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Lodge development back on table

Local News

By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus
Commonwealth Journal

Somerset — The search for a private developer to build and operate a lodge on General Burnside Island State Park is back on the table.

Gil Lawson, spokesman for the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, said proposals have been received from the private sector in response to the state’s most recent Request for Proposals (RFP) to develop a lodge at the state park in Burnside.

The proposals are currently being reviewed by the Finance Cabinet, Lawson said. “I can’t say how many proposals we have ... all I can say is that it’s more than one.” He said the proposals will be “...under review for the next few weeks.”

At least two previous prospective developers are in the mix.

“We’re still very much interested,” said Mike Czer-wonka, president of Czerwonka and Associates, Louisville. He said his group submitted one of the proposals the Kentucky Finance Cabinet is currently considering.

“We believe this is a huge opportunity for both the Commonwealth of Kentucky and General Burnside (Island) State Park,” Czerwonka commented. And, according to Czerwonka, his group has a grandiose plan for a resort at the Burnside state park.

Czerwonka said the proposal he presented is for a four-star resort. He didn’t specify, but generally a four-star rating means amenities such as conference or banquet facilities, good restaurant, and plushly furnished guest rooms, among other luxuries. Czerwonka has told the Commonwealth Journal he is prepared to invest $100 million in the project.

If successful, his group would operate the entire park and its facilities, including the newly renovated golf course. Residents of this area apparently would get special attention at the resort’s facilities, if developed according to Czerwonka’s plan.

“We did make a proposal for local residents and golf fees,” Czerwonka revealed. He also said he has assured the state that all employees of the park will be American citizens, “...something we feel very strongly about.”

Czerwonka believes a four-star resort at Burnside would be a financial success.

“This would be the first state park in history that makes money,” Czerwonka predicted. “With professional operation, we think it would make money and we would pay a significant amount to the Commonwealth of Kentucky for the privilege of operating the resort,” he said.

Czerwonka said his group has no problem with paying the prevailing wage rate, a hourly pay scale with benefits and overtime paid in the largest city in each county. This court-ordered requirement cooled the project during the latter days of Gov. Ernie Fletcher’s administration.

The Louisville developer said his group’s proposal is not predicated on the $4 million originally promised by the state for infrastructure and then allegedly shifted to the horse park in Lexington.

Lawson told the Commonwealth Journal Wednesday afternoon that “...there are no $4 million in the current proposal (for the lodge at General Burnside Island State Park).”

A copy of the most recent RFP was not available, but Czerwonka said the scope of the proposal has not basically changed. Previous RFPs called for lodge and attendant facilities to be developed on a 22-acre site on the north end of the 430-acre island.

Kentucky Department of Parks, based on previous RFPs, wants a lodge with at least 50 rooms, a swimming pool, gift shop and other features found at state resort parks. Burnside Island State Park currently has a newly renovated 18-hole golf course and campground.

The Webb Companies, a Lexington-based con-glomerate, has expressed intense interest in building and operating a lodge at the park for 30 years. The Webbs are currently developing CentrePointe, a $250 million skyscraper in downtown Lexington.

“We submitted an official proposal with a deposit,” Dudley Webb said Wednesday afternoon. He said the project hasn’t changed much except the state has deleted all incentives, including the $4 million for infrastructure.

“It’s a bare-bones project,” Webb said. However, he expressed confidence that the “resources are out there” and it is going to take a concentrated effort to find the assistance.

“We submitted a proposal because we believe in the community ...we believe in the project,” said Webb. “That golf course is beautiful,” he added, referring to the recently renovated facility.

“We got to the point (in the late 80s) where we submitted a proposal (for the lodge),” Dudley Webb recalled. “But we never heard back (from the state).

“I don’t know what happened. ... It was sort of weird. ... I don’t know if the politics changed down there,” he said.

The project appeared dead late in the Fletcher administration. Interest waned when the state deleted $4 million for infrastructure and a Franklin Circuit Court’s temporary restraining order demanded the prevailing wage rate be paid.

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Extension to Keno boat ramp may be added this summer

By HEATHER TOMLINSON, CJ Staff Writer

Commonwealth Journal

Somerset — Lower lake levels? Soon, that’ll be a problem of the past for one southern Pulaski County community.

Work should begin shortly to extend the boat ramp in the Keno Community, located in far southern Pulaski County. That boat ramp has been left unusable by the lower lake levels, which resulted when engineers several years ago moved to take pressure off of the ailing Wolf Creek Dam while undergoing repairs.

“It’s been a couple of years it’s been going on,” said Calvin Bell, property manager at Lake Cumberland Resort, during the May 10 Pulaski County Fiscal Court meeting. “We talked about the fact that the boat ramp there at the Keno Community has been out of the water since the lake had dropped and we wanted to figure out how to extend it.”

Lake Cumberland Resort is located in the Keno Community and overlooks the Roberts Bend part of Lake Cumberland. The resort features cabins, cottages and larger estate homes. Around 60 residents are also located on Keno Road, said developer Tony Del Spina, who also attended the May 10 meeting.

“We knew at that time public funding would be difficult but our goal was to get the ramp extended and try to get it done by this year,” Bell said.

Bell said the only option appeared to be private funding when those interested in extending the ramp sat down to discuss the issue two years ago. It was during the May 10 fiscal court meeting that Bell announced enough private funding had been raised to cover the cost of the ramp extension.

The cost estimate for that project stood at $128,500, Bell told the court. Bell later told the court during the May 24 meeting that around $65,000 had been donated by around 75 property owners and developers. The additional money had been donated by Spina.

“We do have that funding available and we’d like to see about moving forward,” Bell said to the court on May 10.

Those involved noted that, as of May, the original Keno boat ramp was actually usable, thanks to higher lake levels caused by the delay of draining Lake Cumberland’s waters into the swollen Mississippi River.

“All we want is, once the lake is drained, they can go into operations,” Del Spina told the court.

The lake level reached 726.1 feet — high enough to bring water to what has been dry land the past several years — while the Army Corps of Engineers held water this spring to mitigate flooding on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. At last report water was being released through the dam at 28,000 cubic feet per second and the lake had fallen to 703 feet at 10 a.m. Monday, June 6.

The higher levels have served to delay work on the extension, but that may have turned out to be an advantage, as the county warned Bell and Del Spina in May that work couldn’t begin until it was officially bid out through open court and accepted.

“There should be no cost incurred by the county itself,” Del Spina said to the court. “This gives everyone the opportunity to use this boat ramp.”

Still, Pulaski County Attorney Martin Hatfield said the county cannot move forward with construction until the bidding process is carried out.

“We’ve just got to make sure that administratively and legally we jump through the correct hoops.” Hatfield said on May 10.

Del Spina expressed some concern over the time frame for the bidding, noting that the private donors had contributed under the condition that the ramp would be completed by July 1, “barring an act of God.”

But Del Spina added that the higher lake level is just that, and Hatfield pointed out that the time frame is moot until the lake is back down to 680 feet.

“From a legal standpoint, I’ll do all I can to facilitate it,” Hatfield said.

By the time the May 24 Pulaski County Fiscal Court meeting rolled around, bidding had already been advertised and carried out, and the court moved to accept the bid of $124,475 for work to the ramp from Conley Gregory Construction.

That’s on the condition that work begins as soon as the lake is lowered to 680 feet.

Fishing Conditions on Lake Cumberland

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