Board should do right tonight on parks bond

An editorial published in the Marietta Daily Journal on Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Cobb County needs more parks. We're not growing quite as fast as we once were, but our population will continue to expand in the decades to come.

Moreover, we were late to the table in terms of parkland acquisition. Unlike many long-established communities, Cobb didn't focus on acquiring land for parks until the 1960s, and even then was unable to keep up with the population explosion of the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Up until the late 1960s, the prevailing thinking was that the presence of 3,000-acre Kennesaw National Battlefield Park here was sufficient to fulfill the county's need for parkland, even though it is a historic park, not a recreational one.

The county steadily bought parcels here and there in recent decades for parks, but there was no concerted push for parkland acquisition until 2006, when a grassroots group, the Cobb Parks Coalition, successfully masterminded passage of a $40 million bond for buying parkland.

The measure did not involve a tax increase and was supported by 70 percent of voters.

That $40 million has revitalized the county's park-purchase program, but the need still exists for more parks. Hence, tonight's expected vote by the Cobb Board of Commissioners for another $40 million parks bond. Like the first, it would not involve a tax increase. The measure before the board tonight would put the issue on the November general election ballot, giving county residents the final say on whether to approve it.

Also tonight, the board is expected to vote to authorize requests for proposals for a firm to draw up a master plan for the Bullard/Stockton property at the intersection of Dallas Highway and Old Hamilton Road in west Cobb, which was one of the flagship properties acquired with the help of the first bond.

All five of Cobb's commissioners have indicated their support for the bond proposal, as have the challengers for two of those seats in this fall's elections.

At this point, the second bond proposal is as close to non-controversial as such a measure could ever be.

With that in mind, and with the need for more parkland still obvious, it is clearly in the county's best interest that the board vote tonight to add it to the November ballot.

We're confident they will do so - and confident as well that November voters will do the right thing as well.