DOT to revise 'revised' map

ATLANTA - Chestnut Mountain and Murrayville are back, as well as Sautee-Nachoochee, but not Klondike, Hollywood and Blackshear Place.

State DOT spokeswoman Crystal Paulk-Buchanan said Thursday DOT, in the face of pubic opposition, will leave small places with their own Zip Code on the new, official state map that comes out in June. Paulk-Buchanan says it will also consider what communities should be included from a historical or economic development standpoint.

However, it's too late to revise one scheduled for release next month, and she says there were never any plans to leave any place off county maps.

The list, containing nearly 500 places of 2,000 population or less, was released over the weekend and immediately sparked an outcry from many people statewide.

DOT says it was removing them because of complaints about clutter on the map - and continued to defend the move Thursday.

However, spokesman Karlene Barron admitted the change of heart was "partly because of the outcry of the communities. We just didn't want people to feel like we were being insensitive."

The state originally deleted 519 communities from this year's version of the state map, which is handed out for free in tourist hotspots and visitors centers. That number dwindled to 488 in the latest version of the map, which was printed in November, after the transit department replaced 31 communities that had been erased.

Some communities were furious with the state's decision to erase the communities. Dennis Holt, who is leading a community effort to restore the name of western Georgia's Hickory Level, had complained the erasures were an insult to rural residents.

The department's decision is little solace to Holt, who said he's doubtful that many of the communities will be restored. In his Carroll County, for instance, only one of the nine towns erased from the map would be restored for certain under the new guidelines. That's Bowdon Junction, which has a U.S. Post Office staffed by one person.

And he said Hickory Level - a town of about 1,000 that has quarterly meetings, a newsletter and a strong civic backbone - might still get cut.

"I don't know if we're going to get back on there, unless they talk to local officials, which is what they should have done in the first place," Holt said.

Mapmaking criteria vary by state, and it is not unusual for a little housecleaning over time. But other states said it is almost unheard of to see hundreds of communities given the boot in a single year.

Barron, though, said the department had been trying since 1998 to make the map more legible.

"It was solely an effort to produce a better product," she said.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)