A 420-foot tower, the tallest in Cobb County, that will anchor German company thyssenkrupp* Elevator’s new North American headquarters at The Battery Atlanta was announced today. 900 jobs will accompany the tower. Governor Nathan Deal shared the news along with thyssenkrupp Elevator CEO Andreas Schierenbeck and thyssenkrupp Elevator Americas CEO Richard Hussey, as well as Mike Plant, president and CEO of the Braves Development Company.
Governor Deal, who initially met thyssenkrupp Elevator executives in Germany two years ago, quipped, “There are lots of ups and downs in the elevator business – but today is an up!” More details about the project, including renderings of how this project will transform the Cumberland skyline, are here.
The other thing that’s going up in Cobb County is the millage rate.
A few minutes past 10:00 last night, the Cobb County Board of Commissioners approved a tax increase of 1.7 mills. There’s not really any concern that there will be an exodus of outraged taxpayers surging to a part of metro Atlanta with lower taxes, though: Cobb’s millage rate is still among the lowest in metro Atlanta.
Commission Chair Mike Boyce, a Republican from east Cobb, spent the past several weeks on a tour of the Cobb explaining the county’s financial situation. It was expected that Commissioner Lisa Cupid, a Democrat from south Cobb, would support the increase, and it was well-known that Commissioner Bob Ott, also an East Cobb Republican, strongly opposed the increase. It’s an election year for Republican Commissioners JoAnn Birell and Bob Weatherford, so their votes faced scrutiny commensurate with their conservative-leaning districts in northern Cobb and in west Cobb, respectively.
Commissioner Weatherford, who previously served on the Acworth Board of Aldermen, was defeated in Tuesday’s GOP runoff by Bill Byrne-backed Keli Gambrill, a consultant and dressage judge from west Cobb. He was also the deciding vote last night.
From the Marietta Daily Journal:
While Weatherford previously said he had hoped to see the county make cuts to spending to reduce the increase, he gave his support to Boyce’s full measure.
“The chairman’s proposal of 1.7 (mills) gets us where we need to be in the next five years. It’s a restoration budget,” Weatherford said. “I think it’s time to invest in Cobb’s future — I think it’s time for all of us to step up so our kids and our grandkids will have a better place here than when we got here, and my goal has always been to make Cobb a better place than when I got here, and to do that, you have to invest in Cobb’s future…”