u/A_Soporific

There's an opportunity to influence the city's Comprehensive Plan tomorrow. They'll be setting up a booth at the Kennesaw Farmer's Market in Depot Park from 3:30 to 7 PM. I am certainly going to go, but it would be better if more folks go as well.

I'll also be getting some sweets and stuff from the vendors at the Farmer's Market. There's also a couple of places that sell local meats that are worth checking out.

If you're interested in hanging out a bit do let me know if/when y'all are available.

It's a late assignment. I know.

Anywho.

We had a full house but two council members were remote. While they had to be asked to answer "yes or no" verbally instead of just raising a hand it didn't result in much of a problem.

First thing first, the Southern Museum staff showed up and showed off their medal. Apparently some Museum and Library Science group gives out five awards a year and the choochoo place downtown got one of them. Neat. Check out the trains the next time you got a chance.

Then the land use permit for a home embroidery business. The guy was there but I didn't get a chance to ask him about the name of the business or how to contract him. The term include no customers or employees at the house as well as no signs or noxious odors. The permit is valid for 24 months and was approved 5 - 0.

Next up was the Annexation, Rezoning, and Variance for the project at Old 41 and Robin. There had been objections due to traffic and density concerns. The lawyer for the developer said that they walked back a plan for townhomes to a neighborhood of no more than 35 single family, detached homes with a pocket park. They noted that the median new home price in Kennesaw was $800,000, while this development is targeting $400,000. They didn't do a traffic study, but the county won't even do one for a development of this size. They don't expect the 35 houses to add substantial traffic. But, in response to criticism they reoriented the development from being built off of Robin to having the only access off of Old 41. They would be adding turn lanes to Old 41 as well.

Councilman Jones noted that the developer had done good work in the past and ask if the houses being 1,200 sq feet was a good idea. The developer responded that that was the minimum size of house for the new zoning and they planned for the houses to be ~2,000 sq ft.

Councilman Bothers also expressed that he liked the developer in his capacity as a real estate agent, but was concerned over the variance. He had a big ass truck that would take up the entire 20 foot set back and believed that having a short driveway would result in people parking in the street. The developer said that they are prioritizing big back yards, the lot is a weird shape, and there is a creek that limits the buildable area. Also, the HOA will prohibit the use of the two car garages for storage and require parking inside the garage rather than on the street. Councilman Bothers repeated his preference for longer driveways.

Councilor Orochena asked if the city would be responsible for the roads, stormwater, and other infrastructure. The Public Works and Zoning people were a bit confused on this point. Turns out that the area is currently just outside of the city in the county, but that bubble of the county is disconnected from the county by the city. The stormwater and infrastructure will be the HOA's responsibility as they can't be made to connect to city stuff directly. Councilor Orochena asked if this would make the border gore better or worse. Staff replied that it would partially, but not completely, close a hole in the city and would make it make more sense. She then asked if the property taxes from the development would cover the costs to the city. That's a great question, and one that staff didn't know the answer to off the cuff but they also said that they didn't anticipate it adding additional costs due the small size and the fact that the road and stormwater are the HOA's responsibility overseen by the county.

They voted 5 - 0 to annex the land into Kennesaw. Then they voted 5 - 0 to rezone it from County R-20 to City RA-6 (smaller numbers are more dense). Then they voted 5 - 0 to approve the variance from a 40 foot setback to a 25 foot setback due to Councilman Bother's preference.

Next up are Liquor Licenses. It seems that someone complained, because they made more of a show of why they approve despite statutory limitations.

The first one was for the Chevron on Cobb Parkway. They're looking for a retail package license to sell sealed booze out of their gas station. This is within 600ft of a daycare. This would normally prohibit the license, unless it didn't negatively impact the daycare's property value or function. The evidence they used is that this is just a change in ownership of an operating business that has had a license since 2000. The daycare opened in 2006. The daycare would not be impacted negatively because the booze sales had been going on the whole time. This was deemed sufficient and they approved the license 5 - 0.

The Ignite Lounge on Cobb Parkway was looking to get a pouring license, so the ability to serve people drinking on site. This also needs a closer look as it is within 300 feet of a house. This license is to expand an existing business, so the house shouldn't be additionally devalued just because the Ignite Lounge is larger. This was deemed sufficient as it was larger.

The third one was the Smash Hit Catering over at the Nest on Cherokee Street. They are within 300 feet of a house and also the Kennesaw Police Department Annex. They don't have the excuse of selling beer for decades already as they replaced the now defunct Nest only a year or so ago, and how can they argue the police won't be impacted by the booze? Well JK doesn't matter, none of those restrictions apply in the Entertainment District. Councilman Bothers wanted to clarify one thing before the vote, do they do universal ID checks? The owner of Smash Hit was there and said that they will ID everyone every time. The license was approved 5 - 0.

So, Crime stats. Looks like 2026 is a crime-ier year than 2025 with 820 crimes to last year's 768 from January to July. Most of that comes from a big spike in drug crimes coming in with 56 more than last year. Other big gainers include Fraud (+18), Simple Assault (+17), and Porn (+12). We saw some big declines as well. The biggest losers were Larceny (-18), Intimidation (-14), Vandalism (-8), and Motor Vehicle Theft (-6). Traffic Citations were down ~15% while Traffic Warning were down 50%. Arrests were up. The number of pedestrians hit by cars with injury is more than double from last year at 7.

Next up, Public Comment.

History Kid was first. He investigated a map of Kennesaw that's framed in the mayor's office that shows a much larger grid than what exists today. He was able to confirm that the lots line up and determined it to be an original or copy of an 1871 plat map by Rowland Property, a rare piece indeed that gives a unique snapshot of the city very early in its history.

The Woodland Park Guy was next. Interesting note: that wasn't his truck after all. He talked to the guy from last week and they determined that it was his neighbor's truck after all. Anyways, on to his comments.

He said that he's been going to council meetings for 4 months now, and he's disappointed that other people (maybe me?) don't speak up all that often. He's tired of being made to feel like he's the problem. But he doesn't really want people to speak up for him, he wants other people to bring up their own issues and champion their own charges. He thinks that the only way this works is if there's real communication. Also, he would like to have the chain when it is removed from Woodland Park, please. He'd be happy to pay double for it. He wants that specific chain for sentimental purposes.

And that was it for public comment, the City Manager had a little bit to say. He wants to remind everyone that this Saturday (8/22) is the big concert at Depot Park. You can set up earlier in the day, but the music starts at 7PM. It's the RumorsATL cover band that does Fleetwood Mac for the most part.

Also, the Comprehensive Plan where the city sets its goals for the next decade is having its next public engagement meeting. This time it's going to be Thursday (8/20) at Depot Park from 3:30 PM to 7:00 PM. This will coincide with the Farmer's Market, so no reason to not do both.

Councilman Guiterrez-Leon was supposed to attend remotely, but a solid connection couldn't be made. So he was absent.

The first up is a Land Use Permit for 3786 North Hampton Drive. The folks there would like to do home embroidery. Because it's a low intensity use that would be invisible from the outside of the house staff recommends approval.

The next bit is a bunch of things to tow lots: 3227 Old 41 and 3137 Robin Drive. The plan is to annex a bit missing form the city, combine the two lots into one, and rezone it from R-20 (one house per 20,000 square feet) to City RA-6 (one house per 6,000 square feet). The plan is take two lots and turn it into a 35 house neighborhood. The location is just past Rutledge backing up to the Northwest Classical Academy, that private school that faces Cobb Parkway. Staff recommends approval.

The next bit is Alcohol License applications.

The first one is the Chevron Food Mart at 2057 North Cobb Parkway. They previously had a Beer, Wine, and Liquor license but there is a change in ownership with the new guy being the original guy. The place is within 600 feet of a Daycare, but the council can waive that limitation. Staff recommends approval.

Councilman Jones asked for more detail about why the license needed to be replaced.

The next one up is a pouring license for Ignite Lounge at 2655 Cobb Pkwy. It's that hookah lounge between Watts/Pine Mountain and Summer/Kennesaw Due West. They're well within 300ft of a house, but the city can waive that restriction if it doesn't bother the house.

The third one is Smash Hit Catering wanting a Pouring License. This is about 300ft from my house over where the Nest used to be on Cherokee Street. It's also too close to the Police Annex building, but all of these concerns are moot since it's in an Entertainment District so it doesn't matter. Staff recommends approval.

The Police Chief came up next to tell us the crime stats. Overall July 2026 is flat compared to July 2025. There was a big drop in Drug Crimes, and lesser drops in Burglary, Weapons Offenses, and Vandalism. There was a big jump in Simple Assault, and more moderate increases in Porn, Intimidation, and Larceny. Traffic Citations and Warnings were all down big, but we had two more pedestrians hit by cars which is very concerning.

The Police also got a "Big Green Machine" to fill tires with nitrogen to make them last longer like a decade ago. Problem: It broke. So they want permission to sell it for scrap.

The Public Safety Building is also taking longer than anticipated (it was planned to be ready end of June, but currently it is on track for start of September) and that means that the Architects are getting antsy as their contract ends in a week or so, they want an extension and another payday to stay on the job.

Councilman Bothers asked if we needed them to do work, and the answer is "probably" if something comes up in construction we'll need them. The councilman asked more about the timeline and why it missed schedule. Turns out that the foundation wasn't solid dirt as they found old trash pits that had been buried for decades that needed to be dealt with, and more recently the access road had to be completely redone when the original plan proved infeasible. Bothers then asked why everything comes in late and overbudget, and staff replied that the answer to that was above his pay grade.

Art and Culture was up next. They need road closures for the Holly Days festivities this December. They'll be doing a Holiday Parade on the 5th of December at 6 PM to coincide with the tree lighting. They also need one for December 13th for the Drone Show and such.

Councilor Orochena asked why they wanted "all of Cherokee Street" to be closed, as that would be an unmitigated disaster. Turns out that they only wanted the bit right in front of Depot Park., and that was a tyop.

Councilor Viars decided to recuse herself for the next one. She sold one of the houses in question years ago, and wants to avoid the appearance of favoritism or corruption.

Turns out some folks want to build a "Wedding Barn" on that triangle bounded by Dallas, Lewis, and North Main Streets. It's directly across from Kennesaw First Baptist. In order to do so they need to smoosh two lots together into one lot. The Mayor wanted to move it to consent, that is to approve it without a separate vote next week, but being down two members of council it could have been derailed by only one person. No one did the funny, though.

Now it's public comment.

Woodland Park Guy was the first one to speak. He started by telling Mayor and Council that he was 1/33,000th their boss and asked the City Manager to share the numbers of exactly how much the city spent on Woodland Acres. The Manager had previously said he would be glad to prove that the city spent big money on it months ago but never coughed up the specifics. He further pressed them on the chain barring access to the park and the promised town hall. He claimed the rest of his time and challenged the City Manager to respond. The City Manager did not, leading to a minute or so of increasingly awkward silence.

Mr. Mayo was up next.

He mentioned the chain, but he also said that he believed that the city was doing something about it behind the scenes. So while it's still a problem to people of impaired mobility like him that wasn't what he wanted to talk about. He said that he had a trash can for more than a decade. More than a decade of being filled with cat litter from seven cats and five boxes. It smells to the point of bothering his neighbors. He called the city to get a new one, and they said that as long that it works he can't get a new one. He said that it works. So they told him to break it. That got Mr. Mayo worked up, as doing so would be hugely wasteful just to satisfy a check box on some paperwork. He wanted this policy to be reviewed so he didn't have to damage city property to get the trash can swapped and rehabbed.

The Senior Center Set were here today, so a completely separate group than the traditional angry old people. They said that they don't oppose development and progress (much) but they thought that developments haven't been well thought out. All in the various new developments along Main Street from the Airport to the North Cobb Library are adding 785 more cars, and there haven't been any improvements to the road to handle the traffic. How is the City planning to handle this?

Finally there was a new guy. It was his first ever time attending a council meeting so he asked if he could ask questions. They told him that he could ask anything but they didn't have to answer right then and there. He had a bunch of questions. He didn't know that we were doing a Public Service Building and wanted to know why we were spending so much on it. He got enough explanation to get him to nod along. He also said that the opposed the removal of the chain. After all, he just moved into the house across and down a few houses from the park and there's this sliver truck that often parks at the Woodland Park that he can't see around. He doesn't want to just YOLO it and it's made him late for work before. The City Manager suggested that he call the police should it be creating unsafe road conditions, non-emergency if it isn't an emergency of course.

To wrap it up the City Manager reminded everyone that the Butterfly House at the Smith-Gilbert Gardens is closing next week. I HIGHLY recommend y'all check it out this week(end) before it does. That place is neat. There's also the Fleetwood Mac Tribute Band playing the Depot Park Amphitheater on the 22nd (two weekends from now).

After the council meeting the new guy and the Woodland Park Guy compared some notes. The mystery was solved. The truck that has been annoying the new guy belongs to the Woodland Park Guy. What are the odds. I'm hoping that they'll work it out so we don't hear about it again, but who knows.

Before we started the Mayor read off a explainer. While state law requires it to be advertised as a "tax increase" the floating homestead exemption keeps the taxable property the same year after year, so if it's your primary residence there won't be a tax increase. Unimproved lots, commercial properties, and rental properties might see a tax increase, though.

They voted on a base M&O rate of .775 mills (0.0775%). This is the same as last year. It was approved 5 - 0. They voted on a bond rate, covering the 2004 bond issuance to build parks and roads, of 1.4 mills (0.14%). It was approved 5 - 0.

They had a vote on the 911 console improvements. Kennesaw does a 911 call center for Kennesaw and Acworth, and they need an upgrade. When it first came up they got a quote and approved that quote, but inflation or geopolitical changes or tariffs made it more expensive in the interim. They approved the higher quote 5 - 0.

Next up was the pipe rehabilitation project. They'll be relining existing stormwater pipes to ensure that they don't fail catastrophically. It's pretty expensive at $319,000, but way cheaper than even one of these pipes failing and causing a sinkhole. They approved the contract 5 - 0.

Next up was the Cobb DOT asking for a piece of land. They want to build an extension of the Noonday Creek Trail and in order to bridge across Cobb Parkway in that wetland area between the boat dealership and the Kennesaw Station shopping center. The city voted to sell the corner of the lot for $7,200, and it was approved 5 - 0.

Next up was Public comment.

History kid was up first. The most common connection to the Congressional Medal of Honor was the Great Locomotive Chase, but that's not the only one. Turns out a fellow stormed a Confederate trench and captured 29 in the run up to the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, winning the medal independently.

The Woodland Park Guy was up next. He didn't appreciate notes being taken and people not making eye contact during his three short minutes. He would rather the Mayor engage rather than watching the clock on his three minutes, after all he could watch the clock himself. He was still asking about the missing documentation about how much the city spent on Woodland Acres after the city manager's comments. He asked when the chain will be replace with a bollard to make the place accessible to people like Mr. Mayo. There were a lot of questions that went unanswered. He invited the Mayor and council to use some of his time to speak, even though he knew they weren't obligated to reply. He noted that they could choose to speak even if they weren't required to speak, and used the silence effectively to underscore the point.

That was the end of public comment.

The City Manager and Kennesaw Police noted that there were a couple of events coming up.

Tomorrow, Tuesday (8/4), there will be the "National Night Out" at Swift Cantrel Park. It's a meet and greet for Kennesaw Police, Cobb Fire, and local EMS groups. The kids can get a good look at equipment, including a helicopter, and they'll be grilling and playing music. Event runs from 6 - 8 PM.

This Friday (8/7) there will be the First Friday Concert on Main Street right next to the 1885 and the Secret Tunnel to Depot Park from 7 to 9 PM. This time it is G Clef & The Playlist. They've played Kennesaw events before, and they're pretty good.

Finally the Amphitheater Concert Series is picking back up. This time it's in a couple of Saturdays (8/22) from 7 to 10 PM. This time it's Rumours ATL: A Fleetwood Mac Tribute, they have a bit of a following. If you happen to like that sort of music, do stop by.

They had the first of three public hearings for the millage rate. It was advertised as a "tax increase" due to state law, so there were quite a few people there ready with pitchforks. But they explained up front that they weren't changing millage rates and that the floating exemption meant that the only people whose rates were going up were people without homestead exemptions, rentals, vacant lots, and commercial property.

The M&O rate is the rate that covers most city services and will remain at .775, same as last year. The Bond Rate from all those loans the city took out in 2004 to cover needed road expansion and setting up the big parks at Swift-Cantrell and the like are still at 1.4, substantially higher than the base rate. We will finally pay off those bonds in the next couple of years.

Now on to the work session. The 911 call center project was quoted $116,000 and was approved for that amount, but the suppliers noted that for geopolitical reasons the cost is now up an extra $6,000. So, the city had to cough up a little bit extra to get the project going.

The public works folks bid out the Pipe Rehab project. They'll be adding a liner to existing pipes at places like Chastain Pointe, Collier, Emberwood, Bayswater, and Travelers Trail. The lowest complete bid was $319,000 so they got it. They had a healthy number of bids this time (13 in total). Councilor Viars noted a typo in the contract that needed cleaning up.

The county reached out about a piece of property. Turns out the city owns a right of way that goes in front of the marshy spot between the Park Marine boat place just past the Martin's on the one side and that Kennesaw Marketplace shopping center on the other. The county wants to buy a part of that because they're extending the Noonday Creek trail and will building a bridge over Cobb Parkway to accommodate it. The county needs a corner of that lot for access to the proposed bridge location. They offered $7,200 for a bit of land the city isn't going to be using any time soon anyways, so the city is going to let them have it.

Now it's time for public comment.

The Woodland Park Guy was first. He said that it had been a struggle to communicate. He spent a lot of time and money digging deep into things, but still not all questions have been answered. He's especially unhappy because he still can't get definitive numbers on how much the city has been spending on given neighborhoods, despite the City Manager's claim. He doesn't enjoy feeling like a troublemaker, but that's where he's found himself. He appreciates that the Mayor thanks people for making comments, but he doesn't feel like disagreement or hard questions are appreciated.

Mr. Mayo was next up. He really appreciated Parks employees still putting in the work, and he was excited by the conclusions that the council came to after the last discussion. He thinks the pavilion and barbecue space would go a long way to make the place a gathering place for the neighborhood again. But he really, really needs action on the chain. There are plenty of people with limited mobility that are struggling with that chain. He wanted to thank Councilman Jones for leading up the conversation. He also thanked Councilor Viars, Councilor Orochena, and Councilman Guiterrez-Leon for specific actions and stepping up.

And that's where it wrapped up. It went pretty quick given how much was covered.

The only thing on the agenda was crime stats. Year to date, from the start of the year, we had 703 class 1 crimes. This is up significantly from 2025, which had 655 over the same time period. The big movement was from drug offenses being up 63 more than last year. Other categories that were up were fraud (+19), porn (+9 for a total of 10 compared to last year's 1), and assault (+7). We had a few kinds of crimes that were lower, too. Larceny was down (-20) as was intimidation (-19) and car theft (-6).

As there was nothing else, it's public comment time.

History Kid wanted to tell us about Amy Carter and her time in the Lil General Cloggers, the Kennesaw-based dance group. In 1976 they performed at the Whitehouse, but that was probably because her father was then-president Jimmy Carter.

The Woodland Park Guy said he appreciated the consistency in the city. He was unhappy about the public facing meeting was canceled, even if it does seem that the city is acting. He got the records from the city and he was particularly unhappy with how the file that contained most of his communications was labeled "junk" and how the Mayor instructed people to ignore him. He was particularly unhappy with Councilman Bothers and his concerns about the safety of the Woodland Park location. He quoted Ferris Bueller's Day off.

Mr. Mayo was next to speak. He was encouraged by the last meeting and how much work the Park and Recreation folk over the past couple of weeks. He was, however, unhappy with the statement that the park was surrounded by woods and people couldn't be seen. The park is surrounded by houses. Over the weekend they tried to determine if they could hear someone yelling at the park from their house next door, and they could. He also pointed out that the source of danger cited (the motel) was roughly the same distance from Adam's Park, and he didn't think that Adam's Park was unsafe. He said that he had deep trust in the Kennesaw Police, and was concerned by how little faith the council had in them.

The Interim City Manager noted that the head of the Southern Museum was going to receive a medal of excellence from the national Institution of Museums and Libraries.

Oh, yeah, Interim City Manager. They went into executive session (where they discuss stuff in secret pertaining to real estate or staff issues) and came back to announce that they're hiring someone to search for a new City Manager. They're paying $24,500 for the job search because the current City Manager has announced he's retiring after about ~25 years on the job at the end of this budget cycle. Turnover in one of the most consequential positions in the city, it seems. An opportunity for a new direction.

Also, the Ben King Street project will be kicking off "soon". How soon? The signs that announce the date are already out, but they haven't been updated yet. They will be updated to announce the road closure in the coming days. Be ready for big disruptions and closed roads just in time for the new school year!

There was almost nothing on the agenda this week other than the discussion topics. The "almost" was crime stats.

For the first time in several months the crime stats for June came in rosier than last year. June of 2026 saw 113 Class A crimes, down from 122 in June of 2025. Fraud was up 11 from last year, but several other categories saw drops including Vandalism (-6), larceny (-5), weapons charges (-4), drugs charges (-4), and sex offenses (-2). Year to date we are still running higher than last year (703 so far in 2026 versus 655 in the same period of 2025).

The Woodland Park Guy spoke first. He brought a poster. He started off sarcastically thanking them for ignoring the graffiti, but some honest thanks for getting Parks and Recreation out there to do some work since last Thursday. He said that the discussion of the park scheduled for today should have happened months ago.

Mr. Mayo wanted to thank the Park and Recreation crew who came out to help fix up the park. Between the brush hog flattening the undergrowth, the park and recs crew, and the community clean up day the park looks as good as he can remember it being. The Public Works department go out and did some more work along the streets, which really made sidewalk more usable. His biggest complaint is that the chain is still up, which prevents him and his parents from accessing the park as they require it to be ADA compliant.

The fellow who organized last weekend's cleanup got up there and said that he really appreciate the city getting out there. He's excited by the progress made by city employees an volunteeers.

Dame Dobbs was next. She wanted to highlight that the place hasn't been as abandoned and neglected as her social media said. She had pictures of the city getting out and doing a cleanup in 2024, and a copy of the hand-written thank you note she sent with some council members that are no longer with us. You know, out of office. She wanted to shout out the work of previous city councils, and fight back against narratives that paint her neighborhood in the poor light.

A KSU student was next. He's a resident of Paulding County, but he goes to school at KSU and so would like to comment about Kennesaw. He is motivated by the Data Center situation in Marietta and wants the city to enact a limit of its own prior to the county moratorium ending in six months. He doesn't think six months is long enough to figure out the real costs and believes that city resources are stretched enough before struggling to figure something out in the face of a data center plan.

That's that for public comment and the start of first discussion item.

Councilman Bothers said that when he was elected he stated he wanted to name something after the outgoing Councilman Ferris. Former Councilman Ferris was a lifelong resident (except when he went to UGA) and was an elected official for 25 years in two stints. He always asked questions in the meetings and was a master parliamentarian who kept city business flowing. So, he figures that naming part of the Sardis Street Extension after former Councilman Ferris makes sense, especially since renaming only the block of Sardis he lives off of would only change his own address and no one else's. He stressed how cost effective this would be as they would be changing all the names anyways.

Councilman Jones chimed in saying that former Councilman Ferris really helped him when he started out and is down for naming something out of him.

Councilor Viars noted that former Councilman Ferris was deeply involved with the Museum and Cemetery, so if they name something after him it should probably be in one of those two institutions.

Councilor Orochena noted that former Councilman Ferris opposed the Sardis Street Extension project. She noted that it seemed like a backhanded compliment to name something he worked to oppose after him.

Councilman Guiterrez-Leon reminded everyone that we typically name things posthumously for a reason, not that there's any reason to believe that Former Councilman Ferris did anything wrong. He also believed given the former Councilman's affiliation with railroads it would be more fitting.

The Mayor summed it up by directing staff to identify something railroad or museum related to name after Former Councilman Ferris.

The next discussion topic was Councilman Jone's discussion about the Woodland Park and Butler Creek Park.

To start things off he said that he was out there on Saturday and got a real good look at the place. He thought that the old blacktop that had been a basketball court at some point could have the cracks filled in and be used as the foundation for a pavilion, he could envision a couple of benches and trash cans and a barbecue pit being added. He wasn't that big on a playground there. As far as Butler Creek Park, it had actually been closed since 2004, as opposed to being just chained off, so it would be a bigger project but even though it was closer to a creek and more likely to flood the Butler Creek Park seemed more suited to a playground.

Councilman Bothers came out and said that he didn't think Woodland Park was safe. At least, he wouldn't let his kids play there. He reiterated many times that it was recessed into the woods, that he couldn't see the park area from the road, and he didn't feel safe there. He said he could see it as a "walking park" with a trail, but he was categorically opposed to things that might cause children to congregate or hang out because he didn't think it was safe.

Councilman Jones reiterated that he didn't intent to propose a play set.

Councilman Guiterrez-Leong said that he thinks that we should speed up the town hall to as soon as it can be organized, but even before that he thinks we should swap out the chain for a bollard.

Councilman Jones said he wants to just skip the town hall and make a quick executive decision, or as quick as the process allows. He doesn't want to make changes to the park now only to have to redo them when the big plan comes through.

Councilor Orochena said that she and a couple of other council members went door to door with a survey and noted the results. The biggest thing was that most people weren't aware of neighborhood parks and wanted to discuss Depot or Swift-Cantrell. But after getting past that misunderstanding most people want the neighborhood parks to walk and have their kids play. The biggest barrirs were (34/53) the parks look to be in a state of disrepair, (30/53) they lack necessary amenities like "shade" and "places to sit", and (20/53) they seem unsafe. Common threads seemed to be that people didn't want a lot of flashy things, as they didn't want people from outside the neighborhood coming in to use the parks, but they really want a place to do things with their neighbors.

Councilor Viars also says that the chain needs replacing as soon as practical. She also noted that there's a motel very close to the park and the lack of visibility from the street. She prefers any play set to be at Bulter Creek as opposed to at Woodland. She was also concerned that this issue was taking up too much of the city's bandwidth, as there's a lot of other stuff going on but an issue for one neighborhood has been dominating the agenda.

The Mayor noted that because so many council members had been out knocking on doors that they nearly violated the Open Records Act. Whenever a quorum of the council (3 or more members) get together and do anything city related they need to document it as though it were a council meeting, to prevent shady stuff like agreeing how people will vote at a restaurant before a meeting and before hearing the people comment. He also went on to note that the council can't vote something at a work session, the most they can do is order staff to work up a proposal they can vote on at a regular meeting.

The city attorney confirmed that the most action they can get today was ordering staff to create a proposal that can be voted upon.

Councilman Jones clarified that he wanted to get staff to price out a pavilion, trash can, some benches and a barbecue area at Woodland Park. He also wanted Butler Creek reopened with amenities roughly equivalent to the new Kennesaw Station Park.

Councilman Bothers reiterated that he opposed anything more than a walking trail and benches as he felt the place was unsafe for children and doesn't want people gathering somewhere dangerous.

Councilman Jones then suggested that we add cameras to the parks as the new Public Safety Building would add the capacity to watch surveillance of the parks.

The Mayor, at this point, told the Woodland Park Guy to shut it. He was upset that the guy was chiming in during the discussion. Speaking out of turn seems to make the Mayor upset.

Councilman Jones got back on track, reiterating that the plan for the two parks. Councilor Orochena noted that the survey made it clear that the respondents wanted a small play set, so as to not tempt people from out of the neighborhood to turn up.

And so it was ordered for Parks and Recreation to price it out and make a formal proposal that can be voted upon.

Now it's the last discussion topic of the night.

Councilman Guiterrez-Leon wanted to discuss a moratorium or ban of Data Centers. He noted that there are already 165 in Metro Atlanta and a number of places have temporary holds on them including a number of nearby counties. The core of Atlanta (within 20 miles of the beltline) bans them as does Fayetteville. There are a lot of issues with them, he cited power bills, water usage, noise, and the lack of jobs. No Data Centers have applied within city limits yet, but he doesn't see a reason to wait.

Councilor Orochena asked how long moratoriums can last. She would prefer at least a year while they do research.

The Mayor noted that "data center" doesn't appear in any of the city's zoning.

The city attorney was then ordered to create a memo and do the research to do a moratorium. The city attorney believes that an outright ban like Fayetteville's will end up in court and might not survive but they will take the year to draw up something suitably restrictive that won't get the city sued.

Y'all. Watch the Video.

First up was a guy commenting on something on the agenda. This rarely happens, and it is a separate comment period than the normal one. This fellow wanted to complain about the liquor license. The neighborhood behind that shopping center is already a bit rough, they get break-ins sometimes and he's worried that a new liquor store there would be throwing gas on that particular fire. He also noted that when the shopping center was approved a condition of the zoning was no liquor stores, but that didn't pop when the city staff was doing the work. Was it not recorded properly? Did they say something to the neighbors that wasn't true to tamp down opposition? Who knows.

The next thing to come up was the Liquor License for Carni Spirits at 2953 Cobb Parkway, at Cobb Parkway and Mack Dobbs Road. They did all necessary paperwork and took the classes. Finance Department recommended approval. The business was within 300 feet of houses which is restricted, but that can be waived if the council believes that it wouldn't negatively impact them. The business owner spoke saying that owning a business was his life-long dream, that he is a veteran, and he wants to work with the city. The vote came up. It was 5 - 0 in favor of approval.

History Kid spoke about the bicentennial, 50 years ago. The cities in Cobb County decided to focus on local history. There were a few big efforts, the most visible one was updating Big Shanty Spring, on the site of City Hall and the reason why Kennesaw is here at all. Unfortunately, that work was redone into its current form in the 2010s. Bu that wasn't all. The event itself was marked with a Bonfire at the Depot and a "Trade Days" that featured a buy/sale/swap of homemade goods and historical artifacts. This also marked the genesis of the Big Shanty Festival, which is one thing we still have going on.

Now the fireworks start. The Woodland Park Guy came up. He handed out copies of e-mails and other documents to make sure everyone has them. He pointed out that staff had told him that repairs will be happening that ended up not happening. He said Councilman Jones promised a discussion that didn't happen. He hammered pretty hard on certain representations.

This got Councilman Jones to respond. Councilman Jones strongly objected to some of the things that the Woodland Park Guy said he said, particularly the use of racial epithets. This degenerated quickly with people talking over one another and voices being raised. I wasn't capable of keeping up with the notes and conflicting voices. Please watch the video to get a full understanding of what was said by whom.

Ultimately, I was present at the time and place that this happened but I cannot say that I heard the alleged statement. I wasn't directly involved in the conversation being nearby so it's entirely plausible that I just didn't hear it although I think I should have if it occurred as alleged.

Getting back to the next public commenter, Mr. Mayo was up next. He had questions. He wanted to ask again about the trail camera. He know it's the cities, but why is it there? Why hasn't anyone been willing or able to explain what is up? Why is the gate still chained off? He has limited mobility and the chain greatly restricts his access, as he requires ADA compliant access but the chain blocks the closest access to that. He highlighted his deep roots in the area, his family's involvement in the city for decades decades ago, and the historic disinvestment in the area. He wants that town hall where he can sit face to face with city staff and actually get his concerns answered as soon as possible. He still doesn't feel heard.

To wrap it up the city Manager wanted to thank the city staff for their hard work for the Independence Day festivities. Things went pretty well despite the estimated 15,000 attendees and weather. Councilman Bothers wanted to say that the city really came together to pull off the event. Councilman Jones said that he was grateful that the weather held off just long enough.

After the meeting I chatted with a few council members. The fireworks thing wasn't a result of the city cutting the budget so much as they didn't increase the budget and the cost of fireworks was much higher this year due to a spike in demand. Also, I have from several councilmembers that they intend to have a discussion on the Woodland Park next week, but the Mayor controls the agenda so there could theoretically be complications there.

Also, a community clean up of the park is being organized by the woodland acres folks who turn up to the meeting, one of their employers is sponsoring a dumpster, the dumping fee, the truck, and the sort of gloves that will let you handle glass safely. If you're on Facebook then check out their group if you're interested in volunteering this weekend.

Naturally Zoom only worked for Councilor Orochena. Councilman Bothers had to call in in order to ensure everyone was on the same page.

First up was an alcohol license. Carni Spirits will be opening at Cobb Parkway and Mac Dobbs. They're applying for package retail for beer, wine, spirits, and Sunday sales. Problem? They're within 300 ft of a bunch of houses on Summer Stream Lane. The city can approve it anyways if no one complains.

The police are reupping their deal for cooperation with Cobb County PD. It's a fairly standard agreement that the city seemed very familiar with. It got put on Consent, so it'll be approved next week with no further discussion.

The police also want to surplus a bunch of older cars as well. They're going to auction them on GovDeals.com first and then scrap them if they don't sell. There are 13 in all. 6 are Ford Interceptor Sedans, and four of them are being drummed out because they're north of 100,000 miles, but 2 are for transmission failures. 5 are Ford Explorers, 4 that hit that 100,000 mile mark where self-insurance no longer works and 1 with a borked engine. There's a Ford Fusion SE that's just hit the mile cap and Chevy Tahoe whose transmission failed. Then there is a Ford F-350. Do not buy the Ford F-350, it has "multiple points of failure" including interior water leaks, charging system failures, and "general condition".

The Devin's Shire townhomes on Duncan Drive want to update their plat because lot 29 was built a bit different than the plans had it. They'd rather fix it up front rather than get dragged into court about it later. It was moved to consent because it is mostly good bookkeeping and there's not a lot to actually complain about there.

Now it's public comment and the week off didn't cool off tempers any.

The Woodland Park guy was first off. He wanted to comment on the attempt to ban commentors from referring to staff or council by name, and was pleased that the initiative failed to pass muster. He was further disappointed that a council member (I don't know which) referred to some of the SeeClickFix tickets as "minor" when they were referring to anti-police and racistly prophane graffiti. He managed to get some of it off with his own power washer but couldn't get some of the vulgarity gone with his own tools. He wants the city to have better dialog, and is deeply disappointed that the Woodland Park Town Hall was pushed to November.

Another guy from the neighborhood followed up. He pointedly addressed the Council rather than the Mayor and Manager because he felt that the Council was the only group that heard him out previously. He then noted that there was a trail camera installed at the Woodland Park site and he couldn't get an answer as to who put it there and why. He found it odd.

The Mayo spoke next. He was also very concerned about the trail camera. Worried that it was found a nefarious purpose he contacted the Kennesaw Police about it, and they said that it is the same sort that Public Works uses sometimes, but he wasn't able to get an official response from the city as to why it is there. He also would like a town hall where people can sit down and really explain what is going on and why to him.

That's that for the meeting.

Oh, wait, SPECIAL BONUS MEETING!

It's the preliminary budget meeting for the 2027 annual budget.

The headline budget they're asking for is $35 million. Slightly above last year's, but not keeping pace with inflation so it's functionally less than last year.

There's a 2% increase in property tax that offsets the increase in the budget. In 2024 they reduced the tax rate from 8 mills (0.8%) to 7.75 mills (0.775%).

They plan on putting ~$350,000 in reserves and giving a 3% Cost of Living Adjustment to staff.

They want to pull a cool $1 million out of the general fund (not reserves) to do more roadwork in addition to the big projects ($3.5 million for the Cherokee Street project, $1.8 million for the Ben King projects, and the Sardis Street Extension).

Fees from developers is still real low. The number of new projects of either residential or commercial character is down again this year. So we're two years away from approving most the things that are in progress. Somewhat concerning, as developers are finding funding challenging.

They're going to up the fee for the Rec Center by $5/year and get them automated car readers to streamline the process.

Storm water is increasing by $0.50/year and the streetlamp fee is going up by $0.05. Both these systems have required expansion or replacement of large amounts so upping fees is necessary to try to catch up.

The city is looking to get $1.19 million from the county out thanks to new state laws shifting stuff around.

The Senior Tax Exemption is costing the city $1.9 million in 2027, up $300k. The City Manager doesn't seem super happy with it.

The various departments asked for 6 new full time positions and 2 new part time positions. The city manager intends to deny all such requests.

There's a couple of highlighted expenditures in the budget:

• They want new generators for city buildings so that work can continue during power outages.

• The police need license scanners and authentication software because digital driver's licenses are going to be a thing.

• The police are looking for 5 marked and 3 unmarked police cars to replace cars that wore out.

• Public Works is getting a hot asphalt trailer to allow them to do longer lasting road patches. The cold trailer they have is way cheaper, but they patches wear out quick when there are trucks and buses invovled.

• The Southern Museum is getting a new sign.

• The bathrooms in Adam's Park by the baseball/softball fields need to be ripped out and replaced in their entirety.

• The skate park at Swift-Cantrel Park also needs a complete overhaul.

• There's half a million for various deferred projects in Woodland Park.

• Knightsbridge, Kennesaw Springs, and Blackjack Estates will have their streets and sidewalks redone at the start of the 2027 budget year so this fall/winter.

There was more meeting, but I had to duck out about that point. You can find the full budget here.

Tonight (6/25) all the way out in East Cobb they have an outdoor movie night at the Avenue. Event kicks off at 6 PM. The movie is Alice in Wonderland the Disney Classic. Might be worth checking out.

Tomorrow (6/26) they have Guardians of the Jukebox, a 1980s style act playing at the Marietta Square from 8-10 PM. Seems like a date night sort of thing.

Alternatively, Friday (also 6/26) Cobb County is doing its big 250 anniversary event at Jim R Miller Park from 5 to 10 PM. They'll have vendors and family activities early and capping it off with a drone and light show after dark.

Seems like there's a bit of a lull before the big events for the 250th anniversary next weekend.

According to Councilman Gutierrez-Leon, the engineering for the Ben King and Cherokee Street projects should be wrapping up in the next month or two, so they will be ready for bids for construction in "late summer" or "early fall". Bids for construction should take a few weeks, but then there's nothing left but the physical doing. That means that there will be disruption during school, and we should all prepare for that.

The first thing is that the Mayor had a proclamation to proclaim. This week is Municipal Court Clerks Week, he claims. Our court clerks are among the first people come into contact with and the fairness they show people is essential to making the municipal court function. Hooray clerks.

The Mayor wanted to make another comment. He wanted to "clarify" the rules for Public Comment. He "reminded" everyone that he can remove people who are being rude or slanderous and ban them from making further public comments for 60 days. This can only be overturned by getting an 80% vote by the council. Four Council Members (not including Councilor Orochena), the mayor, and the manager signed on to a warning about the consequences of harassing city employees and a statement to the effect that it has been hurting morale among staff and causing a hostile environment. I haven't seen any harassment, but a much higher level of scrutiny than usual. While I can see how that could feel oppressive, even if staff isn't doing anything wrong, but I don't think that this warning will deescalate the Woodland Park stuff.

Speaking of staff, it's the final public hearing for the Capital Improvement plan. They worked out a plan that runs through 2030 to qualify for grants and what not. Council voted to pass it along to the Atlanta Regional Commission and State as required with a vote of 5 - 0.

There's a land use hearing for Summerlake Drive. A guy wants to do an engraving and gift personalization business out of his garage. Staff recommended approval provided that there would be no noise, vibrations, or noxious gases to bother the neighbors. This was approved 5 - 0.

1600/0 Old 41 came up again. This was previously pitched as a townhome community but the floodplain wrecked that latest of ideas. The developer rolled it back to mixed use apartment. The plan has 182 1- and 2- bedroom apartments, 5,000 square feet of office and coworking space, and a gazebo. Sidewalks will be required to connect with all the neighboring stuff, including the missing sidewalk on Old 41 down to Ridenour. Residents complained at the committee meeting, and committee approval is contingent on the existing curb cut not being used for cars.

The Walton Homes rep decided to speak up. He said that the property has been something of a white whale for them. He said that it's an "ugly" lot and not a good look for a "gateway" to be sit vacant. He also pronounced Ridenour as "Ride now". All access to the property will be through Ridenour by the Sushiology. He tried to rest on the developer's laurels as having built a bunch of stuff and lean heavily on the need for sidewalks on Old 41.

The council voted 4 - 1 to approve the rezone. Councilman Guiterrez-Leon was the sole no vote.

They also asked to reduce the minimum number of parking spaces by 64 to 337. They noted how restrained they are by how steep and flood prone the lot is, so saving that much space on parking would go a very long way to make the development viable. Staff noted that they can share existing underutilized parking, and so recommend giving an exemption to the development reducing the number of spots required from 1.75 per apartment to 1.5.

Councilman Bothers asked how much Ridenour parking was left unused since they're at 98% occupancy. The developer said that there was "substantial" underused parking, noting that he thinks that 1.75 spots per apartment was overbuilt to begin with.

The council approved reducing the number of required parking spots 5 - 0.

The mayor made some comments about how the sidewalk there was overdue and how he approves of getting that bit done.

Crime Stats were up next. Crimes were up to 130 from 105 last May. That drug crimes were up 24 accounts for almost all of the increase. Unfortunate. 911 calls were slightly down, and arrests were up year over year. There was one pedestrian hit by a car.

The police also wanted to surplus some trailers. Three to be precise. Two were radar trailers that were no longer functional and no longer supported by their manufacturer. One had been used to move around equipment that the city no longer uses and they didn't know what else to do with it. All three will be auctioned on GovDeals with a 5 - 0 vote.

Councilman Jones took the chance to tell the police chief that he really appreciates the police's Juneteenth celebration.

Now it's public comment.

History Kid said that Kennesaw once had a very active checkers club. He was skeptical at first because it was written about in the AJC on April Fools, but then the Marietta Daily Journal covered it a couple of weeks later so it's probably not a bad joke. The story was that Acworth had been hosting checkers tournaments in the 1930s and Kennesaw was their rivals, but it was more of a one-sided rivalry since Kennesaw routinely trounced Acworth in Checkers.

Up next was the Woodland Park guy. He said that he's down for deescalation but that needs to be a both sides sort of thing. He filed an open records request and noted that in some private meeting the Mayor had told the Council to not focus on the issue. He also noted that one of the council seemed to think he was stumping for next year's municipal election, something he insisted was very far from his intentions. He also noted that he's been getting more attention from Code Enforcement, which seems a bit like retaliation due to the timing. All in all, he just wants to be heard and seen and for it to at least look like the city is taking their neighborhood seriously.

Another Woodland Park neighbor, the one who went up two weeks pervious to complain this his parents with limited mobility were imperiled by damage to the sidewalk in front of their house, wanted to say that he really appreciated it getting fixed properly so quickly. But, he went on to say that he was concerned by how the Mayor tabled the park issue to November. He also didn't like how hostile the Manager had been two weeks ago. The Manager had said he had been spreading misinformation, but he noted that he hadn't gotten any information from the city and was working off of what he saw. Ultimately, he just wanted better communication, and hoped that the town hall that had been penciled in for November could be moved up.

But it seems not all Woodland Park neighbors want the park redone. One of the people who live adjacent to the park said that he remembered people coming from well outside the area, sometimes counties away, to hang out at the park. What else could they be doing but drugs and crimes? Also, there wasn't enough parking in the area for the neighborhood park to be put back as it was. So his vote is for no reinstallation of the park.

Another of the Woodland Park neighbors came up. He said that three of the council members had been canvasing the neighborhood (Councilmen Jones and Bothers along with Councilor Orochena). It was good they were out talking to the neighbors. But he's concerned that the good communication from them was being stopped by the Mayor. He noted that while the Mayor insists that Commentors don't reference staff by name, he and Woodland Park Guy get called out by name. He said that he'll be turning up week after week until the city makes a decision about the park.

A Kennesaw Drive resident came up to talk. She isn't part of the neighborhood per say, but she's close enough. She noted that the lot seems to be kept up better since people started complaining about it, and she hasn't seen or anything that would indicate a crime or drug problem there. She just wants better communication for everyone. She wants the town hall moved up as soon as possible, just to ensure that a decision is made with people's input.

Another resident came up to talk about Depot Park instead. She noted that and some friends had been by, and she was a bit unhappy with the design. She thinks it's too focused on big events like concerts and festivals and with no nearly enough shade, play space, or benches. She thinks that there are a lot of minor additions that would make the space far more useable even when there aren't any big events.

The City Manager didn't address the controversy, he was far too busy digging into the July 3rd festivities. The first concert starts at 5 and it rolls through the fireworks. City Staff will be stressed by the big 250th.

Councilmembers Jones, Bothers, and Orochena talked a little bit about the survey they did of Woodland Park. Turns out most of the neighbors generally though city services were adequate, noticing more work being done. They also noted that few residents recognized any of them, but did know the names of the city staff that has been doing work in the area. More work needs to be done, but getting the plans and money together will take some time. They intend to canvas the area again to try to talk with those they missed the first time through.

Councilman Guiterrez-Leon said that he'll give me an update on the big road projects on Ben King and Cherokee Street. They are definitely happening this year, but they won't be done before school starts up again in the fall.

They moved the Grocery Store thing to the end for good reason.

The first thing was the 2026 Comprehensive plan update. They're currently still working on the demographics and population projections based off of previous plans and the most recent statistics. The final draft will be in October, but starting in the next couple of weeks the website will open for public complaining and they'll schedule public outreach events.

The 1885 is getting their liquor license expansion to sell unopened wine for consumption elsewhere as part of the same transaction as a meal. Staff recommended approval, and the council agreed 5 - 0.

History Kid noted that Elanor Roosevelt visited Kennesaw in October of 1932. She was on a train tour for the election, but was needed in D.C. So the plan was to get off the train in Kennesaw, be whisked to an event in Marietta before being driven by the Mayor of Atlanta to the new airport. The problem? The Mayor of Atlanta thought the train was coming in a half hour later, so instead of going to that event in Marietta she spent time with us in Kennesaw before being rushed directly to the Airport by the Mayor of Atlanta.

The Woodland Park Guy was back. There was residual spice from last's week's snippiness. He didn't get all the follow up from the city about the city spending all that money on fixing up the neighborhood, but in the FOIA requests he made he got the deed to the now vacant lot that was/is Woodland Park. The deed shows that a former Mayor transferred the lot to the city for $10 under the condition that it be a park for whites only (it was a while ago) and would revert if ever not used for that purpose. He asked if the city was willing to risk ownership of the lot over this.

Another guy from that neighborhood said that he got a response, but it didn't break down how the city spent $1.4 million on the Woodland Acres subdivision (IIRC the city did budget $1.4 million for road improvement for three subdivisions including Woodland Acres this last budget cycle). He spent his own money on getting documentation in his own free time. If he can get these records then why is it taking the city so long to get them? He still feels that his neighborhood has been neglected, and the shortness of the Mayor and Manager haven't been helping matters.

Another neighbor of theirs said that she is glad that the neighbors are getting together, walking the roads to catalog all the potholes and crumbling storm drains, and really talking about how to improve things. But she's annoyed by the city's slow responses, while the others have gotten something from the city (even if it wasn't everything they were looking for) she hasn't even gotten a reply yet. She just wants to focus on the future of the city, particularly the park and roads. The park is still chained off, and the lack of communication and visible action is irksome.

Donovan Giardina (candidate for council, and runner of the farmer's market) wanted to talk about something else. He was wondering if the city could lower the speed limit on Paulding Street. It's a residential cut through that only goes between two city roads but the speed limit is 35. The entrance to his street is hard to see and people are going too fast to avoid collision. A lower speed limit or better signage would be most appreciated. Also, there's a possibility to change the timing on crosswalks to give cross walks a few seconds of go before the cars go, this would improve visibility for pedestrians without requiring a big investment in infrastructure.

The Mayor noted that the Mayor and Council don't have to respond to public comment, but the Woodland Acres people files 92 clicket tickets and 20 FOIA requests over the past couple of weeks. It's taxing the city staff. This is budget season and they had to pull people off of that to try to keep pace with the complaints. He wants to push the Woodland Park issues to November when the staff can be mobilized. But this statement was controversial in semantics, since the mayor referred to Woodland Park as "closed" when it is technically not, but it is chained off. But, in my take on this response is that the city is simply understaffed if there's not enough manhours to cover this amount of community engagement.

Anyways, here we are for the headline event. The El Ranchito Grocery Store hearing. I have 9 whole pages of notes. I will not be typing them up as spoken. Do refer for the video on the city website for the specifics.

Here are the facts as I understand them:

The Grocer divorced the Ex somewhere around 2001 and started the Grocery Store in 2002 at its current location on Cherokee Street in the shopping center with the Pizza Hut and Kennesaw Billiards. In December of 2024 KPD noted something that looked like a drug deal and pulled over both cars. One car contained the Grocer's ex, and 2 grams of cocaine. The Ex then verbally agreed to a search of the Grocery Store and handed over a key, where more cocaine was found. In March of 2025 the Organized Crime Unit of KPD followed up and executed a search warrant on the Grocery Store. No additional drugs were found, but they found sandwich bags, spoons, and scales all of which tested positive for cocaine residue. There was an arrest in April of 2026. In May of 2026 the Grocery Store went to renew its business license and was denied. The denial was based on an ordinance that required the revocation of a license if an owner knowingly allows drugs to be sold or consumed in a place of business.

After some 2 hours of testimony the council voted 5 - 0 to uphold the revocation.

It's clear there were drugs there, as drugs and drug accessories were found there. The grocer was evasive as to the question of when he fired his ex, and it turned out it was last week. Presumably that was about when he hired a lawyer, and if an enforcement action wasn't brough it is pretty clear that the ex would still be working there and (presumably) still dealing out of there. Based on that, the city didn't cut him any slack.

Personally, I think there was a path to a preponderance, though. It took way too long to get to any of this but I think it's entirely possible that he actually didn't know until the city denied the license. The store had four employees, but those were himself (and he was working two jobs and only showed up when asked to sign paperwork), the ex, and their two daughters who only showed up to cover shifts when requested. I though for sure that the scales and baggies being out and about in the break room would be the kill shot for him knowing, but people were only there when the ex asked them to be there. But what about the two arrests? Well, he seemed surprised by the cost of bail, so while his daughter paid bail it doesn't seem like he was up on any of the details. But what about the letters the city sent him? Well, I'm pretty sure he can't read English as he was unable to do so when prompted by the lawyers. I think that you could construct a plausible take that he was pretty negligent in letting his ex run his business without checking up on it but him simply not knowing because she (and a daughter) hid the drugs and arrests and mistranslated the letters. But, yeah, that wasn't the argument made and therefore the place is closed.

To wrap up, I won't be attending next week's council meeting and I won't be able to write something up based on the live stream because I'll be on a boat and without consistent internet access. Sorry about that.

Due to the Holiday we had the meeting on Tuesday. Also due to the holiday Councilor Viars was not physically present, so we had to make do with her disembodied voice for most of the meeting.

The Business License Revocation Appeal for the El Ranchito Grocery was the thing that I thought would be all the drama, but there was no real discussion this time. It seems that we'll get the whole thing next week.

The only public hearing was for the Comprehensive Plan update. It's required by the 1989 Georgia Planning Act to do an update every five years. Our due date is June 30th 2027. Next week we'll do step one, with a website going up that will allow residents to complain and propose changes to the comprehensive plan. The draft plan is due in November with the final plan projected to be done in March of 2027.

The 1885 Grill wants to upgrade their liquor license with a package license. This would allow them to sell unopened bottles of wine for later consumption off site in the same transaction as a meal. This is a new option, do interesting to see how that goes.

The 2028 SPLOST agreement is due as well. The County needs to set its final list and we need to sign on to the intergovernmental agreement to get our stuff on the list.

Speaking of necessary parts of the comprehensive plan, we forgot to pay the people doing the comprehensive plan. It just wasn't part of the thing where the city authorized the Placemaking Collective to make the plan, apparently people were on vacation. So we really should just pay up next week.

The Public Safety Building needs funding for their interview rooms, the visible cameras and hidden cameras and other AV equipment. All in it's $47,240 so it's a bit of money for just three rooms.

Public works came up with a crisis. A storm drain failed on St. Charles Lane and it turned into a sink hole. It's already doing damage to the street and private property as it doubled in size over the past two days, and with the continued rain we don't have time to wait. Rather than doing a full bid process Public Works is contracting with companies already on the payroll for $35,000 rather than paying much more with a delay.

At this point the power went out and we lost the disembodied voice of Councilor Viars, but the live stream was still up so she was still able to participate some other ways.

They wanted to surplus a Zero Turn Mower. It's only from 2019 but they worked it real hard. They'll surplus it to GovDeals.com.

3057 Main Street (AKA Townes at Cantrell) is doing their second phase, as approved by Mayor and Council in 2018. They'll be adding an additional 38 town homes, this is a final plat adjustment and sit it fits all the rules staff recommends approval. There was no discussion in the dark.

Similarly 1651 McCollumn Parkway is doing their final plat. The rezone from a single lot to 68 townhomes was approved back in 2024. Now they have all the stuff set up they're doing the final bit. It meets all the rules so staff recommends approval. There was no discussion.

Public Comment kicked off.

It's the Woodland Park guy. He said he's impressed by how responsive the council and staff have been. He also said that he wasn't there to call out specific people or anything. But he wasn't sure that the story he was told was accurate, so he filed an open records request and got all the police reports for the parks before they were closed. Turns out there weren't that many, and most was a neighbor crying wolf as repeated calls for suspicious persons resulted in no police action. He decided to wrap things up by trying to get the mayor to answer some questions on the record.

The mayor pointedly did not respond.

Another guy from the woodland Park Subdivision showed up. He wasn't there about the parks. He had deep roots in the neighborhood and moved back in part to keep an eye on his parents, who are of limited mobility and in their 70s. The sidewalk in front of their parent's place was damaged with all the rain after so long without anything. There was a repair done but it was clearly insufficient and restricting both his (he walks with a cane) and his parent's ability to get out and about. He very much wants a far more comprehensive repair. He wasn't all that heated, but there had been a decades-long sense of neglect of the area.

Councilor Orochena stepped in. People reached out to her about this and she went to see it in person and talked to public works. What's out there now is a temporary patch.

The lights came back on at this point.

The City Manager was getting a bit heated himself. He'd been working on it and felt accused. He pointed out that the patch job was necessary, but a more comprehensive repair required the county to come out and mark the underground infrastructure, something they won't/can't do until it's dry.

The guy said he didn't know and tried to lower the temperature, but he reiterated that he and his parents felt like they'd been overlooked for a very long time.

The City Manager was a bit snappy in the reply stating that the city spent $1.4 million in the neighborhood over the past few years adding sidewalks and resurfacing. I do remember them appropriating a similar number for the neighborhood over the past few years.

Another fellow in the audience (there were quite a few people there given how wet it was) was inspired to get up and speak. He wanted to defend his neighbors and demanded to know when the city spent that much and how it was spent. The city manager promised to send him that information. There were some tempers on both sides.

The Mayor wanted to go into executive session do discuss some matter pertaining to city employee(s), but Councilor Orochena asked about her discussion topic and extracted from the mayor that it'll be on the next work session's agenda. And that's where it wrapped up.

Seems like Councilor Orochena has been very active of late.

So, does anyone have any experience with them? They're going to have a hearing before the Mayor and Council on the 1st and I'd like to hear a little more about it. I have to confess that I've not been very often at all.

Reading the stuff in the meeting (which will be tomorrow) it seems that they're in danger of losing their business license because someone associated with the business got popped by the Cobb organized crime unit.

Sorry about that everyone. If someone else could cover that'd be great.

The first thing to come up was a fireworks permit. Supershow Fireworks want to set up a temporary booth in a parking lot. That of King's Liquor on 41 between Due West/Summer Street and Pine Mountain/Jiles. They moved it to the consent agenda, so it'll be approved without comment next week unless someone complains. All of that contingent on the Fire Marshall approval that hasn't quite come in yet.

There's a Hazard Mitigation Plan up next. The county (and all the cities therein) need to make a plan to handle disasters that will be submitted to FEMA every five years or so. The last time we did it was 2021, so it's right on time. There was no objection to making plans, so they moved it to consent for quick approval next week.

The police are going to be moving to their new digs pretty soon, as such they're clearing out the warehouses. In the warehouses there were a ton of old Motorola body cams that they no longer use. Rather than bring the body cams that have already been replaced with better models to fester in a new storage location they decided to ask permission to sell them off. They got approval to list them on GovDeals.com, the E-Bay of municipal governments.

The crime stats were up next and they're bad, like real bad. Last April there were 91 crimes. This year there's 132, like a 45% increase. Almost all of it comes from a big spike in drug offenses, fraud, and sex offenses. The only bright spot was a drop of arson to 0 from 1. Even the number of arrests is down, so it's not like they're catching more people overall. Things like this happen, I guess. Crime is still vanishingly rare, but it's a nasty little spike there.

The city's IT department needed to ask for money for the networking equipment in the new Public Safety building. The bids were handled under existing State of Georgia contracts and the money was covered from SPLOST money earmarked for the new building, so it was moved to the consent agenda for approval without further comment.

The old library being turned into a parking lot needs engineering work. Apparently $88,750 in engineering. Because the city believes they need the parking this contract approval was moved to consent.

The Federal Government issues Community Development Block Grants, and rather than the city fighting with the county and other Cobb cities for the money the local municipalities have agreed to apply together, guaranteeing that everyone gets a fair share of the money. The deal need renewal, so the city will be moving that renewal to consent.

For Parks and Recreation it's already Christmas time. The Holly Daze event is being planned, and since the drone show went well last year they're planning on doing it again this year. The show would cost $28,000.

Councilor Viars asked staff could do anything about the weather this year, in a humorous reference.

Councilor Orochena was more skeptical, preferring that the money be dedicated to lasting improvements. She noted that the city was becoming known for good quality shows, but those special events didn't seem to be helping the city after the shows end.

Councilman Bothers said that he thought that the last year's event was short. He would prefer a longer show if we are spending that much on it.

Councilor Viars said that the drone show is roughly analogous to a fireworks display in terms of cost. She thinks that it works well as a capstone to a day-long event and it can be better integrated into a larger event.

The Mayor was completely on board with the drone show and said as much. So it very much looks like it'll be approved next week.

Parks and Recreation want new lawnmowers for $27,000. They had a few mowers that were toned down. They actually need them, so that's moved to the consent agenda.

The Community Development Department is doing a Main Street Program. There's a few national groups that give out money for those that get accredited Main Street programs to maintain and improve things like the Marietta Square. We qualify for full accreditation for this first time this year.

Councilor Orochena noted that the qualifications require a "visioning event" of public outreach every year, to allow citizens input into the work done with that public money. She wanted to know if the event was scheduled for this year as she didn't recall one last year.

Staff said that they had one last year, but they haven't yet scheduled one for this year yet. It'll be some time in the Fall.

Councilman Jones asked more about the annual assessment and how to maintain and improve that accreditation.

Staff explained that they get a checklist and the other organizations will check up on them every year.

Now it's up for Public Comment. No History Kid this time.

The Woodlawn Park guy was here, though. The Mayor warned him to not mention by name any staff member this time other than himself and the assistant city manager. Despite that confrontational start, the park guy said that he had a good sit down with staff and they explained why the two parks in question had been downgraded, including going over crime stats and incident reports and how stepping up enforcement in the 1990s could have legitimately bankrupted the city. The decision made sense then, but those same conditions do not persist to today and he has a number of petitions and several hundred signatures for those parks to be restored.

After the meeting the Mayor said that he did a good job of keeping within the rules of decorum this time.

He wasn't alone in speaking on it. Ms Lion was there as well. She was raised in Woodland Acres, and she remembered the parks when they were still in good shape. She recently moved back after inheriting her childhood home, and was shocked by their current state. She knows there's a real desire for having those parks back, after all the neighbor kids are already playing in her yard adjacent to the Woodland park, and neighbors gather there as well. She firmly believes that having the benches, play set, and picnic area back would be a boon to the neighborhood.

And that's that. Sorry for the delay. There's some kind of ick going through my family at the moment and I just didn't get the post up last night.