OSS crews ready for races

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Approximately 15 boats participated in the Friday evening parade signaling the start of the Offshore Super Series (OSS) Lake Cumberland Grand Prix, the powerboat race which is taking over the local waters this weekend. Ellen Greenleaf, the event’s media director, says it’s a tradition for OSS to hold a parade in a community with the right support and downtown area — Key West, Fla., is a perfect example of an OSS parade town, she noted, and Somerset was able to put one together as well. Greenleaf applauded the coordination by local police and safety personnel in guiding the car-pulled watercraft down U.S. 27, onto Ogden Street, around the Somerset-Pulaski County Convention and Visitors Bureau building, and back up the highway to The Center for Rural Development, where the parade began. Chris Harris photo

June 5, 2010

World-class powerboats hit lake waters today

CJ Staff Report Commonwealth Journal The Commonwealth Journal Sat Jun 05, 2010, 08:00 AM EDT

Somerset —

Lake Cumberland Grand Prix racing teams and their sleek powerboats will start their engines for the official launch of the Lake Cumberland Grand Prix 2010 Offshore Super Series (OSS) powerboat race today.

The sleek, top perfor-mance powerboats—capa-ble of reaching speeds of up to 200 mph—were on display to the public in a Friday night “Parade of Boats” on U.S. 27 that began just as a heavy rain storm rolled into Somerset.

"We certainly don't mind a little water," joked one race official.

“We are proud to welcome back the OSS racing team to the Lake Cumberland area and look forward to a great week-end of racing at Waitsboro Recreation Area,” said Jack Keeney, executive director of Somerset-Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce.

Activities will move to the 4.8 mile race course at Waitsboro Recreation Area today and remain there through Sunday for the official start of the Lake Cumberland Grand Prix at noon when approx-imately 20 powerboats compete for top prizes and points in the second race of the 2010 OSS schedule.

Seven parking lots near the race site at Waitsboro Recreation Area, located off U.S. 27 just past Traffic Light 29, have been secured by race volunteers as designated parking areas for spectators to use during the races.

“We strongly encourage spectators to use these designated parking areas since traffic coming in and leaving the race site will be limited both days due to activities surrounding the race,” Larry Combs, event coordinator and director of business services for The Center for Rural Develop-ment, said. “Shuttle ser-vice will be provided from all four parking lots for a small fee to allow spec-tators and families to enjoy the race with the least amount of traffic headaches.”

A shuttle service will run from designated park-ing lots at the following locations: The Center, located a short distance north of the race course on U.S. 27 at Traffic Light 15; the North and South Campuses of Somerset Community College on Monticello Street; Pulaski County Area Technology Center off US 27; South-ern Elementary School, located behind the Somer-set Mall on Enterprise Drive, Southern Middle School and Coldwell Bank-er Foster Real Estate close to light 29.

Cost of riding the shuttle each day is $10 for adults and $5 for children ages three through 12. The shuttle service will make continuous stops at the designated parking lots throughout both days of the race.

Each rider will receive a colored wristband, which gives them access to race viewing areas and transportation to and from the race site at any time during the day.

There will be no public parking for spectators at Waitsboro Recreation Area, the premium site to view the race from land or water.

The awards ceremony will be held at 7 p.m. on Sunday at Race Village following the conclusion of the final race, which has been likened to "NASCAR on water."

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Big Bang Theory
Pulaski County is not at war. The booming you may hear at dusk is mock cannon fire to scare away birds.
Stuart Spillman, environmental director for the Lake Cumberland Health Department, said at least three cannons are on loan from the department to residents who want to scare away swarms of starlings and blackbirds settling in to roost.
He said a cannon is being used by a resident on Laura Lane off Ky. 39; another is in the Oak Hill Road area and a third is on Ashurst Street in the eastern part of Somerset.
Spillman said a timer on each cannon allows it to “fire” at whatever frequency is desired. The cannons must be used as the birds circle before going to roost. “After they settle in, nothing will chase them out,” Spillman said.
The Health Department doesn’t operate the cannons unless there is a specific complaint in an area where there are lots of birds, Spillman noted. He said so far this year the birds are not as bad as in the past.

February 2, 2012
Boil water advisory is lifted countywide
The water controversy that Pulaski County has been boiling over — so to speak — for the last week is finally over.
At 10 minutes after noon Wednesday, the “boil water” advisory for the Western Pulaski Water District was lifted — almost a full week after the problems began around 1 p.m. last Thursday.
Prior to that, the Somerset Water Service — along with the other water providers in its system, including Science Hill Water, Southeastern Water, and Eubank Water — lifted their advisories, with Somerset on Saturday afternoon and the last, Southeastern, by Monday morning. Western Pulaski was the last in the system to complete sample testing for potential contaminants, due to not being able to access its Pikeville-based testing lab until Monday.
Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler thanked the public for its patience and understanding during the duration of the boil water advisory — put in place to keep citizens from drinking water that could have been contaminated after an accident last Thursday at the water plant site — and also thanked all the city employees for their hard work during this time.
“The boil water advisory went about as well as would be expected,” said Girdler.

February 2, 2012
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