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RONNIE WALTERS HAS RENEWED HIS fight for the right to expand Eden Isle Marina on Greers Ferry Lake.
Since buying the marina for $1.6 million in 1995, Walters has been fighting with property owners and the Army Corps of Engineers in the Little Rock District strict over his plan to add more boat slips.
Now Walters is getting ready for another lengthy round of litigation involving the marina he helped construct in 1963. This time instead of suing a property owner in state court, as he did unsuccessfully in 1997, Walters is going after the Army Corps of Engineers in federal court.
Walters claims the Corps misled him when he signed an agreement in 1999 not to further develop the marina in exchange for more shoreline elsewhere on Greets Ferry Lake.
Walters said in his complaint, filed Feb. 26 in U.S. Court of Federal Claims, that the Corps told him it would develop when money became available the access roads and infrastructure so Walters could use the new land on Cove Creek for a boat slip.
"However for eight years, from 1999 to present, the (Corps of Engineers) has continually refused to build the access road, repeatedly referencing the clause 'when funds become available' and representing it has no funds in its budget," Walters said 'in his lawsuit filed by one of his attorneys, Marian Major McMullan of Little Rock. "Since 1999, the COE has made no effort, or its efforts were artificial, in fulfilling its obligations as to Cove Creek."
Walters believes the Corps never intended to fund the project. He is asking that the 1999 contract be tossed out and that the property he relinquished at Eden Isle Marina be returned to him. He also is seeking more than $6 million in damages.
The Corps declined to comment.
"I'm sure we'll have a position later," said the Corps Little Rock District's attorney, Jim Cullum. "This is new to me, so I'm going through files, looking over records."
Plans Docked
Hard feelings at Eden Isle date back to at least 1996. That's when the Corps issued a cease-and-desist order preventing Walters from adding slips to the marina.
Walters blamed the Corps' order on one property owner: Richard Upton, who owns the Red Apple Inn,...