Politics & Government

Smyrna's Population Gaining Ground on Marietta

Councilman Lnenicka: "The time will come where we will pass Marietta as the place in Cobb County where people want to live.''

Look out Marietta, Smyrna’s nipping at your heels.

The figures released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau indicated such. While more than 10,000 people moved to Smyrna between 2000 and 2010, a population jump of 25 percent, Marietta saw its population drop by 4 percent.

According to the figures, Marietta’s population dipped from 58,748 in 2000 to 56,579 in 2010, while the population in the Jonquil City jumped from 40,999 to 51,271 over the same time span.

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“I think it’s made some people sit up in the county and take notice that Smyrna’s on its way,’’ said Smyrna City Councilman Wade Lnenicka. “The time will come where we will pass Marietta as the place in Cobb County where people want to live.’’

Census data affects how more than $400 billion in federal funding is distributed to state and local governments. The information helps determine locations for new roads, schools, hospitals, child-care and senior centers. It also is used to determined proper district representation in state and local governments.

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“There’s still a lot of things we can do in Smyrna, but we’re obviously doing a few things right along the way,’’ Lnenicka said. “We want to continue to make Smyrna a good place to live, work and play.’’

Republican state Rep. Rich Golick, who has represented Smyrna since 1999, told the Marietta Dailey Journal that Smyrna officials were doing just that.

"I think the biggest contributors for Smyrna's growth are its convenient location and proximity to the airport, and a local government leadership that has demonstrated a commitment to redevelopment of distressed areas," Golick told the newspaper.

City leaders also praised the efforts Assistant City Administrator Tammi Saddler and Economic Development Coordinator Jered Sigmon for ensuring Smyrna received a proper head count during the 2010 Census. The pair helped form a census complete count committee and then worked tirelessly to get the word out.

“They went to a lot of meetings, put out a lot of information … and lo and behold, we ended up with a much better census result this year,’’ Lnenicka said. “The numbers show that Smyrna, despite the economy, in what I personally thought would be a downturn in our population, we actually increased a couple of thousand in population.

“I don’t think that mitigates from the downturn in population that we have seen in certain areas, but it reflects I believe a much more accurate count of the people who actually live here in Smyrna.’’

Councilman Ron Newcomb shared those sentiments.

“Part of this growth was actual real growth, but a part of this was in the year 2000 we all have a real suspicion that they didn’t count well,’’ he said. “There was an apartment complex then where 700 units were reported as 1,400 people living there.

“It will be very interesting to see where the numbers fall, but I know in my ward our folks were bird-dogging back there all the time to make sure everyone was counted. At the time it was a pretty thankless job, but the work that Tammi and Jered did is reflective in the results.’’


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