Published: June 28, 2009 11:47 pm      

Crews clean up after roaring ‘Thunder’

Not so long ago, overwhelmed and overworked Thunder in the Valley organizers hoisted brooms and toiled into the wee hours of the morning in the rally’s aftermath.

But things run a lot smoother these days, even as the number of bikers – and the trash they leave behind – continues to grow.

“We’ve perfected the art of cleaning up,” said Jayne Korenoski of Greater Johnstown-Cambria County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

While the red-shirted bureau employees and volunteers were obviously weary Sunday evening, Thunder was disappearing from city streets in an orderly fashion.

Vendors loaded booths and equipment into waiting trucks, while workers picked up litter and hosed down pavement.

Working alongside vendors, volunteers and contractors were city employees. Staffers from offices including police, fire, public works and parking help make the rally run, and cleanup is part of the job for many.

Public works employees Mike Grandinetti and John Stephens took a brief break Sunday night, sipping bottled water among the white folding chairs that still filled part of Central Park.

“It’s back to normal Monday morning,” Grandinetti said.

Stephens added: “It’s quite a transformation in one day. You have to see it to believe it.”

Both men remarked on what they called a huge crowd that crammed into the downtown for Saturday’s Thunder parade. The turnout for that event was duly noted by the visitors bureau as well.

“They were five deep; people were double-parking their bikes,” Korenoski said. “It absolutely was the biggest parade.”

While it’s regularly said that the four-day rally attracts crowds in excess of 200,000, organizers acknowledge that it is difficult to give an accurate head count for an event that is spread over a wide area with no gates or admission charge.

But visitors bureau administrators believe the sour economy had no significant effect on the 2009 edition of Thunder.

“I believe we hit record sales in our merchandise this year,” Korenoski said.

As usual, the rally apparently brought no major public-safety problems.

“When you have that many people in one area, and that much traffic, I think that, all in all, we have a pretty good record,” said Lisa Rager, visitors bureau executive director.

That pressure on downtown Johnstown no doubt has been alleviated by the fact that Thunder-related events have spread to nearby communities including Ebensburg, Nanty Glo and Windber.

“If it had not expanded, I don’t think we could have held all the people,” Korenoski said.

She added that the work is made worthwhile by encounters like the one she had over the weekend with a couple who attend many biker rallies and have been Thunder patrons since the event’s inception.

“They said they always tell people, ‘If you want to go to a really good rally, you have to go to Johnstown,’ ” Korenoski said.