Marietta’s ambitious plan to redevelop aging neighborhoods is a worthy effort, but by keeping city taxpayers completely out the process, city officials are straining confidence that the process is being carried out fairly.

The city has been acquiring land within walking distance of the Marietta Square in hopes of attracting developers to renew old neighborhoods with mixed-income housing, small retail establishments and other urban-type amenities. Unfortunately it is conducting the process in total secrecy and in violation of the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Some council members and Mayor Bill Dunaway have defended the practice, claiming the closed-door process is necessary to get the best deals. But other local governments — including Cobb, Gwinnett, DeKalb and Fulton counties — routinely make land deals through private negotiations with owners while still providing information to taxpayers before money changes hands.

Dunaway has proposed a compromise in which the city would disclose, in advance, purchase of individual tracts that aren’t part of a larger acquisition plan. But it would not disclose deals when it feared that release of the purchase price would cause prices to rise for nearby tracts it also might want to acquire.

That’s not good enough.

State law is unambiguous — the purchase of property by a public agency must be carried out in public. State Attorney General Thurbert Baker has vigilantly guarded taxpayer participation in the process over the years. Two years ago, for example, he was instrumental in getting Gwinnett County to abandon a land-buying process similar to Marietta’s. Under Gwinnett’s new ordinance, it discloses, in advance, plans to buy property, why the land is needed and how it will pay for the purchase. The property’s exact location and price remain private during negotiations until the time comes to vote on it. Final votes to purchase are always conducted at public meetings.

In contrast, Marietta refuses to disclose negotiations or land deals during any step in the process. When asked by the Marietta Daily Journal when such deals would become publicly known, the city attorney said disclosure would occur when a news release is issued about the purchase.

Such a “we-know-what’s-best” attitude among elected public officials inevitably raises fears about insider deals and sweetheart contracts with friendly developers, and those suspicions could end up doing a lot more harm to Marietta’s redevelopment efforts than disclosure of purchase prices could.

The City Council is scheduled to discuss changing the land-purchasing process Sept. 10. If it refuses to do so, voters in Marietta should remember during next year’s municipal elections how they have been kept in the dark.

— Mike King, for the editorial board

Organizers are working to reschedule the August 24 concert on the Square that was cancelled because of bad weather.

Organizers are talking with The Neons band — which had planned to play ’70s and ’80s music — to find a new date, which will be announced when it is determined.

For more information, call the city’s Parks and Recreation Department at 770-794-5601.

A free family festival, “Honoring Our First Responders,” is being held in the Marietta Square Saturday, Sept. 8, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The festival is sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Marietta and features patriotic music and bands, displays from EMS, police and fire departments and fun activities for the whole family.

The stage program begins at 11:45 a.m. and includes a color guard presentation, military F-18 jet fly-over, music and various dignitaries, including Cobb County Board of Commissioners Chairman Sam Olens, on hand to honor local first responders. Restaurants on the square will be open to serve festival participants and free parking is available at the Cobb Government parking garage and area churches located just off the square.

For more information, call 404-388-2211 or visit www.mariettakiwanis.org.

Residents are invited to participate in the city of Marietta’s 2007-2008 basketball program, which includes youth and adult leagues.

Registration for the Youth League is open to boys and girls ages 6-14 Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Registration for the Youth League begins August 20 and ends September 13.

One-hour practices for the Youth League begin the week of October 8 Monday-Thursday at 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. The Youth League’s season runs from November 3 through late January. All regular season games will be played at Marietta City Schools and Marietta city recreation centers. Marietta’s Youth Basketball Program is a member of the Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA.

Registration for the Adult League begins September 10 and ends October 12. The Adult League is open to recreational division teams including company/corporate teams, church teams, and community recreational teams.

Games will be played on Tuesday or Wednesday nights beginning October 29 at the Marietta Sixth Grade Academy gym and/or Lawrence Street Recreation Center. The entry fee is $450 per team and due at registration.

Registration for both leagues is held at the Marietta Parks, Recreation and Facilities Department located on the third floor of Marietta City Hall, 205 Lawrence Street.

For more information, call 770-794-5601.

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Meeting Park

Meeting Park is a new community being developed by Winter Properties on Roswell St with 12 acres. Focusing on the development of a mixed use community, this $120 million dollar project will include 159 residential condominiums, 130 townhomes and 9 single family homes. Also included are retail and office space with a central park and additional greenspace. Amenities include walking distance to Marietta Square, restaurants, retail space, parks, sidewalks, swimming pool, clubhouse and fitness center.

Condominiums include 1, 2, and 3 bedroom plans from the low $230’s to the $500’s. The first condominium closings will be mid 2008. Townhomes have 1, 2, and 3 bedroom plans from the mid $200’s to $600’s and the first closings slated for late 2007. The entire community is to be completed late 2009.

Finishes include marble, granite, custom cabinets, hardwoods and upgraded appliances. Some units offer fireplaces and large decks. All this convenience within the historic Marietta community!

Feel free to contact the Caroline Lytle if you have any detailed questions about Meeting Park or any of the surrounding Condos.

We would like to be your Meeting Park listing agent.

Click Here If you have a home you would like to sell in Meeting Park

Click here to see homes for sale in Meeting Park 

FRIDAY, August 4th “First Friday on the Square” Shops Open Until 8pm. Relax…enjoy shopping, fine art and dining during the cool evening hours. Participating businesses are open late and are offering special sales and bargains for the twilight shopper. Perfect for date night, or bring the entire family for a stroll in Historic Marietta Square.
Complimentary Hors’dourves 5-8pm at the Marietta Wine Market. Stop in with your friends and have a glass of wine with us before dinner or a long day of shopping.

Marietta Wine Market has Wine Tastings every Wednesday 5pm-7pm and Saturday 2pm-4pm. Each week we sponsor a different local charity and serve complimentary hors d’oeuvres. A $5-$10 donation is suggested. Charties for August: Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day, American Cancer Society, Canine Companions, March of Dimes

Mark Your Calendar: We have a lot of great events coming up. Many of our events have a limited # of spots and due sell out. We are taking reservations for these events now. You are not obligated or need to guarantee (pay for your spot) until closer to the actual date. We will contact those on the reservation list in the order they are signed up until all slots are full when registration does begin. Please respond from this e-mail (heardk1@bellsouth) to or go to our contact page on our web site and enter your information.

MBA After Hour Party (Thursday, Aug 16th) FREE -MBA Members & Guest -RSVP
Wine Classes (Thurs Aug 23 $25pp & Friday, Sept21 7-9 pm) $25
Wine & Spirits Ghost Tours (Oct 2007 ) Dates TBA
North GA Wine Trip- (Sunday Oct 7, 2007- 10am-6:30 pm) $85pp (Taking Reservations)
First Annual Art of Wine Expo- (Sunday Oct 21, 2007 3pm-7pm at Brumby Hall/Marietta Conference Center Center ) $40pp Tickets on Sale August 1, 2007
Champagne & Chocolate (Nov 9th 7-9pm) (Taking Reservations)
12 Day Italy Trip 2008 (April 14-27 2008) 6 SLOTS LEFT. (Taking Deposits now)

The last soldier was bulldozed up almost 20 years ago — part of a skull, a few teeth, a piece of rib, two infantryman’s buttons and a piece of gray cloth — and buried with full military honors in Marietta’s famous Confederate Cemetery among more than 3,000 other Rebel graves.

Now, the scruffy graveyard just south of Marietta Square is about to turn up dirt again, this time for a multiyear, $1 million sprucing up and expansion that city leaders hope will make it a major tourist stop on Georgia’s long Civil War trail.

Within weeks, bulldozers will scrape up earth in Brown Park, next to the cemetery, so paving can

begin on dozens of new parking spaces, said Betty Hunter, a longtime former Marietta city councilwoman who’s heading the project. Fourteen flag poles will stand near a new fence — one for each state of the Old Confederacy, plus Kentucky, Missouri and Maryland.

Plans also call for the erection of a Wall of Heroes engraved with the names or initials of 856 Confederates known to be buried in unmarked graves among the thousands of unknowns. A paper list outlived wooden markers that rotted over time to be replaced by marble stones. “It’s going to be a wonderful thing for our city,” said Marietta Mayor Bill Dunaway. “It’s going to bring in a lot of tourists because so much fighting was done all around here.”

The effort, in the planning stages for years, is a joint project of the city and two nonprofit groups, Friends of Brown Park and the Marietta Confederate Cemetery Foundation, both headed by Hunter. She talked the Legislature into appropriating $75,000 for the project earlier this year. The organizations, which get some money from the city, too, have about $300,000. “And we need a lot more,” she said. That’s why a “wall of donors” is also planned for the names of contributors.

The Marietta City Council recently gave its blessing to the master plan, which includes connecting city-owned Brown Park, the Marietta City Cemetery and the state-owned Confederate Cemetery with one continuous fence. Cracked walkways will be replaced or repaired, said Hunter, 68, who has a deal with a California sculptor for six life-sized statues at $35,000 each, which will be placed strategically along an educational trail.

Developers announced plans July 30 for a multi-million dollar mixed-use development on more than 20 acres along Powder Springs Street between Garrison and Sandtown roads in the city of Marietta.

The $100 million development, called the Marietta Mercantile Exchange, will include more than 500,000 square feet of upscale residential and commercial space to be developed in accordance with the city’s Tier B classification requirements for appearance, style and density.

The design overlay encourages integration of pedestrian design features and aesthetic improvements into automobile-oriented corridors to generate visual interest.

“We want to assure city officials and other community leaders that this project will meet or exceed all of the standards that have been established,” said B.A. Stoner, whose company, Youtsey Inc., owns much of the property on which the Marietta Mercantile Exchange will be developed and is working to acquire the remaining parcels. “We want to be sure this is a project everyone in Marietta will be proud of.”

Youtsey will team with A.G. Armstrong Development based in Tampa, Florida. The A.G. Armstrong vice president of Georgia operations, Nayef Haddad, said plans for the site include new retail, office and housing construction, with approximately one-third of the project designated as high-end residential use.

Mr. Haddad said a yet-to-be-determined national grocery chain will anchor the site’s retail component.

“We want the grocery anchor to reflect the needs and desires of the community, and there are several possibilities given the old-world neighborhood design we envision,” Haddad said. “The retail anchor will need to be a well-known national grocery chain. The candidates with whom we are working all do intensive investigation prior to committing to build a store anywhere.”

The mixed use project incorporates class-A professional office suites, high-end residential flats and town homes and a neighborhood retail mix and will create a significant increase in tax revenue for the city of Marietta.

“We hope we’ll be lighting a wildfire of value in that area,” Youtsey representative Bill Loughrey said. “This isn’t a project being developed by an absentee landlord. This is a project being developed by a sixth-generation Cobb County family that has been doing business here for 52 years.”

Loughrey said the project adheres to all of the guidelines recently adopted by the Cobb County Commission for a tax allocation districts (TAD), and the project developers will be making a TAD application with the Marietta Redevelopment Corporation, Marietta City Council, Cobb County and city of Marietta Board of Education in the near future.