Cobb County named a Certified Green Community

Cobb County was recognized this morning at the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) 2009 “State of the Region” breakfast for being one of the first communities in the region to qualify for Green Communities Certification. Thank you of the leadership that helped implement sustainability practices and policies in the community such as energy efficiency, green building, transportation and water efficiency.

Cobb County has a Sustainable Practice Policy that incorporates a variety of measures such as LEED or EnergyStar^® certification for all new local government buildings, a green fleet policy, the use of organic and drought-tolerant landscaping practices and an environmental purchasing policy. The county remediated a brownfield for its West Park Government Center on site. Other notable measures include the replacement of older plumbing fixtures, alternative fueling stations for government vehicles and the adoption of a “complete streets” policy. Congratulations to Cobb County!

Congratulations to the Cobb County School District for receiving an A in reaccreditation

Congratulations to the Cobb County School District for receiving an A in reaccreditation. The Cobb Chamber remains committed to quality education and what it means to our community and are proud of the partnership that we have with our educational institutions. Again, congratulations to our Cobb County School System and all that helped make this happen.

Lt. Governor Cagle Appoints Cobb County’s Holly Comer to the Commission on Women

Lt. Governor Casey Cagle announced today that Cobb County’s Holly Comer has been appointed to serve on the Commission on Women. 

“Holly brings an extensive background and strong leadership abilities to this council,” said Lt. Governor Casey Cagle. “She is a tremendous asset to her community and I am truly honored to have her represent my office in this capacity.”

“It is an honor to be appointed to this council and I look forward to working for the benefit of women across our state.   This is a great opportunity to continue to promote the role of women in our workforce and our communities and I thank Lt. Governor Cagle for giving me this opportunity,” said Holly Comer.

Comer is currently the CEO & Executive Director of the YWCA of NW Georgia and oversees the organization of 25 staff members and directs a budget of $1.5 million.  She previously served as the Chief Development Office for Cobb Family Resources, Senior Manager for InfoMart and Assistant Vice-President of Chesley Brown International, a security consulting company. 

Along with a successful career, Comer devotes much of her time to community involvement.  She has served as a board member of the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Chaired the program committee for the Cobb County Prayer Breakfast, served on the Leadership Council of the American Cancer Society, and is the past President of the Leadership Cobb Alumni Association.  Her service and commitment has been recognized by the Junior League when she was named one of the 75 Outstanding Women of Cobb County and received the Marietta Civitan of the Year Award in 1992.

Comer attended The University of South Florida in Tampa. She currently resides in Marietta with her favorite dog, Lucky, and is an avid sports fan.

Comer will begin her four year term immediately.  The Council will be the body responsible for collecting and disseminating information regarding the role of women in the State of Georgia and the impact any state laws have on Georgia women. The Council will consult and advice the Governor, state departments, agency’s, boards or commissions on matters pertaining to women and will explore employment policies in the public and private sector and their impact on the wage-earning capacity of women. The council will seek to promote, encourage and provide advisory assistance to the state, local and community women’s professional, business and civic organizations.

Congratulations to Bank of North Georgia for being named ‘best place to work’

Georgia Trend recently selected 10 Georgia companies for its 2009 Honor Roll of the Best Place to Work in Georgia. Bank of North Georgia made the list for the third consecutive year.

An employee at any level can nominate his or her company by using a ballot on the magazine’s Web site. The magazine’s editors base their selections only on the responses and letters written by employees.

“We never have to guess what’s going on because the communication here is great,” says Cheryl Dougherty, assistant vice president of cash management services. “We feel like we know what’s going on, that our opinions matter and we’re all part of the decision making process.” 

Bank of North Georgia and the other nine companies are featured in the November 2009 issue of Georgia Trend. For more information, visit http://georgiatrend.com/features-business-industry/11_09_bptw.shtml.

Harrison High School Band’s final “March to Macy’s”!

Harrison High School Band is marching on cloud nine…all the way to Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Traveling to the “Big Apple” will be one of the best adventures some of these teenagers ever go on. With David Vandewalker (Director of Bands), Stephen Meyer (Associate Director of Bands), Josh Ray (Assistant Band Director), staff, administrators, and a host of volunteers dedicated to every step of this journey leading to New York City, excitement couldn’t be any higher.

The almost 200 person strong marching band has been working tirelessly to perfect timing, music, and choreography on their newest production Lost and (Pro)Found.  The road to this point hasn’t been easy. Preparing for competitions, exhibitions, and half time shows has definitely paid off though.   Winning 1^st Place Division Leader and Grand Champion at the Western Carolina Tournament of Champions, as well as the class AAA Visual Ensemble award, and third place overall at the Bands of America Super-Regional competition at the Georgia Dome has brought them to this point in time; this last moment, before performing in their 2009 coup de gras…the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  

High school bands across the country submit resumes, video footage, band bios, and more in order to claim one of the coveted spots in the parade.  Only eleven bands were chosen for 2009, Harrison being the only one to represent Georgia.

Mixed in among floats, entertainers, and of course the balloons known by children of all ages, Harrison High School Marching Band will be living out a year long dream.  Weather may be brisk; however, this band will keep warm smiling ear to ear when marching down a brand new route (the first route change since 1924) over two and a half miles long.

If you are in Kennesaw around 2:30pm on November 22^nd, come by Harrison High School to help send them off on this grand adventure. If not, we hope you join the over seven million watching on parade day as Harrison makes all of Georgia proud while playing their hearts out!

For more information on the parade, please visit the official website www.macys.com/parade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

YWCA honors forensic nurse examiner Phyllis Coker with Pat Head Dignity Award at Cobb Chamber First Monday Breakfast

(l to r) WellStar Health System Nurse Phyllis Coker and Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head

Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head and Holly Comer, YWCA of Northwest Georgia CEO and Executive Director, presented the Pat Head Dignity Award to Phyllis Coker, a WellStar Health System nurse, at the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s First Monday Breakfast in November.  Coker received the award for her work to advocate for victims of sexual assault and providing critical evidence to prosecute these crimes.  

The Award, which was created in March 2009, is named for District Attorney Pat Head’s dedicated service to Cobb County, the YWCA, and to efforts to serve the families and victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.  The award honors a community member in law enforcement, victim services, the community or a legislator who exemplifies the standard of “Doing the Right Thing” when it comes to serving victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. 

Coker is an 11-year veteran of WellStar Health System and is also employed by the YWCA as a specially-trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE).  Comer said that Coker’s expertise has made a huge impact on the success of the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Program since its inception in Cobb County in 2005 and its expansion into Cherokee and Paulding Counties.

The SART program was a vision of District Attorney Head to have a coordinated response to sexual assault crimes in our community. The District Attorney’s office, law enforcement, WellStar and the YWCA now partner to provide services to victims of these crimes.  “One of the most important components of the program is the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner who collects the forensics results from the crime.  The nurse’s services are vital to any prosecution,” said Head.    

Comer cited one example of Coker’s expertise: “A few years ago a woman woke up in her new townhome to find a man at the foot of her bed. He brutally raped her for two hours and thought he had protected himself from leaving any DNA during the attack.”  She said that Coker was able to find one piece of DNA that was put into the state database.  When he was arrested as a peeping Tom in Atlanta several months later, the DNA was matched to the sexual assault.  Comer said that because of the evidence Coker had obtained during the SANE exam, the attacker plead guilty to the crime and the victim did not have to go through the ordeal of a trial. 

Coker performed 68 sexual assault exams just last year as the lead SANE nurse for the collaborative partnership.  She has also trained seven other nurses to be certified to collect the forensics necessary for prosecution of these cases.  

The YWCA of Northwest Georgia’s vision today is a community free of domestic violence and sexual assault.  Comer said that this is important since 1 in 4 women will be victims of domestic violence, and 1 in 6 women and 1 in 33 men will be victims of sexual assault.  Children who witness domestic violence are 50% more likely to become abusers themselves. 

Comer told the business leaders at the Cobb Chamber that the cost of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault to health care and mental health is over $5 billion per year.  She also stressed that employees lose 8 million hours of work or the equivalent of 32,000 days of productivity annually.

Coker is married to Major Tony Coker with the Cobb County Police Department.  They have two grown children, who are 22- and 25-years-old. Coker grew up in Acworth and attended North Cobb High School.  She has been a nurse for more than 25 years, and previously served the community as an EMT and police officer.

 

NORTHSIDE HOSPITAL ONCE AGAIN NAMED ATLANTA’S “CONSUMER CHOICE”

For the third consecutive year, The National Research Corporation (NRC) has publically recognized Northside Hospital with the prestigious CONSUMER CHOICE AWARD as a result of consumer surveys they conducted in the 28 county metropolitan Atlanta area earlier this year. The NRC’s Healthcare Market Guide Study, widely known as the nation’s most comprehensive consumer assessment of the health care industry, surveyed metro Atlantans about which hospitals have the best overall quality and image.

“This recognition is a true testament to the dedication, hard work and compassionate care our physicians, staff and volunteers provide to the community on a daily basis,” said Bob Quattrocchi, President and CEO of Northside Hospital. “We are delighted that the community recognizes this hard work and trusts Northside Hospital to be their hospital of choice for providing high-quality health care to their families.”

Additionally, Northside Hospital retained the status of the Most Preferred Hospital for Overall Healthcare Services for the 13th consecutive year with NRC.

 NRC is an independent, nationally recognized research firm that seeks to obtain the preferences of health care consumers in more than 190 markets across the country, representing 48 states and more than 400,000 consumers.

 ”As consumers continue to play an ever-increasing role in their selection of health care providers and services, it is important for us to continuously evaluate and enhance the care, facilities and services we provide,” added Quattrocchi.

Assessing the quality of health care providers achieves two goals: It assists health care providers in improving performance and it helps consumers make better informed health care decisions for themselves and their families. As more health care quality information is made publicly available, this information is expected to greatly drive the health care decisions of the consumer in the years ahead.

 ”We are honored to have received these very meaningful recognitions,” added Quattrocchi. “We wish to thank all our patients and their families for allowing us to be a part of their health care team, and we thank our physicians, employees and volunteers for making Northside Hospital a top health care industry leader, both in the clinical arena and in terms of compassionate care.”

 The 2008/09 Healthcare Market Guide is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive study of its kind. No other study used to measure hospital performance and preferences contains more consumer responses than NRC’s study.

 For more information about the NRC Healthcare Market Guide Study, visit www.nationalresearch.com on the internet.  Results also were printed in the October 12th edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.

Congratulations to WellStar Health System

WellStar Cobb Hospital, WellStar Douglas Hospital and WellStar Kennestone Hospital each received the American College of Cariology Foundation’s NCDR ACTION Registry – GWTG Gold Performance Achievement Award for 2009.  The award reflects WellStar’s commitment and success in giving a high standard of care for heart attack patients and an aggressive goal of treating coronary artery disease patients with 85 percent compliance to core standard levels of care outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association. The hospitals were the three of only 121 hospitals nationwide to receive the award. For more information, visit www.wellstar.com.

Tee It Up for the Troops! Barton Malow Second Annual Golf Tournament Benefitting the USO a Huge Success!

On October 23, 2009, Barton Malow hosted its second annual charity golf tournament benefitting the United Service Organizations (USO). The event was held at The Golf Club at Bradshaw Farm. 

 A touch of rain didn’t dampen the spirits of participants. The event was kicked off with the landing of a Black Hawk helicopter on the golf course followed by a moving performance of the Star Spangled Banner by the BEST Academy Boys Choir of Atlanta. After a rousing round of golf, participants enjoyed dinner complete with raffle prizes. The evening was capped off with a check presented to the USO in the amount of $50,500.

Major General Scott Hammond, commander of the Georgia Air National Guard, had this to say about Barton Malow’s premiere golf tournament, “For participants, the tournament itself was extremely well-run. More importantly was the amount of money raised for the USO. There’s no better way for employers and members of the community to show support for families of Georgia’s deployed service members.” 

 Next year’s tournament promises to be even more exciting. Barton Malow will host the third annual “Tee It Up for the Troops” USO Charity Golf Tournament Thursday, October 14, 2010. This will kick off the 94th Airlift Wing’s “Wings Over Atlanta 2010″ Airshow being held at Dobbins Air Force Base Saturday, October 16, and Sunday, October 17. Barton Malow is honored to be associated with this prestigious group and looks forward to raising even more money for the USO.

Barton Malow Company provides construction management, design-build, program management, general contracting, technology and rigging services throughout North America.  The ISO (quality) certified company has LEED Accredited Professionals on staff and is an industry Building Information Modeling (BIM) leader.  Niche market specialties include health care, educational, federal, industrial, energy and special event facilities.  Barton Malow has a staff of 1,500 in 13 offices and is headquartered in Southfield, Michigan. With an office in Alpharetta, Barton Malow established a presence in Georgia in 1986.

Gwizzlies making move to Cobb

By Emily Horos
Marietta Daily Journal Sports Writer

Cobb County will be treated to a new brand of basketball next spring as the Georgia Gwizzlies take up residence in Marietta.

The Gwizzlies, who formerly called Gwinnett home and were members of the American Basketball Association, are negotiating a deal to play their home games at the Cobb Civic Center. According to the team’s general manager and coach, Embry Malone, the Gwizzlies will play a 20-game schedule as a member of the Mountain State Basketball League beginning in April 2010.

The MSBL consists of eight teams from West Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Ohio, Miss issippi, Tennessee and Georgia and will serve as an intermediate step between college and the NBA’s developmental league.

The move to Cobb County allows the Gwizzlies to get a fresh start after several rocky seasons in Gwinnett and Macon as members of the ABA and now-defunct American National Basketball League. Malone said he was persuaded to move the franchise to the area by the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce. He also thinks the team’s fan base will get a boost with the move – especially if they are able to play in the Cobb Civic Center.

Continue Reading at mdjonline.com.