Local News

The Cobb County Sheriff’s Office’s Class of 2022 graduates.

The Cobb County Police Department’s Class of 2022 police academy graduates.

Cobb County has a number of new public safety employees, as two groups of recruits — one for the Cobb County Police Department (CCPD) and one for the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) — recently graduated.

CCPD’s Mandate 58 completed more than 1,000 hours of police instruction at Cobb’s police academy, including countless hours in the defensive tactics room, getting in shape, and hundreds of hours in the classroom. The former recruits now are sworn Cobb County police officers out on the road, answering 911 calls, responding to wrecks and making traffic stops. Next, they will embark on phase 2 of their training on the road with their field training officers.

Eleven CCSO deputies in Class 339 graduated from Basic Mandate at the North Central Georgia Law Enforcement Academy and are returning to work after several weeks of classroom and hands-on learning.

This year, the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office took second place in the fifth annual Acworth-Cobb Dragon Boat Race at Lake Allatoona. All proceeds from the event go to local cancer patients and survivors.

During the race, Team Purple Dragons needed extra rowers in order to be able to compete, so some of the sheriff’s office team jumped in to help fill the empty spots. The members of the Purple Dragons are cancer survivors, and the deputies were ecstatic to help them win first place.

The Flower Garden Club of Marietta recently donated and dedicated a picnic table and benches in the new 95-acre Kemp Park, which includes fields, woodlands, trails, a creek and Civil War earthworks.

The west Cobb property was nominated for parkland by the Kemp family and then purchased by Cobb County. Club member Teresa Winget’s husband, Rollie, constructed the table, and Cobb PARKS employees helped install it. Cobb Commissioner Keli Gambrill joined the celebration and restated her commitment to preserving green space in the county and the need to maintain its natural beauty.

Happy Helpings, Georgia’s summer food service program, is providing free meals to children through July 28 at the North Cobb Regional Library at 3535 Old 41 Highway in Kennesaw.

Packages of 14 meals each — one week of breakfasts and lunches — will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last, Thursdays at 1:30-3:30 p.m. through July 28. The food will be distributed via drive-through services in the library parking lot.

Prepared by a local countyinspected commercial kitchen, the meals are for children ages 18 and younger. Adults 19 years and older who are enrolled in school programs for students with disabilities also will receive meals.

Cobb County Public Library is teaming with Georgia Educational Resources Inc. (GER) for the third year to provide a summer meal service funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and administered by the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. Last year, the library system and GER provided 36,076 meals to 2,787 children.

For information on the program, visit www.happyhelpingsga.com.