Marietta Parks and Recreation wins an Agency of the Year award

The City of Marietta’s Parks, Recrecreation, and Facilities Department won the Agency of the Year award for cities with a population of 50,001 to 80,000 from the Georgia Recreation and Park Association (GRPA).

The city wrote the following in its news release about the award:

The City’s Parks, Recreation, and Facilities Department has done more than just survive the pandemic; they have thrived by providing new programs to our community. They found ways to be creative to continue to employ current staff members in new and innovated ways during the height of the pandemic so that no employees suffered from reduced hours and no employees were furloughed. Our department sanitized equipment, spent time cleaning pavilions, and found ways to safely open our facilities like the Elizabeth Porter Sprayground to continue to provide services to our community while keeping citizens and visitors safe.
Regarding new and innovated programming, when the pandemic necessitated the cancellation of our traditional Christmas Tree Lighting event, the department created a three-day Santa Blitz event which saw Santa Claus riding on an antique fire truck, driving through neighborhoods across Marietta to truly engage our residents. The Parks, Recreation, and Facilities team worked with our City’s GIS Department’s mapping server to create a “Santa Tracker” so citizens could watch a Santa Icon move along the streets of Marietta and know when to go out to their front yards and see him thus bringing Santa to their front doors.

About the City of Marietta

The City of Marietta is the county seat of Cobb County. The latest estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau puts the population of the city at 60,867 which makes it the largest city in Cobb County by population.

However, the city is in a neck-and-neck race with fast-growing Smyrna, whose population was 56,666 at the last estimate.

Here are a few fast facts from the Census Bureau

Marietta city, Georgia

2019 Population Estimates 60,867

Source: Vintage 2019 Population Estimates

Median Household Income $ 57,452

Source: 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

Persons in poverty, percent 14.0 %

Source: 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

Educational Attainment: Percent high school graduate or higher 87.7 %

Source: 2015-2019 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates

Persons without health insurance, percent 18.1 %