By Jon GilloolyMarietta Daily Journal Staff Writer

MARIETTA - Six of the seven members of the Cobb Board of Education joined with the Cobb School District on Wednesday to file a lawsuit in Cobb Superior Court against Smyrna Mayor Max Bacon and the Smyrna City Council for allegedly violating the Georgia Open Records Act.

“The city has evaded the Georgia Open Records Act and has acted without substantial justification in failing to comply with the Open Records Act,” according to a complaint filed just before 5 p.m. by school board attorney Clem Doyle of the Marietta law firm Brock, Clay, Calhoun and Rogers.

The complaint requests attorney’s fees and a jury trial.

The action was triggered because of Bacon’s alleged failure to produce documents that school board Chairman Lindsey Tippins repeatedly requested relating to the Jonquil Village tax allocation district project. Last fall, officials approved a $26.2 million TAD subsidy for the redevelopment at the corner of Atlanta and Spring roads.

Reached at his home, Bacon said he had just returned from vacation out West and was unaware the lawsuit had been filed.

“I just think it’s a low point in the history of this county for the school board to sue a municipality over absolutely nothing,” Bacon said.

All Cobb school board members are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit except Holli Cash, who represents the Smyrna area.

“I’m very disappointed in every member of the school board who supported this,” Bacon said. “When one government brings suit against another government for information it makes everybody look bad.”

Tippins said it didn’t have to end up in court. He said he met with Bacon a couple weeks ago at a Waffle House to give him another chance to produce the documents.

On June 13, the school board voted 5-1 - with Ms. Cash opposing and the Rev. Dr. John Crooks absent - to pursue legal action against Smyrna unless city officials explained how they calculated the $181 million value for the 14-acre Jonquil Village redevelopment.

The issue dates back to Nov. 14 when the school board approved the $26.2 million TAD subsidy for Jonquil Village, a mixed-use project at the site of the present Jonquil Plaza.

A TAD is an incentive for developers to build in blighted areas to increase property values, which results in more tax revenue and requires cooperation between the city, county and school district to quickly repay project bonds.

Before the board approved the Jonquil project in a 6-1 vote, with Tippins opposing, board members complained that supporting financials for the project continued to change.

“There’s an awful lot of misrepresentation in these documents we’ve been given,” Tippins said at the time.

According to the complaint, Bacon promised Tippins during a meeting at Trackside Restaurant after the board’s November vote to produce documents that reveal how officials arrived at the $181 million figure.

When Bacon failed to do this, Tippins sent him an request under the Georgia Open Records Act.

Smyrna City Administrator Wayne Wright tells Tippins in a May 17 letter in response to his open records request that Tampa, Fla.-based developer, A.G. Armstrong did not want the numbers made public.

“It may be helpful to remind you that the detailed cost estimates you seek are proprietary information that has been retained by the developers of Jonquil Village,” Wright states in his letter, which is an exhibit in the complaint.

Another exhibit includes a May 16 letter sent from the Armstrong’s Atlanta-based attorneys, Hartman, Simons, Spielman & Wood, to school board attorney Glenn Brock, accusing Tippins of challenging Smyrna’s use of TAD financing to further his personal business interests.

“To the extent that Mr. Tippins is taking action in his capacity as chairman of the Cobb County Board of Education to further his personal interests, Mr. Tippins’ conduct is contrary to the Cobb County School District Board members’ Code of Conduct,” the letter states.

Tippins said he has no business interests in Smyrna.

The importance of the documents that detail how the $181 million number was reached, the suit alleges, is significant “because it is inextricably linked to other aspects of TAD financing particularly in relationship to the ability of the tax increment to retire bonds in a timely manner, and the potential adverse financial impact on the school district and its tax payers.”

The lawsuit alleges that Bacon and other Smyrna officials failed to keep copies the documents to shield them from the Open Records Act.

“The defendants intentionally did not retain copies of the requested documents when they reviewed them,” the complaint states.

The complaint argues that even though Smyrna officials failed to keep copies, they still must be produced.

“The defendants cannot avoid their disclosure obligations under the Open Records Act merely because the requested documents may be in the physical possession of a private developer (or other third party),” the complaint states.

Bacon said the school board and county commission had access to the documents, arguing if they were important they should have copied them themselves.

“The school board had these documents. The county had these documents. If the documents were so important why didn’t they keep copies of them?” Bacon asked.

Bacon suggested that the school district’s chief financial officer, Robert Morales, had them.

“I don’t know why (Tippins) hasn’t started with his staff. Morales may have the numbers,” he said.

Tippins said that logic doesn’t make sense.

“If everybody had access to the documents we wouldn’t be in court,” he said.

Bacon said the lawsuit only would divert money from funding education to attorneys.

“It’s very disappointing to see money for the education of children used to sue the city over information the county and Morales had,” Bacon said.

To see the article in its entirety, go to http://www.mdjonline.com/articles/2007/06/21/268/10263143.txt

Normally I don’t think I would be that excited saying that I’ve reached week 3 of the Step It Up fitness program, but that’s because it’s normally a four week program. With the Fourth of July holiday coming up, we signed up to torture our bodies in a compact three-week program. I was hesitant at first, but now that I’ve made it through two weeks already, it feels like it’s almost over versus only halfway over.

It’s been a great experience so far and despite what you may interpret from my musings, I would highly recommend it for those who have nothing better to do at 5 in the morning (that means everyone). Where else can you see such great sunrises?

We’re supposedly winding down a bit and getting ready for our big evaluation day on Friday. Today was really hard, so it should be pretty easy to wind down from here. If we don’t, I may not make it to Friday.

Campbell High School is the high school supporting the Smyrna Vinings area. The current Principal is Mr. Kehl Arnson. Campbell High is located at 5265 Ward Street, Smyrna, GA 30080, which is just west of Smyrna Market Village and south of Windy Hill Road. Their contact number is 678-842-6850.

Campbell High School is one of sixteen high schools in the Cobb County School System. The school was officially named after Orme Campbell, a successful businessman in Atlanta, who sold the land on which the original school was built. Orme Campbell Campbell High School opened in 1952 with the merger of Smyrna High School and Fitzhugh Lee high School. It opened with a total of 425 students in grades 8-11.

In 1989, Orme Campbell High School and F.T. Wills High School merged to form a new Smyrna High School. Prior to the merger, Campbell students were known as the Green and White PANTHERS and Wills students were known as the Red and Black TIGERS. The students united together in selecting new colors, Royal Blue and Silver, and a new mascot, the SPARTANS. In 1990, the courts overruled the name change of the school, and the name Campbell High School was reinstated. Since the ruling pertained only to the school name, it was decided the new colors and the new mascot would be left unchanged.

Campbell High School is home to Cobb County’s International Baccalaureate program. Campbell High started the International Baccalaureate Program in the fall of 1997 as a Cobb County magnet program. The IB Diploma Program is a comprehensive, pre-university course of study that incorporates international perspectives within a rigorous core curriculum in both the math/science and humanities areas of the curriculum.

Simply click here to learn more about Campbell High School.

If you would like to find a home in the Campbell High School district, simply click here.

By STACY SHELTON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/22/07
Richard Grove of Cumming, a kayaker who does marathon trips and guides groups down the Chattahoochee, was “shocked” to find the Paces Mill boat ramp closed earlier this week, just before the summer crush.

“That’s as stupid as closing the stores on Christmas,” said Grove, who immediately called the National Park Service to demand an explanation for the closing of the ramp in southern Cobb County.

Paces Mill is the last of seven boat ramps in the 48-mile Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area to undergo a $1.8 million facelift, with new walkways and fresh concrete. Earlier this week, a construction crew blocked the boat ramp using sandbags and tarps, then built a temporary takeout spot about 150 feet downstream. They also planned to make room for trucks and cars to pull down to the river. Without the path, boaters were forced to lug their craft a couple of hundred yards to their vehicles.

Signs on the river explaining the change were not yet up Thursday afternoon, but park officials said they would be up by the weekend.

Paces Mill Park in Cobb County is the southernmost national park land on the river in Georgia and the last place to pull out before floating into the section where most of metro Atlanta discharges its treated sewage. The park is also the most popular takeout point because it’s just downstream from one of the most beautiful stretches of the Chattahoochee, where the national park hugs both banks and the river passes through high granite cliffs and a series of small rapids.

Some boaters already are adapting to the change.

Chris Zelski, co-director of Learning on the Log summer camp, led a group of 16 children and eight adults on a canoe and rafting trip through that section of river on Thursday. As he pulled into the temporary takeout spot at Paces Mill, he told a group of parents waiting on the shore “I had no idea there was that construction going on up there. But this will work fine. … With river stuff, you gotta be flexible.”

Nancy Walther, the chief of resource education for the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, said the construction work will take three to four weeks, through July Fourth and up to mid or late July.

“It is going to be an inconvenience to the visitors,” she said, adding that park superintendent Kevin Cheri “apologized for that.”

The original plan was to complete the job before Memorial Day weekend, she said. Work on other boat ramps delayed the project.

Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/cobb/stories/2007/06/21/0622metboatramp.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13

I often wonder as a Realtor here in the Smyrna Vinings community why real estate agents get a bad rap. Granted we’re not as disliked as say an auditor for the IRS, but still we’re usually not high up on people’s lists. I think part of that comes from how easy it is to get a real estate license. Technically, once you have your license you are qualified to practice as a real estate agent, even if you’re really not qualified. And the press never really helps us either.

They always seem to be against us, case in point a recent article on the Mansion Madam. In case you missed it, the Mansion Madam is the nickname given to Lisa Ann Taylor who was allegedly running a prostitution ring from her home in Sugarloaf Country Club in Gwinnett. The AJC article covered the recent indictment of Ms. Taylor for racketeering, drug and prostitution charges.

However, what caught my eye was this part of the article: “Taylor has said she had been trying to leave the adult entertainment industry before her arrest, working as a real estate agent. She has since rekindled her career as a nude dancer, capitalizing on her notoriety as the “Mansion Madam.”"

Come on now, I would love to see the job description that compelled her to get into the real estate industry.

Needed immediately for an exciting career in real estate.

Minimum requirements include:

1. former Penthouse Pet (or current)
2. experience with prostitution
3. experience with drug trafficking

Not required, but a plus would be a background in racketeering.

What I did glean from this article is that a real estate career is not for everyone. I just want to go on the record as your Smyrna Vinings Realtor, that I will never pose in Penthouse, run a prostitution ring, traffic drugs or be indicted for racketeering. I am here to service your housing needs only and will do so in a professional and ethical manner.

Of course, if Ms. Taylor does beat the wrap, she may want to consider trying real estate again. Agents are always trying to outdo themselves with catchy slogans like “Sold by Susie” or “Elise sells Estates”. She already has a head start. Mansion Madam is quite catchy.

Today we ran….for 35 minutes. I don’t like to run.

At least the ducks were awake this morning.

But it’s not all bad. Tomorrow is Friday and I’m definitely surviving this week better than last. Finally, my muscles have calmed down and it doesn’t hurt to sit or move or blink. The nice thing about Step It Up is the support, but I could always use more. So if you’re in Smyrna and driving by in the morning and see us crazy nutty people with our faces planted in the grass, be sure to say a prayer for us.

Today was Bring a Friend Day at Step It Up fitness camp here in Smyrna. It can also be called Bring a Friend, Leave with an Enemy. I’m sure by the end of camp today, the friends were wondering what they did to deserve being “invited” to the big event.

Anyway, since it was BAF Day, I was sure we would need to take it a little easier on the “guests” so as not to create any unnecessary screaming. After our warmup jog, we hit the dynamic warmup drills, starting off with only 85 jumping jacks. From my calculations, we should have been up to at least 110 today, so a sign of good things to come?

Apparently not. Our first drill was based on a large square. We partnered up and as one partner did a particular drill (eg pushups, situps, moutain climbing, leg lifts, fire hydrants, etc.) the other partner sprinted around the giant square. Once the partner ran all the way around, they swapped with their partner and did the same drill whilst their partner zoomed around the humongous square. This exercise went on for about 30 minutes as Harold seemingly came up with new drills to keep adding on to the overall exercise. He’s a really quick thinker. Needless to say, I hope I never have to do the gargantuan square drill again.

We then moved on to sprints with jumps and pushups alternating at each end of our sprints and then finished up with some stretching. I was still feeling pretty good coming off of the rest from our day off on Sunday, but I can definitely feel today’s workout.

As I reminisce about today’s workout, it’s currently raining outside. Kind of reminds me of being a school kid and hoping school will be cancelled the next day due to snow (that’s right, I’m not from the South). With some severe storms currently predicted, I can hold out hope that camp might get cancelled in the morning. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

Stoney River Restaurant Review

Recently, the family was out and about doing some much needed to-dos when it we could no longer deny it, it was time to eat. With a quick survey, the little ones were hankering for some steak. Where could we go for a good steak in the Smyrna Vinings area? Longhom, Olde Mill Steakhouse, Ted’s Montana Grill, Blackstone, perhaps even Garrisons?

Then we thought about Stoney River. Recently opened as part of the extreme mall makeover at Cumberland Mall, Stoney River was supposedly known for great steaks (or so my niece said who works there). Still I was hesitant to go. Something about going the mall for a good steak when you’re only steps away from the Food Court. When I’m looking for a good steak, the mall is not the first place that comes to mind. But hey, you only live once.

Upon entering Stoney River, you do get the feel of so many good steak restaurants. The dark wood and leather, the clubiness, the large selection of wines. We were seated promptly and left to figure out what in the world we were going to eat in a steak restaurant. That’s always a tough decision.

Well the kids, who wanted to go to a steak restaurant, pick steak, of course. NOT. Can someone explain this to me. When given the option between mac-n-cheese and steak, why do kids opt for the gooey noodle stuff? Anyway, my daughter opted for the entree with the specially prepared sliced bread, artisan cheese and warmed and toasted to medium well. Alright, so she ordered the grilled cheese. My son picked the mac-n-cheese and they ordered asparagus to split.

My wife ordered the Sea Bass and I was the brave one and ordered the Lodge Filet. I also started off with what is commonly known as a wedge salad. However, at Stoney River, they called it the Head of Lettuce. As it turned out, it’s appropriately named. Rather than a quarter of a head of iceburg lettuce (a wedge), you get an entire half head of lettuce, covered with blue cheese dressing, bacon and tomatoes. It was excellent. In fact, I had to keep beating my kids off with my extra fork. I thought they didn’t like salad! Anyway, it’s always helpful to have that extra fork in times like this.

Perhaps what Stoney River is also known for are their little rolls, served hot with a honey cinnamon butter. Almost like hanging out at Krispy Kreme when the “Hot Now” sign comes on. Those little pups were good.

Our entrees arrived and looked great. As usually happens, the kids decided that our food looks better. While the mac-n-cheese was actually really good and my wife claimed that the grilled cheese was fabulous, I would have to say that the steak and Sea Bass were better.

The Sea Bass was sauteed and served with a coconut-lemongrass reduction with sauteed shitake mushrooms, red peppers, ginger, cilantro and served with jasmine rice. The menu aptly described it, but the flavor was pure delight. My 10 oz. Lodge Filet was cooked perfectly at medium rare and was accompanied by a stuffed baked potato. Wonderful!

We also selected a bottle of Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc to go with our dinner. While a big, hearty Zin might have gone better with the cow, the Sauvignon Blanc was great on a warm day. I think my only real complaint about Stoney River was their overpriced wine list. Anyway, back to the food.

So while on paper, the mac-n-cheese and grilled cheese sound so much better, in person it’s a different story. That’s why our kids opted for eating way too much of our entrees and we were left eating simple carbohydrates with orange cheese on them. Last time I’ll take them to Stoney River.

I think by now you’ve gotten the gist that we really enjoyed out trip to the mall steakhouse, otherwise known as Stoney River, and would recommend it. We thought the meal was great and the service friendly and prompt.

The Imagine International Academy of Smyrna will be launching it’s inaugral school year in 2007, starting on July 30, 2007.

The school year will be a balanced 188 day school year, with six weeks off in the summer and 10-15 days off for fall, winter and spring breaks. Uniforms will be required. The intention is for the Smyrna charter school as well as the Mableton charter school to teach an international based curriculum. The curriculum will be more advanced than the standard Georgia curriculum. The intention will also be to test the students using the Georgia CRCTs as well as the Stanford or Iowa standardized tests.

Spanish will be taught from K-8 at the new school, with a minimum of one hour dedicated to Spanish per day. In the future, they may look to make the middle school a true dual language school. The charter provides for a maximum of 1,000 students, but they currently project to start with 600-700 students. The Smyrna charter school will be offering a tuition-based Pre-K program, however it will not start this year.

One the big drivers behind the school is parental involvement. Parents will be required to be involved in the Smyrna charter school. Single-parent families will be required to volunteer 15 hours during the year and two-parent families will be required to volunteer 30 hours per year.
If you’re interested in learning more, be sure to check out the school’s website and read through the school’s charter.

While the location was originally planned to be at Church Road and South Cobb Drive, that deal fell through. The Smyrna Charter School will now be temporarily located at 4451 South Atlanta Road in the Vinings Perimeter Office Park, located just outside of I-285 and across from West Village. The Smyrna Charter school’s principal is Reginald Flenory, Sr. Their contact number is 678-370-0980.

The enrollment zone for the Smyrna Charter school is for any Smyrna residents located within the Campbell High School district, which includes the zip codes 30080, 30082 and a small portion of 30126.

Be sure to check out Smyrna homes and Smyrna condos currently available in the Smyrna Charter school district.

Now that I realize that people are actually reading this, I’m getting all stressed out. It’s a lot of pressure to try and abuse yourself just to entertain others. But that was what Day 4 was all about. The anticipation was killing me, what would they dream up for today.

A little something called hills and thrills. After our morning warmup jog, which wasn’t a sprint (I think Lisa did get the memo today) we found a new locale for our dynamic stretching exercises. After 85 jumping jacks yesterday, we upped it to 90 today. I think I see where this is going. Pushups (extra 20 since some of our fellow campers decided not to show up), tippy toe walks, heel walks, toy soldiers, toe taps, etc. and then we were ready for hills and thrills.

I personally have never noticed that we have a hill close to Market Village that’s is almost as high as Mt. Everest. You may not have noticed it before either, perhaps it only appears early in the morning. And only when you have to sprint up the hill, do 10 pushups, jog down, do 9 pushups, sprint up the hill, do 8 pushups, etc. I think you get the hang of it. Then situps, then burpees. Yeehah!!!

After some slide drills (think back to the old basketball days), we ran off to find a grassy spot where we could continue to torture the campers. But all in all the morning went by pretty quickly. Luckily, we were offered the opportunity to join in a little bonus after school session, where we attempted to see how many different ways we could do a lunge. Very interesting.

Perhaps what helped the most today, was the thought of my massage this morning and hoping that I would actually be able to walk again after a good rubdown. And I’m happy to report that I can indeed walk again. My muscles have loosened up a bit and I’m ready for Friday. Watch out.

And for all of those who actually read this entire post, I have a bonus for you. Next Tuesday is Bring a Friend Day and since I don’t have any friends, you are cordially invited to join us next Tuesday at 5:45. Dare you…double dare you. I expect to see everyone in Smyrna out there next week. And if you mention that you came because you read this on SmyrnaVinings.com, it’s free!

All right, so it’s free for everyone, but it sounded good.