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Spring Jonquil Festival around the Smyrna Village Green.

Sat., April 26 –10a.m.-6p.m.; Sun., April 27 – 12 p.m. – 5p.m.

Shop the arts and crafts market and experience a wide selection of festival foods as you stroll downtown at Smyrna’s Spring Jonquil Festival. Be sure to visit the Featured Artists Market.

Free admission. 200 Village Green Circle, Smyrna, 30080.

Technorati Tags: Smyrna Vinings Events, Spring Jonquil Festival, Smyrna Village Green

Smyrna residents may reserve a table for one or all of the City of Smyrna Summer Concert Events and get ready to party:

May concert-May 17 ($20);

June concert-June 14 ($20);

Dance Night-July 12 ($20);

Birthday Celebration-Aug. 2 ($25).

Reservations must be made in person at the Community Center–200 Village Green Circle–on Mon., April 14, 2008 from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.

[where:  30080]

If you purchased a home last year in Cobb County, including Smyrna, Vinings, Marietta, Mableton, Austell, Kennesaw and Acworth, you may want to hurry up and file for your Homestead Exemption. While you can file at any time during the year, you must file by March 1st to claim the Homestead Exemption for this year.

The Homestead Exemption reduces homeowners’ property taxes. To qualify, the homeowner must apply for this exemption on or before the filing period ends.  Once granted, this exemption is automatically renewed each year as long as you continually occupy the home under the same ownership.

The home must be your primary residence. You cannot file for homestead exemption on rental property, vacant land or on more than one property. In addition to basic homestead exemption there are additional exemptions for residents age 62 and older and/or disabled and disabled veterans. You must apply for these exemptions in person in most cases.

Homeowners who meet the regular Homestead Exemption requirements are entitled to a $10,000 exemption in the county general and school general tax categories. The regular Homestead Exemption was worth $257.70 in 2007.

As a result of the Homeowner’s Tax Relief Grant Program enacted by the Governor and the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, homestead property receives a tax credit each year which is reflected on the property tax bill.

The Cobb County Taxpayer Reassessment Relief Act, which affects homestead property that is reassessed, automatically increases the Homestead Exemption amount in the county general tax category by the same amount that the value increases. So while the initial Homestead Exemption results in a $10,000 credit against your assessed value, in subsequent years this credit will increase with any increase in assessed value.

If you have any other Cobb County real estate questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Technorati Tags: Cobb County, Homestead Exemption, Smyrna Real Estate, Cobb County Real Estate

Cobb County and Partners Complete Draft Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP)  

The public is invited to the final Public Information Meeting to mark the completion of the Draft CTP on Thursday, January 24, 2008 between 3:30 pm and 7:30 pm at the Cobb Central Library, 266 Roswell Street, Marietta, GA.

Electronics Recycling Day In Smyrna
Behind City Hall
2800 King Street
Smyrna, GA

(Directions)

A $10 fee will be charged for each portable television.

Items accepted at NO CHARGE:

Console TVs, De-Humidifiers, Freezers, Hair Dryers, Household Trash, Humidifiers, Non-Electric Equipment, Ovens, Power Equipment, Projection TV’s, Refrigerators, Satellite Dishes, Tires, Vacuum Cleaners, and Washers & Dryers

This event is made possible by Atlanta Recycling Solutions, the City of Smyrna, Keep Smyrna Beautiful and Waste Management.  Call 770-431-2863 for more information.

Nike Reuse-A-Shoe

Keep Smyrna Beautiful and Niketown Atlanta are working together to collect shoes for Niketown Atlanta’s latest Reuse-A-Shoe project to rebuild New Orleans playgrounds. They are trying to collect as many shoes as possible to help with this project.

Every year, millions of pairs of athletic shoes are thrown away, clogging landfills and wasting a lot of good material. So Nike has created a solution to allow you to recycle your old shoes! Reuse-A-Shoe, part of their Let Me Play campaign, is one of Nike’s longest-running environmental and community programs, where worn-out athletic shoes of any brand are collected, processed and recycled into material used in sports surfaces like basketball courts, tennis courts, athletic fields, running tracks and playgrounds for young people around the world.

You may take your old athletic shoes to the Smyrna Recycling Center at 645 Smyrna Hill Drive during working hours from now until February 17th. They will also be collecting shoes at the “Bring One for the Chipper” at the Vinings Home Depot on January 26th. If you have any questions, call 770-431-2863.

Smyrna Jonquil Bulbs For Sale

Known as the “Jonquil City”, Smyrna derives this name from the thousands of jonquils that flourish in gardens and along the streets in early Spring. What you may be asking is a jonquil? It’s a flower. A fragrant short-tubed, yellow flower with long narrow leaves that blooms in great quantities in Smyrna in the Spring.

You can purchase your Jonquil bulbs at the Smyrna Welcome and History Center, next to Aunt Fannie’s Cabin and across the street from the Smyrna Market Village. Now is the perfect time to plant the bulbs, so go your part to embrace the Jonquil.

Technorati Tags: Smyrna Georgia, Jonquils, Market Village

Reported in the AJC today, Sandy Springs city officials are considering a variety of water-saving measures spurred on by the drought. The options include a “gray water recovery system” for new homes priced at $500,000 and higher, which includes the majority of new construction in Sandy Springs.

While the city council is considering several changes designed to reduce long-term water demand, but the “gray water recovery system” has rasied concerns among local builders due to the estimated cost of $5,000 to $7,000 per home.

With the recent watering restrictions, gray water has become a household term. From leftover dishwater to water captured in a bucket in your shower, gray water is essentially any water that has already been used in a home and that can be used for outdoor watering. It does not include toilet water.

A gray water recovery system makes your life of capturing the used water and reusing it much simpler and much more efficient. The system generally entails dual piping which distributes the gray water separately from the toilet water. The grey water is captured in a storage tank and the other waster water continues down the more traditional path to the sewer treatment plant.

This is a very progressive move and if approved, the requirement would be the first for metro Atlanta. I personally think that this would be a great move. While builders may consider that the consumer will not be willing to pay for this and that this could further stagnate an already slow real estate market, sometimes it takes a little push or shove to make a move that many may consider beneficial.

If Sandy Springs does pass this code, other city governments will be watching quickly to see the positive and negative impacts.  As will every consumer. It will even be interesting to see if environmental building certifications such as EarthCraft will eventually adopt a gray water recovery system as part of their core criteria.

Stay tuned…

Click here to see the AJC article in its entirety.

As the record drought continues to worsen, measures must be taken to reduce the use of water. The biggest water user in the home is the toilet. Up to 45% of the water used indoors is flushed down the drain everyday.

Cobb County Water System is introducing a toilet rebate program approved by the Board of Commissioners on October 29, 2007. The goal of the program is to provide an incentive for customers in homes built prior to 1993, to retrofit older high flow toilets with new low flow technology.

Cobb County Water System also offers customers low flow retrofit kits to help them achieve greater water savings. Please contact the water efficiency program for a retrofit kit. Customers will be eligible to receive rebates for up to 3 toilets per home. If the same brand and model toilets are chosen please fill out one application if different models are chosen fill out one application for each model.

The program has two rebate options. The first is a $50.00 rebate for the purchase of any approved 1.6 gallon per flush toilet on the approved toilet list. The $50.00 list will be updated every year, coinciding with the annual Maximum Performance Testing.

The second program option is a $100.00 rebate for high efficiency toilets, toilets using 1.28 gallons per flush, which have received the WaterSense Labeling Certification. WaterSense is the Environmental Protection Agency’s labeling program for water efficiency. WaterSense toilets will have the logo on the product. That list will be updated quarterly as WaterSense adds newly qualified products.

For additional questions or information on the toilets please view our Frequently asked questions.

Please submit the original purchase receipt and the application to:

Water Efficiency Program
660 South Cobb Dr.
Marietta, GA 30060

Click here for the Application