MACON, Ga. — Backers are hoping 2024 will finally be the year that Macon becomes the home to Georgia's first national park.
In 2023, they faced delays but stayed vigilant to make continue their progress and possibly cross the finish line in 2024.
Tracie Revis is the Director of Advocacy for the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative (OPPI). She said 2023 had its ups and downs.
"2023 was a really big year for us. We’ve more than doubled the visitation numbers at the park. We’re getting a lot more people out to see what the park’s about and that’s from a public standpoint but from a congressional standpoint, we’d hoped that the bill would’ve been out already," Revis said,
The delay was caused by the 2018 special resources study finally concluding after five years.
"That gave us the tools that we needed. It came just recently and so that’s really big," Revis said.
Revis is proud of the progress made this year including rebranding the initiative, expanding their footprint, and having members of congress and the senate visit the park.
"It’s always exciting when our members come and take an interest in what we’re doing and showing their support," Revis said.
The delegation also has plenty of local support.
Seth Clarke is the Executive Director of the OPPI. He believes everyone should rally behind this movement because of the economic impact it will bring.
"Over a 15 year period, we’ll see a growth of roughly $200 million of economic impact. It could be the growth of $35 million in annual tax revenue for the region. It could be the creation of 3,000 jobs," Clarke said.
The bill that will make the Ocmulgee Mounds a national park and reserve is currently waiting to be introduced to Congress. Senator Jon Ossoff predicts the bill will drop early next year.
"He talked about that we expect to see the bill dropped anything from a few weeks to a few months but it’ll be this first half of the year 2024 that we expect to see that bill dropped," Revis said.
Clarke is confident about 2024.
"It’s going to happen. We will be home of the 64th National Park and Preserve in 2024. I have the utmost faith and respect in our members of Congress and really believe they can do it," Clarke said.