Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Leveridge filed the necessary paperwork last week to seek the death penalty for Christopher Allman, the man who is charged in the murder of Sarah Hart along US 127 on June 14, according to circuit court records.

The notice was filed a week ago Thursday, July 25, in Russell Circuit Court, according to Leveridge, who also said in his case he also plans to use “incriminating statements” made by Allman, 28, to police following his arrest later that day in June.

Allman is still being held at the Russell County Detention Center since his arrest the afternoon of June 14 on charges of murder, first degree robbery, kidnapping, tampering with physical evidence, first degree fetal homicide and with being a second degree persistent felony offender. His bond remains at $1 million.

The 31-year-old pregnant mother of three went missing the morning of Thursday, June 14, while on a jog along US 127. Her body was found several hours later by rescue workers in the high weeds along the highway, at the intersection of Industry Drive and US 127.

According to the state medical examiner’s report, Hart had been strangled to death.

A Kentucky State Police citation on the incident said Allman, in a taped interview, admitted to attacking and killing Hart for the purpose of taking her money as she made her way back to her car alone during the early morning jog.

The citation also said Allman admitted to placing her body underneath some bushes over an embankment just off the roadway. Allman was indicted by the Russell County Grand Jury on June 22 on the aforementioned charges and is being represented by Teresa Whitaker, a court-appointed public defender from Somerset.

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Concerned marina owners have filed a lawsuit asking the court to block a permit allowing for a new marina near Grider Hill Marina.

In Lake Cumberland Association vs. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers filed July 16 in the Bowling Green, Kentucky Western District Court asks a federal judge to block a proposal by the Corps to allow for a lease agreement to build a new marina.

The suit states that “The Corps has issued a Notice of Availability to lease certain property on the Lake Cumberland reservoir without appropriate justification or sufficient analysis of the public interests and the economic conditions on the reservoir.”

The suit goes on to request a declaratory judgment as well as a temporary restraining order and a preliminary and/or permanent injunction against the Corps’ decision.

The suit claims that five of the 11 marinas situated on the lake have closed since January of 2011 and that one marina, Grider Hill Marina, is only one mile by car from the proposed site of the Rowena Landing South and that it has 250 empty boat slips and are currently operating at a loss.

The site location is on the other side of Wolf Creek Dam, still in Russell County but close to Clinton County.

Among those closing were London Boat Dock, Buck Creek Boat Dock, Alligator 1 Boat Dock, Grider Hill Boat Dock and Lee’s Ford Resort Marina has recently filed chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to Bill Jasper, President of State Dock Marina. Alligator 1 was sold at foreclosure auction and Grider Hill was a distress sale.

The suit says that a new marina “poses significant risk of immediate and irreparable harm to the other marina owners,” claiming that the availability of 250 slips in such close proximity demonstrates that there is a lack of public need for a new marina near this location. Overall the suit claims there are over 1,000 vacant boat slips across all marina’s on the lake.

Water levels at Lake Cumberland were dropped to 680 ft. in 2007, about 40 ft. below normal levels, to prepare for a major repair project at the Wolf Creek Dam.

As a result, the Corps estimated that in the recreational season following the draw down visitation dropped by 10 percent.

If no action is taken by the court, the lease is estimated to be awarded in April, 2013, prior to the Corps’ current estimation of work completion on the dam of 2014. The Corps has not taken a position on how much they will allow water levels to return to once work is completed.

The 15-page lawsuit lays out that there is documentation that assured that existing marina’s would not have to endure the competition of a new marina while work continued on the dam.

“There’s two issues,” said Jasper; “one is none of us certainly agreed with the timing for a new marina, but more important than that is the promises that the Corps has made have not been kept.”

The suit says, and Jasper confirms, that financial decisions were made by owners that were contingent upon this promise.

“We really need to be able to rely on our government to tell us, and to keep their word so that we can make appropriate decisions. They just haven’t done that,” said Jasper.

Ultimately Jasper says that the Lake Cumberland Association is looking to it for promises to be kept.

“We want them to do what they said they’d do. They said in writing they wouldn’t issue a notice of availability until the dam repair was complete, the water was up, and the economic condition of the marinas had improved. That’s all we’re asking for. We’re not against competition; it’s just the timing and the fact that they told us they wouldn’t do it. And in addition they said in their own master plan that it shouldn’t be done.”

The Wolf Creek Dam Seepage Rehabilitation Project had an initial budget of $300 million when began in 2006 but has now swelled to $584 million.

Lake Cumberland has over 1,250 miles of shoreline and 50,000 of the 63,000 acres of surface area are considered recreational surface.

The Corps estimated that the lake contributed a $150 million economic benefit in 2008.