I am 19, currently a lifeguard making $15/hr. I am ready for a more serious job that is entry-level. I don't want to work in the food business and preferably no retail. Does anybody have any good recommendations on what jobs would be the next best step up from a "teen job"??

I am in the process of starting my life over. I am in the planning stage as this is all so new to me. My relationship is an abusive one and I’m looking for some recommendations for places that do weekly rentals in the Kennesaw, GA area. I haven’t been on my own in 25 years…so a place that includes all utilities would be a godsend. Coming up with astronomical deposits for first, last months, electric, water and more, are presently out of reach. Any advice would be amazing and greatly appreciated.

The only thing on the agenda was crime stats. Year to date, from the start of the year, we had 703 class 1 crimes. This is up significantly from 2025, which had 655 over the same time period. The big movement was from drug offenses being up 63 more than last year. Other categories that were up were fraud (+19), porn (+9 for a total of 10 compared to last year's 1), and assault (+7). We had a few kinds of crimes that were lower, too. Larceny was down (-20) as was intimidation (-19) and car theft (-6).

As there was nothing else, it's public comment time.

History Kid wanted to tell us about Amy Carter and her time in the Lil General Cloggers, the Kennesaw-based dance group. In 1976 they performed at the Whitehouse, but that was probably because her father was then-president Jimmy Carter.

The Woodland Park Guy said he appreciated the consistency in the city. He was unhappy about the public facing meeting was canceled, even if it does seem that the city is acting. He got the records from the city and he was particularly unhappy with how the file that contained most of his communications was labeled "junk" and how the Mayor instructed people to ignore him. He was particularly unhappy with Councilman Bothers and his concerns about the safety of the Woodland Park location. He quoted Ferris Bueller's Day off.

Mr. Mayo was next to speak. He was encouraged by the last meeting and how much work the Park and Recreation folk over the past couple of weeks. He was, however, unhappy with the statement that the park was surrounded by woods and people couldn't be seen. The park is surrounded by houses. Over the weekend they tried to determine if they could hear someone yelling at the park from their house next door, and they could. He also pointed out that the source of danger cited (the motel) was roughly the same distance from Adam's Park, and he didn't think that Adam's Park was unsafe. He said that he had deep trust in the Kennesaw Police, and was concerned by how little faith the council had in them.

The Interim City Manager noted that the head of the Southern Museum was going to receive a medal of excellence from the national Institution of Museums and Libraries.

Oh, yeah, Interim City Manager. They went into executive session (where they discuss stuff in secret pertaining to real estate or staff issues) and came back to announce that they're hiring someone to search for a new City Manager. They're paying $24,500 for the job search because the current City Manager has announced he's retiring after about ~25 years on the job at the end of this budget cycle. Turnover in one of the most consequential positions in the city, it seems. An opportunity for a new direction.

Also, the Ben King Street project will be kicking off "soon". How soon? The signs that announce the date are already out, but they haven't been updated yet. They will be updated to announce the road closure in the coming days. Be ready for big disruptions and closed roads just in time for the new school year!

As a reminder, the next Cobb County Town Hall is this Wednesday, the 22nd. Lisa Cupid will be there along with other county leadership.

Address: East Cobb Library - 4880 Lower Roswell Rd Ste 510-B, Marietta, GA 30068

Time: 7-8:30pm

There will be an updates, discussion, and a Q&A.

Now is the time to put the pressure on leadership to get rid of Flock!!!! Flock Safety’s primary manufacturing plant is in Smyrna. People need to know that and the dangers this technology brings.

I’m a foodie and would love to know of some good hole in the wall spots or just out right have to try. Bonus for a good matcha spot as well 😋

Saw this on Cobb pkwy

Hello fellow parents, our daughter will be starting kindergarten in the 27/28 school year. One of my neighbors who has older kids got into my head about the quality of Hayes but their kid was in Elementary school about a decade ago.

Question for parents who have a kid at Hayes, how has your experience been with the general student population and the teachers? I know we can do the cobb county thing and put her in Bullard which is not our default but we are also thinking longer term about middle school since the kids who start with her will be moving through with her.

Thanks from a fellow parent!!

Title basically says it all. I'm moving to Kennesaw soon and I'm looking for a new credit union to start an account with, since my current bank doesn't have branches in the area. I'm only looking for credit unions or very reputable locally owned banks. Any ideas? Thanks!

Some flocks not even on the map posted yesterday are popping up. What are we doing?

The store I work at is hiring! Scan the QR code to apply :)

Just moved to the area. Looking for an eyebrow threading person. So nervous to try someone new!

Does anyone know of a public court that has a tennis wall. Everywhere I go I can’t find one. I’m looking for some practice and a wall definitely helps. Thanks.

Honest question… If the city announced tomorrow that everyone could access Flock camera footage because we paid for it with our tax dollars, most of us would think that’s a terrible idea.

Why? Because all it takes is one stalker, abusive ex, burglar, or other bad actor to use that information to mess with someone’s life. So what actually changes when only the police have access?

I’m not saying cops are bad people, but every profession has bad actors, and we don’t know who has access, how often it’s audited, or how misuse is caught.

If giving that power to everyone sounds terrifying because of what one person could do with it, I don’t feel any better when that person wears a badge and has more legal protection.

Not to mention how Palantir is integrating its AI software with data collected by Flock cameras.

Can someone explain why Kennesaw had a portion of its budget ($2.5M) being sent to Israel?

https://www.notmytaxdollars.org

Edit: look in comments for methodology, it’s not part of Kennesaw’s budget but how much federal tax from residents get sent there

This is to veterans and family. (38M) Marine Veteran.

I'm considering on joining a group. I've done Irreverent Warriors amd the silkies hikes, but looking for another mission.

I've decided on either VFW, American Legion, or Marine Corps League.

I'm pretty bias on joining American Legion because I'm also a Boy's State Alumni and feel obligated to join (in a good way).

My question is; which one should I join? What's the age range within these groups and which one has more active members.

Perhaps since they got it so cheap they will do something with it.

There was almost nothing on the agenda this week other than the discussion topics. The "almost" was crime stats.

For the first time in several months the crime stats for June came in rosier than last year. June of 2026 saw 113 Class A crimes, down from 122 in June of 2025. Fraud was up 11 from last year, but several other categories saw drops including Vandalism (-6), larceny (-5), weapons charges (-4), drugs charges (-4), and sex offenses (-2). Year to date we are still running higher than last year (703 so far in 2026 versus 655 in the same period of 2025).

The Woodland Park Guy spoke first. He brought a poster. He started off sarcastically thanking them for ignoring the graffiti, but some honest thanks for getting Parks and Recreation out there to do some work since last Thursday. He said that the discussion of the park scheduled for today should have happened months ago.

Mr. Mayo wanted to thank the Park and Recreation crew who came out to help fix up the park. Between the brush hog flattening the undergrowth, the park and recs crew, and the community clean up day the park looks as good as he can remember it being. The Public Works department go out and did some more work along the streets, which really made sidewalk more usable. His biggest complaint is that the chain is still up, which prevents him and his parents from accessing the park as they require it to be ADA compliant.

The fellow who organized last weekend's cleanup got up there and said that he really appreciate the city getting out there. He's excited by the progress made by city employees an volunteeers.

Dame Dobbs was next. She wanted to highlight that the place hasn't been as abandoned and neglected as her social media said. She had pictures of the city getting out and doing a cleanup in 2024, and a copy of the hand-written thank you note she sent with some council members that are no longer with us. You know, out of office. She wanted to shout out the work of previous city councils, and fight back against narratives that paint her neighborhood in the poor light.

A KSU student was next. He's a resident of Paulding County, but he goes to school at KSU and so would like to comment about Kennesaw. He is motivated by the Data Center situation in Marietta and wants the city to enact a limit of its own prior to the county moratorium ending in six months. He doesn't think six months is long enough to figure out the real costs and believes that city resources are stretched enough before struggling to figure something out in the face of a data center plan.

That's that for public comment and the start of first discussion item.

Councilman Bothers said that when he was elected he stated he wanted to name something after the outgoing Councilman Ferris. Former Councilman Ferris was a lifelong resident (except when he went to UGA) and was an elected official for 25 years in two stints. He always asked questions in the meetings and was a master parliamentarian who kept city business flowing. So, he figures that naming part of the Sardis Street Extension after former Councilman Ferris makes sense, especially since renaming only the block of Sardis he lives off of would only change his own address and no one else's. He stressed how cost effective this would be as they would be changing all the names anyways.

Councilman Jones chimed in saying that former Councilman Ferris really helped him when he started out and is down for naming something out of him.

Councilor Viars noted that former Councilman Ferris was deeply involved with the Museum and Cemetery, so if they name something after him it should probably be in one of those two institutions.

Councilor Orochena noted that former Councilman Ferris opposed the Sardis Street Extension project. She noted that it seemed like a backhanded compliment to name something he worked to oppose after him.

Councilman Guiterrez-Leon reminded everyone that we typically name things posthumously for a reason, not that there's any reason to believe that Former Councilman Ferris did anything wrong. He also believed given the former Councilman's affiliation with railroads it would be more fitting.

The Mayor summed it up by directing staff to identify something railroad or museum related to name after Former Councilman Ferris.

The next discussion topic was Councilman Jone's discussion about the Woodland Park and Butler Creek Park.

To start things off he said that he was out there on Saturday and got a real good look at the place. He thought that the old blacktop that had been a basketball court at some point could have the cracks filled in and be used as the foundation for a pavilion, he could envision a couple of benches and trash cans and a barbecue pit being added. He wasn't that big on a playground there. As far as Butler Creek Park, it had actually been closed since 2004, as opposed to being just chained off, so it would be a bigger project but even though it was closer to a creek and more likely to flood the Butler Creek Park seemed more suited to a playground.

Councilman Bothers came out and said that he didn't think Woodland Park was safe. At least, he wouldn't let his kids play there. He reiterated many times that it was recessed into the woods, that he couldn't see the park area from the road, and he didn't feel safe there. He said he could see it as a "walking park" with a trail, but he was categorically opposed to things that might cause children to congregate or hang out because he didn't think it was safe.

Councilman Jones reiterated that he didn't intent to propose a play set.

Councilman Guiterrez-Leong said that he thinks that we should speed up the town hall to as soon as it can be organized, but even before that he thinks we should swap out the chain for a bollard.

Councilman Jones said he wants to just skip the town hall and make a quick executive decision, or as quick as the process allows. He doesn't want to make changes to the park now only to have to redo them when the big plan comes through.

Councilor Orochena said that she and a couple of other council members went door to door with a survey and noted the results. The biggest thing was that most people weren't aware of neighborhood parks and wanted to discuss Depot or Swift-Cantrell. But after getting past that misunderstanding most people want the neighborhood parks to walk and have their kids play. The biggest barrirs were (34/53) the parks look to be in a state of disrepair, (30/53) they lack necessary amenities like "shade" and "places to sit", and (20/53) they seem unsafe. Common threads seemed to be that people didn't want a lot of flashy things, as they didn't want people from outside the neighborhood coming in to use the parks, but they really want a place to do things with their neighbors.

Councilor Viars also says that the chain needs replacing as soon as practical. She also noted that there's a motel very close to the park and the lack of visibility from the street. She prefers any play set to be at Bulter Creek as opposed to at Woodland. She was also concerned that this issue was taking up too much of the city's bandwidth, as there's a lot of other stuff going on but an issue for one neighborhood has been dominating the agenda.

The Mayor noted that because so many council members had been out knocking on doors that they nearly violated the Open Records Act. Whenever a quorum of the council (3 or more members) get together and do anything city related they need to document it as though it were a council meeting, to prevent shady stuff like agreeing how people will vote at a restaurant before a meeting and before hearing the people comment. He also went on to note that the council can't vote something at a work session, the most they can do is order staff to work up a proposal they can vote on at a regular meeting.

The city attorney confirmed that the most action they can get today was ordering staff to create a proposal that can be voted upon.

Councilman Jones clarified that he wanted to get staff to price out a pavilion, trash can, some benches and a barbecue area at Woodland Park. He also wanted Butler Creek reopened with amenities roughly equivalent to the new Kennesaw Station Park.

Councilman Bothers reiterated that he opposed anything more than a walking trail and benches as he felt the place was unsafe for children and doesn't want people gathering somewhere dangerous.

Councilman Jones then suggested that we add cameras to the parks as the new Public Safety Building would add the capacity to watch surveillance of the parks.

The Mayor, at this point, told the Woodland Park Guy to shut it. He was upset that the guy was chiming in during the discussion. Speaking out of turn seems to make the Mayor upset.

Councilman Jones got back on track, reiterating that the plan for the two parks. Councilor Orochena noted that the survey made it clear that the respondents wanted a small play set, so as to not tempt people from out of the neighborhood to turn up.

And so it was ordered for Parks and Recreation to price it out and make a formal proposal that can be voted upon.

Now it's the last discussion topic of the night.

Councilman Guiterrez-Leon wanted to discuss a moratorium or ban of Data Centers. He noted that there are already 165 in Metro Atlanta and a number of places have temporary holds on them including a number of nearby counties. The core of Atlanta (within 20 miles of the beltline) bans them as does Fayetteville. There are a lot of issues with them, he cited power bills, water usage, noise, and the lack of jobs. No Data Centers have applied within city limits yet, but he doesn't see a reason to wait.

Councilor Orochena asked how long moratoriums can last. She would prefer at least a year while they do research.

The Mayor noted that "data center" doesn't appear in any of the city's zoning.

The city attorney was then ordered to create a memo and do the research to do a moratorium. The city attorney believes that an outright ban like Fayetteville's will end up in court and might not survive but they will take the year to draw up something suitably restrictive that won't get the city sued.

Looking for any local recommendations for a super simple back pop (1x upper back, 1x lower back). Not looking to sign up for a full chiropractor adjustment right now, just a place that could do this. Thanks :)

My partner has been a mechanic for 15 years, and after seeing so many people get quoted crazy prices or feel intimidated by the repair and performance shops, we’ve been trying to grow his mobile mechanic business here in our community.

He’s the kind of person who genuinely enjoys fixing things (even if it means spending hours chasing down an electrical gremlin 😂) and I figured I’d help him get his name out there because he’s not the type to advertise himself.

He comes to you for most repairs and maintenance, including brakes, alternators, audio systems, starters, batteries, oil changes, turbos, gaskets, transmission services, diagnostics, suspension work, and more. If you’re not sure what’s wrong, just send me your vehicle’s year, make, model, and what’s happening, and we’ll let you know if it’s something he can help with. If you’re looking to build or diagnose a race car, drift car, lowrider, show car or any type of truck he specializes in those as well.

We’re just a young local family of 6 trying to build something honest, so every job, recommendation, or even an upvote means more than you know.
Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone has a great week! ❤️

Looks like the Panera on Barrett Pkwy in Kennesaw is closed for good. The sign is down and there is info on the door. Too bad, it was a good place to get a coffee and use the wifi.

Hiii!
I haven’t had authentic BBQ in years, and I’ve been craving some lately. Are there any good BBQ spots in Kennesaw or Marietta?