Weather is blistering, but so are the hot rods at June Cruise

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Despite temperatures in the high 90’s, downtown Somerset was still packed for the June Somernites Cruise, with close to a thousand cars registered by the end of the day. By Chris Harris

June 27, 2010

By CHRIS HARRIS, CJ Staff Writer Commonwealth Journal The Commonwealth Journal Sun Jun 27, 2010, 07:00 AM EDT

Somerset — Somernites Cruise visitors are seeing to seeing plenty of hot rods in downtown Somerset, but on Saturday, the weather was the hottest thing in town.A call to BB&T Bank’s time-and-temperature hotline shortly after 3 p.m. was greeted with the report of scorching numbers: an intimidating 99 degrees. Of course, the temperature was surely raised a little bit by so many visitors traveling the Somerset streets — man and machine alike — but the point stands: It was mighty hot out there.

Folks cooled down the best they could, finding a seat in the shade to watch the cars go by, or maybe letting the cool spray of the fountain on the square hit them as they walked by. Others hit “vendor alley,” as it’s known, and picked up a frosty Hawaiian shaved ice treat, as is a monthly custom at the Cruise.Keith Floyd, of the Somernites Cruise management team, said brutally hot weather has much the same effect as rain: It tends to discourage folks from coming out. Many, he noted, may wait until later in the day, when the sun is a little less oppressive, or might simply head out to U.S. 27 to watch the classic and custom cars make their regular journey down the strip.

Yet, downtown Somerset stayed plenty busy throughout the afternoon. By 3:30 p.m., only a couple of hours into the Cruise, numbers were already as high as 770 registered visitors. Floyd said that’s a very typical number for a day with blazing temperatures, and by 6:30, the car count was up to 955 (from about 15 different state), with 144 first-time visitors (10 different state, 77 of them from Kentucky).The heat didn’t faze Terry Gilchrist, odds-on favorite to claim his second Somernites “Long Distance” winner title, as the car enthusiast who drove his four-wheeled baby the farthest to get here. Gilchrist is from Fort Myers, Fla., which he said is way hotter than Somerset, even in this enduring heat wave.

“You couldn’t stand hot (like we have in Florida) here,” he said, noting that Florida has been riding hotter temperatures than this for a while now. “It’s been like living in a dog’s mouth.”Maybe that’s why Gilchrist has such an affection for this place. He’s visited Somernites Cruise four times now, three with his 1988 Mustang Cobra, and won the distinction of having come the longest distance — about 900 miles from Fort Myers — the first time he came, back five years ago.

“I love Somerset,” said Gilchrist. “It’s a great little town.”It took significantly less time for Tommy Thompson to get here — all he had to do was drive from Louisville, Ky. — yet June 2010 marked his first Somernites Cruise event. Much like Gilchrist, Thompson’s attitude toward the oven-like atmosphere was dismissive: Hot weather? Fuggedaboutit.

“It’s not hot!” declared Thompson, half-consumed ice cream cone in hand. “It’s beautiful out! It’s not raining. It’s perfect.”What’s perfect is Thompson’s car, an extremely rare 1969 Chevrolet COPO Camaro, its golden hue mocking the color of the tyrant sun overhead. It’s won or placed high in a number of muscle car contests. A sign sitting beside the car, leaning up against the brick wall encircling Fountain Square, boasted, “This is the real deal,” and listed wins at the Gold Camaro National in Carlisle, Pa., “Best of Show” at Super Chevy Indy, “Muscle Car of the Year ‘09” at the Goodguys competition in Scottsdale, Ariz., and more.

Somewhere between a thousand and 500 of these cars were made, said Thompson; Floyd figured the car was even rarer than that, only a couple of hundred produced. That’s because of the automatic transmission on the column, “which is extremely rare,” as Thompson put it.“It does well everywhere it goes,” said Thompson, who’s had the car 13 years, doing a very thorough job on it. “It’s been totally restored, ground up, rotisseries, all the way through. ... I enjoy building a correct car and trying to make it perfect.”

The numbers on the car are impressive: 427 cubic inch engine, 400 turbo cx transmission, 4:10 positraction on the rear end. Still, it’s only one of a number of very hot cars to be found in Somerset on a very hot day.“I’m very proud of my car, but there are a lot of beautiful cars here,” said Thompson. “They’ve done a beautiful job. ... I’ve been all over the country, and this is a great show, very nice, the hospitality is excellent. Beautiful show.”

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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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