By Mark Woolsey

Despite pleas from military veterans, Cobb County Commissioners on Tuesday left the Cobb Veterans Memorial Garden off a list of projects receiving additional millions from what’s called RAP revenue, above projection, collected as a result of the 2022 SPLOST (special purpose local option sales tax).

That planned memorial had earlier been allocated one million in SPLOST dollars. Commissioners approved about 50 other 2022 list projects that have now been granted $175 million more due to the healthier sales tax take.

Long an advocate of the multi-million-dollar project planned near the Cobb Civic Center, Commissioner JoAnn Birrell enumerated a list of RAP projects that are receiving multiple millions of dollars more because of the unanticipated collections, then made a motion to shift $1 million from the Ebenezer Downs park project in her district to the veterans memorial build.

“This project has been in the making for ten years and it’s time to fund it,” she said.

That motion failed on a 4-1 vote with only Birrell voting in favor of the funding change.

Veterans who spoke earlier during a public comment period pleaded emotionally, even heatedly, for the project to be followed through with.

Vietnam and Gulf War veteran Skip Bell said, “I truly believe that service to our nation is far more than a business decision. Similar to the decision made by veterans to serve and sacrifice was far more than a business decision.”

Veteran Melissa Krudwig, who said her exposure to burning chemicals during her active duty in the Middle East led to two bouts with cancer, said the memorial needed to be carried through to completion for multiple reasons.

“This will not only serve as a place to pay respect to our veterans, it will also serve as a place to educate our children, out future generations,” she said.

But commissioner Erick Allen, in whose district the planned project now lies after a shift in voting lines(it was in Birrell’s),  did not support the reallocation of funding, saying that an earlier memorandum of understanding made it clear that the Cobb Veterans Memorial Foundation would be responsible for raising the bulk of the money.

Allen maintained that every portion of the memorial minus a $2.2 million “star tower” could be built right now with existing funding and commitments.

He said he was told that not supporting the 142-foot tower, which he offered to raise money for, “ is equivalent to spitting on veterans coming back from Vietnam.”

He labeled that statement “insensitive, insulting and ridiculous.”

Birrell said that proposed funding for the project was scaled back drastically by the memorial foundation because of a possible lack of support, after an original “ask” of $4 million toward an estimated $7 million completion price tag.

She said that, by contrast, some projects on the list that are getting RAP money were significantly over budget due to increasing construction costs and inflation.

“Costs continue to rise,” she said of the memorial project. “If we don’t do it now who knows what’s going to happen?” She also offered to help in fundraising.

Commission Chair Lisa Cupid said that there were other projects that had not received RAP funding, adding that there is support for moving the memorial ahead and of doing it in phases.

As Cupid put it, “There are still other means to get to the number desired. It may not be today but if it not today that doesn’t mean there’s no other way.”

Assistant Cobb County Manager Jimmy Gisi stated that an additional round of RAP funding is expected following January 2027.

After defeating Birrell’s motion for the Ebenezer Downs shift, commissioners voted  4-1 to approve the RAP list presented Tuesday with Birrell in opposition.

Commissioners also approved road improvements on Jamerson Road in front of Davis Elementary school in East Cobb.

The upgrade  consists of pedestrian improvements including the realignment of traffic lanes and the installation of a rapid flashing rectangular beacon.

The improvements come after a12-year-old boy was hit by a vehicle and seriously injured in June, while trying to cross the busy street to play basketball.Glosson Enterprises was tapped to make the upgrades for appoximately $147,000.