(PRISM DeKalb) -- Stone
Mountain Park is increasing funding for police, fire and rescue
services, Stone Mountain Memorial Association Chairman Michael Owens
said Monday, denying rumors of law-enforcement cutbacks at Georgia's
most-visited tourist attraction.
"We
are increasing investment in the Department of Public Safety. I made
that statement last month," Owens told an association meeting attended
by dozens of law enforcement officers.
Bob
Hillis, president of the DeKalb Fraternal Order of Police, says
officers are being "encouraged" to look for work elsewhere. "The morale
of the Park’s public safety staff is abysmal," he says.
"While
they don’t intend to fully defund or dissolve the agency, they have let
officers know they should begin seeking other employment. SMMA believes
they can depend on other agencies, including DeKalb County Police and
Georgia State Patrol, to provide police services to fill in the gaps
when a majority of the police force is gutted," Hillis said in a
social-media post.
Despite
Owens' denial of staff reductions, Stone Mountain Park Police Chief
David Hill told the SMMA board that four members of the park's police
force have resigned in the past month and eight others have applied for
jobs elsewhere.
Memorial Association CEO Bill Stephens criticized the public chatter about cutbacks, saying the talk only causes "unnecessary confusion."
"For
many months we've been taking a closer look at every aspect of the
Memorial Association's operations," Stephens said. He said any decisions
will be carefully made and "driven by data and careful operational
analysis."
Owens also
denied a suggestion that the park plans to sell abutting land parcels for
development. A resident of the Stonehaven subdision southwest of the
park said their homeowners' association was alerted several months ago
that the park wants to sell for development several dozen properties not
included as greenspace.
Owens
said the park is open to an offer by the City of Stone Mountain to
purchase four small tracts currently being used by the city. But he said
he was "not aware of anything in the park that is for sale or intended
to be for sale."
The Memorial Association plans to issue an RFP this week for cleaning and preservation of the mountain's Confederate memorial carving, Owens said. The money would come from bond funds in the park's amended FY 2026 budget.
During public comments, one woman complained that the beauty of the mountain is being drowned out by "rap music and trash." She said she had experienced "protestors spewing vulgar hate at our Confederate heritage" and that police officers took no action when one protestor called her a "Nazi bitch."
The 3,200-acre Stone Mountain Park attracts about four million visitors every year. The park's police chief estimated that 60,000 people visited the park on a "safe and successful" July 4.
