whipped up” on him several times.

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HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY to Jim Rhoden, owner/operator of the Georgian Club and several other posh clubs in metro Atlanta. To celebrate his big day, his friend, Chef Gino, from one of Florence, Italy’s classiest restaurants, staged a multi-course authentic Italian dinner with specially selected vino to honor his friend at the Georgian Club.

On his annual visit to the Rhodens and the Georgian Club, Chef Gino also puts on cooking classes and special dinners for Georgian Club members.

Chief’s Gino love affair for Marietta and Cobb is evidenced at his I’cche Ce Ce Trattoria in Florence, where a carved wooden Big Chicken greets diners to his popular Florence bistro.

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THE TAKEOVER by the Marietta Museum of History of the assets of the Aviation Museum and Discovery Center will be finalized at a 10:30 a.m. ceremony Tuesday at the Chesley-Brown offices of history museum board chair Brent Brown. The history museum voted in December to acquire the aviation museum’s assets after the latter hit financial difficulties and seemed unlikely ever to break ground on its planned facility.

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MARIETTA COUNCILMEMBER VAN PEARLBERG received the prestigious Certificate of Recognition from the Georgia Municipal Training Institute at the Georgia Municipal Association’s Annual Mayors’ Day Conference in Atlanta on Jan. 24.

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THIS AND THAT: The Cobb Democratic Women will meet Feb. 11 at 6:30 p.m. at House of Lu, 89 Cherokee St. Speaker will be the new director of the Cobb County Transportation Agency Fay diMassimo who will talk about local transportation issues and the impact of mass transport on the community. Dinner will be buffet. Cost is $9.95. RSVP to RuthE Levy at (770) 650-1106 or Levyruthe1@juno.com. Jane Bradshaw, president of the Georgia Young Democrats, will speak at the meeting March 11 at House of Lu.

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THE ANDREW HOUSER CHAPTER of the Daughters of the American Revolution will meet at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 13 at the Parc at Piedmont, Hood Road in Marietta, to hear a program about “Patriot Valentine Leonard.” For more information, call (770) 974-4832.