Credit Union of Georgia is hosting an online raffle to raise money for local charities in the community of Northwest Georgia. There are four amazing Easter Baskets for four lucky winners to choose from! The last day to purchase raffle ticket is Thursday, April 6, 2023. The Easter Baskets can be viewed on the Credit Union of Georgia Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/CUofGA.
“We love supporting our local charities. We are a community-based Credit Union – and if we aren’t doing something to help better our communities, then we’re not doing enough.” said Brian Albrecht, President/CEO of Credit Union of Georgia. “Help us help our community by purchasing a raffle ticket to win one of our four amazing Easter Baskets we have up for grabs!”
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
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Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Sewell Mill Library historical exhibit will include a rendering of the original Wheeler High School campus from 1964.
The Sewell Mill Library and Cultural Center is celebrating its 5th anniversary this year (our story from opening day in late 2017) with a special exhibit of historical photos of the community.
Starting Thursday, April 6 and running through May 13, the center’s art gallery will exhibit scans of historic photos of the Marietta and and East Cobb communities, featured in three large wall collages.
The Cobb County Public Library System said that “drawn from local archives and private collections—including the library!—the images invite you to step back in time and get a sense of the deep roots in Sewell Mill’s neighborhoods.”
Bruce Thompson, the branch manager for the Sewell Mill Library who had a similar position with the former East Marietta Library, provided the photos and had this to say about the exhibit:
“These images will introduce the historic neighborhoods around Sewell Mill Library & Cultural Center to newcomers—and to each other. I’ve solicited and scanned photos and newspaper clippings from Kennesaw State University Archives, Marietta History Center, various local places of worship, and Cobb Library’s own wealth of historic images. The exhibit will include familiar scenes and maybe some that are less so, even for long-time residents.”
The exhibit will be open during regular library hours: Monday-Wednesday 10-8, Thursday-Friday 10-6, Saturday 10-5.
All Cobb library branches will be closed on Good Friday, April 7, and Easter Sunday, April 9. They will be open Saturday, April 8.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
An update to our story from Monday about Republican John Cristadoro, who’s seeking the Post 5 Cobb Board of Education seat currently held by David Banks and whose term expires in 2024:
Among those on the steering committee are Scott Sweeney, who represented the East Cobb area for two terms on the school board from Post 6 (Walton and Wheeler attendance zones) and Cindy Cooperman, a leader of the Committee for East Cobb Cityhood group.
The committee chairman is John Loud, owner of Loud Security Systems and a former president of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce.
Other committee members include Mitch Rhoden of East Cobb, head of the Futren Corp., which manages the Indian Hills Country Club; Rob Stearns, a longtime media executive and former director of the East Marietta Basketball League; Jonathan Page, a former candidate for the Cobb Board of Commissioners; David Walens, an exhibit and event industry CEO and a trustee of Kennesaw State University; and former Lassiter High School quarterback Eddie Printz.
Cristadoro confirmed to East Cobb News Thursday he will be making a formal announcement of his campaign Saturday at the Cobb Republican Party breakfast.
On his website, Cristadoro said in a video that his campaign theme would be “passion, precision and purpose,” delivered with sports theme.
Involved in the Walton youth football and wrestling programs, he’s seen holding a football and acknowledging his love of sports.
“As your Cobb County school board member, I will be bringing these three elements to the table each and every day,” he said.
“The quality of classroom instruction must always be our number one goal.”
He references that subject as among his top priorities, along with school safety, maintain the Cobb schools senior tax exemption and continuing the Cobb Education SPLOST (Special-Purpose Local-Option Sales Tax) and fostering entrepreneurship in educational programs.
Cristadoro is an Army veteran who is president of Alliance Tax Solutions, which helps businesses resolve tax issues. He and his wife Gosia have two children in the Walton attendance zone.
Post 5 was redrawn last year to include the Walton and Wheeler zones, along with the Pope zone. Banks, a Republican who is in his fourth term and is the current school board vice chairman, hasn’t announced whether he’ll seek re-election.
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Mountain View UMC of East Cobb said it was denied a disaffiliation vote by the North Georgia Conference in January.
A total of 186 Georgia congregations of the United Methodist Church—including one in East Cobb–have filed a lawsuit seeking the restoration of a disaffiliation process that was halted at the end of 2022.
Mountain View United Methodist Church, located on Jamerson Road, is listed as a plaintiff in the suit, which was filed Thursday in Cobb Superior Court.
Several other Cobb County UMC churches also are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, whose attorneys also have filed a motion for an emergency hearing before Judge Kellie Hill.
The suit alleges that the UMC’s North Georgia Conference, which oversees nearly 900 churches, improperly closed down the disaffiliation process on Dec. 28, 2022, “leaving tens of thousands of Christians begging for the process to get back on track,” according to a release issued with the lawsuit (you can read it here).
Former North Georgia Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson—a central figure in the conference’s dispute with Mt. Bethel Church in East Cobb in 2021 and 2022—is named as a defendant, along with her successor, Robin Dease, the conference board of trustees and several conference district superintendents.
The conference said in December that the disaffiliation process needed to be paused because “many local churches have been misled about the disaffiliation process and have been presented with information about the process, and about The United Methodist Church and its leadership, that is factually incorrect and defamatory.”
Without giving specifics, the conference said that “this information presented to members of local churches about disaffiliation has been outside the bounds of normal and acceptable civil discourse. It has not only been false and misleading but has been antithetical to the concept of a gracious exit or a commitment to honoring the mission and ministry of all Christians.”
In the lawsuit, the suing churches said that the conference is violating the UMC’s Book of Discipline governing documents by stopping the process, and that the current disaffiliation process will be sunsetting at the end of 2023.
The UMC enacted a disaffiliation process in 2019 for conservative churches to leave the denomination under Paragraph 2553 of the Book of Discipline.
That provision allowed departing churches to keep much of their property and assets.
The UMC has been split for years on a number of theological issues, especially over human sexuality. The nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination does not currently allow for lesbian and gay clergy or same-sex marriages in the current Book of Discipline, but that is expected to change.
A formal protocol was to have been voted on at the UMC General Conference in 2020, but that was cancelled due to COVID-19. The conference has been further delayed to 2024.
“The United Methodist Church website specifically states that when General Conference 2024 meets Paragraph 2553 will not exist and therefore, it is not possible to ‘extend’ a provision that does not exist,” the lawsuit states.
“Further, there is no legislation presently before the General Conference to create a new or similar Paragraph 2553.”
In the release, Pastor John Kenney of The Quest Church, in Grovetown, Ga., one of the plaintiff congregations, said that “churches in North Georgia that want to disaffiliate using the previously approved process are stuck.”
The release also claims that only the North Georgia Conference is preventing formal disaffiliation procedures.
In response to a message from East Cobb News, the North Georgia Conference repeated some of its December explanation for pausing the disaffiliation process, saying that conference leaders “have significant concerns about this misinformation and are well aware that it has the potential to do irreparable harm.”
Dease said that “conference leaders remain committed to handling this matter in a fair, transparent, uniform, and good-faith manner that affirms the one universal church in service to Christ and honors the mission and ministry of all Christians” and that they “are prayerfully exploring the best methods for moving forward and next steps available as set forth in the Book of Discipline.”
Among the churches in limbo is Mountain View UMC of East Cobb, which began a discernment process last fall it calls “The Path Forward.”
Meetings were held to offer members viewpoints for and against disaffiliation. A straw poll in January revealed that nearly 80 percent of voting Mountain View members wanted to leave the UMC.
At the same time, that timelines states that conservative Wesleyan Covenant Association—of which Mt. Bethel is a leading member—was denied a meeting with Dease, who in January succeeded Haupert-Johnson, now a bishop in Virginia.
The WCA and its new Global Methodist Church denomination began working with the National Center for Life and Liberty, a conservative, Florida-based religious liberty organization, to “to assist North Georgia legal strategies,” according to the Mountain View timeline.
In February, Mountain View agreed to become part of the lawsuit, which includes some 70 churches that were allowed to formally disaffiliate in 2022.
Mt. Bethel attorneys said they wanted to have a disaffiliation vote, but the conference rejected that option.
Mt. Bethel is prevented from selling properties on its main campus on Lower Roswell Road for seven and a half years without giving the UMC and the North Georgia Conference the right of first refusal to purchase them.
Mt. Bethel also cannot house a denominational office on its grounds on the main campus for that period of time.
Mt. Bethel formally left the UMC in July 2022 without a vote, and some former disaffected members began a new church, Grace Resurrection Methodist Church.
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We got a lot of interest from our story last week about the start of the spring Music in the Park concert series at East Cobb Park.
Sunday was to have been the kickoff event for the four-concert series with the local duo The Woodys, but the Friends for the East Cobb Park said Thursday that’s been called off due to an illness in the group.
“Their performance will be rescheduled to a later date this spring,” the Friends group said in a social media message. “We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or dashed hopes—we were looking forward to it too!”
The other scheduled concerts are April 16, April 30 and May 21.
The Friends group also will begin a new feature next month called Movies in the Park, in which a family-friendly film is shown on a large screen near the pavilion.
Group president Kurt von Borries tells us they’re still working on finalizing a date for that event, but the film is “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” starring Tom Hanks.
That film series is sponsored by the Rotary Club of East Cobb.
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Rabbi Albert Slomowitz, Jewish Christian Discovery Center
Local Jewish and Christian leaders will hold an interfaith service at the Catholic Church of St. Ann Monday as their religions mark high and holy observances.
Rabbi Albert Slomowitz of the Jewish Christian Discovery Center will lead the service, along with Father Ray Cadran of St. Ann and Pastor Michael Tutterow of Heritage Baptist Church in Cartersville.
Christian Holy Week begins on Monday, and Passover in the Jewish faith begins Wednesday.
“In a time of increasing antisemitism and intolerance, the three interfaith clergy believe it is vital to show religious unity and peace,” according to a release from the Atlanta-based JCDC.
Each worshipper will be given a piece of matzah, which Jews eat during Passover to commemorate their exodus from Egypt.
The matzah will be broken into smaller pieces as participants pledge a commitment “to reject hate and embrace love of one’s neighbor regardless of religious belief.”
Congregants will burn the smaller pieces in an outdoor firepit, symbolizing the eradication of religious intolerance, and will have group discussions on the subject.
Slomovitz, who met with Christian leaders at St. Ann and Mt. Bethel Church over the Christmas holidays, said that “we are living in unprecedented and sad times with age-old stereotypes and hatred against Jews reemerging. It is vital that we come together as Jews and Christians and embrace God’s commandment that we love one another.”
This special service, he added, “will bring strangers together from many faiths and give them an opportunity to share in the symbolic act of rejecting hatred through the breaking of a large piece of matzah and then commit themselves and their families to ‘love they neighbor.’ ”
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Cafe Rivkah, newly opened at the Pavilions at East Lake, will be at the Taste of East Cobb.
We’re about six weeks away from the Taste of East Cobb, and the 2023 festival restaurant lineup includes a few newcomers.
A total of 22 restaurants and food service providers have been announced thus far, including some familiar places: Alumni Cookie Dough, Drift/Seed, Camps, Chick-Fil-A Woodlawn, McCray’s Tavern, Mediterranean Grill, Righteous Que and Smallcakes.
Among the new participants are the Green Coyote, run by Camps ownership that replaced Moxie Taco, the New York Butcher Shoppe at The Avenue East Cobb, and Cafe Rivkah.
The latter opened earlier this month at the Pavilions at East Lake, serving breakfast and lunch with Mediterranean and European cafe fare.
You can see the full list of Taste of East Cobb restaurants by clicking here.
The Walton Band Parents Association, which is organizing the festival, is accepting applications for sponsors and vendors through April 7, next Friday. You can find out more about that by clicking here.
East Cobb News will be a sponsor of the Taste of East Cobb for the first time, and we’re looking forward to it!
Other sponsors include Johnson Ferry Baptist Church, Custom Disposal, Atlanta United Football Club, the EAST COBBER and Harry Norman Realtors.
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Wheeler’s 11 Georgia Scholars students were the most for any high school in the state.
Sixteen students from three high schools in East Cobb were named Georgia Scholars for 2023 this week by Georgia School Superintendent Richard Woods.
Georgia Scholars are identified by the state Department of Education as “seniors who have achieved excellence in school and community life” and they receive a seal with that designation for their diploma.
“Georgia Scholars carried exemplary course loads during their four years of high school, performed excellently in all courses, successfully participated in interscholastic events at their schools and communities, and assumed leadership roles in extracurricular activities sponsored by their schools.”
The class of 2023 has 154 Georgia Scholars, and Wheeler High School in East Cobb has the most for any single school, with 11 in all.
Walton High School has five Georgia Scholars this year, and Lassiter High School has one. The only other school in the Cobb County School District with Georgia Scholars is Hillgrove High School, which has three (full list here).
“I wish them continued success as they embark on their futures, including plans for after high school and beyond,” Woods said in a release. “I know they’ll continue to make us all proud.”
Lassiter High School
Arsh Ali
Walton High School
Brian Michaels
Sri Dhanya Muppalla
Elise Park
Kanishka Sindhwani
Tianyue Xu
Wheeler High School
Natalie Ajemian
Yusra Azeem
Samantha Carlsen
Misha Gupta
Pooja Kanyadan
William Kramer
Mohnish Mara
Rhett Morgan
Dhanya Naik
Srinandan Polavarapu
Katie Swanson
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The following food scores for the week of March 27 have been compiled by the Cobb & Douglas Department of Public Health. Click the link under each listing for inspection details:
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Rabbi Larry Sernovitz at Temple Kol Emeth’s 2021 Yom Kippur service.
After three years, Rabbi Larry Sernovitz of the Temple Kol Emeth synagogue is leaving.
In a video presentation and an e-mail to the congregation on Tuesday, Kol Emeth President Jodi Roberts said Sernovitz will step down effective June 30 to become the chief executive officer of Hillels of Georgia, which works with undergraduate students at 24 colleges and universities in the state.
Speaking with congregation members and retired Kol Emeth Rabbi Steven Lebow behind her in the synagogue sanctuary, Roberts said that Sernovitz is taking a “dream job” and that “and we support him in making the best decision for his family. We are excited that he and his family will continue to be members of the Temple Kol Emeth family as they have become an integral part of our community—community they have come to love.”
Sernovitz was not in attendance but spoke in a recorded message from an unspecified remote location.
“It has been an incredible three years,” Sernovitz said. “We have gotten through COVID, we have raised enough money to pay off the mortgage, we have doubled the size of our religious school, stabilized our finances. We are in amazing shape.”
He said that the opportunity with Hillel “is not something I looked for, but it’s chance of a lifetime to make an impact on the frontlines of the Jewish community.”
Sernovitz was tapped to succeed Lebow, the Reform Jewish congregation’s first full-time rabbi, in 2020. Sernovitz came to Kol Emeth from Cherry Hill, N.J., where he was a police chaplain and was a rabbi for non-affiliated Jews.
Several months into his tenure, Sernovitz presided over a community response to several anti-Semitic incidents, including swastika graffiti posted in an East Cobb neighborhood in 2020 and swastikas spray-painted at Pope and Lassiter high schools in 2021.
He spoke to Pope students and invited then-Cobb school board chairman Randy Scamihorn to Kol Emeth’s Yom Kippur service, where he held the Torah.
Sernovitz continued the long-standing Ecumenical Thanksgiving Service begun by Lebow. At the 2022 service, Sernovitz delivered a reflection that sharing fellowship across many faiths isn’t enough.
“This isn’t a show. This is a call to action.”
In recalling the tale of Abraham smashing idols, he said that “we live in a world that still worships idols . . . and doesn’t value people like we need to.
“Our faith has to stand for something. If our faith doesn’t stand for humanity, it’s not faith, it’s politics.”
Roberts said that Kol Emeth will appoint an interim rabbi while it searches for Sernovitz’ successor, a process that could take a year.
“We have a strong leadership team that will guide us into this exciting new phase at Temple Kol Emeth,” she said.
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Larry Savage of East Cobb and Cobb Commissioner Keli Gambrill
The Cobb County Attorney’s Office has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit over Cobb Board of Commissioners redistricting filed by a commissioner and an East Cobb resident.
In a brief submitted March 16 in Cobb Superior Court, Cobb Senior Associate County Attorney Elizabeth Monyak said that the lawsuit was improperly filed against the county government and the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration.
Monyak argued in her brief that’s a violation of the waiver of sovereign immunity in the Georgia Constitution, and cited a Georgia Supreme Court decision earlier this month.
The waiver bars lawsuits against the state and its employees in their official capacities unless a statute or the constitution waives that immunity. Specifically, it bans suits against multiple government agencies.
Gambrill and Larry Savage of East Cobb, who ran for Cobb Commission Chairman from 2012-2020, are challenging the commission’s vote in October invoking home rule over commission redistricting.
They are seeking a writ of mandamus for the courts to recognize redistricting maps approved last year by the Georgia General Assembly.
Those maps drew current District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson out of her East Cobb home in the middle of her term.
Richardson and the board’s two other Democrats favor maps drawn last year by former Cobb State Rep. Erick Allen, but that were never voted on in the legislature.
Opponents of Cobb’s home rule challenge say it’s unconstitutional because only the legislature can conduct reapportionment.
But Monyak cited a state Supreme Court ruling this year that upheld the principle of sovereign immunity in a lawsuit filed against the Gwinnett County District Attorney and the State of Georgia that was dismissed.
“Plaintiffs have brought an independent claim against a party not identified in the waiver provision: the mandamus claim against Cobb BOE in Count 1,” the county’s brief states, referring to the elections board.
The county is asking that a May 3 hearing before Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris be cancelled and the full lawsuit be thrown out.
“Dismissal is the only course of action available when a plaintiff brings a lawsuit that violates the exclusivity clause of the waiver of sovereign immunity” of the Georgia Constitution, Monyak wrote.
Savage, who lived in the former Cobb Commission District 2 before his residence was drawn into District 3 for the 2022 election, initially filed his lawsuit against the Cobb elections board.
He withdrew it, then refiled it, adding the county as a defendant, and was joined as a plaintiff by Gambrill, a Republican just re-elected in District 1 in North Cobb.
The resolution passed by the commission Democrats, the lawsuit alleges, “was an overt misuse and abuse of the home rule authority” and described their amended map as “illegal, unconstitutional and not binding.”
Gambrill and her fellow Republican commissioner, JoAnn Birrell of District 3, have read statements of protests before every meeting since January, stating their objections to the adoption of Allen’s maps.
They were removed from the dais by Chairwoman Lisa Cupid at the first meeting for trying to abstain from voting.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has issued an opinion saying the Allen maps are not legally binding.
But Cobb County Attorney William Rowling has claimed the county has the right to invoke home rule over redistricting, and said the county will continue to use the Allen maps unless or until they are invalidated by the courts.
An attempt by State Sen. Ed Setzler of West Cobb to restore the legislative-approved maps fell through in the current session when his bill wasn’t voted on in the upper chamber on crossover day.
East Cobb resident Debbie Fisher filed an ethics complaint against Richardson, saying she should recuse herself from voting due to a conflict of interest over a political action committee she founded to fight the legislative maps.
The Cobb Ethics Board found no evidence to fully investigate that charge and dismissed the complaint unanimously.
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An East Cobb resident involved in youth sports in the community is expected to announce his campaign this week for a seat on the Cobb Board of Education next year.
That’s the Post 5 seat currently held by four-term Republican David Banks, whose term expires at the end of 2024.
John Cristadoro referenced Friday in a post on a Facebook page created for his campaign a “Special Announcement Coming Soon” at the Cobb Republican Party breakfast on Saturday, April 1.
He’s also launched a “John4Cobb” campaign website indicating he’s seeking the Post 5 seat, but has posted no further information.
In response to a message from East Cobb News, Cristadoro acknowledged he will be officially launching his campaign on Saturday and providing more details later.
Post 5 includes most of the Walton and Wheeler and some of the Pope attendance zones.
Cristadoro is the president of Alliance Tax Solutions, with offices in Atlanta and Houston, which helps businesses resolve tax issues.
He’s a parent in the Walton attendance zone and is involved with the Walton youth football and wrestling programs and East Side youth baseball.
Cristadoro, who is is married with two children, hails from New Orleans and is an Air Force veteran.
He also is involved in Advocates for Love, a Christian ministry that cares for orphans in the Dominican Republic.
Banks, who was first elected in 2008, has not indicated if he will be seeking a fifth term.
His seat is one of four on the Cobb school board that will be up for election in 2024. They include two other posts also held by Republicans, who hold a 4-3 majority.
Banks, who is the current board vice chairman, fended off primary and general election competition in 2020. But he won by his slimmest margin, by only 2,639 votes.
He has been a controversial figure, primarily about immigration, racial issues and COVID-19. Most recently, he sparked outrage about comments he made about Roman Catholicism.
Following reapportionment in 2022, Post 5 was altered to include most of the Walton and Wheeler attendance zones that had been in Post 6, which was shifted to the Smyrna-Cumberland area.
Post 6 was represented from 2019-22 by Democrat Charisse Davis, who did not seek re-election last year.
Some of the old Post 5, including much of the Lassiter attendance zone, was placed in Post 4, in which Republican David Chastain was elected to a third term last November.
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Several hundred kids and their families turned out at Mt. Paran North Church of God Saturday for an Easter Egg Drop sponsored by the Janice Overbeck Real Estate Team.
Helicopters hovered over the school’s soccer fields for three different age-group deliveries of eggs, candies and other goodies, and kids enjoyed on-the-ground fun that included face-painting, balloon art, a magician’s tricks, and a visit from Rapunzel, who was available for photos.
Godie bags were available to take home, courtesy of the event sponsors that included Sponsor Perrie and Associates, Holly Walther Lending Team, and Trotter Roofing & Gutters.
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The small retail building at the new MarketPlace Terrell Mill development is half-occupied, with a dentist and nail salon.
The plans were to include some restaurant space, and elsewhere on the property a Wendy’s, Chick-Fil-A and Panera Bread have opened.
The Power Ferry Corridor Alliance civic group reports that two restaurants will be coming soon to the open spots at the Shoppes, which fronts the MarketPlace Village apartment building.
Los Abuelos Mexican Grill will be opening in June, the chain’s first location outside of its base in Newnan.
The other space will be taken up by a location of the Brass Tap Craft Beer Bar, a Tampa-based chain with Atlanta-area locations at Perimeter Center, Milton and Hapeville.
The Brass Tap’s parent company, FSC Franchise Co., also runs the Beef O’Brady’s restaurant chain.
There’s no signage yet at either of the forthcoming restaurants. They’ll be among the final pieces of the MarketPlace project to be filled along with the anchor Kroger superstore (90,000 square feet) that’s still under construction.
There’s fencing around that building—where the former Brumby Elementary School once stood—and an accompanying Kroger gas station will be fronting Powers Ferry Road. That’ slated to open next month.
The new Kroger store is expected to relocate from the Delk-Powers Ferry intersection by the fall.
The Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance is having an Adopt-A-Mile cleanup day April 15 from 9-10:30 a.m. at the Powers Ferry-Terrell Mill intersection. They’re springing for a free Starbucks there at 8:45 a.m. for those who volunteer, and you can sign up by clicking here.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
The Atlanta branch of the American Jewish Committee is organizing two Unity Seder events next week, including one at Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb.
That event is Wednesday, March 29, at 7 p.m. at the synagogue (1415 Old Canton Road), and you can sign up by clicking here.
The Unity Seder celebrates the Jewish holiday of Passover, commemorating the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, from slavery to freedom, and uses the lessons of that observance “to tell stories of freedom and responsibility from all of our faith and ethnic traditions, applying lessons to envision a better future for our city and world,” according to the Atlanta Jewish Committee.
This year the official Passover dates are April 5-13, which includes Seder observances the first two nights.
Kosher dietary laws will be observed at the Temple Kol Emeth dinner.
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Members of the Hightower Trail MS robotics team. Photo: Cobb County School District
Students from Hightower Trail Middle School and Wheeler High School in East Cobb will be competing in world robotics championships in Texas later this spring.
The five-member Hightower Trail team will be making the trip to the VEX World Robotics Championships for the first time, after placing 14th in the state skill challenge and earning the Teamwork Champion Award.
They are led by Joey Giunta, a teacher at Tritt Elementary School, where three of the current team members got their start in VEX robotics.
In a release from the Cobb County School District, Hightower Trail principal Dr. Hannah Polk said the school began a VEX robotics program this year, backed by the Husky Foundation.
“How impressive to have reached this milestone during their inaugural year, which speaks volumes of the hard work and dedication of each member of the team,” she said in the release.
At the state competition, Wheeler students won the Inspire Award, an award that goes to the team that best displays the FIRST principles.
The Walton High School team is attempting to qualify for the FIRST Competition, and at a recent district competition was given the Excellence in Engineering Award, which recognizes teams that demonstrate outstanding engineering practices and design principles in their robot.
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An East Cobb investment advisor whom federal authorities say defrauded clients out of more than $25 million has pleaded guilty.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, John Woods, 58, pleaded guilty to a single charge of wire fraud and he awaits sentencing.
Woods has been active high school sports and civic affairs in East Cobb.
U.S. Attorney Ryan Buchanan said in a release that Woods solicited investors to invest in a fund called Horizon Private Equity, promising rates of return of six to seven percent.
He told investors their funds would be invested in government bonds, stocks and small real estate projects, according to the release, which said Woods assured investors would be safe because Horizon had a diverse portfolio.
But the U.S. Attorney’s Office said the investments were used to repay other investors, saying that Woods misled clients “by failing to disclose that the Horizon investments had not generated a positive percentage of return sufficient to cover the interest.”
More than $110 million was invested in the Horizon fund, from 400 investors in more than 20 states, federal prosecutors said.
“Losses are still being calculated, but investors have lost more than $25 million because of Woods’s scheme to defraud,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
“Investors should respond with caution to financial offers that sound too good to be true and are cloaked in the promise of low risk and high rates of return,” Buchanan said in the release.
Woods was formerly on the executive board of the Walton Touchdown Club and was a member of the original East Cobb Cityhood committee in 2019.
He was a minority owner of the Chattanooga Lookouts baseball team, in his Tennessee hometown, and also has been the head of the Friends of Chastain Park Foundation in Atlanta.
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The series is presented by Wellstar Health System.
There will be three concerts in April and another in May, starting off next Sunday, April 2, with The Woodys, a local duo that performs classic rock favorites, including Fleetwood Mac.
On April 16, the performer will be Jeannie Caryn, who’s released an album of her own music and has an extensive cover repertoire.
A longtime East Cobb live music favorite, the LooSe ShoEs Band, returns on April 30, specializing in rock n’ roll and the blues.
On May 21, the Dark Star Brothers will be in concert, with a mix of rock and blues, soul, funk, oldies and country tunes.
The concerts are all at the back pavilion and last from 4-6 p.m. They’re free and open to the public, and you’re invited to bring food, chairs, and a blanket.
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