Budget Follies; Farewell to Cumberland Borders

As the Cobb Board of Commissioners is set to vote this morning on the latest and still-mysterious budget plan -- and threaten the dysfunctional exploits of their friends over at the Cobb Board of Education -- the politics of the county deficit are as clear as the $31 million gap between revenues and expenses. 

The AJC examines the apparent motives behind commission chairman Tim Lee's startling proposal late last week to close 13 of the 17 Cobb libraries that has caused such a firestorm that was held on the Marietta Square late Monday afternoon. 

The tax-related suspicions about Lee's machinations were captured by East Cobb civic activist Joe O'Conner: 

“It’s just so obvious. I call it a diversionary tactic: Get people interested in something over here and we’ll slip this through real quick. It seems like the ultimate goal is to raise taxes to some degree.”

O'Conner is described as a "regular" at county meetings; the story didn't mention that he's also a confidant of East Cobb commissioner Bob Ott, who's flatly against any tax increase and led the outcry against Lee's cuts. Ott, who has a frosty relationship with Lee at best, would be left without any libraries, senior centers or aquatic facilities in his District 2 if Lee has his way. 

2. U.S. Rep. Tom Price, whose 6th district includes East Cobb, told the Cobb Chamber of Commerce Monday that the $38.2 billion in federal spending cuts agreed to by Congress was "historic." The Roswell Republican was especially gleeful that the new package included a provision to deny funding to the Internal Revenue Service to enforce last year's health care reform legislation that he and other critics call "ObamaCare:"

“That ought to warm the cockles of your heart."

We're thinking Price didn't read last week's commentary in The Economist that took both parties to task for what appeared at the time to be a likely government shutdown.

3. This is a trying time to be book-lover. Before the Cobb budget follies began, the Borders book store chain announced it was closing four of the county's five locations because of extreme financial difficulties. 

The only store that will remain open is the The Avenue East Cobb location. But the other Borders convenient to East Cobb shoppers is closing its doors today. The Borders on Cobb Parkway south of Cumberland Mall is one of 200 stores nationwide targeted for closure, and for business.

Only a handful of books remain from what has been a weeks-long clearance sale. Over the years I've been as frequent a shopper there as I have at the East Cobb store, but simply could not bring myself to go over there. 

It's a terribly sad thing to watch a bookstore go away, no matter the reason. When the Media Play store was open at Merchants Walk, it was dispiriting to see the book section get smaller and smaller. The digital music revolution forced the chain to go away entirely, and on that site now East Cobb's first Whole Foods store is being built.  

If you go back in Atlanta as far as the dearly departed, and sadly lamented, Oxford Book Store, it's enough to make you want to cry. Perhaps that's what makes the public library issue even more chastening. 

All we've got left is the East Cobb Borders, but frankly, I'm not optimistic this company's going to be in business that much longer. 

4. Monday night's rains performed a needed public service by washing away pollen off cars (including mine). Tuesday's forecast in the East Cobb area calls for clearing skies, becoming sunny by the afternoon, but with highs only in the upper 60s. We're still in a bit of a wind tunnel too, with breezes blowing to the northwest between 15 and 25 mph. 

5. On this day 150 years ago, shots were fired on Fort Sumter, S.C., and the Civil War was underway. The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in June 1864 was Cobb's experience with the war, as Confederate troops temporarily delayed the Union advance into Atlanta. 

What tends to get overlooked about this slice of local history is that after the fierce Southern resistance was finally foiled, Gen. Sherman's army crossed the Chattahoochee River in the East Cobb area, in the general vicinity of Sope Creek. 

The rest is history, as the saying goes, as Atlanta burned not long after that and the March to the Sea ultimately closed the book on the war.