Water Damage Restoration in Stone Mountain, GA

Go-kart goes missing after Stone Mountain snow

A Stone Mountain man is looking for whoever took his special miniature Cadillac go-kart that broke down after a day of fun in the snow.

The Brief

STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. - A Stone Mountain man is searching for his special go-kart that went missing after some fun in the snow on Tuesday.

FOX 5 cameras spotted Sota doing donuts in the small purple Cadillac on downtown Stone Mountain's streets as the snow fell.

What they're saying:

Sota said he was having some fun when he decided to get supplies at the local Walmart.

"Once I got to Walmart I started hearing something like the chain rattling," he said. "I'm driving home, and the chain had popped on me."

The Stone Mountain man was pretty close to his home, so he decided to leave the car on the side of the road and walk the rest of the way.

The next morning, Sota said he went to pick up the miniature vehicle and discovered it had vanished.

"She's gone, man," he said.

He said he built the go-kart from the ground up, and he took it everywhere.

"The Little 5 Points Halloween Festival - I ride it down there. I take it by Piedmont Park. I met a lot of people. A lot of people know the creations I make," he said.

What you can do:

Sota is asking anyone who knows where the Caddy-Kart is to contact him on Instagram. He said he was willing to offer a cash reward.

He had a message for whoever picked the kart up during the snowstorm.

"Just bring it back to where I left it," he said.

The Source: Information for this story came from a report by FOX 5 photojournalist Billy Heath.

Stone MountainCrime and Public SafetyNews

What is the best internet provider in Stone Mountain?

AT&T Fiber is the best internet service provider in Stone Mountain, Georgia. As the area’s sole fiber internet provider, AT&T Fiber is the only ISP to offer symmetrical upload and download speeds, plus the superior reliability of a 100% fiber network. Plans range from 300 to 5,000 megabits per second, the fastest in Stone Mountain, and include free equipment and unlimited data at no extra cost.

With service starting at $55 per month, AT&T Fiber isn’t the cheapest ISP in Stone Mountain. Cable internet provider Xfinity has the lowest introductory rate for internet in the area at $35 per month for speeds up to 150Mbps.

Other Xfinity plans are competitively priced, and many are lower than AT&T Fiber for comparable download speeds. However, it’s worth noting that Xfinity upload speeds are significantly slower, and service may come with equipment fees, data caps or contracts, not to mention a set price increase after a year or two as a customer.

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If you’re looking for alternatives to AT&T or Xfinity, fixed wireless internet from T-Mobile Home Internet is the most available and practical option in Stone Mountain. It’s not the fastest internet service, with speeds ranging from 87 to 415Mbps, but the simple setup and straightforward pricing make up for the slower speeds.

CNET considers speeds, pricing, customer service and overall value to recommend the best internet service in Stone Mountain across several categories. Our evaluation includes referencing a proprietary database built over years of reviewing internet services. We validate that against provider information by spot-checking local addresses for service availability. We also do a close read of providers' terms and conditions and, when needed, will call ISPs to verify the details.

Despite our efforts to find the most recent and accurate information, our process has some limitations you should know about. Pricing and speed data are variable: certain addresses may qualify for different service tiers, and monthly costs may vary, even within a city. The best way to identify your particular options is to plug your address into a provider's website.

Also, the prices, speed and other information listed above and in the provider cards below may differ from what we found in our research. The cards display the full range of a provider's pricing and speed across the US, according to our database of plan information provided directly by ISPs, while the text is specific to what's available in Stone Mountain. The prices referenced within this article's text come from our research and include applicable discounts for setting up automatic payments each month -- a standard industry offering. Other discounts and promotions might also be available for things like signing a term contract or bundling with multiple services.

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To learn more about how we review internet providers, visit our full methodology page.

Best internet in Stone Mountain, Georgia

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

How to find internet deals and promotions in Stone Mountain

The best internet deals and the top promotions in Stone Mountain depend on what discounts are available during a given time. Most deals are short-lived, but we look frequently for the latest offers.

Stone Mountain internet providers, such as T-Mobile Home Internet and Xfinity, may offer lower introductory pricing or other incentives for a limited time. Others, however, including AT&T Fiber, run the same standard pricing year-round.

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For a more extensive list of promos, check out our guide on the best internet deals.

Source: CNET analysis of provider data.

What’s a good internet speed?

Most internet connection plans can now handle basic productivity and communication tasks. If you're looking for an internet plan that can accommodate videoconferencing, streaming video or gaming, you'll have a better experience with a more robust connection. Here's an overview of the recommended minimum download speeds for various applications, according to the FCC. Note that these are only guidelines -- and that internet speed, service and performance vary by connection type, provider and address.

For more information, refer to our guide on how much internet speed you really need.

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How CNET chose the best internet providers in Stone Mountain, Georgia

Internet service providers are numerous and regional. Unlike the latest smartphone, laptop, router or kitchen tool, it’s impractical to personally test every ISP in a given city. So what’s our approach? We start by researching the pricing, availability and speed information, drawing on our own historical ISP data, the provider sites and mapping information from the Federal Communications Commission at FCC.gov.

But it doesn’t end there. We go to the FCC’s website to check our data and ensure we consider every ISP that provides service in an area. We also input local addresses on provider websites to find specific options for residents. We look at sources, including the American Customer Satisfaction Index and J.D. Power, to evaluate how happy customers are with an ISP’s service. ISP plans and prices are subject to frequent changes; all information provided is accurate as of publication.

Once we have this localized information, we ask three main questions:

While the answers to those questions are often layered and complex, the providers that come closest to “yes” on all three are the ones we recommend. When selecting the cheapest internet service, we look for the plans with the lowest monthly fee, though we also factor in things like price increases, equipment fees and contracts. Choosing the fastest internet service is relatively straightforward. We look at advertised upload and download speeds and consider real-world speed data from sources like Ookla and FCC reports. (Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

To explore our process in more depth, visit our how we test ISPs page.

Internet providers in Stone Mountain, Georgia, FAQs

AT&T Fiber is the best internet service provider in Stone Mountain due to its fast, symmetrical speeds, stable pricing and simple service terms. Unlike Xfinity, AT&T Fiber has no set price increases and includes free equipment rental, unlimited data and no contract requirements with all plans.

According to recent FCC data, just over half of Stone Mountain residential addresses were serviceable for fiber-optic internet as of June 2023. AT&T Fiber is the primary fiber internet provider in Stone Mountain.

Xfinity has the lowest introductory rate on home internet in Stone Mountain at $35 per month for speeds up to 150Mbps. Other Xfinity plans are competitively priced and typically lower than AT&T Fiber for comparable speeds. Keep in mind, however, that potential equipment fees and data caps, plus a set price increase, may boost the monthly price above what you’d pay with AT&T Fiber.

AT&T Fiber offers the fastest internet plan in Stone Mountain with max upload and download speeds of 5,000Mbps. AT&T Fiber also offers a 2,000Mbps plan in the area along with Xfinity. While Xfinity’s 2-gig service is cheaper, starting at $100 per month compared with $125 from AT&T Fiber, upload speeds are much slower, topping out at 200Mbps.

Stone Mountain, GA — On Tuesday, Jan 28 Stone Mountain Mayor and city council discussed and ultimately decided against creating a financial advisory committee.

The discussion raised questions about whether the mayor can create committees that are not currently in the city’s charter.

Mayor Beverly Jones entered into the discussion under the impression it was within her powers and responsibilities as mayor to be able to create committees, without the consent of the rest of council.

However, there is no language in the Stone Mountain charter about how new committees will be created. A charter is like a city’s constitution, describing how the government is set up and will operate.

Several committees are referenced in the charter: a pension committee, a business license committee, and a personnel committee. However, their specific functions are not described. On top of that, there is no language describing how to create a new one if the city wants to.

This kicked up the unsettled matter of the city parks and recreation committee, which has been treated for years like a major committee despite having no basis in the charter. There is something called the community garden committee described in the charter, but parks and recreation have been a separate body for some time. This caused an issue when it was first revealed a little over a year ago. The controversy resurfaces occasionally when one of the committee’s members – Rev. Orea Parker, Joan Monroe or Beverly Patterson, none of whom attended on Jan. 28 – raises the issue of the committee’s perceived second-class status.

The mayor and Councilmember Gil Freeman felt that the city attorney had previously told them the mayor could create committees. The charter says in Section 2.19, “All committees and committee chairpersons and officers of the city council shall be appointed by the mayor.”

This statute may be the source of the confusion, as it just states the mayor can appoint to existing committees at will, but isn’t clear on whether they can be created.

Ultimately, the council elected not to create a financial advisory committee for the city. A separate motion was made about making a financial advisory committee for Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax money, which also failed.

The council only got through five of the more than 20 items on their meeting agenda, and the meeting ended with a debate about whether the council should hold a special meeting to finish the list. The council previously created a rule that all council meetings need to end at 10 p.m.

The mayor protested having a special meeting and since it was after 10 p.m., the matter was unresolved.

No special called meeting is on the city’s calendar.

In other news:

— The council decided on two meetings on Feb. 13, one at 10 a.m. and one at 6:30 p.m. and one meeting on Feb. 18 to hear from the public on whether to opt-out of the floating homestead tax exemption.

The U.S. Census reports that in July 2023, Stone Mountain City had a home-ownership rate of about 52.6%, meaning a little over half the city would be eligible for the exemption. Council is up against the deadline to decide whether to opt out, with the opportunity closing on March 1.

— The city council also approved a $149,889.11 contract with Verkada for City-wide surveillance cameras and an operating system for remote monitoring.

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