By STACY SHELTON
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/22/07
Richard Grove of Cumming, a kayaker who does marathon trips and guides groups down the Chattahoochee, was “shocked” to find the Paces Mill boat ramp closed earlier this week, just before the summer crush.
“That’s as stupid as closing the stores on Christmas,” said Grove, who immediately called the National Park Service to demand an explanation for the closing of the ramp in southern Cobb County.
Paces Mill is the last of seven boat ramps in the 48-mile Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area to undergo a $1.8 million facelift, with new walkways and fresh concrete. Earlier this week, a construction crew blocked the boat ramp using sandbags and tarps, then built a temporary takeout spot about 150 feet downstream. They also planned to make room for trucks and cars to pull down to the river. Without the path, boaters were forced to lug their craft a couple of hundred yards to their vehicles.
Signs on the river explaining the change were not yet up Thursday afternoon, but park officials said they would be up by the weekend.
Paces Mill Park in Cobb County is the southernmost national park land on the river in Georgia and the last place to pull out before floating into the section where most of metro Atlanta discharges its treated sewage. The park is also the most popular takeout point because it’s just downstream from one of the most beautiful stretches of the Chattahoochee, where the national park hugs both banks and the river passes through high granite cliffs and a series of small rapids.
Some boaters already are adapting to the change.
Chris Zelski, co-director of Learning on the Log summer camp, led a group of 16 children and eight adults on a canoe and rafting trip through that section of river on Thursday. As he pulled into the temporary takeout spot at Paces Mill, he told a group of parents waiting on the shore “I had no idea there was that construction going on up there. But this will work fine. … With river stuff, you gotta be flexible.”
Nancy Walther, the chief of resource education for the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, said the construction work will take three to four weeks, through July Fourth and up to mid or late July.
“It is going to be an inconvenience to the visitors,” she said, adding that park superintendent Kevin Cheri “apologized for that.”
The original plan was to complete the job before Memorial Day weekend, she said. Work on other boat ramps delayed the project.
Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/cobb/stories/2007/06/21/0622metboatramp.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13