It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Cobb County planned to use federal funds to renovate a portion of an old strip shopping center along Powder Springs Street in Marietta to house a senior services center, complete with a wellness clinic and adult day care. But almost two years after buying the property, the county learned that the building is in a federal flight path of Dobbins Air Reserve Base and can’t receive any federal dollars.
County leaders said they learned of the funding restriction about six months ago. But the information only reached the public this week and senior services supporters have rallied to keep open two facilities that are scheduled to close due to budget cuts.
“Who is the person that applied for that grant and didn't check into the requirements?” asked Karen Delameter, whose mother attends the county’s senior day care center, scheduled to close at the end of the month. “It doesn’t quite add up.”
The county bought the shopping center in 2009 for $5.8 million to house the property management and community development departments, along with the senior center. Plans were to consolidate the existing senior administrative and day care locations on Fairground Street into the new center, sell the old buildings and use the revenues to offset the purchase of the shopping center, said Pam Breeden, Cobb’s Senior Services director.
But work on the new senior center on Powder Springs Street is at a standstill at least until June while county officials juggle money from other sources to complete the renovations.
The county was open about purchasing the shopping center, which has been along Powder Springs Street since the 1980s, and no one mentioned the new flight path rule, put in place by the Department of Housing and Urban Development after 9/11, Breeden said. Cobb's congressmen were unsuccessful in securing an exemption.
HUD does not fund gathering places in areas with a high potential for aircraft crashes and the senior center's location would impose a risk to health and safety, according to the department’s policies.
Bill Dunaway was mayor of Marietta when the county purchased the shopping center and disapproved of the location because it was too far away from the city center.
“I think the county got blindsided trying to save money that they did not check everything,” said Dunaway, who took his concerns to then-commission chairman and current state Attorney General Sam Olens and other county officials. “The county was in a push to get it done because they were building a new courthouse and displacing some of their departments.”
Chairman Tim Lee, who was a district commissioner in 2009, stood by the county’s processes.
“I don’t think we messed up at all. It’s not that we didn’t do our due diligence,” he said. “We made the application for the federal funds and it didn't specify the flight plan portion.”
The county does not plan to restart a day care program in the new facility.
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