Parking Changes for Cruisin Frankfort Events- Thursday Nights

Cruisin Frankfort season begins May 11

New parking plan announced

Drivers of collector cars and trucks may be doing some extra cruising each Thursday evening to find a parking spot in downtown Frankfort.

“We meet with village officials each April to review the cruise night dates and concerns“ said Frankfort Car Cub president Larry Claypool. “At that meeting we were quite surprised to be given a new parking proposal that used only Kansas and Ash streets, and the Prairie Park lot as an overflow. By the villages own count, that’s 125 parking spaces- through last year we had about 250 spaces reserved for the cruise attendees. Another twist to the proposal was that both Kansas between White and Oak, and Ash from Nebraska to Kansas streets would have been closed to regular traffic at 4PM on cruise nights. Only collector vehicles would have been allowed on those 2 streets between 4 and 8 pm. The village cited safety concerns over people casually walking on the street to view the cars with normal traffic passing through. “It was an interesting concept, but the Village wanted the car club to administrate it. Our members go to the cruise night to relax and enjoy the camaraderie and cars, not to be the parking police” Claypool added.

In several subsequent meetings with town officials and the Car Club, a simpler, workable plan was agreed upon. Member Chuck Lily explained “Collector car parking will now use the same lots as last year north of the Old Plank Trail, but no longer Kansas Street nor the Beidert Green parking lot. That’s roughly 150 spaces all together.”

Club treasurer Greg Andresen noted “Parking in downtown Frankfort has been a topic of much discussion lately. The popularity of restaurants- particularly on Kansas Street- has brought on some competition for spots that the cruise cars have formally occupied. I think scaling back the number of cars that attend the cruise night is part of the villages’ plan to reach some sort of compromise on parking between restaurant patrons, workers, and cruisers.”

Long-time member Chuck VanderVelde recounted “The clubs cruise nights began in the Walt’s parking lot near where Starbucks is now. It was just club member’s cars back then. That was in the late 80’s. After a few years we moved over by Rosie’s diner near Jewel. One of our members owned the trolley Barn in downtown and said hey, why you don’t meet in the Trolley Barn Lot instead. So that’s what we did and it kind of took off. We filled up that lot regularly, then asked the village about using the Breidert Green parking lot and adjacent streets in ’98, and it’s been growing ever since. The village has done a great job of making the downtown area attractive and comfortable. That’s the draw. If you took those same cars that show up and put them in say in the corner of a Walmart lot, you’re not going to get anywhere near the number of folks that come here.”

More details on the Cruise nights and the Frankfort Car Club are on the club’s website www.frankfortcarclub.club

Cruise schedule

May

05/11 All Cars Kickoff

05/18 Chrysler, Dodge Vipers

05/25 Mustangs

June

06/01 Street Rods/Customs/Lead Sleds

06/08 Buick Cadillac

06/15 Corvettes

06/22 Trucks & Car Based Pickups

06/29 Military Vehicles (Kids Night!)

July

07/06 Race Cars

07/13 Vintage Scooters & Motorcycles (25 years and older)

07/20 Fords, T-Birds and Lincolns

07/27 Chevrolet

August

08/03 Pre-War/Stock

08/10 Orphan Cars (includes Olds, Plymouth, Pontiac and Mercury)

08/17 Rear/Mid Engine & Import Cars

08/24 Survivor Cars (Original Unrestored)

08/31 No Cruise- Fall Fest!

September

09/07 Station Wagons & Utility Vehicles

09/14 All Cars