Corps engineers will be in town tomorrow

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June 23, 2009

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus The Commonwealth Journal Tue Jun 23, 2009, 07:54 PM EDT

Somerset — Some of the top brass from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be in Somerset Thursday to present a Wolf Creek Dam construction update, and allow time for a question and answer session with marina owners and operators.

Lt. Col. Bernard Lindstrom, commander of the Nashville District; Brigadier General John Peabody, commander of the Corps’ Great Lakes and Ohio River Division; and other Nashville District representatives will gather with marina owners and operators at 1:30 p.m. at Lake Cumberland Resource Manager’s Office, 855 Boat Dock Road. Some marina owners feel they were left hanging out to dry when the lake was lowered to facilitate repairs at the dam.

“This meeting will be a great chance for marina owners to ask questions of the Corps and to voice their concerns directly to us,” said Lindstrom. The meeting is part of a visit to Wolf Creek Dam and Lake Cumberland by Peabody.

J.D. Hamilton, owner of Lee’s Ford Marina Resort, recently told the Commonwealth Journal the low level of Lake Cumberland has cost him $2.5 million during the past two years and he claims the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is ignoring his pleas for assistance.

“It is just flat wrong ... it is unjust,” said Hamilton. “I have a partner (Corps) who will not take responsibility for the damages they have caused me.” He projects his losses will reach $4.5 million by the time the dam is repaired in 2012.

Hamilton says few people are aware he pays $230,000 a year in rent to operate the marina on the Fishing Creek section of Lake Cumberland. In addition, Hamilton said he has been responsible for moving the marina when the lake level was dropped more than 40 feet in early 2007.

“My cash flow was cut in half the first year the lake was lower,” said Hamilton. “We’ve recovered some since then,” he said. However, he said his business was increasing at the rate of 33 percent a year prior to problems at the dam.

Also, according to Hamilton, the operator is responsible for infrastructure and maintenance of the marina. “The Corps built the parking lot before I got here (five years ago), that’s all.”

“I had faith in the U.S. Government when I signed that contract (50-year lease to operate the marina). No entity should behave this way ... I have been forced to borrow $1.5 million from the SBA (Small Business Administration). I have to pay that back.”

Gigi and Willy Zink, owners of Buck Creek Omega Park Marina, are equally frustrated because they say they have gotten no help since flash flooding in Eastern Kentucky this spring sent a wall of water into the lake, ripping their marina apart and breaking loose several boats.

The Zinks, who have owned the marina for 27 years, moved the dock from Buck Creek to Omega Park about two years ago after the lake was lowered. The move was necessary to get to deeper water after their original location at the end of Ky. 769 was left high and dry by the lower lake level.

Fifth District Congressman Hal Rogers, R-Somerset, and Congressman Ed Whitfield, who represents several counties in the Lake Cumberland area, have recently introduced legislation designed to aid marina operators whose operations have been adversely affected by the low lake level. The congressmen apparently are responding in part to resolutions of complaints from local governments in the area that the low water level has hurt the economy in the Lake Cumberland area. A spokeswoman in Rogers’ Washington DC office said the bill has been referred to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Wolf Creek Dam is undergoing a $584 rehabilitation to permanently stop uncontrolled seepage that had put the structure in “high risk” of failure. The repair project is scheduled for completion in October 2012.

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Pulaski carries Girdler to win

In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s primary election, it was impossible to miss the colorful signs dotting nearly every Pulaski roadway. The names in the race for the 15th State Senatorial District seat popped out: A.C. Donahue. Chris Girdler. Mark Polston.

Once citizens hit the ballots, however, the results mirrored the dimensions of the signs themselves: Chris Girdler stood the tallest.

Girdler, deputy district director for Congressman Harold “Hal” Rogers, ran away with the votes inside Pulaski County’s borders, earning 3,926 votes for 62.05 percent of the total number cast.

That number more than doubled the next highest vote-getter, businessman Mark Polston, who raked in 1,624 votes for 25.67 percent.

However, Polston — who owns Classic Carpet, a home-flooring business located just off the southern 914 bypass — can claim a moral victory ... three of them, in fact. In all three counties in the district other than Pulaski — those being Adair, Casey, and Russell Counties — Polston actually edged out Girdler.

In Adair, Polston beat Girdler 629 to 394. In Casey County, it was 538 to 417, and in Russell, it was 1,862 to 1,038.

Polston said he just “couldn’t pull it out with the numbers” and that “the machine worked for” Girdler in Pulaski County.

“I think that was their strategy — I think they had a Pulaski County strategy all along,” said Polston. “They played the political game well.”

Polston said the difference between his and Girdler’s campaigns was that “mine was a very, very grass roots campaign,” he said. “I did not have a political machine behind me. I understand how this process works, and in this instance, he prevailed.”

As for why Girdler didn’t take three of four counties, the winning candidate — since there are no Democrats in the race, winning the Republican primary was effectively a final victory for Girdler — said he didn’t have an answer for that.

However, “I believe things happen for a reason and I hope the long and strenuous campaign will only heighten my desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past,” said Girdler.

“Regionalism is a goal of mine, and I look forward to helping all four counties,” he added, noting that he campaigned heavily in each of them.

Sen. Vernie McGaha, the long-time state senator whose seat the candidates were vying for, actually supported Polston after Liberty’s Todd Hoskins dropped out of the race earlier this month.

Donahue, a local attorney, got 556 votes in Pulaski County, 8.79 percent of the vote. He only received 145 votes in Russell County, 74 in Adair County, and 75 in Casey County, where hometown candidate Hoskins almost matched him with 71 votes despite no longer being officially in the race.

Polston said he’s “still digesting” what happened, and though “the process has been a very good experience for me,” he wouldn’t commit to running again in the future. “I wouldn’t shut the door to anything, but I’m not opening any doors either.”

Still, “I think I got a lot of people involved in the process that had not been involved before and would not have been otherwise,” he said. “A lot of people got out and worked really hard, got motivated to talk to friends and neighbors. I think a lot of people became involved through this campaign that are going to be involved for a long time.”

Girdler stressed his “positive message” and said that Rogers is a “mentor and good friend” that he would turn to for advice in dealing with a frequently combative legislative body in Frankfort, one for which Girdler hopes to help change the culture.

Girdler said that he was “confident and optimistic” during the day Tuesday because he’d “worked extremely hard.” Nevertheless, the realization that he’d won gave him “chill bumps,” he said.

“I’m absolutely honored,” said Girdler. “The position of state senator is more than an honor, more than an office. It’s a charge to keep, and I will give it my all.

“I pledge to be the people’s state senator,” he added. “I look forward to working with everyone to move this region forward.”

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