Voters to decide on parks bond

From the Marietta Daily Journal on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 by Ashley Hungerford, MDJ staff writer

MARIETTA - The Cobb Board of Commissioners unanimously approved on Tuesday night to place a referendum for another $40 million parks bond on the Nov. 4 ballot.

After commissioners approved moving forward with the referendum, the green-clad crowd in the room erupted into applause. Cobb Parks Coalition, a grassroots group, had earlier encouraged supporters to attend wearing green.

Public Services Agency director Bob Ash called the grassroots campaign for a follow-up parks bond "a terrific example of democracy."

"As we've seen in recent weeks, and following on the successful 2006 program, there has been another ground swell of people supporting another parks bond," he said. "These people understand the needs and came forward to represent this effort."

Seven people addressed the Commission during the public comment section and four of them were related to the parks bond.

David Burn of Kennesaw said the Commission is leaving a good legacy by putting so much effort into preserving parkland.

"You did a good job two years ago and I would like to see it done again," he said. "There are just all sorts of places we don't want to be razed."

He said now is a great time to buy parkland, when major developers don't have the money.

The referendum comes on the heels of what county leaders consider "a successful program," where the county used more than $37 million from the original $40 million parks bond approved in 2006 to acquire more than 300 acres of parkland.

Some of the larger tracts included the 112-acre Bullard Stockton Tract on Dallas Highway in west Cobb for $18.6 million and the 137.45-acre Stana property on Brownsville Road in southwest Cobb for $5.76 million.

The county will also use $5 million from the original parks bond to help purchase the 95-acre Hyde Farm in east Cobb. The Trust for Public Land purchased the working farm off Lower Roswell Road for $14.19 million in June. The land will eventually be divided between Cobb County and the National Park Service.

The referendum before voters in November will follow the 2006 parks bond format, Ash said.

Each commissioner will appoint three citizens to a Citizen Committee that will advise the board of potential purchases. Monies will be used exclusively for acquiring land for public parks within the county from willing sellers. The parks bond will be issued without a tax increase.

The county would pay for the 15-year, $40 million parks bond by diverting revenue raised from .1 mills of property taxes from the fire fund to the debt fund. Cobb's total millage is 9.6 mills, meaning property owners pay $9.60 per $1,000 of assessed value.

Currently, 6.82 mills go to the county's general fund, 2.56 mills to the fire fund and 0.22 mills to debt-service. Officials said the fire fund has a surplus.

Since the Commission approved the referendum, Cobb Chairman Sam Olens said commissioners could no longer advocate for the ballot issue, but could "educate" residents on what the parks bond would do.

He said the advocating is now left up to the residents.

ahungerford@mdjonline.com