Cobb to cut back on new roads, sidewalks

By Mary Lou Pickel

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cobb County will have to detour around plans for new roads and sidewalks because of a drop in sales tax collections.

The county faces a roughly $67 million decrease in expected sales tax revenue from its 1-cent sales tax for its transportation projects.

The county plans to defer about $42 million in road projects. Cobb’s six cities will have to postpone about $10 million from their road-building plans too. The rest of the shortfall will be covered because the county expects that other road projects will come in under budget, county spokeswoman AikWah Leow said.

Tuesday night, county commissioners will discuss about 22 road and sidewalk projects that will have to be postponed indefinitely from the list that voters approved in 2005 as part of the county’s special local option sales tax.

Each of the cities in Cobb will have to pare its road-building plans to match a smaller-than-expected budget. Marietta will face the steepest cut at about $4 million. Marietta sent a letter to the county saying it would postpone the widening of Barrett Parkway between Stilesboro Road and Burnt Hickory Road, about a $2 million project.

One county project likely to be “deprioritized” is the $1.85 million Powder Springs Road Connector to South Cobb Drive. Marietta knocked that one off its priority list recently.

Another candidate is the $425,000 widening of South Cobb Drive from Atlanta Road to Bolton Road. That project needs state money and the state has already said it’s not high priority, Cobb County Commission Chairman Sam Olens has said.

Other cuts on the county’s draft list include sidewalks on Floyd Road, Cooper Lake Road, Hurt Road, Hicks Road, Log Cabin Road and Atlanta Road.

County commissioners could cut safety improvements to schools, such as driveway improvements for Pope High School and Teasley Elementary School, and improvements at Kennesaw Due West Road that would help Pine Mountain Middle School and Hayes Elementary School.

Work that would help ease congestion could also be nixed, such as improvements to the western part of Lower Roswell Road and intersection improvements at Bells Ferry Road from I-575 to North Cobb Parkway. The widening of Six Flags Drive could be mothballed as well as another lane for Windy Hill Road. Left turn lanes for Johnson Ferry Road at Sewell Mill Road could be deferred too.

Sales taxes have fallen dramatically in the last few months, Olens said.