The Robert Toombs House Historic Site faces the possibility of cutbacks, but "there is no list" of sites chosen to close. Rumors of the Robert Toombs House Historic Site being in danger of closing due to state funding cutbacks are premature, said a DNR spokesman.

"There is no list of exact sites facing closure," said Kim Hatcher, public affairs coordinator for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. "The newspaper report simply looked at the sites with the lowest attendance numbers for 2004 and made up their list from that."

Reaction from Wilkes County has been strong, Hatcher said. "We've had a lot of calls from Washington in the last few days, and I've tried to explain to everybody that those sites were taken from a 2004 list of possible budget cuts, but it never was a list of prospective parks to close. There is no such list."

The economic downturn has forced Gov. Sonny Perdue to have the Georgia Board of Natural Resources to recommend budget cuts of 6, 8 and 10 percent that could close as many as 13 state parks and historic sites.

Cutbacks have already forced the Robert Toombs House site to close an additional day each week, on Tuesdays.

Although the decision as to which parks would be closed has not yet been made, the sites have been targeted in the past based on the number of visitors and the expense required to run the site. The Governor's budget committee should make a recommendation within a few weeks.

Governor Sonny Perdue and the leaders of Georgia's legislature are making the final decisions on how to cut spending by as much as 10 percent, and every other state agency is facing the same cutbacks. The economic downturn has forced Perdue and state leaders to find a way to cut at least $1.6 billion from the state's $21 billion budget approved in April.

Other proposals the Board of Natural Resources is considering to cut expenses are the privatization of Georgia's six state-owned golf courses, and the removal of some conservation rangers from wildlife management areas.