A proposed long-term lease agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Lyon County for Corps-owned lake frontage in Old Eddyville could be ended at any time, with some stipulations, Corps officials told the county’s fiscal court Thursday morning.
Remarks from Mike Looney, Corps resource program manager for Lake Barkley, and Kayl Kite, conservation biologist for the lake, came during the court’s regular January meeting Thursday morning, a month after the issue was first broached to the court by Lyon County Historical Society members Russ Bingham and Jerry Pasek.
Bingham, as the chairman of the Old Eddyville Restoration Commission, lobbied the court in December to enter into a lease agreement with the Corps to grant the restoration commission, through the county, access to restore and develop the shoreline along Lake Barkley in Old Eddyville.
The commission was appointed by the Eddyville City Council in January 2005 and charged with developing a use plan for the property.
Bingham said the historical society raised approximately $16,000 to develop that plan, which involved the efforts of a Lexington land use planner and a contracted architect.
After a public unveiling of the plan in August 2005, the material was put into final form and delivered to Corps officials for approval, Bingham said.
The commission then prepared a related letter to be submitted from the City of Eddyville to the Corps.
“We approached the city, and it died on the mayor’s desk,” Bingham said Thursday, repeating an assertion made in December.
“Nothing was ever communicated back to us,” he told the court at that time. “The failure to carry through with that plan stymied every opportunity the historical society had.
“Without access to the lake, we have no opportunity to clean it up. Without access to the land, it will never happen.”
Magistrates voted in December to table discussion of the issue until Corps officials could appear before the court.
Looney and Kite were on hand Thursday to provide their perspective on the lease proposal and answer questions from magistrates and county Judge/Executive Jimmy Campbell.
The judge/executive asked the Corps officials to elaborate on the county’s responsibilities, should the court decide to enter the lease, and what would happen if the court wanted to end the contract.
“Basically, we would expect the county to do exactly what is proposed,” said Looney.
If the county decides it wants out of the lease, the contract would be terminated and the stretch of shoreline involved (about 1.5 miles) would be required to be returned to the condition it was in prior to the lease.
Any capital improvements (sidewalks, buildings, etc.) would either become U.S. government property or be removed at the county’s expense.
One of the improvements mentioned in the use plan is a two-story river heritage center intended to be the focal point of the completed restoration project, which is intended to convert the shoreline into public park land.
If the area reverted back to the Corps, said Kite, the agency would be prohibited from accepting donated capital improvements, so the museum, if built, would have to be removed.
Bingham said he could not imagine that situation happening.
He said he had obtained letters from wardens at both the Kentucky State Penitentiary and the West Kentucky Correctional Complex offering inmate labor to clean up and maintain the shoreline. The historical society would supervise the inmate labor, he added.
The term of the lease, Kite said, would probably be 50 years.
The goal, Looney added, is one of saving money.
“The interest the Corps has in leasing these areas out is, we’re trying to get out from under the cost of operating all these areas.
“I’m going to take those dollars we use there and put them in the Kuttawa park or some other area that gets more use,” he said.
In the last federal fiscal year, from October 2006 through September 2007, the Corps spent about $12,000 on basic maintenance at the Old Eddyville shoreline, he said.
The length of the lease, said Campbell, would mean the decision made by the current fiscal court would extend into future courts.
“Can we get out of this gracefully and economically?” he asked.
“Your cost would be undoing whatever has been done out there,” Looney said.
A wild card in the equation is the possibility of environmental cleanup, should a hazardous or environmentally-threatening substance wash ashore. “It’s nothing usually a few thousand dollars hasn’t taken care of,” he said.
The judge also had questions about the county’s liability for the site, and how to address the fact that the land is located within the city limits of Eddyville.
He said he and County Attorney Brandon Knoth would seek the answers to those questions and report to the court.
Magistrates tabled discussion on the issue until that time.
In other business:
• The court gave Lyon County Ambulance Service Director Bill Adams the authority to proceed with an investigation into the construction of a new building to house the ambulance service, Lyon County Rescue and the Lyon County Jail.
Adams has served as director of the ambulance service since 2004.
“We are at the point of filling the ambulance building to its max,” he told the court. Supplies, documents, vehicles and personnel are crowding the building, which was built in 1977.
After its completion, the county turned over ownership of the building to the ambulance service itself, he said.
Since March 2006, he added, the ambulance board has been discussing the potential for a new building.
Bringing other entities in to share a building, he said, may make more funds available for its construction.
“It looks like the rescue squad, the jailer and Lyon County EMS are willing to go together and ask you all if you would build us a building,” he said.
Adams said he was in contact with contractors and individuals who may have land to offer for the new building.
The court authorized him to continue his discussions.
• The court opened and reviewed four bids for construction on the Mary Blue Road, located behind the Huck’s Travel Center on U.S. 62 near Interstate 24 Exit 40, in a lot slated to be the home of Broadbent B&B Food Products.
The project involves about 1,200 feet of new construction and work on the existing road.
Bidders, and their estimates, included:
• Jim Smith Contracting, of Grand Rivers, $248,608.78;
• Central Paving, of Paducah, $217,999.40;
• Southern Kentucky Construction, of Tompkinsville, $220,985;
• Grady White Construction, of Eddyville, $152,932.
After Geotech Engineering representative Steve Gamblin reviewed the bids and determined they met specifications, the court voted to award the contract to the Grady White company.
Road work should be completed this spring, Campbell said.
County officials have been working on the road project for about a year, he added, and were happy to get it completed, to pave the way for the Broadbent relocation and potential other developments.
“We hope it will create a real economic event in this county,” he said.
