Somerset — Kentucky Department of Highway officials said yesterday they are ready if the first major storm this winter moves across the Lake Cumberland area as expected.
A winter storm warning has been issued by the National Weather Service for most of Eastern Kentucky. Snow, sleet and freezing rain were expected to begin about 10 o’clock last night and continue through most of today and into tomorrow.
Huge salt trucks, equipped with snowplows, were lined up yesterday and ready to move out in each of the 10 counties in the Highway Department’s District 8 as soon as snow and ice started falling.
“We have 88 trucks ready to go in the district,” said Bruce Neely, Branch 2 manager for project delivery and preserv-ation for District 8. “Seventeen of the trucks are in Pulaski County,” he noted.
The National Weather Service expects as much as 2 inches of sleet and snow to accumulate along with up to a half inch of ice. Freezing rain and the weight of accumulating ice could down trees and power lines, resulting in widespread power outages, the Weather Service said.
The track of the developing low pressure system moving out of Texas was still uncertain yesterday. If the storm takes a southward track, the Lake Cumberland area could get more snow and sleet. If it passes north, much of the precipitation would be rain, heavy at times. The Weather Service said there could be up to 3 inches of rain and a flood watch has been issued for today and tomorrow.
Neely said major roads in the district, including Pulaski County, already have a coating of brine applied during the light snowfall last week.
“If the storm begins as rain ... it dilutes the brine already on the roads,” said Neely. He indicated trucks wouldn’t begin applying brine last night until ice begins to fall, either in the form of snow or sleet.
Highway Department road crews are expected to spend many long hours in their trucks if the storm event lasts two or three days as expected.
“Our crews work a regular shift today (Monday) ... and they have to come out tonight (Monday night) when the storm starts,” Neely said. There are about 2,400 miles of roads in the 10-county district that have to be treated during a snowstorm. Some of the roads are treated more than once, adding to the mileage, Neely said.
Bill Chaney, Branch 1 manager for project delivery and preservation, said brine is effective on the roads until the temperature falls into the mid-20s. “From the mid-20s and below, we switch to calcium chloride,” he said.
Because snowfall has not been heavy or frequent so far this winter, Neely said the district has a good supply of ice-melting materials.
“We have 14,000 tons of rock salt in the district, 60,000 gallons of brine and 51,000 gallons of calcium chloride,” Neely said.
Highway department officials cautioned motorists to be extra careful on roadways today if the storm materializes as expected. The Weather Service said the chance of precipitation in some form is near 100 percent.
“Watch out for snowplows,” said Neely. “These are big trucks that take up lots of room.”
Somerset uses rock salt on city streets, according to Steve Hyden at the city Street and Sanitation Department.
Hyden said Somerset doesn’t normally treat streets in advance of an approaching storm. “We wait until 9-1-1 calls and says there is a problem,” he explained.
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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. -
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.
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