Residents of small city facing safety hike

Roswell may raise price for police, fire services in Mountain Park.

Roswell and nearby Mountain Park are debating what the cost of continued police and fire services should be for the smaller incorporated community.

Roswell has provided public safety services since 1998 for the tiny city that sits off Ga. 92 on the western edge of north Fulton County at the Cherokee County line. Roswell officials say they’re now facing the possibility that Mountain Park will ask the General Assembly to dissolve the city and have it become a part of Roswell. The move might not solve the looming tax increase for Mountain Park residents, but annexing the community could be costly to Roswell.

Roswell City Council held a special meeting Wednesday to discuss raising the fee charged to Mountain Park for public safety services to $374 per resident or more than $200,000 annually, up from $64 per resident or $41,700, that the city pays now.

Roswell residents pay $374 each for public safety services. City Council members said that in fairness, Mountain Park residents should pay the same amount. That would amount to a 484% increase in the price for Mountain Park’s residents.

Mountain Park Mayor Jim Still told The Atlanta Journal-constitution that the city offered to pay an increased fee of $85,000 annually but Roswell declined.

When the city incorporated in 1927, Mountain Park’s wooded landscape and bungalow-style homes were vacation getaways for wealthy Atlanta families. The city of about 600 people has no commercial businesses and many residents are elderly and on a fixed income, Still said.

The fee for public safety services is included in property tax bills paid by Mountain Park residents.

The current agreement between the two cities expires March 1, but Roswell City Council voted to extend the agreement 60 days to May 1.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Bob Hulsey, assistant city attorney for Roswell, said that if the dispute is not resolved, Mountain Park might exercise its rights to dissolve the municipality and become a part of Roswell. Hulsey said the Georgia State Legislature has the power to make Mountain Park a part of the city without Roswell’s permission.

City officials have talked to state representatives, Still told the AJC. Annexation is not Mountain Park’s first preference, he said, but there has long been a group of residents in support of it.

In Roswell, a major concern is that Mountain Park’s infrastructure is not up to the same codes and standards as the larger city, he added.

The town has a volunteer fire department that Roswell Fire Chief Tony Papoutsis said can’t safely handle a large fire or rescue operation. Mountain Park doesn’t pay 911 user fees and keeps monies that come in from traffic violations.

Still said in addition to the suggested annual increase to $85,000, Mountain Park suggested traffic cases be held in Roswell Municipal Court and Roswell keep the fees collected.

Mountain Park officials have also talked to Cherokee and Fulton counties about their public safety services and learned that due to its location the city would be sacrificing response time if they relied solely on those counties’ first responders to arrive.

“It’s a dialogue that we’re having with Roswell,” Still said. “Hopefully it’s one that we can bring to an amiable conclusion.”