Chairman Tim Lee Hears Code Enforcement Concerns

The upcoming Transportation Investment Act referendum was expectedly a hot topic at Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee’s town hall meeting on Tuesday. The meeting was held at the South Cobb Community Center in Mableton and was the fourth in a series of town hall meetings Lee hosted around the county.

Sky Rector of Vinings asked Lee how TSPLOST projects will be funded after the first 10 years.

Lee explained that Project 35, a bus system that would transport commuters from the Acworth area to Atlanta’s MARTA Arts Station, would be 100 percent funded for 10 years from the one-cent transportation tax. Revenue generated from the farebox would cover an additional five years, Lee explained.

“I don’t know how it’s going to be funded beyond that,” Lee said, adding that he had to be careful about what he said because “I’m allowed to educate, not advocate.”

However, TIA and TSPLOST weren’t the only issues residents brought up to the chairman. Many complained of multiple calls to the county’s code enforcement department without seeing resulting action.

Dennis Hobbs has lived in Frontier Hills subdivision in Mableton for 32 years. He said the homes in his neighborhood were valued at about $165,000 a few years ago, but are not only worth $30,000.

Hobbs said all the positive information Lee stated at the beginning of the meeting meant little because his neighborhood had four homes with tarps on their roofs.

Another Mableton resident explained that she and her neighbors have also repeatedly called Cobb’s code enforcement about a dilapidated vacant home, which is being used by drug dealers. A tree has even fallen on the house and remains there.

Shawn Stewart said she has also contacted South Cobb Commissioner Woody Thompson about the home on the corner of Dodgen Road and Virgil Street.

She said she has lived in the neighborhood for four years and the house has been abandoned for that time.

"It's not going to be enough until some child gets snatched up there," Stewart told Lee during the town hall meeting.

One Austell resident, Blake Kenya, said “the ladies at code enforcement know my name.”

Kenya, who lives near Riverside Intermediate, said he calls repeatedly because someone constantly dumps garbage near the school.

"It's like pulling teeth to get small things," Kenya said.

He said that when he calls county code enforcement, he gets referred to others. He doesn't think the county has enough employees to address concerns, he said.

Despite his continued calls about the garbage dumping, the garbage remains for two to three months at a time, he explained.

Kenya said he does not see the same problems in other "predominantly Caucasian" parts of the county.

"This is Cobb, too, and we pay taxes as well," Kenya said.

He asked Lee to "please find it in your time to drive around our community and see what we see."