Water Damage Restoration in Mabelton, GA

MABLETON, Ga. — Last month Channel 2’s Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell spoke with tenants at Silver Creek Apartments in Mableton about mold, rodent infestations and security issues.

It’s these problems that Shanika Campbell said forced her to move out.

“It’s dangerous. Its danger ‘cause kids be running up and down the hallway,” she said.

Now Lease Wisely and We Thrive in Riverside Renters Association said new problems have surfaced.

Both groups say they have been busy meeting with city and county leaders to help tenants.

“The members of the city council do care, but I think that there is difficulty in the way the processes work. And I think they are trying to fix that “ said Stan Lucas, Lease Wisely chief operating officer. “We are now seeing problems with pests. We are seeing fire marshal violations.”

A family living in a Silver Creek apartment unit says they have a raccoon infestation.

“This will not be tolerated. They’re going to have to clean up these apartment complexes,” Mableton Mayor Michael Owens told Channel 2 Action News in May.

Mableton officials say that Silver Creek Apartments and 575 Riverside Apartments are under new ownership and management.

“The concern is that it’s going to be the same old, same old,” Lucas said. “There’s a history going back 10 years now of neglect from property managers. ... As we work with and hopefully get the chance to meet with the new property managers and receivers, we want to ask them for terms in new leases that protect the tenant when the landlord neglects their obligations.”

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COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A Cobb County family says they are living in fear because raccoons have invaded their apartment.

Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell was at the apartment, where the family says a pest control company that management hired has already caught one raccoon.

Right now, the family keeps a machete next to the front door and a baseball bat next to the bed because they say there are still raccoons in the ceiling.

In a video shared exclusively with Channel 2 Action News, the family living at the Five7Five Riverside apartments in Mableton said you can see a raccoon peeking through a hole in the ceiling.

The video also appears to show the raccoon’s claw.

“I’ve seen the raccoon,” tenant Denise Woods told Newell.

Woods gets emotional when she talks about the terror she says her family lives in.

“At some point, I was not sleeping for months,” Woods said.

Woods showed Newell the machete by the front door and the bat next to her bed.

“I have this to hopefully fight it off,” Woods said about the machete.

“My bat is right there,” by her bed, she showed Channel 2 Action News.

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Woods said she’s had a raccoon infestation since 2023.

“At one point, they did send someone out and they caught one and you can clearly hear them say, ‘Oh, the mother got away again,’” Woods said.

But Woods told Newell there are other raccoons running through the ceiling, the vents and clawing at the walls all night.

She said the video shared with Channel 2 Action News was taken earlier this year and that management from the apartment complex patched up the hole.

“Recently, we’ve heard approximately three or four raccoons,” Woods said. “I have doctors’ notes stating that these rodents are dangerous and harmful to our health.”

When Newell stopped by the leasing office, a Fire Marshal’s order was taped to the door.

The sign on the door said the office was closed in late January. Another sign states that tenants can use another location for their needs.

Newell tried to call the property management group but hasn’t heard back.

Woods said she pays her rent on time but can’t afford to move her family because she is disabled and on a fixed income.

“It’s terrifying to have to endure something that can be fixed,” Woods said.

Woods told Channel 2 Action News there is raccoon feces and urine on the ceilings. She gave Newell a note from her doctors that says the raccoons are detrimental to her health, as exposure to raccoon feces can contain roundworm eggs that can cause serious illness if inhaled and, in rare cases, lead to other life-threatening problems.

The city of Mableton’s Code Enforcement department says the property management company has a quote for a pest and rodent removal company. The code enforcement director plans to meet with the regional property manager next Wednesday to discuss the problem.

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Several Mableton residents have filed a lawsuit against the Cobb County Board of Education to stop its plans to build a proposed transportation facility.

The facility would be built at 440 Veterans Memorial Highway and used to store, fuel, and service school buses for the district.

Tax records show the Cobb Board of Education purchased the nearly 7-acre property back in 2023.

Residents who live in the area, and are named in the lawsuit, told Atlanta News First they fear a bus depot would bring noise, traffic and pollution to their neighborhood.

The lawsuit claims the board of education “failed to disclose required environmental impact studies under the Georgia Environmental Policy Act, traffic impact analyses under Cobb County Code of Ordinances or other assessments necessary to evaluate the project’s impact on the community.”

Residents claim the school board also “neglected to provide adequate public notice or hold sufficient hearings... depriving plaintiffs and the public of their right to participate in the decision-making process.”

One of the plaintiffs, Nikolas Dimondi, lives in a house that backs up to the property in question.

“It would be essentially like an industrial site just plopped down in the middle of where a bunch of kids go and play,” Dimondi said. “It’s going to be a huge headache and a huge problem for the whole community here.”

The plaintiffs also question how this “industrial” facility could be built in a residential area.

Mableton Mayor Michael Owens said he and the city had no input in this project. When the Cobb School Board purchased the land in 2023, Mableton wasn’t a city yet. But, regardless, Owens said state law also exempts local boards of education from zoning ordinances when property is being for educational purposes.

“There is no requirement for the Cobb County School District to actually go through the local zoning and planning process that most businesses or most residents have to go through,” Owens said.

With his hands essentially tied, Mayor Owens met with district leaders in December and says they reached an agreement to make sure the site isn’t an eyesore and that the district will take steps to mitigate noise, traffic, and pollution.

Neighbors, like Dimondi, still have their doubts.

“It’s going to be a huge headache and a huge problem for the whole community here,” Dimondi said.

Cobb County Board of Education Chairman David Chastain, who represents Post 4, said, “Since this is pending litigation, we have no comment.”

A Cobb County Schools spokesperson gave ANF the same response when asked about the proposed bus depot.

The lawsuit was filed in the Superior Court of Cobb County.

Along with the lawsuit, an online petition has garnered almost 1,000 signatures opposing the proposed facility.

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