A once-a-decade look at Ward setup requires change after population growth was reported in the 2020 census, which shouldn’t mean any shifting seats on the Rockmart City Council as they heard the first reading of the ordinance allowing them to move forward with redistricting.

The council’s first reading of the ordinance allows for the City of Rockmart to submit the map, publish legal notices and hold a public hearing ahead of the March 14 vote by the Rockmart City Council in case the public has any concerns about the way the new map is drawn. The public hearing will be held during the March Rockmart City Council meeting before the council votes on the matter.

Within in the city limits, five wards make up the council seats and are geographically located based on the distribution of the population.

Starting in the northern portion of the city and stretching east to west, Ward 1 encompasses a range north of Highway 278 from the industrial park to Callaway Drive, and down Prospect Road to West Elm including areas around Industrial Drive and the Nathan Dean Sports Complex, ending at Ware Street. Right now, it is the largest ward within the city limits.

Ward 2’s makeup includes much of traditional downtown Rockmart and the southeast side of the city, from the main intersection South Marble and East Elm through to Piedmont Avenue in the east, and south as far as the quarry and Hutchins Mountain Road over toward the Van Wert section of town upward toward city hall and College Street in the north.

Ward 3 has the strangest shape of all, bringing in portions of town on a strip in the farthest corner of the southwest portion of Rockmart’s city limits, up to Nathan Dean Parkway and a corridor through North Marble Street and neighborhoods around Church Street in between.

Rockmart’s Fourth ward takes up the neighborhoods around North Piedmont from College Street to Nathan Dean Parkway. The fifth ward is mainly made up of the Goodyear Village, and subdivisions and homes east of Old Cartersville Road and north of the railroad tracks, and east of Walmart. See the Ward map above as the feature art to this story for the full outlay of current districts.

The five council districts are seeing some significant changes coming to Rockmart for the coming decade, with the only district not completely impacted being Ward 4, maintaining much of the same territory as before around the Goodyear Village and businesses on the south side of Nathan Dean Parkway. Ward 1 gives up some territory to Ward 3 as well as the second Ward, but Ward 1 takes on new housing around Callaway Estates and takes over some territory previously held by third ward as well.

For lack of a better explanation, the fifth ward now is broken up into many pieces across the eastern half of the city limits.

The council were not required to hold any kind of vote on Tuesday night when Mayor Sherman Ross completed the first reading.

Redistricting – required on the federal, state and local level of elected government every 10 years after the completion of the census – must be completed before this year’s municipal elections, which includes council seats and a mayor’s race up on the ballot in November 2023.

The matter was the main bit of business in a meeting without much in the way of action items for the night. Council members did get to hear reports on a number of topics from committees and administration, and went into executive session before the night’s business concluded.