County Commissioners Due to Approve a Budget Plan Tuesday

Budget issues close to home are looming large on the horizon. Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott, whose District 2 represents covers roughly Smyrna and East Cobb below Roswell Road, talked about a top-heavy county government and getting firefighters out from behind desks and onto fire trucks during his town-hall meeting on the county's financial problems Wednesday night. The county commissioners are due to unveil, discuss and approve a plan Tuesday to close a projected $31 million budget deficit in the current fiscal year.

Word is commission Chairman Tim Lee of East Cobb has a plan, but he's not revealing it (and whether it raises any taxes) to the public yet. Meanwhile, the county's new Citizens Oversight Committee has met twice and is quickly getting a grasp on how committees work—by forming four subcommittees and scheduling more meetings, even before several members, including Ott appointees Thea Powell and Bob Barr, even are officially on the panel. Government in action, or government inaction?

• The Cobbworks Mobile Career Center will be in Smyrna on Friday offering an intro/beginner computer class at the from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. So if you’re looking to gain the skills needed to further your job search, call the library at 770-431-2860 to register.

• Cobb schools remain on spring break, but a pair of seniors, Lauren E. Brown and Brianna M. Chambers, were honored Wednesday by winning Achievement Scholarship awards through the National Achievement Scholarship program.

The two were among some 800 outstanding black American students who were recognized from among the more than 160,000 students who requested consideration through the program. They are among the group who was judged to have the strongest record of accomplishments and greatest potential for academic success in college.

• In other school news, Cobb County Board of Education Chairwoman Alison Bartlett, whose Post 7 includes  , and elementary schools, is back at home after suffering a heart attack last week.

Bartlett told the Marietta Daily Journal that the heart attack was not stress related and that doctors informed her that she had a tear in one of the main arteries. The Cobb School board chair will not be at next Wednesday’s school board meeting.

• Finally, if you’re a parent and you’re looking looking to step out Friday night, you might want to give a call. They may call it “Kids’ Night Out,” but every parent knows that equates to several hours of date night or “me time” for the adults. This fun paint-your-own-pottery place housed in a funky cottage pulls out all the stops when it comes to rugrats.

Drop your kiddos off at 6:30 p.m. and you’re free as a bird until 10 p.m. Glazy Dazy serves up a pizza party, a themed paint project, and a movie, complete with popcorn. The movie scheduled for this Friday is “Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” and the paint project is dragons and mermaids. Register in advance via phone, email, or facebook, because space is limited. It’s $40 per child with a 15 percent discount for siblings.

- East Cobb Patch Editor Wendy Parker contributed to this story.