Cobb County school board nixes plans to build $50M event center
COBB COUNTY, Ga. - Cobb County school leaders decided to nix plans to build a $50 million event center. The decision was made at a specially called meeting on Tuesday.
The 8,000-seat venue would have been built next to the district's main office and would have been used for graduations and other district events.
"With the growing population and with 17 high schools, I still think there's a need for it in the future," said board member Randy Scamihorn.
Scamihorn says he still likes the idea of the event center, but things are different now than they were when plans for the center were first made.
"Our revenue has decreased significantly from last year to this year based on the slowing of the economy, couple that with the inflation rate," he said.
During a meeting on Tuesday, Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said "The economy has changed in the last two years and our financial decisions have to change with it."
"I think the superintendent made the right decision to pull back," said board member Tre Hutchins.
Hutchins says the plan has gotten a lot of pushback from community members.
Cobb County school leaders decided to nix plans for a $50 million event center that would have been built next to the district's main office.
"Listening to constituents around the county in regard to needs for daily operations and needs for schools that need improvements, this project felt more like a wish and not a necessity," said Hutchins.
"I feel like they've been forced to listen to a lot of the feedback from the public," said Stacy Efrat with Watching the Funds Cobb.
Watching the Funds Cobb members often questioned the need for the building and spoke out at board meetings for months. While they're pleased with the decision, they're not letting their guard down yet.
"The timing is very odd. Four of the seven board members are up for re-election in a few months. We're worried they might bring it back once the election is over, but we just don't know," said Efrat.