ATLANTA – A federal staffing shortage has resulted in the closure of Georgia lakeside recreational areas just ahead of the busy Memorial Day weekend.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ announcement Wednesday that it would close 31 parks and public use facilities around waterways in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi is already drawing political heat.
U.S. Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Suwanee, issued a statement saying he was disappointed to learn of the closures of beaches and docks around Lake Lanier, noting the lake draws more than 10 million visitors a year. And Georgia’s two U.S. senators, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, both of them Democratics, blamed President Donald Trump.
The Army Corps announcement listed 20 sites at Lake Lanier, two at Allatoona Lake, and one along Lake George W. Andrews southwest of Blakely. The announcement also included a public shoreline area along the 240-mile Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River system, which runs through Georgia.
Some sites in Alabama are near Georgia and those closures may also affect Georgia residents.
The Army Corps gave no reason for the closures, but the agency was targeted for cuts by the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that Trump established under billionaire businessman Elon Musk.
McCormick blamed Democrats in the House of Representatives, saying they blocked an appropriations bill introduced last year that would have prevented campground closures around Lake Lanier.
Warnock attributed the closures to “this administration’s reckless cuts,” and Ossoff said the Lake Lanier closures were “a direct and predictable result” of what he called the Trump administration’s “reckless and chaotic mismanagement.”