DeKalb wants to close two rec centers, pool

By Megan Matteucci

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeKalb County leaders say they'll have to close two recreation centers and one pool as part of an effort to not raise property taxes.

County officials are proposing to close the Mason Mill center in Decatur and the Lucious Sanders center in Lithonia as early as July 1. The senior center at Mason Mill will remain open.

“We just don’t have the staff to keep them open,” said William “Ted” Rhinehart, deputy chief operating officer for infrastructure.

The county commission will vote on the closures June 22 as part of a budget reduction to help keep the tax rate flat.

The N.H. Scott pool on Tilson Road in Decatur will also be closed for the summer. A severe leak forced the county to close the pool last week. Rhinehart said the county doesn’t have the $150,000 needed for repairs.

The county is losing 826 employees as part of an early retirement package designed to save money. On Friday, CEO Burrell Ellis sent the commission a proposal asking for 51 percent of those positions to be refilled, saying they are critical to county services.

Commissioner Jeff Rader said he wants to see the government reorganized, with departments combined to eliminate bloat.

“We have been brought various proposals that call for well over half of the positions that people took early retirement to either refill them or hold them to refill at a later date,” he said. “That’s unacceptable.”

The list of critical positions includes mostly police officers, firefighters, tax assessors and department heads. Parks and recreation are not included in that list, forcing them to slash services.

The programs and remaining staff at the Mason Mill and Sanders centers will be transferred to nearby facilities. No recreation workers will lose their jobs, Rhinehart said.

However, workers in some other county departments – including libraries, human services and voter registration – may be laid off. Rhinehart said their budgets will be cut and it will be up to the departments heads to determine where the cuts will be made.

The CEO is also asking for constitutional and elected officials such as the sheriff, district attorney and courts to cut their department budgets by $1.2 million, or about 4 percent.

In February, the commission cut about $50 million from this year’s budget. The latest round of reductions are needed to help offset a $10.2 million shortfall because of a 2-3 percent decline in the tax digest, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

On Friday, the Mason Mill center director and her staff were shocked to learn from the AJC that their center may be closing.

Counselor Princeton Scott watched as about two dozen boys shot hoops while a group of younger children played dodge ball. He is one of several counselors who oversee about 140 children at Mason Mill as part of a nine-week summer camp.

“I think a lot of parents would be mad if they had to take their kids someone else,” he said. “Parents are working and depend on us to be here.”

Dan Magee, a member of the Parks and Recreation Citizen Advisory Board, said he also didn’t know about the proposed closures

“I know they are seeing some budget cuts, but I’m really surprised I haven’t heard that,” he told the AJC.

Magee said it makes sense to close Mason Mill because it doesn’t attract as many residents as other centers and the senior programs could be moved to the nearby senior center. However, he said it would be difficult to shut down the Lucious Sanders center, which also houses a small satellite library.

“That’s going to hurt. It’s a vital part of the fabric of that community,” said Magee, who also works as parks director for Athens-Clarke County. “That’s the lowest income area of the whole county. They need that.”

Sharyl Evans, who is expecting a daughter in August, lives near the Mason Mill center and regularly brings her dog to the park.

“It’s terrible because these kids won’t have somewhere to go,” she said Friday as she walked her dog “I wanted to bring my daughter here.”

Other proposed budget cuts include delaying filling 23 vacant police positions until January, which would save the county about $531,000.

It’s unclear what impact that will have on public safety. The CEO’s office did not respond to questions.

Other cuts include delaying opening two libraries that are under construction until 2011, reducing road resurfacing and cutting grass mowing. Trash service will also be scaled back.