Somerset —

“Omega” is the last letter Alphabet, and Bible readers have come to associate it with the end of time. For some who live near Omega Park, the perceived lack of attention to the state of the recreation facility there must make it seem like it’s at the very end of the earth. Residents of the Omega Park area are incensed by the current state of the Buck Creek Boat Dock, which is covered in debris. Planks of wood, old tires, and other miscellaneous pieces of junk litter the water out into the middle of this narrow stretch of the Cumberland River. Rose Ann Lupton lives only a couple of miles away, in a residential area off of Omega Park Road. Originally from Ohio, Lupton and her family have been visiting Lake Cumberland for 12 years and even moved down here — one advantage of the decision being proximity to the beautiful lake waters. However, the recreation area — which contains one of the numerous boat ramps in the county — isn’t fit to enjoy, she said. “I’m speaking for the community,” said Lupton. “We want a place for our family to swim, for our grandchildren to play in the lake.” Around the time the lake level was lowered to ease pressure on ailing Wolf Creek Dam, the Buck Creek Boat Dock moved from its old home at the end of Ky. 769 down in the southeastern part of the county a few miles west to Omega Park. Things really seemed to get bad out at Omega Park in May of 2009. An accumulation of heavy rains caused the Cumberland River to rise rapidly, and debris flowing downstream got clogged up at the end of the marina. According to Tom Hale, Lake Cumberland Operations Manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which maintains the lake and Wolf Creek Dam, the location of the dock presents a challenge. Most marinas are built away from the main channel in a cove or creek, which buffers the effect of strong water flows. However in the Omega Park area, the water flow can be much more forceful. The owners at the time, Gigi and Willy Zink, struggled to clean up the mess, and when heavy rains wreaked havoc again in January and May of this year, the situation at the marina became more or less permanently problematic. “We’ve had this marina almost 27 years, and we’ve never had any problem,” Gigi Zink said in May of 2009. “This time, it really got us. ... Mother Nature really did us in. ... It’s a disaster.” However, Lupton suggested it’s been going on longer than that. “This has been going on way before the marina came,” said Lupton. “We’ve talked with everybody and their brother, and we can’t get any response.” Since those earlier catastrophes, the ownership of the marina has changed hands. According Hale, Steve Watson and Albert Obest are the current owners of the Buck Creek marina. They could not be reached for comment on Monday. In 2009, Gigi Zink said that the marina’s insurance company wouldn’t provide the money to clean up the mess — “They won’t pay for anything,” Gigi said, “they say it’s an ‘act of God” — and that while she believed that the Corps should do more to help their business, she wasn’t getting much satisfaction from them either. Hale told the Commonwealth Journal on Monday that the Corps would offer assistance if requested by the marinas owners. “It’s just goes a lot quicker if they would let us know they need something,” said Hale. “If we know that someone is needing assistance, we try to set it as a priority. They don’t have to ask, but usually people call and ask.” Lupton said on Monday she contacted the Corps of Engineers herself and was given Hale’s phone number, but didn’t seem optimistic about hearing back. “(The Corps are) full of broken promises,” she said. “They brag about have a million dollar barge that chews up the debris” — but Lupton says she’s never seen it used at Omega Park. That “barge” is “The PRIDE of the Cumberland,” a boat christened in 2005 with the purpose of removing wood and trash debris on the lake. Hale said that after the January flooding, the “PRIDE of the Cumberland” tried to go out and clean up the area, but the water flow was too strong and the boat’s operators had to wait until the waters settled down a bit. “As soon as it went down, we took the boat up there and made it available to help,” said Hale. “In May (when severe flooding took place again), we were not asked to go do anything. We usually try to address the areas that need the most attention. We worked quite a bit around Waitsboro and the Pitman Creek areas, and did some work around some other private facilities.” Hale said that part of the current problem in that area is that last week, the lake rose about seven feet in elevation, from around the target level of 680 feet above sea level to 687 feet. “After that rain occurred ... we got quite a bit of rain downstream,” said Hale. “We’re letting the water out gradually. When that water came up, there was debris that came through, but nowhere near the load that came through in May.” Whatever the case, it’s too much for Lupton’s tastes. “It just breaks my heart,” she said. “The Corps does everything for the rest of the lake, but they do nothing for us. We’ve begged them to come clean it up, and we just can’t get anywhere. We pay our taxes and we want it cleaned up.”