Lee's Budget Cuts Would Close East Cobb, East Marietta Libraries

A year after the East Cobb Library opened and just as plans for renovating the East Marietta Library are proceeding, both branches could be shutting their doors by the end of the month. 

The Marietta Daily Journal is reporting that all but four library locations in the county would close by May 1 under Cobb County Board of Commissioners Chairman Tim Lee’s budget-balancing plan. 

The MDJ says Lee’s proposal to close a deficit in the current fiscal year estimated at more than $31 million would close 13 of 17 libraries countywide, three senior centers, two swimming pools and the Mable House amphitheater, as well as cutting back on other services. Each county department would be asked to cut its budget by 3.5 percent, and the millage rate would rise by 0.5 mil for the fire fund, costing the owner of a $200,000 home $40 a year.

The county commissioners plan to enact a plan Tuesday morning to eliminate the $31 million deficit projected for fiscal 2011, which runs through Sept. 30. Sinking property values, now expected to fall 7 percent on average in this year’s assessments, have produced the budget gap.

The tax increase would defy the consensus the commission reached March 22 after a budget work session, when only West Cobb Commissioner Helen Goreham spoke in favor of considering raising taxes.

East Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott held two town-hall meetings on the budget in the past week and a half and did not waver in his opposition to a tax increase.

“What we have to do once again is make sure we are using our assets as efficiently as possible,” Ott said Wednesday night in Smyrna. “You have to look at the cost of the services being provided and are we giving something away, because we just can't afford to do that anymore.”

In both town-hall meetings, Ott floated the idea of alternating opening days for the East Cobb and East Marietta libraries, but he did not talk about closing branches.

He said he spent Wednesday going through the budget suggestions submitted by the public, “and by far the most comments are on libraries. I would say generally the comments are that during these hard economic times, it's where people can go look for jobs, get on the Internet. There are a lot of services and I think the board recognizes that."

Helen Poyer, the director of the Cobb County Public Library System, sent out an e-mail message Thursday to library supporters, urging them to lobby commissioners to protect the libraries.

If the East Cobb and East Marietta branches are closed, the only library location in East Cobb would be the Mountain View Regional Library on Sandy Plains Road. That's one of the four branches that would remain open under Lee's plan. The others are the Central branch in downtown Marietta and regional libraries in South Cobb and West Cobb. 

Speaking Friday afternoon to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ott was indignant about Lee's proposed library closings in East Cobb and Smyrna, as well as for aquatic and senior facilities in the South Cobb portion of his district:

“As the elected representative for District 2, I have a hard time understanding why District 2 will have no libraries, senior centers or pools whereas each of the citizens of the other districts will have at least [one of each]. I don’t think it’s right for the citizens of District 2 as they pay the same taxes as everyone else."

The East Cobb Library opened at the Parkaire Landing Shopping Center on Lower Roswell Road in March 2010 after being relocated from the Merchants Walk Shopping Center. The county received $1.6 million from developers building a Whole Foods location and more shopping space where the old library and the Media Play store once stood. 

During a town-hall meeting at Brumby Elementary School in January, Ott said the county used $1 million of that money to renovate retail space at Parkaire for the East Cobb library.

"The reason the East Cobb library is as nice as it is is because we didn't have to spend anything for it," Ott said in response to questions from Dr. N.R. Farokhi, an East Cobb resident and college professor who has been vocal at public meetings about renovating what he calls the "obsolete" East Marietta library. 

The small two-story building on Lower Roswell Road, located at the entrance to Sewell Park, opened in 1966 when the county library system was being created.

Renovating the East Marietta branch was initially part of the 2011 Cobb SPLOST package unveiled last fall. But the $2 million East Marietta project was dropped to secondary status by Cobb commissioners in December, along with plans to upgrade the Gritters Library in Northeast Cobb, which is also targeted for closure by Lee. Cobb citizens extending the penny sales tax in March. 

Ott said in January that he was working with state Rep. Sharon Cooper (R-East Cobb) to obtain an estimated $2 million to $3 million in state funding that would be combined with $1 million of county money to build a new library in East Marietta.

"We have the plans, we know where it's going to go," Ott said.

But that was in January.

Ironically, a note on the Cobb library site points out that next week, April 10-16, is National Library Week. 

The board is under no obligation to enact Lee’s plan but needs to take some kind of action on the budget Tuesday.

One option to attack the deficit is to furlough the county’s 4,239 full-time workers, rather than giving each department the option to decide how to cut a certain amount. Each furlough day is worth $671,871 for the general fund, Finance Director James Pehrson said last month.

To put that in perspective, two furlough days would save about the same amount of money as closing the 13 libraries for five months.

East Cobb Patch will cover the Board of Commissioners’ meeting live at 9 a.m. Tuesday.